Re: Founding Members Will Rise Again "Arte Et Labore"

Full Squad

Goalkeepers
  1 🇸🇪 Leopold Wahlstedt 73 26y
13 🇧🇷 Marcelo Pitaluga 61 22y

Defenders
  3 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 LB/LWB Harry Pickering 74 26y
25 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 LB Jake Batty 56 20y
16 🇺🇲 LB/LM Curtis Ofori 61 19y

12 🇩🇰 CB Zanka 65 35y (Transfer Listed)
  5 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 CB Dominic Hyam 73 29y
26 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CB Jake Clarke-Salter 71 27y
  6 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CB Scott Wharton 74 27y
🇳🇱 CB Philippe Sandler 73 28y
17 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Hayden Carter 72 25y
38 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CB Sam Barnes 63 24y

  2 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 RB/RWB Callum Britain 74 27y
20 🇧🇷 RWB/RM/RB Yan Couto 76 23y

Midfielders
  4 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CDM/CM Lewis Travis 76 27y (Captain)
   - 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CDM/CM Jake Garrett 67 22y(Out on Loan)
   - 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CDM/CM Adam Wharton 71 21y (Out on Loan)
28 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CDM Charlie Weston 59 21y (Transfer Listed)
40 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CDM/CM Luca Brown 61 19y (Youth Academy)(Loan Listed)
   - 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CDM/CB Issac Hayes 65 18y (Youth Academy)(Out on Loan)

31 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 LM/LWB Ethan Walker 61 23y (Transfer Listed)
34 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 LM/RM/CM Lance Fletcher 61 18y

15 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CDM/CDM/LM Lewis O'Brien 75 26y
16 🇧🇻 CM/CDM Sondre Tronstad 71 28y
14 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CDM/CDM/RB Jamie Shackleton 73 25y

10 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CAM/CM John Swift 74 30y
  8 🇮🇪 CAM/CF Sammie Szmodics 70 29y
18 🇩🇪 CAM/LM/RM Paul Wanner 71 19y (Loanee)
41 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 CAM/CF Blake Cartwright 65 18y (Youth Academy)

19 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 RM/CAM Ryan Hedges 71 30y
22 🇺🇲 RM/CM/CAM Cristian Roldan 75 30y
24 🇳🇱 RM/CM/CF Tahith Chong 74 25y
21 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 RM/CAM Ian Poveda 73 25y
  7 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 RM/ST/LM Tyrhs Dolan 75 23y

Attackers
23 🇳🇱 LW Myron van Brederode 72 22y(Potentially Open to Offers)
11 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 LW/ST/LM Chris Willock 74 27y

35 🇦🇷 RW/CM Ramiro Moreira 53 18y (Loan Listed)

  9 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ST/LM Niall Ennis 72 26y
29 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ST/LM Jack Vale 63 24y (Transfer Listed)
37 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ST Harry Leonard 65 21y
33 🇩🇪 ST Semir Telalovic 65 25y(Transfer Listed)
36 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ST/CF Marcus Roberts 56 17y (Loan Listed)

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