After a great start to the season, my team has started to believe their own hype thinking winning comes naturally to these guys, each game seems to be a struggle to finish and a series of late goals has caused me to draw most of the latest games and it has been my home form that has dipped the most. Reading, Everton and Villa taking points from me at home which has seen me 10 points a drift of Manchester United. This has been hampered by injuries all across the board. Dirk Kuyt and Zarate both taking short term lay offs, but which has meant that the only striker that I have able to call upon is Russotto who couldn’t even finish his name sake meal. Ryan Babel, Giovanni Dos Santos and Leto have caused me problems on the wings with longer lay offs, but Iago and Wjnaldum have both been able to step up fairly well. Iago actually has become a first team player on the left wing now, rather pleasing that the youngsters are now making their mark.
What I think we have lost though this season is in our defence, losing Daniel Agger has meant that the overall back four just doesn’t have the skill it once had. Barragan is a decent player on the right, but when Micah was he was able to support the midfield and was comfortable when on the ball and now that Daniel has gone there is no better two in the middle other then Richards and Carragher. Leo is just not ready to become a permanent feature in the middle and Meria is just not good enough to be relied upon over 36 games of the season. As a result though I have already made investments before the Window opens in January.
To add a bit more depth into the team on the left side of defence I brought back in former Liverpool player Steven Warnock, Blackburn have recently been relegated bringing down his price and I have fond memories of Stevie he was back at Liverpool in FM 2007, he was an amazing player I even brought him into a successful Barcelona side defying the scouts and coaches who laughed when I said he would be a first team starter. This time he will only be playing as the backup for Riise who has now become a backup for Insua, he has been playing well in the Championship for Blackburn which is a bonus, hopefully for £5 million he will be a decent addition to the side. The other signing I grabbed is Hedwiges Maduro the Dutch defender when I compare him with the former Agger he doesn’t stack up to badly, Maduro looks more of the overall player excelling technically and in attacking play. Another target of mine is Kromkamp another former Liverpool boy, but AZ are asking too much for the 30 year old who again will only be coming in to make up the numbers.
The latest bout of players to be moaning and looking like leaving now are Arbeloa who is looking for a new challenge as well as Javier Mascherano its mutiny in the camp. As a result the former has just had a bid accepted for Chelsea £10 million, double his price tag but he is a decent back up in the first team and I will be gutted to see him go. Camacho could also be on his way out as Thomas White seeks to balance the books, a bid from Zaragoza was accepted by the chairmen as he thought it was too good to turn down another £10 million as a result I have started accepting bids from elsewhere, so it seemed inevitable since I sold Lucas at the start of the season that I will be looking for someone to fill their positions. Why can’t chairmen leave it to the managers to manage? I am doing my job wages are still way under budget giving us a saving of £400k a week, put your hands in your own pocket Mr White! With the bids accepted I will only see 75% of it go into the kitty, but with the Ignano bid I won’t be seeing all the cash come in at once meaning I won’t have any more to replace him until the summer. Lets hope Javier stays fit as Banagera has handed in a doctors not for the next 3 months.
In Europe it has been a different matter all the games going our way, beating off Celtic, Marseille and HJK to top the group, a draw at Celtic Park on the final day was the only blemish on the league standings, but when I had already secured the table the rotation system came into play and the Glasgow team tried to use it as an advantage. The draw has pitted us against Maduro’s former club Ajax in the first knock out stages, I am hoping that success in the cup will make up for the poor performances in the league.
The start of my Brazilian career hasn’t gone well either, I thought when taking over the job that I would have a wealth of talented creative young players with bags of flair. But now I can see why in the World Cup 2010 they struggled. When it came to picking a squad for my first two games in charge, friendlies against Mexio and Ukraine I struggled to get much depth in the Brazil national pool, the games themselves Brazil just couldn’t keep the ball, unable to create anything close to a half chance, it’s most probably my conserative English football that is restricting them, but thats just my style can the Brazilans play the English way? The likes of Kaka and Ronaldinho are not at their best when playing for country Kaka’s form and long run of 6’s and still at the tender age of 28 shows that he is not having much of a season. Ron is playing amazingly for Barcelona but when it comes to country he doesn’t care anymore. On paper this team should really still beat the likes of Mexio but I lost 1-0 to the South American rivals and Ukraine managed a 1-1 draw. There is still the new year and a friendly against Scotland before the Copa America, to find my feet and to force the my English ways on the Brazilian side used to flair and I will always score one more then you mentality. The aim is a title win over in South America otherwise I can’t see me being around for much longer.