FM2005: a frog at Loftus Road

[FrogMan]

I debated about posting this in the old dynasty (FM2005: a frog at Kenilworth Road), but looking at the title, it didn't make much sense. There's no frog at Kenilworth Road anymore , the frog has moved on to Loftus Road, home of the Queens Park Rangers!!!

I can hear the 4 of you asking "Seriously, are you starting a new dynasty?", bewildered. Well, maybe not bewildered, okay... I'm not really starting a new one, at least not with as much note taking as I used to do with the old one, but I was simply looking for an outlet to post about my team. It'll probably be only a jumble of QPR information, sometimes not really interesting, sometimes mostly me posting to ramble about the team, sometimes to brag about it (like today ) Maybe though, there are a few of you who who could enjoy reading about my dealings with this new team. If you are one of them, welcome aboard, if not, well, go back to the dynasty forum and stop reading now

I won't report regularly in here, well maybe, maybe not, but I just had to write about this. Had to because, you guessed it, my Rangers played the Hatters of Luton for the first time...

Before I get to that game, the 4th of the season, let me tell you about how it's going on with QPR. The year if 2008, at the dawn of the 2008-09 season. Both the Team Board and fans expect the team to outright win the League One title, these are big expectations. The one good thing is that while we ended the season by demoting from the Championship, which the Team Board was kind of unhappy about, we go into the season with both the Team Board and fans pleased with my management of the team. When the odds came out, 5 teams were named as co-favourites with odds of 7-4. They are Cardiff, Huddersfield, Swanson, Swindon, and Derby. Then came Preston with odds of 2-1, then us, with odds of 5-2...

I had done some players signings last season and added a few in the offseason. As I posted before, I signed Lee Mansell and Ivan Kaviedes from Luton. Kavi is a regular starter in my 4-4-2 formation. Yep, me with the crazy formation, I'm playing a pretty bland 4-4-2 formation, but it works now! We have two good starting wingers (the right one was the supporters player of the year last season while the left one ended the season on a tear with an average form rating of about 7.4 over the last two months of the season) and two fairly good backups in case of injuries, so a basic 4-4-2 formation made sense.

In my shopping spree of the end of last season, I had almost signed a great MC in Ben Watson, but I ran out of transfer budget and the transfer got cancelled. Thing is Watson, who was only 22yo, was on a unprotected contract ending on June 30 and compensation for him was set at 2M. I gambled on possibly getting some transfer budget in the offseason, so I signed him to a contract effective after the end of his current contract. When the budget came out, the Team Board announced it would be 1.55M. I thought "oh crap, it won't go through", but they let it happen anyway, weeee I now have a great trio of MC in Watson, Nigel Quashie, and a Canadian National Teamer (even team captain) named Marc Bircham. Bircham is a DMC by natural position, but I play him at a MC spot with Watson and they work great together. Having him would certainly allow me to go a bit more defensive and play with a DMC, which I sometimes like to do.

We now have two great centrebacks, winning about everything in the air. One of them I acquired in that shopping spree, the other was injured for 2 months when I took over control of the team. That second one is simply amazing. Strong, quick, great jumper and header, with good passing skill to boot.

I've signed two players on season long loans, with us not paying one dime of their salaries (that is a very important part, more later). One of them is a D LC that had a 3 months loan stint with us at the end of last season. He's got good fundamental skills for a defender and will mostly be used as a backup. The other is a quality backup keeper to our main guy. While I like Chris Day, our starting keeper (heck he was the first player I resigned when I got to the team), I don't want to fall into the same problems I had with Rob Beckwith last season with Luton. If Chris falls in form, in will come Jamie Young. Young is currently contracted to Reading, and it's the second time I sign him on a loan. The first time was in 2004-05 with Luton, on a three months loan. I'm not sure I'd like to have him as my long term keeper, but he sure will be able to do the trick for a few games here and there.

