It’s All Gone a Bit Wrong

By: Daryl | December 26th, 2008

Managing: Newcastle (badly, it seems)
Date: September 26th, 2009
Progress: Backwards. 17th after six games. Second season syndrome.

OK, there’s been a bit of an accidental Christmas break here on FM Offside. But I have been playing. And it hasn’t been going well.

I’ve played eight games recently, and it hasn’t been pretty. It all started badly when Habib Beye – my only decent right back – went down injured. My back up Zebina is getting back from injury. I’ve retrained Steven Taylor to play right back recently, so he had to fill in.

Here are my depressing match reports:

vs Arsenal (away) L 5-1
Easily my worst result ever, and my worst performance too. A goal from Oba Martins and a nightmare for everyone else. Except Emmanuel Adebayor who got a hat-trick. Only he doesn’t play for me. The fans were not amused.

Europa League vs Napoli (home) W 2-0
So, it seems that FM is in line with the new Europa League format. I’m in a four team group with Napoli, Red Star Belgrade and FC Vaslui of Romania, and we play each other home and away. Like a proper league. I gave the Pog a rest and started with the nonsensical little&fast/little&fast forward partnership of Martins and Saviola. Martins and Jonas netted, but Saviola is now officially suffering a goal drought. I know this because under slight concerns he’s “not letting his goal drought affect him”. Which suggests to me that actually he is.

vs Sunderland (home) L 2-1
What’s worse than losing 5-1 to Arsenal? Losing 2-1 to Scumderland. At home. Worse, it wasn’t a bad performance. Everyone got sevens. But we were just… lame. Starting to get worried here.

Carling Cup vs Coventry (away) W 2-0
Gave a few reserves a run out, and came out with a 2-0 win. Still no goal for Saviola thoiugh. His preferred moves says he “likes to pass the ball into the net”, but I beg to differ.

vs Derby (away) D 1-1
When it’s against you, it’s against you. Martins scored, but then Jonas got injured. Even better, Derby equalized against the run of play in the 93rd minute. I’m now just one place above the relegation zone and FM officially hates me.