Football Manager 22 – The Beta Blog
It’s the Nix… One cannot discount the great work Ufuk Talay has done both across the ditch and in Australia under the recent stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the people have spoken and wanted “From The Stands” to take the reigns of the popular Wellington Phoenix. A huge challenge awaits but lets face it, who wants to turn down $5k per week.
A mid table finish whilst developing young New Zealand talent seems the way forward for this team. In the future maintaining the momentum for the A-League title is pretty much all there is, especially when the club seems to have little interest in the FFA Cup. The downside to managing in a closed league is expectations don’t really seem to change, keep challenging for the finals series and see what happens, maybe a job in Japan or Scotland awaits if we succeed…
Scouting has ditched the numbers and we are back in school when it comes to scouting reports. Football Manager forces many students of the world to adapt the “P’s get Degrees” motto” whilst trying to balance a busy university life with endless hours chasing promotions, cup finals and trying to avoid a dicey relegation challenge in the middle of an injury crises in your all-important Football Manager save. It’s time to think back and remember A’s are good, C’s are ok and F’s mean no more scouting Latvia for that super talented youngster.
Sydney FC are huge favourites to take out the season with Melbourne City sitting at a 6-1 chance, maybe Football Manager didn’t see them dominate season 2020/21 and the fact they have picked up Matthew Leckie. Mug punters like myself might have nibble at 700-1 offered at Central Coast after they shocked the league last season or if I have any faith in the FM ability 300-1 is worth a cheeky fiver on Wellington for the title, remembering anything can happen in finals. I doubt (insert league betting partner) are keeping track on the FM odds offered.
Managerial Debut
As this is the Beta version, I thought it best to jump straight in and start the season. The distance derby was first on the list and surprisingly we outplayed Perth with 24-6 shots and a huge xG advantage. I’m still trying to get my head around this xG thing but it appears that I dominated. Daniel Sturridge filled the hearts of Tony Sage and the fans in the Shed when he slotted home a 32’ minute goal to give the home side the advantage.
This was as good as it got for Perth as Wellington hit their straps and really dominated from then on. The 4-2-3-1 formation with an increased focus on maintaining possession (60-40) seemed to work, although the high intensity could bite me in the backside as we have 3 games in 7 days and a paper-thin squad. Thankfully there is no border restrictions in this FM world so the team should have no worries entering Wellington for their first home game.
As dominate as the performance was for a draw was the game did provide some classic FM moments with David Ball almost scoring the winning header in the 91st minute (It almost went for a thrown in from 12 yards out) and minutes later just before the full-time whistle James McGarry made a crucial goal line clearance.
Sydney Shine in Five Star Performance – Sydney 5 Wellington 0
With only a 72-hour turnaround Sydney away was always going to be a tough challenge, just how tough was an understatement. The players were simply blown out of the water in a mesmerizing 5-0 result to Sydney. I went on the back foot early adopting a cautious approach and going 2-0 down after only 28 minutes I tried to protect the result dropping players behind the ball, this only piled on the misery.
In short there were no positives out of this game with 0 shots on target, 0 points obtained and 1 embarrassed manager. I think our fans summed it up best…
Back to the drawing board.
Winners are Grinners – Wellington 2 Perth 1
Ben Old (8.9) and Reno Piscopo (8.6) dominated as Wellington held on for their first victory over the season and place one hand on the ‘Distance Derby’ trophy for another season. Two goals in the space of 13 minutes allowed the possession dominant Nix three crucial points after they were embarrassed by a Sydney outfit just days before.
Daniel Sturridge couldn’t get near the ball as Tim Payne man marked him out of the game and Perth were unable to provide sufficient attacking stimulus. The game also saw Sam Sutton get his first minutes of the season as he replaced James McGarry after a dubious tackle on the edge of the box.
Here are the standings at the end of November, look out for our December blog out shortly…