Now about that start to the season. We played first against a League Two promotee, Hereford. Game was on the road and I really didn't know what to expect, but wow! We were ahead 3-0 after 32 minutes or about, controlling the ball, keeping it on their end, shooting, shooting and shooting some more. The game ended 4-0. Kavi scored the first goal in that one, a goal on his debut

We then played a tough two game series against two of the co-favourites in the League, Huddersfield (at home) and Cardiff (away). We came out of these with a 0-0 draw against Huddersfield and a 1-0 win against Cardiff. Stil had not conceded a goal up to that point Along with playing a 4-4-2 formation, I am trying to play a much more patient game, more oriented toward controlling the ball. I've done this by lowering the tempo to about a quarter of the scale as well as asking for short passes (at also about a quarter of the scale). I also play my defenders pushed up a bit, to shorten the field for the other team's attacking line. Has worked pretty well so far. That 4-0 win was with the team mentality at neutral, not super attacking, like I used to do in the past. This should help conceded goals to a lower value

Then came the Luton game, at home. Man, how they've let this team go in shambles. They still have not signed a manager to take my place!!! Could this be a bug of some sort? It's been over 8 months now... They've let go of many starters and many of their starters now are players that were only reserves when I was there... As the game started, it felt very weird to see the orange players run around and not be cheering for them. Reading so many known names in there and them not being on my side was very weird too. I guess it's a great testimony of how this game makes you feel. I really felt like somebody on a real field, who was playing against people he used to be with day in, day out...

Game went very well for us. We scored in the first half, and while it stayed 1-0 for the rest of the game, we dominated them So much so that they had to revert first to a 4-2-4 formation (oh crap!) then to the crazy 2-3-5 formation, look at this:


Thing is with that formation, once you get on their end, they just can't pull it out.
Look at how possession went in the first half (QPR in white, Luton in orange):


and how it went in the second half:


63% possession in the second half, I'd say we did pretty well there

Here are the match stats:


Again, 14 shots, 9 on target, to their 8 shots, only 1 on target, I'd say we did pretty well there too

And finally, how both teams are showing up in the league table:


Still have not conceded a goal in 4 matches!!!

Players are all happy, except a striker who wants a bigger contract. Sorry mate, you're not gonna get, get used to it. The guy has 2 for pace (or 3, but not more than that) and is not your typical target man (not amazingly strong or amazingly good at headers and passing). Kavi is filling the bill of target man very well right now, even with his 5-ish pace. He is strong, has great first touch skills and can distribute and head the ball very well. In our first 4 games, he's scored three already. And his English is now better than only basic, talk about a guy that assimilated well At the end of last season, we had a bunch of unhappy guys, mostly guys that felt the team was underachieving. Even though there were less at the end of the season than when I first got with the team, there were still a few. Now at that start of the season, they were all willing to start anew, except one, the supporters player of the year, my starting right winger, Martin Rowlands. He was even saying he had lost confidence in his manager's ability. WTF!!! I just got here! Anyway, after the Luton win, I was happy to see he is now happy to stay at the club, with no concerns anymore about my ability.

This is it for a start. See ya around!

FM
PS: if anybody is wondering, although I'm not sure it's showing so much on the screenies, but I've switched to another version of the Stone skin. It's called SilverStone, made by the same fellas who brought us the original Stone skin. It's a bit darker in the background and the text, while a bit smaller, is sharper, at least I think. They've also put little soccer balls on the tacticts sliders, just cute

[mrkilla22]

Nice start FM! Goodluck this season.

[terpkristin]

Must've felt really nice to kill the old team!
Glad to see a dynasty back (you don't have to give us the full details like before, so you don't need to take copious notes), but do keep us in the loop!!!

/tk

[FrogMan]

thanks mrkilla and tk. Don't really know why, but I expected you two to be the first two to post in here

FM

[tanglewood]

Good to see you back FM.

[Lucky Jim]

I'll be following too. Good luck and nice start

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm following too. Great start! Congrats

[FrogMan]

Thanks tanglewood, Lucky Jim and EaglesFan.

We're up to 5, well 6 with me

FM

[FrogMan]

August 20, 2008
We played our round 1 match of the League Cup, away at Scunthorpe, a League 2 side playing that darn 4-2-4 formation. We dominated them, even though the final score was only 2-1 for us. We put 12 of our 20 shots on target, while they put 5 of their 8 shots on target at our end. I put in a lineup a bit different than what I usually play in league play, putting in some players that don't always see playing time. That included backup keeper Jamie Young, who played the whole game, not looking too bad. Interesting to note that we were down 0-1 early in that game, but came back to tie, then take the lead...

