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Career Foxy and Fulham Try To “Do a Leicester” - Season 2 Part 3


FuddledFox
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Having completed my Steal One save with Bournemouth I decided I wanted something else fun to play over the Xmas break. My Steal One save used the IGE to add a fun element to the save and I wanted to base this save on another feature we rarely see used on Vibe, the in built challenges.

 

The Background Story

Unless you have been on the moon the last few years I’m sure you are familiar with the story of Leicester City’s miraculous Premier League triumph in the 2015/16 season. That story actually began the season before as they spent four and a half months at the bottom of the table before a run of seven wins in the last nine games of the season meant they finished 14th and stayed up comfortably. The following season became the stuff of legend as they took advantage of the inconsistency of the “big boys” and won the title despite being 5000/1 shots at the start of the season.

 

The Plan

The idea is to emulate Leicester’s achievement of staying up and then winning the title the following season, with one of the newly promoted teams. I have chosen Fulham as they are the lowest placed newly promoted team in the current real life league table. To ensure that I need to save them in season 1 I will use The Saviour Cometh Challenge. If I keep Fulham up the game gives me the option to continue the save and then in season 2 I will be going for the title, if we go down then I’m sacked and it’s game over.

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So basically I take over at Fulham in early February with them in the relegation zone and the transfer window closed so no new additions to the squad. It’s simply down to me to assess the current squad and get the best out of them to stay up and then go for the title the following season.

Once you start the challenge the game auto generates the league table with us firmly in the relegation zone, 3 points from safety and 14 games left to play. This gives us plenty of points to go for, 42 in fact but before I took over the club only has 1 win all season although they love a draw with 13 of them already.

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The first thing to do is assess the squad and it isn’t the deepest squad and it lacks quality but I’m happy with a few players that we have although most of them are on loan.

In defence we have Callum Chambers and Timothy Fosu-Mensah who I’m hoping can form a solid CB partnership and quickly 

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I find a familiar face in midfield with Stefan Johansen who I stole from Fulham in my Steal One save and did a good job as a BBM for me until better players came along. This time there is no better options coming along and I will need him to do a job for me straight away.

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Up front I have a couple of players that have been real FMM favourites over the last few years with Schurrle and Vietto. Both of them are perfect for the Gegenpressing tactic so I will attempt to use that which means Mitrovic will have to take a step back as he simply doesn’t suit that style. 

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One last thing to check before I get started is the fixture list and see who I have left to face this season.  

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There are a few tough games in that run in but a few as well that should give us a chance to win the points we need. We start against the team that inspired the save in Leicester which I hope we will get off to a winning start before a couple of tough games against Man City and Liverpool. We then start an important run with teams like Wolves, Palace, Huddersfield and Southampton. These will be the key games along with Burnley and Watford if we want to stand a chance of staying up.

I’m looking forward to getting this started although the pressure is on straight away to keep Fulham up before I can even think about challenging for the title next season.

I hope you will all enjoy following along with this and any comments will be massively appreciated.

Next Update: We will find out if I can keep Fulham up.

Cheers lads.

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9 hours ago, bb said:

I’m excited for this 

That’s good to hear 😀

8 hours ago, DutchTony said:

Another unique challenge that has immediately dug it's claws into me and pulled me in 😁

Looking forward to it!

Thanks mate, I hope you enjoy it.

7 hours ago, Rob said:

Another great idea for a challenge 

 

6 hours ago, Titjes said:

Great idea for a challenge, good luck mate ;) 

Cheers lads.

7 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

i'd love to wish you luck, but "boo-hiss F*lham" is all that i can contribute :D

No worries mate and you never know I might take them down and brighten up your new year.

33 minutes ago, samhardy said:

If your last career is anything to go by then this can safely go onto the ignore list :P

Didn’t want you here anyway 😉

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Well I was going to say this looks great, especially using the built in challenge as a base, but you lost me at the 'I'll leave Mitrovic on the bench' part! You trying to make it hard for yourself? :P 

Nah, this'll be great, can't wait to see how it shakes out, but I'm sure you'll avoid relegation no worries. Good luck mate!

