Career Score One Take One 2021 - Final Round Up

[Rich]

Good stuff foxman! I like the look of that Jake Cooper, May have to have a look at him myself. Hopefully you can smash chelsea 6-0 to make things interesting 💪🏻

[Ian]

Lingard was doing very well there so it’s a shame you lost him even though I didn’t like him. It’s looking like it’s going to be playoffs now but even if it, you look strong so fingers crossed. 

[FuddledFox]

13 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

Great stuff Foxy. A lot of familiar names now... that Romeo bloke always plays well against us in real life, hopefully he can do a job for you 👍

He should be decent because he has everything I look for in a FB, pace.

13 hours ago, RichD said:

Hopefully you can smash chelsea 6-0

I love that positive mental attitude!

7 hours ago, Ian said:

It’s looking like it’s going to be playoffs now but even if it, you look strong so fingers crossed. 

It’s not a problem as Rich has said I will take 6 players from Chelsea so I think winning the league is still on.

[broodje kip]

Nice work Foxman, smash Chelsea for the sake of us!

[Rob]

Looking forward to the Chelsea game. I know I say it all the time, but this career rocks! 

[FuddledFox]

5 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Nice work Foxman, smash Chelsea for the sake of us!

I’ll try my best.

4 hours ago, Rob said:

Looking forward to the Chelsea game. I know I say it all the time, but this career rocks! 

Cheers Rob.

[FuddledFox]

Season 2 - January

This could be a pivotal month in the season with a game against 2nd place Bournemouth that if we lose we can all but say goodbye to automatic promotion and also the small matter of an FA Cup game with Chelsea.

Blackburn - Away

We started off the new year with a narrow win over Blackburn. This was a satisfying result as they put us under some pressure but we held firm and got the job done which hasn’t always been the case this season.

 

We actually got a player back we had lost earlier in the season as Trae Coyle rejoined us. He was a player I took last year from Arsenal Reserves via a team in League 1 he was on loan at and I’m delighted to get him back as he was developing nicely for me before he left.

Spoiler

 

Stoke - Away

Stoke on a cold afternoon in January is never easy unless you are the Mighty Yellows as we proved we can win there and easily as well.

We got back another former player as midfielder Callum Camps rejoined from this match. He was lost to Chelsea last season in the FA Cup and they had loaned him to Stoke. Chelsea will have the chance to take him back again in a few weeks.

Spoiler

Sheffield Wednesday - Home

This was a game we should have won as we created 5 CCC and only converted 1 of them! Wednesday then made us pay as they got a late equaliser and it’s games like this that will cost us a chance of automatic promotion.

It was a swap job as I gained Elias Kachunga who’s a good IF or striker but lost Dembélé who is also a good IF or striker.

Spoiler

 

Bournemouth - Home

This was a huge game as we came up against 2nd place Bournemouth who had already put three past us earlier this season. This was the state of the table and as you can see defeat would really have seen us cut adrift further in the race for top 2.

 

In truth we were probably lucky to come away with a point from this game as Bournemouth had the better chances and they will have seen this as an opportunity missed. We are still 6 points behind and have a lot of work to do if we are to get top 2.

Annoyingly Bournemouth got the better of the exchange as well as they picked up wonderkid Morgan Gibbs-White and we Lewis-Porter who looks decent and I will try and retrain as a CM but he isn’t as good as MG-W.

Spoiler

Chelsea - Home - FA Cup

Last season we lost 4-0 at Stamford Bridge to this lot and so it was time to see if we have improved from last year and maybe just maybe take a player or two of these fancy Dan’s.

Spoiler

This was an incredible game!

Things looked bad when Werner scored within seconds of the game starting and then Havertz and Moses made it 3-0 within half an hour. At this stage I was expecting another thrashing but Benfica wanted to impress and got one back just before half time to give us a glimmer of hope.

That glimmer seemed to have been extinguished after 55 minutes though as Batshuayi made it 4-1 but then began the comeback. Buendia clearly fancied a move to West London as he got his 2nd of the game before Coyle got us to within a goal on 73 minutes. The come back was complete when Marquis headed home from a corner and earn’t us a replay back at The Bridge in a couple of weeks.

Buendia got himself the move he wanted but if you want to see who I took in exchange you will have to look under the spoiler.

Spoiler

 

Preston - Away

The lads were clearly fired up after the Chelsea game and went out and put in an excellent performance as we put 3 past PNE.

This was another of those situations where I didn’t expect much from the players I won but actually I got a couple of useful squad players in Brad Potts and Ben Davies.
 

