Career (Complete) A Realistic 'Saviour Cometh'

[Aaron Thornton]

Intro:

I fancy a challenge of a different ilk this time around and so I will be attempting The 'Saviour Cometh' challenge provided by SI, I havent tried any of these since I think FMH15, so it'll be a nice change of scenery for me. 

 

As the title suggests, this will be my own personal take on a real life situation at the minute, you've probably already guessed the team, but here they are. 

Of course its Sheff. United, I said a month back that I think they would be fine IRL and as of yet they have proved me wrong, still rooted to the foot of the PL table and with just 2 points from 15 games. 

As you can see only Portsmouth have had less points at the 15th game mark over the history of the PL since '92 of course. But, Portsmouth started the season on -9, making Wilders men sent an unwanted record of the worst ever start if you were take financial penalties out. Not ideal and certainly not what I saw coming after their rather impressive debut season last year. 

 

As of the time I take the reigns, we sit 19th with the joint worst attacking output but a rather solid defense compared to others around us, that screams realism to me. 

Our top scorer is Billy Sharp 🤦‍♂️ with 5. Again showing where we and the real Sheff. United need to strengthen. 

 

And to double down on the realism. I'll be playing with this:

I think this best represents the way Wilder wants his team to play. Overlapping wide centre backs and underlapping Wingbacks, though with the options presented to me, the Libero won't play exactly how I want them to, but I think it's as close as I can get. Also this tactic is probably going to be a dumpster fire, but it'll make watching highlights interesting. 

 

That about wraps up the intro and I can't wait to see how this tactic does, good? or bad? it'll be fun. 

 

Thanks for reading. 

 

Edited January 1, 2021 by Aaron Thornton

[Rich]

Awesome! Love the tactic and it definitely best reflects what they play with. Can’t believe how bad they’ve been this season compared to last, very poor, I’m sure you’ll keep them up!

[Aaron Thornton]

Thanks mate. Yeah if you believe in Xg, Xga and Xp then they've been incredible unlucky, but they really need a striker, I like McBurnie but McGoldrick, Brewster and Sharp are just nowhere near good enough. 

 

[StuartM]

Good luck Aaron, Athengers was a quality read and I'm looking forward to seeing this one too.

[Aaron Thornton]

34 minutes ago, StuartM said:

Good luck Aaron, Athengers was a quality read and I'm looking forward to seeing this one too.

Cheers Stuart, I'm glad you liked the TT and thanks for the support, January is going to be a busy one for me

 

EDIT: forget about January, we start in March 😂 can't you tell I don't play these challenges often. 

Edited December 28, 2020 by Aaron Thornton

[broodje kip]

I’m surprised that they’re actually winning games 😂. Good luck

[Aaron Thornton]

1 hour ago, broodje kip said:

I’m surprised that they’re actually winning games 😂. Good luck

Yeah I know! 😂

[Aaron Thornton]

March: 

We had three games in the month of March to kick off our hopeful revival and start climbing the table. 

 

Game 1: (Vs Arsenal at the Emirates) 

Not an ideal first opponent and also not an ideal result either. We certainly gave them a game and caused a few problems for thier defence, but alas Auabmeyang was too elusive for our own defence and he helped himself to a brace, beating us 2-1.

 

Game 2: (Vs Man Utd at Old Trafford) 

Life didn't get any easier after Arsenal, in fact it got much tougher as we next faced Man Utd away. We were never in this game at all, Bruno grabbing two and Cavani heading one in late on, completing a 3-nil romping. 

 

Game 3: (Vs Newcastle at St. James Park) 

Much more positive in this game, though it was in the FA Cup. But we played really well away at Bruce's men, Oli McBurnie making it 1-nil halfway through the first half and big Jack O'Connell powering in a header 14 minutes from time sealed my first win as Sheff. Utd boss. 

 

After those two nightmare games at Arsenal and Man Utd respectively we now sit at the foot of the table, 7 points from safety but with a game in hand on all those around us. The result against Newcastle though should provide confidence to a squad that has been down on their luck recently. If we can beat the teams around us, then we should be OK. 

 

Thanks for reading. I've opted for monthly updates with this career, I hope you like it. 

[Rich]

Tough old start there mate and games you don’t expect to get anything from! The biggest shock was a win at the greatest club in existence though? 😂

[Aaron Thornton]

40 minutes ago, RichD said:

Tough old start there mate and games you don’t expect to get anything from! The biggest shock was a win at the greatest club in existence though? 😂

Yeah wasn't the ideal teams to start with. 

Every great team has an off day 🤷‍♂️😉

[broodje kip]

Everything looks normal except for that Arsenal win 😂. They would’ve ended 0-0 irl

[Aaron Thornton]

April:

April consisted of 6 games, all tightly packed in together, this would test our lack of depth at the club and as such, freebies were required. 

Everyone remembers this man from his Swansea days, a man you could lump it long too and he'd muscle his way past any defender on any give day. Wilf Bony gives us another option up top. 

I must admit I know very little about Tito and this transfer was a little forced thanks to Jayden Bogle being as resilient as a wet paper bag, getting injured twice since I arrived. In fairness to Tito he has all the right attributes for a inverted wing back and his experience should prove vital for us. 

