Season 35 Week 8 processing...

Welcome to week 8.

The reset has just finished and data entry will start tomorrow...

Schalke - another tactical adjustment for lge and cup games hopes to get all players more involved. the wingers were not getting much ball lately.
wirtz is injured so rodri is taking over creative duties! 
more squad shuffling and youngster reviews to ensure they're playing where they should and to create squad space...

Data entry has started.

No orders this week from Watford.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Data entry has started.

No orders this week from Watford.

Well.... That's awkward. Thought I sent this on Saturday to give you a headstart and make things easier for you.. 

Had to ring the Mrs to do a step by step guide on how to attach a email
. 

Phil@Watford wrote:

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Data entry has started.

No orders this week from Watford.

Well.... That's awkward. Thought I sent this on Saturday to give you a headstart and make things easier for you.. 

Had to ring the Mrs to do a step by step guide on how to attach a email
. 

sounds stressful! 

Real life calls, so I will finish the mass of data entry in the morning and the league games will most likely kickoff sometime Wednesday afternoon...

WATFORD

More technical issues with Window 11…. Notepad has an interesting Bug, everytime you switch Tab/Screen it reverts back to the top of the document.. amazing on a 300+ page document… So back to WordPad it is..
 
Manager is hoping that he can navigate his in game form… This week sees the debut of Anthony “Starboy Malfoy” (Blame Jacob Murphy IRL for crap nickname) Gordon who looked a real livewire for England in the last couple of friendlies under CarisleBall (New tactic coming? Or just ATT?)
Arsenal are the next opponents, so I don’t think there will be an“easy” game to make changes. However, Gordon debut at LW, Silva moves to TM with Maddison dropping to bench, and Harvey Barnes come in at RW for a couple of weeks to give Saka time to get familiar with his teammates.
The Watford manager will be looking to exploit the Arsenal backline and have identified Holding as the weak link.. Should they manger to get back Holding though and will have to test Raya in net!
Arsenal have plenty of attacking flair going forward in Pereira, Lingard, Lingard and Zaniolo so will be a stern test for Saliba and Gabriel!
Bayern are the CUP opponents, Watford have switched to the same attack as in the league to help build some cohesion as fast possible.
 
 

AC MILAN

[          Milan          ]
[        GO TO THE        ]
[    TOP OF THE TABLE     ]
 
So what does the manager decide to do? Sell two of his first team players. Actually Sigh…
 
Results this week helped Milan leapfrog to top of the table. Something the manager wasn’t expecting. Hopefully the replacements of Johan Bakayoko and Fran Tudor, a player who has been at the club since the manager has taken over and deputises at DY while Onana gets embedded into the side.
While the side have brought in several talented youngsters, unfortunately they aren't ready for the first team so the manager has looked at exploring the more experienced players on the market to help keep the quality around the first team strong.
This weeks opponents are Parma, the side has a mixture of 9999/9997 players so the manager is hoping that the quality in the Milan side is strong enough to overcome the opponents.
Same can’t be said for a Liverpool side who have beaten Watford so far this season, so hopefully the manager can maintain the charge in Europe!
 

 
LEVERKUSEN

A much more ruthless Leverkusen last week out in the league, keeping the pressure on Schalke who is hoping the absence Witz somewhat impacts there fluidity! Unfortunately Rodri isn’t exactly a bad backup to have lol.
League opponents are Cologne, so no surprise no changes to the first XI for Leverkusen. Apart from on the bench where Soyuncu asks to be apart of the first 18 setup.
Vikings are the europe opponents looking to cause a stir and be stubborn opponents for the Bundesliga side.
Think the most exciting news from Leverkusen is that Thierry Henry is being tied down to a long term contract as the assistant manager!
 

BOTAFOGO

The side keeps marching on! Inspired by Neymar who is just dragging this team through the season so far. Hard to pick fault with individuals when they are being compared to Neymar. The manager doesn’t matter who is scoring the goals as long as the ball goes in the back of the net.
Portuguesa are the next side to try and slow down the march of Botafogo.
Vasco in the COPA look to cause some problems for the Rio side.
Manager has looked at the talent he has loaned out and decided to release them to help them find different clubs to progress their careers.
 
Good luck to everyone!

Thanks for the previews guys, good read as usual.

Data entry has restarted...

