The retirement of Alex Taylor Part 2

I think we will call that dog Explosion, no matter what.

Just caught up man!!! This is looking to be just as exciting as your FM16 story

Whenever i start a Bundesliga save i always seem to play jena and they always seem to put up a fight! Good luck man!

Lippo Yeah can't believe it lost out to Humphrey of all names. Hopefully that is what people will use to describe Alex's tenure at Leverkusen.

Hellsdoom I don't know that could lead to some awkward moments "Come here explosion" May not be shoutable in a park

MJK Thanks man, hopefully can have similar levels of success at Leverksen

mgriffin Hopefully I can manage to get past them will take any win in game number one.

Also sorry about the lack of recent updates had to do a couple of important essays for uni, who knew you actually had to do work to get a degree

Alex looked back over his line-up and how it matched to the formation of Jena. The middle of the park was likely to be vey tight so Alex hoped for Volland and Brandt to be able to create something being helped by overlapping runs. He was confident heading into his first Leverkusen game but, he had also felt that way before his first Brugge game which he lost 3-1.

Alex took his seat in the stadium with his seat being on a temporary bench put up on an athletics track and waited for Leverkusen to get the game underway.

Pohjanpalo got Alex’s first match at Leverkusen underway passing the ball back to Baumgartlinger who played the ball wide to Brandt who began to run inside at the Jena defence. He was tackled and the ball was cleared long. Tah controlled the ball and passed it wide to Henrichs. He was able to run up the wing with no defender in sight and whipped in a low cross to the near post. Pohjanpalo made a good run and fired the ball low across his body but, couldn’t push it far enough across and the ball flew into the side netting.

Leverkusen won the ball back from the goal kick and Calhanoglu played the ball out wide to Henrichs. He was in miles of space and took a couple of touches to control the ball before firing in a low cross to the near post. Pohjanpalo made the same darting run as before and got to the ball first again. This time his finish was a foot further inside than the last one and was past the keeper before he could react to give him a debut goal and Alex a lead inside the first minute in his first game. Alex punched the air in celebration before re taking his seat and telling his side to try and get another couple of goals to kill the game off as early as possible.

Just after 4 minutes D’Ambrosio threw the ball in near the halfway line to Brandt in the Jena half. He ran inside past two defenders and had the ball under control centrally thirty yards out. He passed the ball to Henrichs on the corner of the box. With a defender rushing out to close him down Henrichs faked a cross and moved past the defender before passing the ball inside to Volland. Volland was in a lot of space in the box and had time to pick a pass and he picked out the run of Pohjanpalo. With the keeper at the near post he was scrambling across to try and cover more of the goal and Pohjanpalo clinically fired just where the keeper had been before he moved to double the lead of Leverkusen and put them two goals up inside 5 minutes. Alex couldn’t be happier with how his debut was going, or Pohjanpalo’s for that matter.

After 18 minutes Leno hit a goal kick long and Pohjanpalo headed the ball back to Calhanoglu who passed to Volland out wide. He chipped a pass inside to Baumgartlinger 30 yards out in the middle of the pitch. He passed wide to Brandt who just used speed to get past his man and into the box before he rolled the ball into the path of Pohjanpalo. Pohjanpalo completed his 17 minute hat trick firing the ball low into the bottom corner leaving the keeper no chance and giving him a debut hat trick that killed the game off early.

Just after the half hour mark Chicarito had the ball on the left of the Jena box. He passed the ball to Brandt who squared the ball to Baumgartlinger outside the box. He pushed the ball along the edge of the box to Calhanoglu, he played the ball up to Volland who hit a first time curling shot. It beat the keeper before coming off of the post. Pohjanpalo reacted quickly towards the loose ball but was just beaten to it by Kuhne who kicked the ball as far away as he could.

Alex was pleased at halftime and told his team to just take it easy in the centre half as his main goal changed to just avoiding injuries to anyone. With the game all but over Alex made three changes. He put on Kai Havertz and Atakan Akkaynak for their professional debut’s and Dimitar Berbatov for his second Leverkusen debut. Baumgartlinger, Calhanoglu and Pohjanpalo all made way for them. Just before the team headed out for the second half Alex pulled aside his young debutants. “I’m sure your nervous but that will quickly disappear. Keep it simple and listen to your teammates, they help you get through it. You’ve got talent so show it and don’t for get to enjoy yourself you only get one professional debut.”

Pohjanpalo’s hat trick had ended any hope that Jena had of springing an upset and they just sat deep. With Leverkusen not needing to take any risks the second half was rather dull as the two sides exchanged pointless possession and tried to avoid any knocks that would hinder their starts in the league.



It was an easy 3-0 win over the underdogs and got them into the next round having avoided a potential banana peel and embarrassment to start his time at Leverkusen. Overall Alex was pleased with his first game in charge. Pohjanpalo had been the undisputed star and his goals had made it an easy win for the favourites and allowed them to coast for most of the match while earning him a start in the Bundesliga opening.

Pohjanpalo! Like the way that roles off the tongue!

Good win in what could have been a tricky fixture.