Spoiler

 

The table at the end of the month looked like this and we are still 6pts behind 2nd place. We are 13pts clear of 7th though which is a good comfortable gap and I’m fairly sure we will be at least in the playoffs come May which should be a lot of fun and probably more so than an automatic promotion.

 

The Chelsea game is next up but as that happens in February you will have to wait for the next update.

Thanks for reading.

[Rich]

Awesome! Love that you got Pulisic, hope the next chelsea game goes well. Love reading these updates, keep it up Fox.

[Rob]

Spoiler

Pulisic ❤️ 

Great going.

[FuddledFox]

3 hours ago, RichD said:

Awesome! Love that you got Pulisic, hope the next chelsea game goes well. Love reading these updates, keep it up Fox.

 

3 hours ago, Rob said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Pulisic ❤️ 

Great going.

He was definitely a good take and I’m just hoping they don’t take him back again in the replay.

[JamesVilla]

10 minutes ago, FuddledFox said:

 

He was definitely a good take and I’m just hoping they don’t take him back again in the replay.

One way to stop that from happening is don't play him 😂😂

[FuddledFox]

4 minutes ago, Jsavfc said:

One way to stop that from happening is don't play him 😂😂

Where’s the fun in that especially as I want to win?

[JamesVilla]

2 minutes ago, FuddledFox said:

Where’s the fun in that especially as I want to win?

It was more a joke comment than serious. I know it would take away the fun, and the element of the save... 

[Ian]

Nice to see Buendia doing the business. I really like him and he always seems to perform well for me. No complaints about who you got to replace him with though.

You seem quite strong now so hopefully you can really push on and give Bournemouth a run for their money.

[broodje kip]

Pulisic 😍

[FuddledFox]

8 hours ago, Ian said:

You seem quite strong now so hopefully you can really push on and give Bournemouth a run for their money.

That would be nice but there is something that doesn’t quite click in the team meaning I drop too many points. In all honesty it’s probably my tactic and there are a few tweaks that I could make but don’t really want to because when it really works it’s spectacular and this save is all about fun more than any end goal. I also have an issue in that I have an abundance of playmaking midfielders but very few that can really defend to go along side them but again it keeps things interesting.

8 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Pulisic 😍

Thats what I thought.

[FuddledFox]

Season 2 - February  

This is very much a West London special as I take on Chelsea, Brentford and Fulham this month.

Chelsea - Away - FA Cup

The replay was a step too far for us as Tammy Abraham got a Ha trick against us. When Kachunga equalised I though we might be on for a famous result but it wasn’t to be. These two games have at least shown that if we do go up we can mix it with the top PL teams even if we can’t beat them at the moment.

 

I was excited to get Trae Coyle from Blackburn in the last update but he wasn’t around long as he got himself a dream move to Chelsea which will probably lead to him being loaned out soon enough. Kachunga was the other player to go so the front line has taken a bit of a hit.

Spoiler

 

Reading - Away

There was no better way to get back at “it” than a Thames Valley Derby and even better when we smash them. Marquis got himself a hat trick with a stella performance and Keane Lewis-Potter finished the scoring.
 

I managed to take a couple of good players with Adam Idah a quick striker and Kyle Edwards a tricky winger joining the team.

Spoiler

 

Brentford - Away

The 2nd part of my West London three way went just as bad as the 1st as we lost to Tree’s Bee’s 2-0. This wasn’t what we needed as not only do we fall further back in our pursuit of the top 2 but Brentford get closer to us in 3rd. Baptiste is a former Oxford player so it was like a 🗡 to the ❤️ that he scored past us and then Mbeumo sealed the game just 16 minutes in.

 

This was a chance for Brentford to not only get 3 points off of us but take a couple of players as well.

As often seems the way in defeat it was my defenders who had the best ratings and I lost my RB Howe and LB Page. The RB isn’t such a big deal as I have good replacements but I don’t have an abundance of LB’s with just one natural left footer in the team now. 

Spoiler

Fulham - Away

This was yet another defeat to a West London team and probably a final nail in the coffin of automatic promotion unless one of WBA or Bournemouth have a major dip in form. It was my old 1kc hero from FMM19 Aleksandar the Great who got a hat trick and sunk our hopes.

 

We had taken Kyle Edwards only a couple of games earlier from Reading but he was off again.

Spoiler

Derby - Home

When we were 1-0 and then 2-1 down I thought this was another defeat but super sub Jack Vale came to the rescue with an equaliser with 8 minutes to go and then deep, deep into injury time he got a winner to no doubt spark pandemonium in the Jim Smith stand.

We took Louie Sibley who looks a very tasty BBM to me and a very nice addition to the squad.

