I bounced back from the defeat straight away with a 3-0 away win at struggling Aston Villa, we did not play our best still but a few players are starting to come back from injury now which is much better as I have missed them. WE are not playing anywhere near our best at the moment, only one 1-0 against Southampton, 85 minute winner by a sub, Niang who started great and had 6 goals in the first 10 games only has 2 in the last 8 now and that is no where near good enough, Ayew now has 11 this season at man City, wish I had never loaned him out, but there was not much I could do as the wage bill needed to come down and someone had to go and even though he was my second top scorer he had to go, they will probably sign him permanently as there is a clause that they can sign him for 17 million at any point, they paid 3 million to take him on loan for the season aswell, but now I am not sure if it was right to let him go, however I do like Niang more and with the other striker he is good, just needs to get back in the goals, well he better do as I am at the end of December and I have 4 games in 12 days played one so far against Soton then have Arsenal, West Brom and Man City so they are a hard 3 and could decide a bit more where I will be.
Starting to question how much money Fierro is actually worth to me. I just rejected a £42m bid from Real Madrid. They've also bid £44.5m for one of my central midfielders and £13.5m for another. Clearly they've got megabucks to spend.
Yeah I'm starting to regret not buying him, he's been top scorer in the league every year for about 5 years now, every time averaging about 35 in the league.
I regret not signing him, too, as he's made Arsenal into a powerhouse. I did try, on Joe's recommendation, but couldn't afford him at the time and figured I didn't need him with Niang, anyway. If only I had the two of them.
Yes Charlie Ward who I signed 5 years ago has his first hattrick in 4 years, in my first season in the Premier league he was top scorer and the second season he got 6 but in the last 3 years he had gone down hill and I had loaned him out, he is a regen by the way, happy to see him do well and the 4 goals is against the team he got his last hattrick and also the team I brought him from. That is Arsenal. He is out of contract at the end of the season and it looks like he is going anyway, happy with him though as he has been **** for ages, he was class between 15 and 17 years old.
Transfer window is coming up for me, I try not to do too much business in the January window, will be a few young players leave who I don't believe have a good enough future and a few new young ones in, but in terms of the actual first team there is normally only upto 3 new players, I just bring in players for the future. One thing I am happy with is my keeper he is 21 now, he was my back up last season after I signed him from Fulham who got relegated with him in goal, he was good as a back up, but the number 1 Delac was captain and kept 15 clean sheets however this season I decided to make Jicha the regen number 1 and he is doing even better, my assistant was correct he is absolutely class, I am so happy I made the swap, I even made him captain when he was 20, the other keeper is great aswell but now he wants to leave so I am having to let him go so I decided to promote a youth keeper to the bench who is 18 coming up 19 who is one for the future, that is how I save money, a lot of the time I try to replace players who go internally or bring in another young player and develop them, what I will do now when Delac leaves is bring in another young keeper for the under 18's this works great for me, but to do it well it takes me a long time to get the right players. Jicha currently has 11 clean sheets in 19 games, that is completely solid, it was a risk changing to him as the other keeper was great last season and he was only young but it was a good change.
20 games in and I am top 1 point clear, after a 0-0 draw against West Brom, Man City next away from home, that will be tough I think as they are on form.
I had Fierro on loan and he did not get going also he kept getting injured sadly so I was unlucky, at the moment Niang is on his **** form, he seems to get that here and there for me, he needs dropping for a few games bring him back in on the bench and then he will do well.
Sometimes 2 pouchers works as I have played with 2 before, but only in certain games when the defence is weak, otherwise you need something different.
I'd never do it. Looks like Niang would be a decent advanced forward and Fierro a decent trequartista, so I'd probably change one of them.
My assistant did say when Fierro was at the club that he was best as a trequartista not a poucher, but I did not play them 2 together much as they did not work well, they worked best with either a target man or a complete forward.
Yep, 28 years old on mine and my assistant still thinks he's best as a trequartista, despite having played as a poacher his entire career and scored 294 goals in 380 appearances. I fear he wouldn't score as many goals as a trequartista.
Done all my signings nearly and we are only on the 9th of January, only signings I will plan now is ones from Brazil and Argentina which will join in the next 2 years.
Very similar to my tactic with Newcastle, I have my AML (Ba) and Striker (Cisse) swapping position which works a treat. Also have my passing as more direct as my front 4 are all very quick and can get in behind very easily.
I rather just stick to the basic 4-4-2, with a good setup of players, just edit the flow of the team and it goes well but that German style formation looks great, might have a try one day at it.
I have a complete gem, he is so good that he is already getting in the team here and there, here have a look. He is so good at the age of 16 and that is why I brought him from Man City, I paid nothing upfront but if he gets 50 goals and plays for England 20 times I will have to pay 15 million pounds, he is so worth it and his goals that he has got already have paid for him in my eyes, I can't believe how good he is. To be rated that he could be 4 star in the future at my club when we are top of the league shows that he will be good, what do you think of him? He got the only goal in a game against Newcastle coming on as a sub and he also got a goal against Man City which was his first league goal and that was in his first league game, he got a goal in the cup aswell which was a good goal, the good thing about him is that he is English, I have another good English player who is only 16, he has one cup goal but has not played in the league yet, I do not plan to play him yet though because he is young. Even though this midfielder has 2 goals in the league he will not be playing week in week out, he may appear on the bench every half a dozen of games, I know he is good but I have a lot of players who need to play and he has a lot of time to develop and he will continue to do well in the youth team, he might be a first team player in a year or two.
Looks like he could go all the way. I'd put him on individual training to improve his strength though.
