SEPTEMBER 2019
Greetings, FM Scouters,
A little bit of admin: I’ve decided to organise this story by month, just to help you keep track. This post will cover September.
Last time out we started our Premier League season with a mixed set of results: losses away at Liverpool and at home to West Ham, followed by wins away at Sheffield United and home to Arsenal. It left us 9th in the table, and feeling rueful that we couldn’t convert our chances against West Ham.
We received our draw for the Champions League group stage, where ended up in Group C with Lille, Zebre (Juventus of course), and Club Brugge. Juventus will be an interesting test, but we should win home and away against Lille and Brugge and comfortably qualify here.
As September starts, our fixtures are:
Chelsea (A) Premier League
Lille (A) Champions League group stage
Bournemouth (H) Premier League
Manchester City (A) Carabao Cup 3rd round
Manchester United (A) Premier League
A really tough month of fixtures, with away matches against Chelsea, Man City and Man United. I won’t lie, it’s been a relentless start, and by the time September is done we will have played Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United in the league. However, once we are past the United match, our fixtures look favourable until Man City away in the Premier League on 30th November – hopefully a chance to build some momentum.
Interestingly, even though the transfer window has shut, Lille decided to pay us £11.25 + £5m in future fees for Serge Aurier. He’ll leave on Jan 1st – good riddance as far as I’m concerned, especially now that Wague has settled in well. That will knock 70k off my wage budget and provide some funds to bring in some youth players in January, as my board requests.
Okay, onto the fixtures.
MATCH 5: CHELSEA V TOTTENHAM. 3RD LONDON DERBY IN 5 GAMES!
A trip to Stamford Bridge is usually a pretty tough ask. However, new manager Frank Lampard is still learning the ropes, and so Chelsea haven’t had a great start. So far they’ve lost to Liverpool twice (once in the super cup, once away in the Premier League), conceding 7 against them without reply. They also lost 2-1 to a counter attacking Crystal Palace side, though did manage to recover with a 3-0 win against Norwich and a 2-0 win against Wolves.
Chelsea’s loss to Crystal Palace does make me think they will be susceptible on the break, and combined with my success in holding out Arsenal in the second half using my counter attacking 4-5-1, I decide to opt for that strategy from the off in this match.
I therefore line up:
I tell the team to do it for the fans, and we’re off.
I won’t lie, the first half is pretty dull – just as we wanted it to be with out counter attacking strategy. The biggest moment comes after some nice passing around our area, with Willian taking the ball in the box, only to be taken down by a poor and ill-judged challenging by Danny Rose, who seems to a complete liability at left back. Willian steps up to convert, but Lloris makes a really good save – a huge let off!
Chelsea come out brighter in the second half, putting good passing moves together, and get the breakthrough as Azpillcueta switches the play to Marcos Alonso, who drills home from 20 yard past Lloris. A deserved lead, I must admit.
The half goes on, and Chelsea are finding too much space around our penalty area. Kante goes close after one such move, forcing a good save from Lloris.
However, we start clicking more, and our fluid attacking approach is more obvious as we start to attack with more menace. I bring Son on for Alli to try and stretch a tiring Chelsea defence, and after a poor first touch from Azpillcueta following a long ball by Lloris, Son steals the ball and bears down on goal, only to be taken out by Tomori. After consulting VAR, a penalty is given, and Kane has a chance to bring us level – a big moment in a game we’ve not contributed much to. I'm surprised Tomori isn't sent off.
Kane does the business and slots home past Kepa! Chelsea 1, Spurs 1.
A few minutes later, and we have a free kick about 30 yard from goal in a decent crossing position. Luis Alberto clips the ball over the box, it’s partially cleared by Alonso but only as far as Vertonghen, who manages to find Son lingering at the back post. He tucks it home – and we lead 2-1 with 15 minutes left!
Pure tactical genius to bring Son on, of course. He’s responsible for both our goals.
Chelsea lay siege to our goal, and get a breakthrough at 89 minutes – a proper heartbreaker, as Kovacic slams home off the crossbar. That is, until I realise Pedro was offside in the build-up! Another let off!
We hold the ball reasonably well for the rest of the game, and despite there being 7 minutes of extra time (!?), we hold on for the win. An injury to Son on 94 minutes is a pretty major downside though..
A lucky, plucky victory for Spurs, a proper smash and grab job delivered off the bench by Son Heung-Min. A big result!
Result: Chelsea 1 – 2 Tottenham.
Next up, we begin our Champions League campaign away at Lille – a match that is more important than it looks as I'd like to rest players later in the group stages and so want to avoid getting pulled into a dogfight.
MATCH 6: LILLE V TOTTENHAM. BEGINNING OUR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CAMPAIGN
We head away to France to take on the first Champions League match of my reign. We expect to win this match, so I revert to my 4-2-3-1 and aim to dominate.
I line up with a slightly rotated squad due to injuries and some players needing a rest:
GK: Lloris
DEF: Walker-Peters, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Rose
MID: Winks, Lo Celso, Moura, Alberto, Alli
ST: Kane
Bench: Gazzaniga, Davies, Sissoko, Lamela, Dier, Foyth, Caicedo
In a surprisingly even and scrappy game, despite us dominating possession 59%-41%, Lille cause us some problems at the back, with us both having 9 shots on target. However, a breakthrough on 23 minutes is enough to see us home, with Walker-Peters pulling the ball back to Moura, whose shot is spilled poorly by their goalkeeper Janot. Oh dear…
Not a convincing win, but our Champions League campaign is off to a winning start. I’ll take it.
Result: Lille 0 – 1 Tottenham.
And so back to the Premier League for our home match against Bournemouth.
MATCH 7: TOTTENHAM V BOURNEMOUTH.
