FM19 - Liverpool - Season 18/19

Bought the new game FM19 and managing liverpool as my first career game, have handed all control of training, contracts and transfers to the Director of Football for now.

First Half

Things started off interestingly in pre-season with 2 penalties within the first 3 minutes!!

Had a really strong first half of the season. Unbeaten after the first 19 games.

I had a min-run of game changing last minute goals in December...

First Newcastle nearly beat me at home but a loss was flipped around into a win in the space of a couple of minutes...

Then we came within minutes of going out of the Champions League at the group stages, needing a win at home against FC Porto we didn't break the deadlock until injury time, having missed a penalty I had all but given up hope here...

The table half way through...

Very happy with this. I had thought - having played around with the Draft version of the game - that I could be in a disappointing and frustrating season but having progressed through the Champions League group, in the semi's of the League Cup and most importantly in the middle of a 5 way title race and undefeated I am very satisfied.

We've played Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea away from home so far, so Man City and Spurs are the big obvious away challenges.

Priority has to be the title challenge now and to see how far we can go undefeated - something I have only once ever managed to achieve in an FM season.

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Second Half

Chelsea knocked me out of the League Cup and FA Cup at the semi final stage.

The premier league run-in was looking close...

I lost to Southamton - only the second loss of the season - which put Arsenal in the driving seat. But they managed to draw with Southampton and lose to Bournemouth, which mean on the final day if I won or bettered Arsenals result I would win the league.

And I thumped Huddersfield and Arsenal could only draw at home to Man Utd... which meant Liverpool were champions.

In the Champions League I beat Man City over two legs in the Semi Final after knocking out Dortmund in the quarters. But would be beaten by a flying counter attacking special from Mbappe and Neymar from PSG.

But to be honest, to score the most goals in the prem, concede the least, win the league and get to the final of the Champions League... in my first season, without any key signings... really just shows how good a squad there is for Liverpool and I didn't take a massive amount of satisfaction from it.

Now onto Weston Super Mare.

#2 Start Unemployed in Euope - Season 14/15 - Sousense/Braganca

Well the first season didn't really go to plan for this new career.

Started off in the Portuguese third tier side Sousense... but got the sack with 7 games to go and immediately jumped into another team in the same league Braganca.

I actually finished 2nd in the first half of the season, narrowly qualifying for the Promotion league which follows.

However, I struggled in Promotion league, failing to win any of the first 8 games - although I did draw 5. Just struggled to score goals.

Anyway, that was enough to get me the sack.

No real top performers, but the stand-outs were;

Salvador. A 28 year old left back, who scored 11 goals in all competitions as my free-kick and penalty taker and Marcos, a 33 year old playermaker in centre-mid.

#1 What is this blog?

I've been a massive Football Manager fan since I was 10 in 1996, I don't actually want to know the amount of hours that I have spent playing it... but what I do wish I had done was to keep a record and screenshots of my previous games.

On FM15 I started taking a few screen shots via the Steam tool and have found that years later I actually still really enjoy looking back over them.

So, when I recently started playing FM again - still FM15 - I thought that I should have somewhere to store and keep a record.

I don't get to play a tremendous amount anymore -life get's in the way, with a wife, 3 kids and a career - but do find time on my commute.

My plan is to do a blog post after each season, giving a brief summary of the season but most importantly sharing screen shots of the squad, best players and league etc.

If I'd been doing this for my entire time spent on FM I'd have the details of

• taking Weston Super Mare to the Premier League in FM13
• taking Weston Super Mare to the Premier League, winning it and back to back Champions League in FM14
• having my one and only ever undefeated season with an AC Milan side containing both Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
• taking  part time Paris FC from the French third tier to Ligue 1 title beating PSG

As well as details of some of my most favourite players, along with many more I've forgotten

• Marquinhos
• a 28 year old Brazilian who joined my WSM team when we were in the Prem and had amazing pace, dribbling, finishing and played immense for a few seasons 
• Colin Sherlock
• an amazing finishing striker who joined WSM as a teenager and went on to score hundreds
• Courtney Springer
• probably my all time favourite. A striker who joined my WSM team when in the conference with amazing jumping and heading but finishing 3. He was still a mainstay when we got to the Prem
• Cyrus Sylvan Vanterpool
• Only had him for a season but with 20 for acceleration and pace in the conference he scored an absolute bucket load - cant remember exactly how many :(

• And the one screen shot I do have...Mario Balotelli 
• scored 46 goals in 38 Prem games for my Liverpool side. 

In real life I spend more time thinking, planning and tracking my finances. I blog about that too here.