Good Things Come In Threes.
One thousand touches. For a time many coaches felt that the most important goal of a football training session was for a young player to get a minimum of 1000…
Up To Speed – Football Manager 2016 Part 8
A lot has happened since my last instalment in this series. A season and a half has passed, which means there have been four transfer windows. The ins and outs…
Sweeper Keeper to Flying Keeper
Hands. On the football pitch only one player has this advantage. The ability to block, dive, stretch, punch, catch and throw. No player has a spotlight shone on them like…
Perfect Day(s) – Football Manager 2016 Part 7
Goals Everywhere New England Saints hit a new apex this season. Eight players scoring more than 15 goals across all competitions. Four of those breaking 20. One surpassing 30. During…
Which Stats Matter? – Football Manager 2016 – Part 6
20. It is FM perfection. Those 20 out of 20 ratings are golden. There are very few players who are loaded with these perfect attributes but the closer you can…
Beautiful Bergkamp and Magical Messi
Pep Guardiola. Close your eyes and imagine a Guardiola team. What did you see? My expectation is that your mind's eye generated the image of a ball being zipped around…
Through The Big Window – Football Manager 2016 Part 5
The whole point of this New England Saints project is to develop young English players with a bias towards those who featured during the 2017 summer. In two seasons the…
Much Too Much – Football Manager 2016 Part 4
The second season at New England Saints has been completed. On the pitch it was a second season of unexpected success. Off it, there was an ongoing takeover bid that…
Farewell Phillipe
Steve McManaman broke my heart. Not so long ago I wrote a piece about how McManaman leaving Liverpool for Real Madrid had left me bereft for a considerable amount of…