Coventry City

CM9798 Tackles FM20 - Part Four

 
 

Welcome back to Coventry, where my FM20 journey got off to a thoroughly average start last time out. We re-join the action in early September, where excitement is building on which way my perfectly symmetrical league record will flop.

Before that particular excitement, it’s time for the Leasing Windscreen Paint Shield Trophy or whatever it’s called. The sponsored trophy. The media are predicting a record low crowd for the visit of Crystal Palace Under 23s which I struggle to argue with. Here’s the scenario. We don’t play in our own stadium, we ground share with Birmingham. It’s a tournament nobody cares about, certainly at this stage of it, and we’re hosting a Premier League Under 23 side. Not a good one either, this is Crystal Palace Under 23s. It’s a wonder they sold any tickets at all.

Those who do turn up are treated to Hiwula missing a penalty (that’s 1 from 4 as a team this season) and Westbrooke scoring a canny goal from distance. A lovely 1-0 win.

If you thought that was bad, a home game with Blackpool finishes 0-0. Our hopes are briefly raised when the visitors go down to 10 just before half time but we’re inept and can’t score. Forgive me for not taking any positives from the fact my left back ran 12km.

We go to Burton Albion and after a tight first half I’m relatively satisfied with our away day showing. A disaster of a second half follows though and we lose 2-0, deservedly so too

Our away form is non-existent. Mind you, our home form isn’t exactly Chelsea under Mourinho. After some feedback, it seems an attacking midfielder would help and one-on-ones are broken. Something like this maybe?

A couple of tweaks, such as Jobello as an inside forward and Hiwula as a winger and we are ready to host struggling Wimbledon. They really must be struggling as Idah scores to put us 2-0 up after a calamitous own goal. It’s all in the bag but we get dispossessed at the back and Folivi puts us under pressure for the remaining 8 minutes. Still, 69% possession and a narrow win is better than the Blackpool game.

Wimbledon have just two points so I won’t hail our new formation just yet. Doncaster though are a playoff contender so if we can play well here, I’ll be more convinced.

All hail 4-2-3-1. We’re outstanding from start to finish, poor old Doncaster don’t know what’s hit them. Westbrooke pings one in from 25 yards, fast becoming his speciality. McFadz heads in from a corner and Hiwula adds a third. We’re dominating the ball, we’re dominating the goals, we’re unstoppable.

A trip to Rotherham is the first test of the formation away from home. They’ve just come down from the Championship so they should be well placed to go back up but they’ve made an indifferent start. As it’s an away game, I’ve dropped our mentality to cautious, something Rotherham wish they had done as they rashly concede a penalty after 13 minutes. Hiwula does what we all do after missing a few pens and smashes it down the middle. I expect Rotherham to come at us but they barely muster a clear chance. Again, we have all the ball and deserve our win. An away win. Have we turned a corner?

It’s back to the Sponsored Trophy and an away game with Portsmouth. That’s an awful long way to go for a meaningless game but the media are in a frenzy. If we win, we’re through. They’re talking like it’s a World Cup group game not the southern section of this waste of time. Nevertheless, they buggered us mercilessly in this same fixture in the league and I’m keen to show how far we’ve come, even if the stakes are not so much low as non-existent. 

I tell you what though, we are bloody good here. Hiwula takes his goal well, Idah heads in from a corner and Walshy curls in a free kick. Everyone seems chuffed we’ve made it through to the next round of…I’ll stop it. 

It’s an International break now, something we are able to opt into on account of several of our players being away in various corners of the world. With that in mind and despite having just played a cup game, here’s the league table:

Not too shabby and for those who have been hanging in since the opening paragraph, I’m pleased to say the symmetrical record changed for the better. The flop was good. If this formation is as good as these last handful of games suggests it will be, things might turn out to be ok after all. Enjoy this whilst it lasts. See you next time.

 

Written by the excellent Dave Black, you can find him on Twitter @CM9798, his website https://cm9798.wordpress.com/ and his ‘The World According to Championship Manager’ books on Amazon.