August 25, 2008
In league play, we play away at Doncaster, a side that just got promoted from League Two. We took the lead very early on a goal from Martin Rowlands, and added another one on a center that got kicked into their own goal by their keeper. We win this one 2-0, still to concede a goal in league play, I love it!!!

FM

[FrogMan]

I know these names are not too familiar to you, but I plan on introducing players at some random points, when I'll feel like posting about them. I plan on doing it position by position, sort of.

FM

[FrogMan]

Speaking of my players and lineup, here's a good primer. This is the team report that my assistant manager Tim Breacker gives me when I ask him for one:



As you can see, Tim is pretty ecstatic about our chances of success this season I have never seen such a positive report. Whenever I went to look at this report when I was at Luton, or even last season when QPR was in the Championship, it would either say that we had holes to fill, or that we needed depth here or there (and it was true of QPR as they had absolutely nobody of use on their reserve squad), or it would even show me a bunch on one stars and would tell me there was no way we'd stay up (when Luton was in the Championship)... Anyway, that gives you an idea of who plays where. I play that exact same lineup in league play, with sometimes Ben Watson taking over for either Marc Bircham or Nigel Quashie at MC, depending on their conditions...

FM

[FrogMan]

Forgot to say that as you can see, it lists Andrew Johnson as a potential star attacker while he's already a starter and a good one at that. Thing is Andrew is only 18yo and is a starter, not because we're in trouble depth wise, but because he's earned it and he will be a huge star someday... (damn I sound like Donal Trump on that lats line )

FM

[finkenst]

go frogman!

sorry about your firing at kenilworth road...

i'm following along now!

[FrogMan]

Thanks Tim. I'm still not over getting fired by Luton. Gotta say this has not happened often in real life, being fired that is

FM

[FrogMan]

September 1st, 2008
The QPR Team Board is pleased with my work. Hopefully, I'll make them delighted before long

I'm in for quite a nice suprise when I look over the monthly awards. Jim Paterson is named League One Player of the Month! He's our starting left winger and has indeed had an amazing month of August. He's averaged a form rating of 8.0m with a couple of 9 performance, earning 2 Man of the Match in the process. He also scored a goal and had 2 assists. Funny thing is I decided to praise him in the media a few days ago, after seeing that 8.00 sticking out from all the other players on my squad screen

Even better, Danny Shittu comes in third for the same award, making it two Rangers among the top three players of League One in August. That's a testimony to how the guys have been playing. The man we call Big Dan is the rock in the middle of our defense. I'll tell you more later, but for now, let's just say he's got it all for a centreback: strong, good jumper, header, tackler... He averaged a form rating of 7.8 in his 5 appearances in August.

While these two nominations were nice, they can't beat the next award announce I had in my inbox. I won the League One Manager of the Month award for August, WOOHOO!!! This is the first time in this career that this has happened. The closest I've ever come is third with Luton in the season when we promoted from League One to the Championship.

Among other achievements, Big Dan is also named on the League One Team of the Week, along with our keeper, Chris Day.

FM

[FrogMan]

September 9, 2008
We play Preston at home. While they were viewed as potential promoter, they are struggling and are currently ion 20th place. They game goes on with scoring chances kept to a minimum. Andrew Johnson scores the first goal of the game in the 86th minute. I didn't even have time to think we may have won the game that they had tied it, scoring in the 89th minute. Final score: 1-1.

Mathew Sadler is asking for first team play. He's a left full back that I had signed when starting left full back Gino Padula got injured last season. For now, he'll stay with the reserves, unless Padula suffers an injury.

September 13, 2008
We play Derby in a monster match. We're currently sitting in 2nd, they are in 3rd place. Both teams have the same records, both scored nine goals and the only thing that separates us that we have only conceded 1 goal, to their 3. We come out with a roar and we're up 3-0 after only 24 minutes. Jim Paterson (left winger), Ben Watson (center mid), and Ivan Kaviedes (striker) are the scorers. In these 24 minutes, we have shot 8 times, 4 times on target. They score off a corner in the 37th minute, but they don'even come close to putting another one in. Domination! Final score: 3-1

Jim Paterson pulls off a perfect rating of 10 and earns MoM honors. He had 11 runs past opponents!
Following the game, Derby manager, Ray Wilkins says he firmly believes that we have a genuine chance of achieving our promotion goal. A few of our players say they are determined to help their team perform well in big games.