Pohjanpolo is getting a lot of plaudits irl atm so its nice hes getting the goals for you too!

Lippo And easy to type as well, the squad is full of players with long names

Pleased with the result

mgriffin Yeah been banging them in IRL hopefuly can find the same form for me

On the bus ride back to Leverkusen Alex got a second reason to celebrate as a full house of threes and twos saw him clean out the rest of the staff playing and win big. Alex scooped up his 400 cents and as they filled his pocket knew that he may as well give it to his kids as he would never use it. It was late when the team coach pulled in to Leverkusen and Alex got into his car to head for him. Putting on the killers Alex relaxed and headed for home.

Alex got back and got a minor fright when he heard Humphrey padding around the house before remembering they had a dog now. With his heart settled down Alex relaxed and headed to bed.

Alex was up bright an early the next day for the debrief of the last game and the planning for the next one, where the faced a tough start to the league in the form of Schalke. Alex rolled in a couple of minutes past 9 and grabbed a muffin as he headed into the conference room.



The general summary of the last game was agreed on. Team was generally decent with Pohjanpalo and Henrichs the stand outs and the two making their professional debuts did well.



Voller chipped in at this point. “I’ve been having a look through the record books and then had someone else have a look to check and as far as we could tell Kai Havertz became the youngest ever Leverkusen player last night in the first of hopefully many appearances for us.”

“Hopefully so, although I think that I might leave him out for the next game. On the note of the next game Jonas what do you have for us on Schalke.” Alex said steering the meeting away from the last game.



“An attacking 4-2-3-1 pretty direct and Max Meyer is the man to watch out for. With it being the first game of the season we only have the cup game to go on for how they will look but, it seems like they will try to press us so we could go long to try and counter that although they do have two strong tall centre backs and our strikers aren’t huge. The left hand side of the defence is the weak point of the team and where we should look to exploit going forward.” Jonas concluded.

“Excellent. Well a tough match to start with but, we will prepare for it well and hopefully kick off with three points. Anyway we best wrap up the meeting as the German Cup draw is on.” The TV was turned on and everyone’s attention turned to it. Anyone could get anyone and Wolfsburg were the only big team to fall so their were quite a few bad draws that Leverkusen could end up with.



There was a mixed reaction to getting Hamburg at home but, the consensus seemed to be that it could have been a lot worse but, also a lot better.



The talk of the draw was interrupted when Rudi Voller suddenly burst out laughing. Knowing how rare it was from a German Alex wondered what it was. Rudi tried to explain between laughs. “Augsburg… want to loan.. Pohjanpalo and here’s the kicker… only cover ten percent of his wages.” That set the room off so much that they were late turning over to the Champions League draw. Most of the second seeds had been picked but, not Leverkusen. They would get one of PSG, Juventus or Barcelona.



That meant Alex was more pleased than he would have been otherwise to draw PSG. He was a bit annoyed to see Dynamo Kyiv also join the group although more than happy with Legia to be in it. It would be tight but, Alex was confident that they could get out of the group in second at worst and maybe even sneak top spot.

Augsburg getting cheeky!

Both draws could have been worse but I have faith in Alex to see them through...

Haha augsburg would never be that cheeky under my guidance not the most straightforward of CL groups but think you can get through it!

Lippo They are indeed, draws are sort of definition ones for could have been better or worse

mgriffin2012 Good to hear, next thing you know they will be trying to loan Messi.
Hopefully can get through although think second could be best case scenario

It was only an hour for the team on a coach as they headed north to take on Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen a fellow small city in the Ruhr area of Germany unlike Leverkusen though they had some trophies to boast from the past and more recent times. It was a tough game to start the season with and Alex hoped that they could get off to a good start in the league by getting a big win.



Alex made a few changes for his first league game the main thing being that he made the midfield more defensive minded with who he went for as he expected Schalke to be a bit better in the midfield than Jena. Surprisingly for such a good team Schalke featured three loan players in the first team Konoplynaka, Rahman and Bentaleb were all on loan. Meyer however, was the man that Alex had to worry about and try to cut down as he could do well himself and supply Huntelaar upfront.

Alex took his seat and watched on as the game was kicked off in the new way, only needing one player. It was a cagey few minutes to start with and it showed with some head tennis in the middle of the pitch just before the fifth minute. The ball ended up with Geis who played the ball up to Meyer. Under pressure he calmly backheeled the ball to Bentaleb which impressed Alex. He passed up to Huntelaar who played the ball wide to Konoplyanka. He tried to cut inside and D’Ambrosio flew in with slide tackle that was all ball and saw the ball roll to Bender. Bender pushed up and passed the ball up to Volland who cut inside. He passed up to Chicarito on the edge of the box. He drew both centre backs so passed to a wide open Pohjanpalo. Just inside the box on his first touch Pohjanpalo back across goal and just out of reach of the keeper to put Leverkusen up ahead early on. Alex was very pleased to see him continuing his good form.