 

Game 1: Home to West Ham 

A very un-eventful game in which both sides created very little quality chances, thankfully for us, the veteran Billy Sharp fired one home in the first half and it was plain sailing from there. A massive three points against a team we need go be beating. 

Game 2: Home to Everton

Back to back home games with back to back wins. This was a strange game, not least because there was 3 goals ruled out by VAR, luckily one of our goals was deemed OK and we take another 3 points home. 

Game 3: Away to Man City

Like Man United before this, we couldn't lay a finger on Man City and they cruised to a 3-nil win. 

Game 4: Home to West Brom

Our fans must be a literal 12th man, as our form at home continues, this time we played really well and gave West Brom no chance, Sander Berge and Billy Sharp grab a goal each late on to make 3 wins on the bounce at Bramall Lane. 

Game 5: FA Cup Semi vs Man City

Well nobody including me expected that after being soundly beaten by Man City just 7 days ago, we played them off the park at Wembley, Jack Rodwell <(remember him) opening the scoring in the 62nd minute, prompting City to throw the kitchen sink at us, then on a swift breakaway Oli McBurnie is brought down in the box and duly dispatches the subsequent penalty. If we do go down this year at least we left the fans with this memory. 

Game 6: Home to Crystal Palace

We were much the better team but our finishing let us down, maybe the hangover from our famous day at Wembley was to blame or could it just be that Roy Hodgson teams know how to defend. Then again maybe not as you'll see below. 

The table know looks like this:

5 games to go in the league and a tough FA Cup final vs Liverpool, but you know what they say. 'It's the FA Cup, anything can happen' I'm terms of our league standing, after we picked up 10 of a possible 15 points in April, we can now smell West Broms worried bowels. 

 

That about wraps up April, if May can be as good as this month was then we'll have to be very unfortunate to go down. 

 

Thanks for reading. 

[Rich]

Awesome going there mate, smashed it, big win the cups, if it means either you or Newcastle go down though, I gotta say I hope you fail 👀😂

[Aaron Thornton]

1 minute ago, RichD said:

Awesome going there mate, smashed it, big win the cups, if it means either you or Newcastle go down though, I gotta say I hope you fail 👀😂

Thanks mate for the first bit at least 😊

Sorry if I don't fail mate, there has to be sacrifices I'm afraid. Bruce will bounce back.

[Aaron Thornton]

May:

The final month is upon us, 5 PL games and a FA Cup final to go. 3 points from safety, West Brom we're coming for you. 

 

Game 1: Away to Fulham

We kick off May at Craven Cottage and to be honest it was a snooze fest, luckily for us, we knew how to score, Billy Sharp very early on and Rhian Brewster bag a goal each, giving us the perfect start to this crunch month.

Game 2: Home to Spurs

Next up was Mourinho's men and this game was exciting, two Pragmatic teams IRL, abandoned their defence for this one and had a barn stormer of a game, David McGoldrick of all people scored a brace. 

Game 3: Home to Newcastle

A heavily rotated next took on Newcastle and Sander Berge looked have wrapped it up after just 25 minutes, that was until Big Andy Carroll came off the bench and scored two himself late on to clinch a point for his team, route one at its finest there. 

Game 4: Liverpool at Wembley

Our fairytale Cup run came to an end as Liverpool ran out 3-1 winners and if i'm being honest, the score flattered my boys. They were much better on the night. At least we made the final I guess. 

Game 5: Away to Chelsea

4 days after our Cup hopes were dashed, we travelled to the Bridge and got our biggest thumping yet, Kai Havertz was unstoppable in the hole and maybe we should have deployed a DM to man mark him after 31 minutes, but like Bielsa's Leeds outfit, WE CHANGE FOR NO ONE. This result sets up a nervy final day for all involved. 

Standings with One game to go:

2 points clear of relegation. We have completely swung the pendulum our way in May. West Brom led us by 3 at the start of the month, but we now lead them by 3.

Final fixtures:

We have a tricky test versus Hassenhutl's exciting Southampton squad, while West Brom are away to Spurs, so it's  borderline impossible they're getting a result there. Lastly, Newcastle are home to already relegated Crystal Palace which one would suspect they should win that one, but they face a team with nothing but pride to play for. 

Game 6: Away to Southampton

A point is all we really needed with our much superior GD over Newcastle and I thought we had that until Danny Ings decided to sh*t on our parade scoring a 93rd minute winner. We now had to hope Newcastle didn't win. 

Final results and Standings: 

The pressure got to them as they were hammered 4-1 by Palace and as such... 

We Survived!!! A close run finish and had we gone down, I'm afraid I would have had a Hitman out for Andy Carroll. 

 

Thanks for reading. 

 

 

[Rich]

Great final update there, that was tense, I’m not going to lie I’m gutted Newcastle went down and I guess I should say well done to you 😂

[Aaron Thornton]

3 minutes ago, RichD said:

Great final update there, that was tense, I’m not going to lie I’m gutted Newcastle went down and I guess I should say well done to you 😂

Thanks mate. I tried to capture the tension I felt while playing it, I think I managed it somewhat. I'm sorry they went down, bit at least Carroll had a good game

[broodje kip]

Well done it’s very close on relegation 

[Arzii94]

Next stop Schalke? 😀