Blackburn Return to The Premier League
After a sensational season in The Championship Blackburn find themselves back in The Premier League and they wasted no time at all in their preparations for the New Season. First off on the agenda was resigning Jamie Shackleton. After a successful Loan Spell and Leeds being relegated he may have been wanted by his parent club to help get them back, but he pushed through a move and rejoined Blackburn on a permanent deal. Next through the door was Cristian Roldan. The experienced American arrived on a free transfer as the board look to branch out into North America maybe hoping for a newer and bigger fan base.
Defence was next on the agenda for Blackburn. Adding another Central Defender to the squad was a high priority for The Manager. Philippe Sandler arrived from N.E.C hoping to bring depth and experience plus someone Blackburn had been tracking for some time. Carrying on from the last North American signing they bring in a young up and coming LB in Curtis Ofori. A promising talent from New York Red Bulls who'd attracted lots of interest and Blackburn earn his signature.
Potentially the biggest signing of the summer for Blackburn was the addition of Lewis O'Brien from Nottingham Forest. This signing shows their intention that they are not here just to hang about for 1 season and the board have ambitions. All these signings were made way before the first game of the season allowing them to get together for pre season and prepare for the new season. One last addition was made. 19 year old Paul Wanner joined on loan from Bayern Munich along with a potential £5million option to buy.
Blackburn did fail in one area of the Transfer window and that was the lack of departures. Many players were listed for transfer or loan, but so many deals fell through and have been left with a rather larger than anticipated squad. This could affect the overall morale or the side with potentially many players not getting the game time they wanted, time will tell. As for the fans whilst they are happy with the quick signings and no waiting around there is still concern for the lack of a new Striker.
Riding High
A phenomenal start to the season for Blackburn. They returned to The Premier League with a win over Brentford. Found themselves having to defend much more than they been used too, but it was Captain Lewis Travis on the end of a Pickering cross to head in the Winner. Next up was Leicester City. Despite an extremely soft penalty given against Blackburn ran out 2-1 winners. They were in Dreamland after the 3rd match and being on a 100% record after thrashing Chelsea 3-0, also leaving them Joint Top after just 3 games level with Manchester City who top the league on goals scored. It's very early days, but it's a view the fans will enjoy for the moment. Chris Willock who struggled last season has had a fantastic start to the season and was unstoppable against Chelsea. Another surprise so far has been Dominic Hyam, having spent most of last season as 3rd/4th choice Centre Back he has been a rock so far this season and forced his way into the team. Ian Poveda rescued Blackburn from a Carabao Cup exit to Millwall with a late brace when 3-1 down, then Blackburn won on penalties.
Extraordinary start to the season so far, can they keep it up? Away day to Arsenal up next who like Chelsea have had a horrendous start to the season and currently just have 1 point.
What a start to the season. In need of a penalty win vs Millwall, but apart from that incredible, especially the 3-0 win vs Chelsea.
I like your approach in the transfer window, not throwing around crazy money. The players who brought you there are also the players who will be the backbone of the team in the season, just added a few new guys to supplement them. Shackleton permanently, I like that, and the others make sense too. Sandler was highly rated in his youth, so perhaps he can regain some of the lost potential? Christian Roldan is one I signed many FIFA's back, he was far better for me than his OVR rating would suggest at the time. I hope he'll do just as well for you.
A question: Is the transfer window closed yet? It doesn't seem like you found a new striker, so maybe you've decided to trust Niall Ennis after all, despite only 5 goals in the spring? Or maybe Chris Willock has played as the number 9?
@JustinCase0110 wrote:What a start to the season. In need of a penalty win vs Millwall, but apart from that incredible, especially the 3-0 win vs Chelsea.
I like your approach in the transfer window, not throwing around crazy money. The players who brought you there are also the players who will be the backbone of the team in the season, just added a few new guys to supplement them. Shackleton permanently, I like that, and the others make sense too. Sandler was highly rated in his youth, so perhaps he can regain some of the lost potential? Christian Roldan is one I signed many FIFA's back, he was far better for me than his OVR rating would suggest at the time. I hope he'll do just as well for you.