Thanks Paul, hope all is well with Julie and yourself.


Interested to see how this week goes as in all the cup games I have put out my entire reserve teams.

Had a long chat with all my teams and suggested that the lineups at the start of next season will be quite different to this.  The slow start to the league season has prompted a lot of soul searching and more listening to the players who feel they aren't getting a chance.  

This week is almost an audition for the whole squad to stake a claim in the long term plans of the four clubs.  Plenty of youth players banging on the door will also get their chance sooner or later.

Charlton - Second string have an almost impossible task to impress so will get more opportunities as this week the cup game is away to Barca.  Tough doesn't even begin to describe it.  First eleven are at home to Villa with one more chance until changes are enforced.

Nantes - Massive game for the league team, PSG.  Aside from Rennes, the biggest challenge in the league.
Cup - Away to Mechelen, hoping for some decent performances in this one to put pressure on the league team going forward.

Wolfsburg - Hamburg in the cup and Hannover in the league spell a tough week for the German side.

Fluminense - Still really trying to find their own identity, face Flamengo (H) and Sao Paulo (A).  Plenty of opportunity in those games to stake a claim.

All four reserve teams sit atop of their leagues so this is their time to shine, will they take it.....

Finally managed to find time for a preview...

Plymouth
Tough couple of weeks for the club but both TM are now motivated and hopefully on good form. Biggest issue has been getting the ball to Haaland so TM asked to SUP and have tried to make Haaland a bit more attractive by using BIG. 

Savio is playing friendlies this week with a view to potentially coming into the left hand side of the attack to cross balls into the big man - a role he did incredibly last season at Girona. Might mean a shift on the right hand side to a more natural winger as well, though pondering the use of FLX to mix things about.

The sale of MacAllister brings in Connor Gallagher who is a bit more balanced at DY and who is asked to TRY his hardest. Merino coming over to provide competition and a similar profile - win the midfield battle is the task at hand.

The cup game sees Caicedo come in to provide even more strength and stability in the middle, something which might have been lacking with Douglas Luiz... We shall we...

Juventus
Minimal changes in Italy, though the manager pondering a switch to FLY to mirror things in England and Spain. Once again the manager tries to get the most out of his CF using BIG.

Atletico
Been a bit of a struggle the past two games and Atletico see themselves now 2nd, chasing Madrid. No panic by the manager who still feels FAS is the way forward with the squad. Bernat however comes in to provide greater width at LB than Garcia. The return of Barella on the subs bench provides welcome depth.

Independiente
No changes at all in Argentina who stick to the same starting lineup as they have done almost for the past few seasons (other than enforced changes). Stability again the key across the squads and nearly there with most of the sides.

Significant investment to increase the earned income and fanbase of the clubs also taking place this week.

Let's see how things pan out...

Friendly games have kicked off, league games scheduled for 1500 hours...

Kickoff delayed until 1600 hours...

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Friendly games have kicked off, league games scheduled for 1500 hours...

Overtime shift today for Prosecco and Chocolate (entice customers to buy kitchens) so late kickoff suits me 

Suits me as well! I’m just worried about Ben and Rob, dread to think what the coffee count is…..

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Suits me as well! I’m just worried about Ben and Rob, dread to think what the coffee count is…..

Just had an an afternoon espresso...

The fans are in and the players are lined up in the tunnel...

The ref blows his whistle and the games are underway. Good luck to everybody this week...

Cherry 0 Dundalk 1 Iheanacho penalty on 2 minutes.
Braga 1 Estoril 0 Horta.

Arsenal 1 Watford 0 Pato on 3 minutes.
Fulham 0 Man City 1 Alvarez header.

Liverpool 0 Newcastle 1 Ward-Prowse on 4 minutes.

Stuttgart 0 Schalke 1 MBappe on 5 minutes.

Marseille 0 Rennais 1 Lee Kang-In on 7 minutes.
Napoli 0 Lazio 1 Belotti.
Bilbao 0 Atletico 1 Bernat header.

Arsenal 2 Watford 0 Bernardo Fernandes on 8 minutes.

Bilbao 0 Atletico 2 Fermin Lopez on 9 minutes.

Velez 0 Independente 1 Palacios on 10 minutes.

Plymouth 1 Spurs 0 De Bruyne on 11 minutes.
Progreso 0 Danubio 1 Anderson Ceara.