Spoiler

 

Huddersfield - Away

Back to back wins is what we needed as Jack Vale took advantage of a well earned start to score and then Josh Onomah cracked one in to complete a comfortable win.

 

I had no need for Josh Koroma so he was released but Callum Jones looks a good midfielder and obviously I can never have too many of those when I only play 2 🙄

Spoiler

 

Birmingham - Away

Here we go!

Just the 7 goals away from home at Birmingham with 4 from Idah and a hat trick from Jack Vale who is becoming a big player for us now. It was a shame we conceded at the end of the game but never mind as I have no desire to take players from a team that has conceded 7 goals.
 

As I say I didn’t want any players from a club that have conceded this many goals so I released all 6 players I could have taken. It wasn’t that all the players weren’t any good as a couple could have been decent but I don’t think that have what it takes to be part of my squad after such a capitulation. It’s easy to be all “high and mighty” when I have pretty much a full squad of course.

Spoiler

 

We are now 7 points behind Bournemouth and 8 behind WBA with 10 games left to go. It’s highly unlikely we will make automatic now but I think we are very secure in the playoff places so we just need to keep our form going and make sure we keep our best players ready for the playoff campaign.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Rich]

Fun month to read that was, plenty of action, shame to lose a few players, but Adam Idah is a nice steal there😁

[Mr Tree]

Oh West London, is wonderful, Oh West London is wonderful, it's full of tits, fanny and Brentford, oh west London is wonderful...

[broodje kip]

Adam Idah was such a steal! I remembered he once won world player of the year after thrashing my side 3-0 on FMM20 😂

[Ian]

It always seemed like it’d be a step too far against Chelsea’s but looking at the stats I’d say you performed very well. Mitro was always going to do well against you and the 7-1 was brilliant.

The promotion battle will be interesting but it doesn’t really matter too much in terms of the challenge, hopefully you can get it though. 

[FuddledFox]

10 hours ago, RichD said:

Adam Idah is a nice steal there😁

 

7 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Adam Idah was such a steal!

You’re not wrong there lads!

9 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

it's full of tits, fanny

The sheer amount of it was what distracted my players unfortunately.

6 hours ago, Ian said:

Mitro was always going to do well against you

That cut me deep, I had taken that lad to heights he could never imagine and that was how he repaid me 

[broodje kip]

11 minutes ago, FuddledFox said:

That cut me deep, I had taken that lad to heights he could never imagine and that was how he repaid me 

Ah yes, FMM19 memories 

[FuddledFox]

Season 2 - March

The month started with a huge game against WBA which was make or break if I’m going to challenge for automatic promotion. It was the start of what was a huge penultimate month of the season for the club as some of the big players I have taken in the last few months started to come good.

WBA - Home

We haven’t had a good record in the big games yet this season but we got the job done here. Jack Vale is almost undropable at the moment and Adam Idah is settling in well to as they got the goals we needed for the win. Mandron was a player that WBA stole from us when they humped me 3-0 earlier in the season and he came back to get a goal here.

It was between Mandron who I would have been happy to get back and Matheus Pereira and it was the Brazilian who had the higher AvR so he is a new addition to my front line.

Spoiler

Peterborough - Away

This game was nothing if not entertaining. Jack Vale was at it again and then we had a first goal for the club for Sibley and a debut goal for Pereira. The defence decided to have a day off so Posh cracked in 4 but luckily my forwards where right at it.

I didn’t keep either player I took from Peterborough.

Spoiler

Rotherham - Home

The goals kept on flowing with braces from Vale and CumDog and a hattrick from Pereira as we demolished Rotherham. Pulisic got his first goal for the club as well as he has so far struggled in front of goal even if his performances have been good.

Unsurprisingly I didn’t keep any of the Rotherham players. 

Spoiler

Barnsley - Away

Barnsley gave us a good game and were tight defensively. We left it very late after Pulisic had equalised early in the 2nd half and we had to wait till the 2nd minute of injury time for CB Jack Tucker to head home a corner for the winner.

I decided to keep Barnsley’s goalscorer Ryan Longman as he is quick and has good movement and might develop further. On the other hand he might have to go when I get someone better.

Spoiler

QPR - Away

Last month we couldn’t buy a win in West London but we made up for that a bit as we put 5 past QPR. Jack Vale scored yet again and then again and Pulisic has suddenly realised he is playing in the Championship and he is much better than almost every player in the league.

Out of the 4 players I could have taken I just kept one which was Lyndon Dykes who is a good TM and very welcome in my squad.

Spoiler

With 8 goals this month I thought it might be worth showing Jack Vale. If you remember I took him from Blackburn last season after we beat them in the cup. At the time I wasn’t that excited because he wasn’t very good but he has developed a bit now. In all honesty he is still probably over performing based on his attributes  even if he is good at shooting and is ok in the air.