A question: Is the transfer window closed yet? It doesn't seem like you found a new striker, so maybe you've decided to trust Niall Ennis after all, despite only 5 goals in the spring? Or maybe Chris Willock has played as the number 9?
I forgot to add that part, was on my failed attempted article 😜
Transfer Window is shut. Storyline wise there'd be a lot of concern with no new striker, but in my view/as manager I don't have concern because while his goals dropped off his goal contributions didn't plus I have so many players who can fill in upfront. The likes of Willock, Szmodics, Swift, Chong and Dolan to name a few so not short on attacking options.
Plus as I struggled to offload so many players I didn't wanna bring anyone else in..I was surprisingly given nearly 60mil budget but I wasn't gonna spend it all especially with little outgoings. My squad is way to big so made no sense to add, I was also tempted to bring in Patterson from Everton as they got relegated but I didn't wanna risk taking the Nottingham Forest route.
Hopefully some deals go ahead between now and end of January it was frustrating as most of the Listed Players had offer after offer but talks kept breaking down. A few are in final.year of contracts, I let 3 go end of last season by not renewing as I just couldn't sell them before
Makes sense. Don't want my squads to be too big either. And I'm also quite fond of playing someone out of position from time to time, and with 3-4 left backs there's not really a reason to do that, are there? So I like your options for the number 9. I suppose I tried the same in my Man United save, having Højlund, McTominay and Brennan Johnson to play the part, only one real number 9 among them. But now McTominay left, and Jovic arrived, it's not the same situation anymore. But hopefully it's better. We'll see...
I'm surprised to see you (and others maybe) struggling to offload players. I find that most deals go through, so I don't recognize this issue, to be honest. When it happens to me, it's often the same player turning one offer down after the other. But so far I haven't seen it as a general thing.
@CO88LER5 wrote:
So now, if it's a 'strange club', I just reject the bid.
How I would love to read a definition of what a strange club is. 😄
But I suppose you may have a point there. The times, I've tried this, it's never been top teams involved. Always lesser clubs trying to sign a player who may be a bit out of their league. I'm not completely sure though, since I haven't seen it that often.
@CO88LER5 wrote:
@thurlow885I'm interested to see what the game makes of Szmodics, as IRL he's been banging them in right, left and centre in the Championship.
He's someone I kinda addressed early on which was long time ago, but I had no plans whatsoever to use him, but turned out to be fantastic during first 2 seasons and glad I involved him. He's still lurking just outside the main squad and probably won't get anywhere near as much first team football, likely keep for this season as back up and someone can rely on and possibly move on next season.
Also know what you mean regarding random teams, sometimes you just know they ain't gonna sell or go out on loan and talks guaranteed to break down..I used to find when the offers started up again in September in preparation for January they'd go through, but even those aren't happening. It's almost always the low rated/unwanted squad players this happens too
Oops, posted them wrong way round 🤣
Down to earth again in the league, fair enough losing to Arsenal and West Ham, but you probably wanted to have made that a smaller margin. You got back at them in the Carabao Cup though, that one really sounds like a thriller! Too bad the game don't provide an opportunity for a screenshot with all the scorers, when 11 goals are scored in a game.
@JustinCase0110 wrote:Down to earth again in the league, fair enough losing to Arsenal and West Ham, but you probably wanted to have made that a smaller margin. You got back at them in the Carabao Cup though, that one really sounds like a thriller! Too bad the game don't provide an opportunity for a screenshot with all the scorers, when 11 goals are scored in a game.
Yes it's unfortunate regarding getting screenshots from the game as I've just found out The Premier League one doesn't record more than 4 different scorers on 1 side
I don't usually mess with sliders during a season, but as much as I'd love to have a high flying season it felt a little too easy so far. Unfortunately I'm not good enough to switch up to Legendary and I won't enjoy it so I've been toying with making World Class harder and Legendary slightly easier so everything is all over the place at mo, but it makes for some fun storytelling
@CO88LER5 wrote:
@thurlow885The unpredictability of football, eh? It's why we love it!
6-5 scoreline - neither defence can feel satisfied with that!
I feel happier with a 1-0, than a 3-2, or 4-3 indeed.