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38 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Well I was going to say this looks great, especially using the built in challenge as a base, but you lost me at the 'I'll leave Mitrovic on the bench' part! You trying to make it hard for yourself? :P 

Nah, this'll be great, can't wait to see how it shakes out, but I'm sure you'll avoid relegation no worries. Good luck mate!

Purely a tactical decision and I guess time will tell if it’s a good decision or not.

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19 hours ago, Foxy said:

Purely a tactical decision and I guess time will tell if it’s a good decision or not.

Yeah, fair enough! Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Leaving personal favourites aside, I would still have gone with Mitrovic because this years game seems to really favour strikers with high Arial. My tactics don't particularly play to a tall striker, but my 20 Arial striker scores a bunch of headed goals all the same. Still geggenpressing is a whole other thing and maybe Arial is not as useful there (it shouldn't be)..

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5 hours ago, Scratch said:

Leaving personal favourites aside, I would still have gone with Mitrovic because this years game seems to really favour strikers with high Arial.

I have found the same thing but I’m an awkward sod and like to do things a bit different at times and this is probably one of those occasions tbh.

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The ultimate aim of this save is to win the Premier League next season but of course that is never going to happen if we get relegated this season so I have a bit of work to do before I can think about building a title winning team. 

That work starts today as we look to secure our place in the Prem for next season.

February 

We start against the team that inspired this save Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

We didn’t make the best of starts as we found ourselves 2-0 down going in at half-time. We dominated the game in terms of chances and possession and we got the rewards in the final 10 minutes as Schurrle and Kebano turned the game round for us and we secured our first point.

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We then had a tricky couple of games against Liverpool at home and then Man City away.

The Liverpool game was pretty even with perhaps Liverpool edging it but goals from Cairney and Johansen gave us a 2-0 lead before Bobby got one back in injury time. We held on and secured a vital 3 points in the survival race.

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With 4 points from our first 2 games I was feeling quite positive going to the Etihad but Fernandinho brought me back down to earth. We actually gave a good account for ourselves and Vietto looked to have won us a point but seconds from the end we gave away a penalty which Fernandinho dispatched to give us our first lose.

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Our final game of the month was against West Ham and was the kind of fixture I was hoping we could win. This time it was our turn to lose a lead as our defensive frailties were exposed in the 2nd half and we dropped 2 points at home.

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We gained 5 points out of a possible 12 this month which is positive in terms of survival as we moved out the relegation zone on goal difference but it shows I have a lot of work to do if we do stay up.

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March 

This month is going to be a crucial one if we want to stay up as we have some real winnable games.

We started with a tough match though as we went to Stamford Bridge in a West London derby and despite having more shots and CCC we had our arses handed to us as Giroud got a hat trick.

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We now start a run of games that we should win and can really cement our Premier League survival.

We start the run against Wolves and we put in a very clinical performance as we didn’t play great but we took our chances with a brace from Cairney and then Johansen and Sessegnon getting one each.

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A trip to south London resulted in our best result so far in this save as we crushed Crystal Palace to get back to back wins and take points from one of our relegation rivals.

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The 3rd game of this crucial trilogy came against Huddersfield and although it wasn’t the best performance from us against a dull and defensive Terriers team we got the result we needed.

 

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A very productive month as we took 9 points from the 12 available and we are now clear of the relegation zone by 6 points with 6 games left to play so it’s looking good even if we are not yet completely safe.

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April/May

This is the run in then and the point when in real life Leicester went on there great run to secure safety and a 14th place finish. With a 6 point gap over the bottom 3 we are looking well placed but I’m hoping we can finish this nice and early and then get as high as we can in the table.

We got our 4th win in a row with a solid win at St Mary’s over Southampton and safety is looking almost secured now.

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We put in a good performance against Arsenal but we lacked the quality to get a result as they turned round a 2-1 deficit to take the 3 points. This kind of game shows me that the tactic is pretty solid in terms of performance but we really need more quality all over the pitch if we are going to challenge at the top of the table next season.

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We have a decent lead over the bottom 3 now and a win today against Burnley would secure our safety for this season and mean the challenge can continue.

