Hello and welcome back to Coventry, where my FM20 journey is in it’s infancy. Last week I did a lot of housekeeping. The backroom staff were assembled, the playing squad was assessed and I came up with a vague tactical plan to take us up the table.
Although we have nothing to spend, I’ve gone a bit mad with trialists. Lots of names from the past, several of which will be involved in our first friendly – a home game with Motherwell.
When people say friendly results don’t matter it usually follows a 4-0 thrashing. I’m going on record now, results don’t matter but I am terrified I can’t find a tactic that will at least make us competitive. This is what we’re starting with, where the big idea is to play on the counter attack and have the time of our lives. Ross McCormack is the only trialist to start, his electronic gates not posing a threat on this occasion.
Callum O’Hare is on loan from Aston Villa and widely regarded as one of my better options. With barely a minute on the clock, he’s broken a rib and will be out for a month. We barely create a chance worthy of a key highlight but I suppose a small positive is that we keep a clean sheet. A 0-0 draw, here come the entertainers.
I guess what I can take away from that is that playing on the counter against a poor team will be very dull. I think the shape is right but maybe we’ll be more positive. We have a week before a trip to Scunthorpe in friendly 2.
A more positive side arrives at Glanford Park and our chances of a positive result should increase when James Perch is sent off for a two footed lunge on Eduardo. What do people have against him anyway? If my lads thought this would be an avalanche of goals then, well, they were wrong. Instead Scunthorpe do what I wanted us to do. Sit deep and pick us off on the counter. Twice. This lot are a division below us but they’ve schooled us with 10 men. Send help. Please.
It's 5-6 weeks out for Hiwula as well, just to cap off a thoroughly miserable day.
It’s a fairly quick turnaround as we’re off to Northern Ireland to face Glenavon. It’s a midweek game but at this stage the sooner the better, I’m desperate to find a winning formula. I’ve opted for the radical move of putting players in their best roles and come up with this – a switch to 4-3-3 but will it make a difference?
You know what? It’s better. It’s not great, it never will be. Even when we go behind against the run of play I still feel we can turn it round and we bloody do. Walsh smashes an equaliser from 25 yards and in the second half amidst a slew of changes we go looking for the winner. It has surely arrived when Modibo Maiga turns in a far post cross with 12 minutes to go. Of course, in injury time they smash in a goal from 30 yards and it’s a draw, but that’s life.
We’ve dominated that game and only poor finishing has let us down. With Hiwula and O’Hare still absent, maybe that’s not a surprise. We’ll try again at Walsall on Saturday. In the meantime, the bookies have predicted us to finish 10th. Presumably they haven’t watched any of this pre-season so far.
Same formation at Walsall – a few personnel changes just to get the fitness levels up but let’s see if we’ve stumbled on our formation
It’s quite an even game and I’m quite pleased with how we’re shaping up. It’s even better when we get awarded a penalty just after half time. Lumbering oaf Bakayoko, who is nothing like Ibrahima, trundles his penalty down the middle and it’s saved. It finishes 0-0.
McCormack signed up with St Johnstone whilst Maiga wants far more than we can afford to pay him. That’s a shame and he leaves with my best wishes.
It seems odd that we’re flying back to Northern Ireland for Cliftonville away but I don’t make the schedule. I mean, I could have, but I didn’t.
I’ve made another tweak. After my initial chat that possession isn’t important, I’d like to shock you. Possession is very important, especially when you have three central midfielders. With that, I’ve made our passing shorter in a hope of dominating poor opposition.
To the surprise of everyone, it seems to work. Jobello plays from the right and is unplayable. All the ball, all the shots, a comfortable 2-0 away win. Are Cliftonville any good? I prefer not to know. In my eyes we’ve turned a corner.
Last friendly then and a chance to cement our place as a team that means business. It’s a trip to Nuneaton Boro and a game we should win comfortably. Thankfully, the lads agree and we’re 2-0 up before half time. Kastaneer, who didn’t return from holiday until July 23rd for reasons I’m not 100% sure on, has a real eye for goal and scores twice. Everyone is complacent but my stern words at half time tell them not to be and we look set for a comfortable win. Then it all goes wrong. They head in from a free kick and then equalise in injury time to ruin a good day. We’d made plenty of changes by that point so…can we blame that? It’s going to be a difficult season.
Well that hasn’t exactly gone well has it? I just about have a formation but we are flimsy at best. It is one week until we “host” Southend in our borrowed stadium in the League One opener, see you next time!