Still only 3 points from the top at this point. You're doing well. Unfortunate to lose to Newcastle, when you felt like being the better team on the days. And I can almost imagine how that Man United game must've felt, conceding four in quick succession after having taken an early lead. Good job stopping the goals from flying in, almost forcing an incredible comeback there. And with a hattrick there, I suppose Willock could become a wanted man in January.
@JustinCase0110 wrote:Still only 3 points from the top at this point. You're doing well. Unfortunate to lose to Newcastle, when you felt like being the better team on the days. And I can almost imagine how that Man United game must've felt, conceding four in quick succession after having taken an early lead. Good job stopping the goals from flying in, almost forcing an incredible comeback there. And with a hattrick there, I suppose Willock could become a wanted man in January.
This has crossed my mind regarding Willock, I feel like I'm not using the same guy from last season. Unless a ridiculous offer comes in I try to avoid letting inform players go in January and be a bit more stubborn unless they are unsettled/forcing a move, but come the Summer if there is a lot of interest in a player and from a better club they will likely leave.
Interesting match against Man United. Do you ever change formations during a match? I do that quite often if the opposing team is so dominant, as I find that a different formation quite often makes me more competititve. For instance, in that match, I will have changed the formation sometime in the first half (probably after the third goal) to try and stop the United goal tally getting higher. In some matches, I've switched more than once, trying to find a formula that gets me back into a game, and it does work for me at least. Another thing I've found (I use two strikers) is that, sometimes, just switching the two strikers around makes a difference, which I find a bit weird...
It's also interesting to see the scorers in that match. I do think the game as a whole does some strange transfers between clubs...
@CO88LER5 wrote:Interesting match against Man United. Do you ever change formations during a match? I do that quite often if the opposing team is so dominant, as I find that a different formation quite often makes me more competititve. For instance, in that match, I will have changed the formation sometime in the first half (probably after the third goal) to try and stop the United goal tally getting higher. In some matches, I've switched more than once, trying to find a formula that gets me back into a game, and it does work for me at least. Another thing I've found (I use two strikers) is that, sometimes, just switching the two strikers around makes a difference, which I find a bit weird...
It's also interesting to see the scorers in that match. I do think the game as a whole does some strange transfers between clubs...
I have no problem switching up during or between matches, I think I got too comfortable as I had ditched 5 at the back something I had adopted for the Premier League. Whilst I didn't revert back to 5 at the back against United if memory serves be correct I changed up to have a CDM to give some added support. My personal preference in 451 attack, but that won't work at all right now for Blackburn so I'm currently switching between a couple 541 formations and 433s
Nice to see 7th place being so close to first place at this point in the season. A lot of teams with a chance to win still. But that defense might need some upgrading..
14th at this point in the seasons isn't really a concern. But going from the form of the early games to this, that's certainly a decline, and I see why the manager is under heavy pressure at the moment. The 4-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest is poor, and you need to improve defensively to keep the goals from flying in this easily. Now, that was all the negative. Now the positive: This is a pretty good development storywise. When I saw your early form, I "feared" for you that this would become too easy, so you would just go from strength to strength from here. There's hardly much story in that.
@JustinCase0110 wrote:14th at this point in the seasons isn't really a concern. But going from the form of the early games to this, that's certainly a decline, and I see why the manager is under heavy pressure at the moment. The 4-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest is poor, and you need to improve defensively to keep the goals from flying in this easily. Now, that was all the negative. Now the positive: This is a pretty good development storywise. When I saw your early form, I "feared" for you that this would become too easy, so you would just go from strength to strength from here. There's hardly much story in that.
Yeah that's kinda why I fiddled around with things a bit, I kinda let it slide at first as it meant I completed an objective and maybe with exception to Chelsea I'd say a few opening games were winnable so wasn't completely out there. Plus had it continued and I had had a phenomenal season then the next season would've had a very different look as the squad would've been picked apart for being successful, I'll assume that would've worked anyways.
Of all the defeats the only one that annoyed me was the Forest result especially as once again 3 goals came close together not sure why this keeps happening concede 1 whether winning or drawing and my defence turns into mush
