The Mercenary

@Tango: My concern about lucky results is that the switch can easily flip, so we can start to succumb to defeats without any kind of performance advantage which can act as a buffer. At least if we were recording more shots or had more possession, there’s a base to work from to tinker, but we weren’t… so if things did start to go wrong, it’d be a back-to-the drawing-board situation. Fortunately, it seems to have clicked.

@Jack: Thanks a lot; the pattern of my seasons is usually a slow start, tinker, improve, flourish, so I’ll hope that tradition continues here to the end of the season.

@TheLFCFan: I echo what I just said to Jack; I’d add that getting performances up is a minimum expectation at this level, as most of my seasons ever on FM have been LLM saves, so I should know how to do this by now!

@mgriffin2012: That’s the plan; I just hope they have the legs for it in these final couple of months.

@J_ames: It was an incredible burst of form from Jude, and he’s well suited to the role and will probably have a bright future. I think, from the results in the last two months, he’s certainly not as prolific at all times, more in bursts… 9 games without scoring in this update… and if we had the opportunity to bring him back, I think I’d like more evidence that he could deliver more consistently.

@TheLFCFan: He's still benched and, even the 2 or 3 appearances he's made has been uneventful. So if he's not willing to make a go of it, then I do hope he continues to put up and shut up and no disrupt the team going into the run in.

@Jack: That's my favourite Premier League moment in history!

@Tango: The league title is a good achievement, but I've made a focus of this save about winning more cups than I normally do, even if that means sacrificing league points, so every dropout, especially in a final is extra annoying!

@Maxporto: Thanks a lot; that's the plan. It's been a weird pre-season, but I'm reasonably happy with what I have now... too many loanees, but that won't necessarily affect our performances.

@Jack: In a normal playthrough, the league would definitely take priority for me, but in this save I'm content to drop points in the league for a bigger chance in the cups. I would've happily taken second place to get that cup here, honestly... although both would've been nice!

@Jack: Thanks a lot, I'm happy with the start, and it does seems to be snowballing a bit now we've tinkered ourselves into a comfortable tactical arrangement.

@Tango: I've always considered myself to be philosophically an "attack minded" footballista, but recent saves (and also, incidentally, the way I now play FIFA, and also how I've adapted my game playing in real life) has shown me how much more defensive minded I am. And so I think it's something that I may need to look at and focus on going forward in this save, whether that's the identity I want to now foster given how successful it has been in these 18 months.