Bournemouth have had a mixed start to the season. After a draw against Watford on the opening day, they got a win against Norwich, but lost to Wolves and Southampton before an impressive 1-1 draw at the Ethiad thanks to a Callum Wilson goal on 71 mintues – that result makes me a little nervous. They lined up with a 5-4-1, with Wilson looking to play on the break. The stuff of Tottenham manager nightmares.
Anyway, I decide to have faith that our system can break them down, and opt for my 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress. Some good news on the selection front: Ruben Dias has now recovered from the injury that had kept him out until this point, though Son has yet to recover from his injury against Chelsea.
We therefore start with:
This is one of our most dominant displays so far this season. Over the course of the match, we rack up 63% possession, and register 20 shots. However, Bournemouth’s 5 defenders kept these shots to challenging positions, and so only 4 are on target. At 58 minutes with the scores at 0-0 I decide to make a change, bringing Dele Alli off for Felipe Caicedo, who goes up top alongside Harry Kane, who is now playing as a central Deep lying forward as Caicedo fills in as a pressing forward on the left hand side.
After 10 more minutes, and significant agitation from the manager on the sideline, a Danny Rose cross can only be cleared by Mepham as far as Moussa Wague, whose cross finds Caicedo at the back post to head home. A particularly satisfying goal tactically for me, as I’d left Kane playing as a central striker with Caicedo slightly to the left precisely to try and isolate two of Bournemouth’s 3 centre defenders. It pays off with Caicedo putting us in the lead. It’s also Caicedo’s first goal for the club, which is good to see.
At this point, this goal feels valuable. I make instant changes. Off go Alli and Dier, on come Sissoko and Davies. Rose goes to left midfield, Moura drops back to right midfield, and we play 4-4-2 with two pressing forwards on defend. I tell the players to slow the tempo down and I try go to a possession oriented game, maintaining our press but holding onto the ball to see the game out rather than go for the second.
I live to regret it…
On 89 minutes, just as I think the game is safe, Nathan Ake lumps a ball over our high line to find Callum Wilson, who has drifted free of Ruben Dias. Wilson slots past Lloris, and I’m livid. In hindsight I should probably have dropped my defence deeper, but we had held the ball well until that point and were killing the game off by maintaining possession. It was only their second shot on target all game.
More silly points dropped against average opposition, wasting our good work against Arsenal and Chelsea. Frustrating..
Result: Tottenham 1 – 1 Bournemouth.
My next match is away at Manchester City.
MATCH 8: MANCHESTER CITY V TOTTENHAM. CARABAO CUP.
I’m not much fussed by this match. Away at the Ethiad is about as tough as fixtures get, and this is not a cup the board are judging me on. However, I want to get this team to gel, and so I play a near full strength team. I opt for my counter attacking 4-5-1:
GK: Lloris
DF: Wague, Dias, Vertonghan, Davies
MD: Dier, Alberto, Lo Celso, Moura, Alli
ST: Kane
Desptie City dominating the match in terms of shots and possession, we took the lead through a scrappy Lucas Moura goal, who stole the ball from City's summer signing Savic and slotted into an empty net on 60 minutes. But John Stones equalised with 6 minutes remaining, and the tie went to penalties, which we lost 5-4, with Wague missing the final sudden death penalty. 4 others also missed, which seems to be a theme through FM2020 – there is a very low rate of penalties being converted.
Anyway, we’re out of the cup, which I don’t particularly care about. It’s worthless unless we win it, and so I’d rather go out now than in the semi-final or final after we’ve put our players through more matches.
Result: Manchester City 1 – 1 Tottenham (5-4 on penalties).
Our final September match is also in Manchester, away at Manchester United.
MATCH 9: MANCHESTER UNITED V TOTTENHAM.
This is an interesting test for us. We are similarly positioned in the league, with Man Utd sitting 4th, and us sitting 5th. It’s the kind of match that if we can get something from, we should be well setup for the season. It also sees me face up against our former midfield maestro, Christian Eriksen.
I decide that United are to be respected. Despite a 4-0 loss to City away from home and a 4-1 defeat to Wolves away, United have a 100% home record and have scored 3 or more in every other match. Also, Wolves got their result by playing on the break, whereas Leicester we’re easily despatched trying to play good football. Away from home, I decide to setup for the counter with my 4-5-1 formation. I line up with:
GK: Lloris
DF: Wague, Dias, Vertonghan, Rose
MD: Dier, Alberto, Lo Celso, Moura, Alli
ST: Kane
Son is unfortunately still out, and as we are playing deep I decide to leave Sanchez’s pace on the bench and favour Vertonghen’s experience at the back.
And so we begin another tough fixture. United start brightly, controlling possession, until the ball was passed into Rashford in the box, who slides it to Eriksen to finish from around the penalty spot. A good finish, annoyingly, and it felt inevitable that Eriksen would score against us. 17 minutes in and our counter attacking strategy is in trouble.
United dominate possession, but struggle to convert into chances. We respond in the second half with a goal of our own. Some good work down the right by Moura stretched United’s defence, and he then found Alberto in space on the edge of the area, who picked a good out for Lo Celso to drive home.
We grind the rest of the game out – including with subbing on Sissoko to play right wing as a more defensive option - and gain a hard-fought draw at Old Trafford, despite only having 38% possession. We become the first team to take something there all season – a reasonable return.
Result: Manchester United 1 – 1 Tottenham.
The result sees us drop to 8th, but that doesn’t concern me too much. The September results in full:
We have a favourable run of fixtures in October, with us home to Brighton and Newcastle, and an away trip to Burnley. We also continue our Champions League campaign at home to Juventus – join me next time to see how it turns out.
COYS