Just after the 12th minute Fahrmann claimed a poor D’Ambrosio cross and whacked the ball up long. Dragovic got up high and powered a header forward. It went right to Bentaleb who played the ball up to Konoplyanka. He passed inside to Huntelaar who backheeled the ball up to Meyer. Alex appealed for offside but, was getting nothing and Meyer took a touch before trying to chip the ball over Leno who had gone down anticipating a lower shot. Leno could only get some fingertips to the ball and it wasn’t enough to push the ball wide and Meyer levelled the match after 13 minutes.

Two minutes later Schalke had a corner that Geis stood over. He whipped a ball in and Volland rose high at the back post to head the ball out. Konoplyanka got the ball and pushed up a bit before passing to Bentaleb. He passed to Schopf on the edge of the box and he fired low from just outside the box. It was a wonderful strike that Leno couldn’t reach fortunately the ball bounced back off the post, unfortunately the ball fell right into the path of Huntelaar. He swung his boot and connected with D’Ambrosio instead who had come from nowhere to clear the ball and then take down Huntelaar. “That’s a chunk of his fee paid back.” Philippe remarked. Alex couldn’t help but agree it had saved a goal and a was therefore worth a gal but, happily no bonus had to be paid out for it.

After 23 minutes Caicara brought the ball into the Leverkusen half and played the ball up to Geis. He played the ball up to Huntelaar who slipped the ball into the path of Bentaleb to play him in on goal. Bentaleb took a large touch that allowed Leno to rush out and close down the angle. Bentaleb shot high past Leno and Alex’s heart was in his mouth as the ball hit the bar and then edged over the bar.

32 minutes in Henrichs whipped in a free kick Tah flicked the ball on and Bentaleb hooked the ball clear and Konoplyanka ran onto the ball. He ran deep in the Leverkusen half past one defender before passing to Huntelaar just outside the box. Bender tackled the ball off of him and the ball rolled to Meyer who slipped in Konoplyanka. He hit a powerful shot with his left foot high to the next post that beat Leno for power and put Leverkusen behind for the first time under Alex.

After 36 minutes Henrichs hit a pass and then went down holding his groin. Alex declined to make a cheap joke as the physio’s went out to check on him. Unfortunately, he had to go off and Alex put Calhanoglu on in his place.

Leverkusen went into half time behind and Alex extolled his team to give more and criticised them for their poor performance. Brandt, who seemed unable to do anything right in the first half was taken off as Alex put on Bellerabi in his place.

Three minutes into the second half Dragovic hit a pass right to Schopf under no pressure. He passed the ball wide to Caicara who just ran past Wendell. He whipped in a cross near to the goal. Right at the near post the ball glanced off the chest of Huntelaar and the last minute redirection of the ball gave Leno no chance and put Schalke two goals up. Alex rested his head in his hands before getting up to yell some enthusiasm to his team to try and pick them up.

Two minutes later Meyer was released down the left wing and found himself in mile of space. He got to the goal line and cut inside before passing the ball back to Huntelaar on the edge of the six yard box. He fired the ball low and hard back towards the near post. Leno got down wonderfully and was able to somehow push the ball away from goal and out for a corner. It was a wonderful save that kept Leverkusen in the game.

As the game moved past the hour mark Calhanoglu pushed forward with the ball and passed to Volland. He was forced back by some attentive defending and squared the ball to Bender. He got the ball up to Chicarito on the edge of the box who played it out wide to Wendell. He fired in a low cross and Pohjanpalo ran onto the cross and steered the ball low past the keeper to grab his second goal of the game and bring Leverkusen back to within a goal.

Leverkusen pushed forward and after one attack was ended by a clearance Tah brought the ball down and passed up to Bender. He passed to Pohjanpalo who turned and played in Chicarito with a well weighted pass. The way he had to take his first touch took him wide and he tried to put the ball in high at the near post but, the keeper read it well and parried the ball before diving onto the rebound.

From the halfway line Calhanoglu chipped a pass out wide to Chicarito. His first touch took him past his defender and just before the ball crossed for a goal kick he got around the ball to dig out a cross. It turned out to be a perfect cross as Bellerabi ran onto the ball in acres of space. He rose high and reached the ball at the perfect height unfortunately he couldn’t direct it well and the great chance went begging.

With time running out Alex put on Berbaotv for Dragovic and went three at the back and three up front. As the ball was moved forward as the clock went past 90 Stambouli won the ball off of Berbatov and played it up to Meyer. He passed up to Huntelaar who played the ball toward the run of Embolo inside, he checked his run and passed to Meyer on the overlap. He took a touch and then fired low past Leno to kill the game off.



Alex was disappointed the team hadn’t played to badly but some individual mistakes had cost them and they succumbed to a two goal loss that was kind on Schalke. One thing Alex had decided though was that playing with only two centre midfielders didn’t offer them enough defensive cover and he had to change that.



Leverkusen were far lower down the table than he hoped to be at any other time and the big surprise of the weekend was Bayern starting the season out with a draw.




They had also picked up a couple of knocks. Pohjanpalo would be out for a week and it would be three for Henrichs, fortunately the international break meant that they shouldn’t miss to much action.

Tough start to the season mate, hopefully better things to come!

Oof, not the start you wanted, and Henrichs will be missed, he's a quality player, but lucky you got the internationals