 

CM9798 Tackles FM20 - Part Three

 
cm9798 Tackles FM20 3.png
 

Greetings and welcome back to Coventry, where I have been struggling to get to grips with FM20. Whilst I long for the familiar embrace of CM9798, we’ve battled through pre-season with average at best results. Now, our League One campaign gets underway and I say a silent prayer that it all comes together when it matters most.

A glance at the real life table suggests that a home game with Sol Campbell’s Southend is a kind start. That is of course assuming the Essex club are as haphazard on this game as they are in reality. Besides all of that, I’m certainly a lot less useful than Mark Robins so it all balances out. With Hiwula injured and O’Hare just on the way back, here’s what we go with in our temporary home.

Would you believe, it actually went well. Jobello gave us the lead midway through the first half and then the very promising Zain Westbrooke slammed one in from 25 yards. Life is good. After half time, we were awarded a penalty but just like the two we got in pre-season, it was saved. Michael Rose is a centre back but has our highest penalty taking stat, however he’s missed two now. Thankfully it didn’t matter and we thoroughly deserved our 2-0 win.

A perfect start. It’s worth considering calling it a day there, but instead we’re off to Bolton. Using the logic of the opening day, Bolton are bottom of League 1 with their 10 point deduction so it’s certainly a good opportunity for us.

Instead, we pass up multiple opportunities before conceding a garbage penalty from a corner. Obviously Daryl Murphy scores it and our attempts to get back into the game involve committing the silliest fouls possible. Sigh.

What we definitely don’t need after that is a trip to West Brom. One of the favourites for promotion in the league above us, I don’t really imagine we’ll be in round 2. We do at least keep it tight and make it to half time goalless. However just like the Bolton game, we concede from a set piece five minutes after half time. This time it’s Hal Robson-Kanu bundling in at the far post as we limp out of the Carabao Cup.

Our lack of goals is an obvious concern so I’ve tapped into the loan market. Adam Idah of Norwich arrives, based purely on his FA Cup hat-trick. Seriously though, stats wise he fits the bill so let’s see what he can do.

He makes his debut at home to Bristol Rovers and Kastaneer plants an early header back across the keeper to give us the lead. We never really kick on from that though and the longer time ticks on, the more the Gas come back into it. It looks like we’ve seen off the danger but, such is life, former Coventry man Tom Davies heads in from an injury time corner. I reckon we should practice defending set pieces…

Off we go to Portsmouth who are one of the favourites for promotion. Ronan Curtis scores a good goal before farce takes over. Downing heads in from a corner and although Walsh pulls one back, Hinds scores twice from corners to leave us on the wrong end of a thrashing. These kids can’t defend corners. For goodness sake.

This is going well. I didn’t expect it to be much different in truth. I’ve noticed a lot of teams use wingbacks, maybe we should? I only have three centre backs though so it’s not a guarantee of success. Also most of my best players are wingers…

Anyway, Gillingham at home seems like the type of game we can win. We have all the ball. We have a number of chances. Each and every one is wasted. Adam Idah at least gets chances which is more than can be said of Godden but his finishing is poor at best. Thankfully Gillingham upend Jordy Hiwula in the box in injury time and he takes the responsibility himself, slotting his penalty away. Phew.

6 shots on target out of 23 is a poor return but at least we’re dominating the ball, right? Desperate times.

There’s only one game left in August and it’s away to Oxford. I like the novelty of the Kassam Stadium, it has 3 stands with the fourth being a car park, shared with a bowling alley. Anyway after a quick trip to the Megabowl we’re more than prepared to strike. Ben Woodburn, on loan from Liverpool, is probably too good for League 1 and gives Oxford the lead. Uh oh. We’re good though, we’re going toe to toe in front of the car park and get our reward when Walshy scores from the edge of the box. Idah meanwhile misses two one-on-ones, testing my patience even further. 

It’s a good game though, played at what feels like an unrelenting pace. Not quite two heavyweights slugging it out but not far from it, there are no further goals but this is the type of draw I can live with. 

There we have it then, August has come to a close and we’ve amassed two wins, two draws and two losses. Oh and a cup exit but we were never going to win at WBA. 

Not quite a total disaster then and a couple of wins on the bounce could make all the difference. You’ve got to be in the mix and right now, we are. Let’s see what September brings. Toodles for now.

CM9798 Tackles FM20 - Part Two

 
 

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!