 

After this month and 5 straight wins we are now putting some pressure on the top 2. There is 5 games of the season left and if we play as well as we did during March it would be hard to bet against us going up although we are confirmed in the playoffs if we do fall short.

Thanks for reading.

[Rich]

Glad your best performing player is a Welshman, we never let you down!

Very good going, shame you haven’t picked many decent players up, Dykes looks a good option though 😁

[broodje kip]

Rotherham is surely going down 😂.

 

2 hours ago, RichD said:

Glad your best performing player is a Welshman, we never let you down!

Very good going, shame you haven’t picked many decent players up, Dykes looks a good option though 😁

What do you mean? It’s my  boy Christian Pulisic.

[Rob]

Pulisic suddenly waking up is bizarre. You can do it Foxy! 

[FuddledFox]

10 hours ago, RichD said:

Dykes looks a good option though 😁

He has to get past Voluptuous Vale to get a game though so he’s just making up the number atm.

7 hours ago, broodje kip said:

It’s my  boy Christian Pulisic.

Finally started to come good this month so hopefully he is my key to promotion.

[FuddledFox]

Season 2 - April

By the end of this update I will either be promoted to the Premier League or getting ready for the playoffs. This is the state of play going into these final 5 games with us just a point away from the top 2 and on a run of form that suggests we could get the job done.

 

 

Hull - Home

This was the perfect start to the run in as we got a comfortable win over Hull. Vale and Idah are forming a very tasty combination up front and they could be the players who can take us up.

Hull didn’t have any players worth taking so I released both lads that I could have added to the squad.

Spoiler

Nottingham Forest - Home

This match was far less comfortable as we couldn’t kill off Forest as they kept on coming back for more. We had a 2 goal lead twice in this game and both times they got back within 1 goal although the last goal they got was too late for them to put any real pressure on us.

 

 

Joe Lolley was the man I could have taken and he is decent enough for the Championship but he isn’t good enough for my team any more.

Spoiler

Millwall - Away

This was not what we needed!

I had to change the team around a bit with the busy Easter schedule and it simply didn’t work. We didn’t play badly but we weren’t clinical and Millwall took the big chance that came there way and punched a huge dent into our promotion hopes.

Lewis Baker was the man to leave us which was a shame as he has been excellent in the roaming playmaker role since he joined the club.

Spoiler

West Ham - Home

We lost narrowly to the Hammers earlier in the season but this was an emphatic result for us. All the goals came in the first half an hour in a classic performance by us were we destroy teams early and then keep them at arms bay after that. 

 

Winston Reid is a good CB but I decided at 33 and with no pace he wasn’t for me. The other two takes were good though with Haller and Benrahma both going straight into my squad.

Spoiler

This brings us to the final league game of the season. Despite losing to Millwall we find ourselves top of the league on goal difference from Bournemouth and WBA.

The maths is simple with a win definitely seeing us go up whilst a draw could be enough but we would depend on other results. A loss might also take us up because of our GD of Bournemouth or WBA lose as well.

 

Middlesbrough - Away

Spoiler

Somehow at HT we found ourselves 2-1 having been 2 down thanks to a brace from Lingard who the Boro at taken from us earlier in the season. As things stood though this would still see us promoted as WBA were losing as well although this is tempting too much to fate.

 

It would come down to fate though as Ashley Fletcher followed on from were Lingard had left off and got a brace of his own and could have had a hat trick if it wasn’t for a linesman’s flag. Idah and Camps tried to make a game of it but we just didn’t turn up in this game and Middlesbrough were good value for the win.

This result saw Idah leave us after a superb run of games were his goals could potentially see us promoted.

Spoiler

So we lost but we were losing at HT and were still in the top 2 so everything hinges on what happened in the WBA and Bournemouth games.

Spoiler

Unfortunately WBA got a win and Bournemouth managed a point which was enough to see them finish 1pt above us and them both take the automatic promotion spots. Through March and April we had been on a great run and got ourselves in with a shout of automatic having been well behind in February but those lost games against Millwall and Middlesbrough have cost us.

 

This means we go into the playoffs in what will be make or break for this save. If I’m promoted then we carry on for another season in the Premier League but if we don’t go up I don’t see much point in doing another season in the Championship were I won’t be taking the vast majority of players I steal.

We will start our playoff campaign against West Ham who we will play twice to try and win a place at Wembley against either Blackburn or Barnsley.

 

 

Thanks for reading.

[George Traistă]

One game, one shot! Good luck!