We dominated the game but we had to wait until the 72nd minute to get the winner that would secure us the 3 points we need for safety.

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That’s the challenge completed but it’s just the beginning as the challenge is now to build a team that can compete and win the League next season. The plan for the final 3 games in to finish as high as we can and we have games against Spurs and Man Utd that will show me which players can operate at that level.

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A Vietto hat trick won us 3 points against Watford and he has to have been our star man during the start of this save and a player I would love to secure for next season but that will depend on how much money I get from the board as he is only here on loan.

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Our final home game of the season was against Spurs and we really should have won it but we were denied by an Eriksen penalty in the final moments of the match.

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We finished the season at Old Trafford in a game which proved just how far we need to progress in the off season if we want to challenge next season. We might have scored twice to add an air of respectability to the score but in truth Lukaku tore us apart and has left me with a lot to think about.

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We finished the season in 14th just as Leicester did in their season but we had one less point than they did.

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Player Stats

Going forward was our biggest strength in securing our safety with Vietto, Schurrle and Cairney being our crucial players as they put in some great performances as my front 3.

Spoiler

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A player that really impressed me in the run in that I didn’t know anything about before I started this save was Zambo Anguissa who the game thinks is a BWM but put in some great performances for me as a BBM and I’m hoping can continue his good form next season.

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That brings an end to the first stage of this save as we easily stayed up but the challenge starts now. We beat the teams around us this season but I now need to build a side that can not just beat the poor teams but also the big boys and win the league.

To help us build a squad that can challenge for the league the board has given us a whole £16m to spend on players although the wage budget is decent and we have a bit of room to move there.

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I am going to need to wheel and deal a lot if I am to build a title challenging squad but I do have players like Mitrovic who I can sell for a decent amount so I have a bit of room to manoeuvre. The worst thing is that 2 of my top players Schurrle and Vietto are going to be heading back to there parent clubs and with the budget I have it’s highly unlikely I will be resigning them unless they come up for loan again. This means not only do I need to strengthen at the back which is vital with the players I have but I also need to replace my two biggest sources of goals.

Next Update: The summer transfer window.

Cheers lads

 

 

 

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Excellent start, your Goals for/against and GD is near enough equal to Leicester’s real life campaign 😱 A good omen maybe 😛

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On 29/12/2018 at 20:11, Foxy said:

😀 No worries mate and you never know I might take them down and brighten up your new year. 

Mission failed!

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5 hours ago, Foxy said:

I am going to need to wheel and deal a lot if I am to build a title challenging squad

That seems a bit of an understatement mate lol. Especially with only 16 million to spend and not a great wage budget.

I couldn't do it.

Will be following with great interest...

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6 hours ago, Titjes said:

Congrats completing this part of the challenge mate, you got unlucky in some matches with late goals against you ;)

Now comes the hard part of the challenge :)

Cheers mate, I think the late goals were a symptom of not having quite enough quality in the squad especially of the bench to see games out.

6 hours ago, Nucleus said:

Excellent start, your Goals for/against and GD is near enough equal to Leicester’s real life campaign 😱 A good omen maybe 😛

 

I did wonder if anyone would notice that and it was why I included Leicester’s finish that season.

+1 Foxy point for you.

6 hours ago, Rob said:

Excellent staying up, but some wonderful wheeler dealering will be needed to get that title!

I will have to look for my inner ‘arry Redknapp and see if I can get some deals done.

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6 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

Mission failed!

Hardest bit is still to come so you might be happy yet.

2 hours ago, DutchTony said:

That seems a bit of an understatement mate lol. Especially with only 16 million to spend and not a great wage budget.

I couldn't do it.

Will be following with great interest...

I have no idea if I can do it yet!!!

It’s going to be interesting trying to balance keeping my best players but also raising the dosh to buy some quality as well.

I might actually do my next Update focusing solely on the summer transfer window as it could be interesting 🤔

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45 minutes ago, Foxy said:

I might actually do my next Update focusing solely on the summer transfer window as it could be interesting 

Great idea!!

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