Football Manager 2014 Part #129 - Chapter the Eleventh: Progress marches on.

Part 129: Chapter the Eleventh: Progress marches on.

Chapter the Eleventh: Progress marches on.
April 18-May 10, 2022

Let's close this year out on a high note. We have no cause to be disappointed about our performance, we were the best team in the EPL and will be even better next year. We can still finish higher on the table than we have before, and that's progress.

Oh, sure, our players are back to kicking ass now that we're no longer playing in Europe or the FA Cup.

At Norwich City, April 19, 2022
Premier League

As the season wears on it's taking longer and longer for our players to recover their stamina. Even the players with the most stamina and natural fitness are below 95%, and it means that we're once again running out the second team.

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, O'Hanlon, Feruga (c), Mejasic, Mair, Bailey, Matko, Julio, Cardozo, Bastable.
Subs: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Laux, Dixon, Mujkic, Nieddu, Aarts.

10th place Norwich are pushing us around in the first half hour, and treating us as I had hoped we'd treat them. They take the lead in the 39th minute, just as we're switching towards a less arrogant posture. It's enough to keep them ahead the whole game, neither Bastable nor El Juez can do anything in front of the goal and their failure neuters our offense. We're still in second place, but our first league loss since October eliminates any slim chance we had of winning the title.

Norwich 1-0 Wrexham

When we first signed Kovacevic he demanded a £12.5m release fee. I'd rather not lose our primary keeper to any of the clubs sniffing about him right now and making plans to trigger the clause, so I worked out a new deal with him. It will actually pay him less next year, the game isn't that bright about considering the effect of annual raises. He was due to be making £78k/wk come June, now he'll be on £73k/wk.

I'm the second longest tenured manager in the Premier League, only Ryan McLeod of Man United has me beat. He might not win a single trophy this year, the only thing Man U is in the running for is the FA Cup. I wonder how that will affect the stability of his reign.

Hope springs eternal. I'll settle for winning our last three matches.

At Manchester United, April 23, 2022
Premier League

Man U sit three points back of us and the outcome of this match could clinch second place for us. A win or a draw and we'll likely be atop them on the table come the end of the year. If we lose we'll have to win our last two matches to assure second.

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Counter
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Laux, Todd, Suslov, Morvan, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Bastable.
Subs: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Feruga, Mair, Julio, Argenti, Cardozo.

Shirra can't quite get the final touch of our opening foray on target in the first minute and we miss a chance to go up on a flyer. The team absorbs Man United pressure all through the first half, and catch them out thanks to a lovely move by Shirra to beat the offside trap late in the half. United reply instantly when Todd and Laux get caught too far up field despite orders to stay back, and we go into the half level and I give a rousing speech about how I believe they can win the match.

The team doesn't waste much time proving me wrong. The second half opens with a free kick goal for Man U, and they wedge in a goal from a corner just minutes later. We're sinking without a trace. We have chances to score as time ticks down but neither Bastable nor Nieddu can finish what others started. When the Bastard does finally find net the ref gives him a foul for tripping and the goal doesn't count. We've now lost four out of our last six. It's a good thing the season is close to an end, because we're looking awful and ready for things to end.

Man United 3-1 Wrexham

That was not a rousing finish to the season. They won with two full weeks remaining.

Not so special now are you, Galacticos. If only someone less terrible than Juve had beaten you I might actually enjoy it. I suppose I'll be pulling for Juventus in the final, it's been a long while since an Italian team has won Europe.

Goodbye Baggies.

Goodbye QPR.

vs. Queens Park Rangers, April 30, 2022
Premier League

QPR had their fate sealed just minutes before kickoff for this match. The disappointment should take any remaining gumption right out of them, and we still have something to play for. I've dropped some of our slumping players, Cirjak and Morvan, for instance, for better performing subs.

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control.
Starting 11: El Sayed, Pejkovic, Feruga, Todd, Suslov, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Bastable.
Subs: Kovacevic, Mejasic, O'Hanlon, Bailey, Julio, Taborda, Aarts.

It's one thing if a sole player of ours is struggling, we have enough quality to handle that. But Nieddu and Bastable both continue to find new ways to shank easy shots. We're like kittens before the goal, completely helpless and endearing to the QPR fans in our haplessness. Suslov is forced off with an injury early in the second half, and Mejasic enters the match with my words to change the game in his ears. He does, reaching a long ball at the byline and giving Nieddu an impossible to botch cross just before an hour has past.

That first goal was all we needed to open the floodgates, Bastable adds one from a header in the 75th minute and another in the 84th minute when he's in the right place for a rebound after Nieddu crushes the post with an errant shot. We end up with a comfortable win, but I'd have preferred if the goals had come at the opposite end of the match rather than making me wait and fret. We've also clinched third place, we will enter directly into the group stage of the Champions League next season.

Man of the Match: Dimitri Nieddu

Wrexham 3-0 QPR

I may have overused the aggressive tone of voice during the pep talk, but they had it coming. Moreover, it worked.

Suslov had a strong debut season with us, the January red card flurry excepted. He's going to be a big part of our club over the next several years.

I suppose Arsenal could have topped us if we hadn't picked up another point, but they'd have had to win one of their games by over a dozen goals.

I can't recall if it's because I'm using fictional players, but it's weird that the record books don't go back prior to 2013-2014. The actual record is 31 in a 38 game season.

The Woj makes his second appearance in the team of the week, while the Bastard makes what seems like his 200th.

Oh god, I'm 40.

vs. Aston Villa, May 8, 2022
Premier League

Last year we finished with 78 points, we can top that with a win today. A draw will get us second place, as Manchester United are currently two points back of us and can't possibly match our goal differential. I was thinking about how to get Taborda and Mujkic on the field at the same time, and wondered how Mujkic would actually do as a wingback. It's the last game of the season so, eh, why not. It's not like he'll be any worse than Mejasic.

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Laux, Todd, Mujkic (c), Morvan, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Taborda, Bastable.
Subs: El Sayed, Mejasic, Feruga, Mair, Julio, Bailey, Cardozo.

We go from glee to gloom in the first six minutes when Nieddu has a goal called back and Aston Villa score. At the half we're still down one, we've got 63% possession but only four shots. I speed up our tempo and push our back line further up the field, I want to win this match and set a new points record for the club. It looks like we're going to do so when Taborda equalizes at fifty minutes but Aston Villa hold firm until time expires. The end of the season is yet another damned draw in a yet another match we should have won.

Man of the Match: Rodrigo Taborda.

Wrexham 1-1 Aston Villa

Just two years after there were three teams from Wales in the English Premier League there is now only one. Any notion that we are not the greatest Welsh team has been annihilated.