FM

[FrogMan]

September 16, 2008
We play West Ham in round 2 of the League Cup. This could be a good test for us, as West Ham are in the Championship, albeit in 21st position. Two goals from Andrew Johnson give us the 2-0 win, as they tried pushing us around with that crazy 2-3-5 attacking formation. We didn't tell them, but we went defensive at the same time We shot 18 times, 7 times on target. Jamie Young was the keeper, giving a breather to usual starter Chris Day.

September 20, 2008
We play Swindon on their pitch. Swindon is another team, much like Derby, who was an early favourite, but found themselves struggling early on. They are currently in 19th place with 1 win, 1 draw, and 4 losse. Kind of funny to compare that to our 5 wins, 2 draws and no losses.

We are putting a lot of pressure on them all game long, but we're not converting. That is until Steve Brooker scores his first of the season in the 61st minute. They went to that crazy 2-3-5 in the 88th minute, but it was too little to late. We once again shot 18 times, 8 times on target, to their 7 shots, 2 on target.

The board is very pleased with the win. I've had messages like that in the past, but usually after 3-0, or 4-1 wins, never after a 1-0 win. I guess they viewed Swindon as a tough opponent. Look at what the board is saying:


We remain in 2nd place after the win though...

Swindon manager, Andy King, much like Ray Wilkins, is picking us for promotion. I appreciate the nice comments
FM

[terpkristin]

Woohoo!!!

I can't recall, what were the board's expectations for you this season?
Also, how many games are left this season?

I think I agree with the Swindon coach, QPR for promotion!!

/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Woohoo!!!

I can't recall, what were the board's expectations for you this season?
Also, how many games are left this season?

I think I agree with the Swindon coach, QPR for promotion!!

/tk

The Team Board, as well as the fans expectations are for the team to win the League One title, nothing less

By nothing less, I mean they are not merely expecting us to "challenge for the title", the wording is really "to win the league"...

The season is 46 games long. The Swindon match was our 8th (6 wins, 2 draws, no losses) so we still have 38 games to be played. Sure still a long way, but we are very much in contention

FM

[FrogMan]

September 23, 2008
We play our first round match in the LDV Vans Trophy South, away at Hereford. We beat them badly, 4-1 at their place in our first game of the season. We are starting quite a few backups in this match, keeping some starters fresh for league play. Because of that, we have non starters at right fullback, left wing, center mid, and centreback.

We go down one early on, and spend most of the game one goal down. Steve Brooker ties the game for us un the 86th minute, only for them to score a fulkey type goal in the 1st minute of added time, following a long throw in. Final Score: 1-2.

Once again, we dominated our opponent, but this time they got lucky. We shot 17 times, only 5 on target, to their 8 shots, 4 on target. We controlled the ball a good 57% of the time.

Chris Day, our keeper, had a hohum game, with a rating of only 5. Me thinks he was the one that let the final goal pass through his legs, making it qualify as a fluke goal.

Oh well, my focus is much more on league play anyway...

September 27, 2008
We play Hartlepool at home. They're currently in 17th place. Danny Shittu scores to put us up 1-0 after coming forward from his centreback position on a free kick from the left. Half time score is only 1-0, but we are controlling about every aspect of the game. Shot 11 to 1 for us, 5 to 0 on target. Possession, I don't think I've ever seen so much ball control from one of my teams in the past. Look at how the possession went in the first half:


We are in white, and that 40% is their defensive end of the field.
Overall, that's 69% for us

At one point in the second half, I see my favorite commentary: "Can Hartlepool weather the storm?" Gotta like that! I can tell you I didn't like it when I read the same commentary asking if Luton could weather the storm

They sure keep us in check, as the game ends only 1-0, despite us shooting 26 times to their 4, 15 on target to 2 on target for them. We didn't control the ball as much in the second, just enough to keep them off our end.

FM

[FrogMan]

Injury News
A couple days following our win against Hartlepool, I get some bad news. Danny Shittu, the rock in the middle of our defensive back four, has suffered a slipped disk (do not forget the "s" when reporting this injury) in training and will miss two months. Damn! Remembering that when I got to the team, he was injured with a longish injury, I go a look at his injury history and HOLY MOLY!!! **note: I had printed his injury screen to html, but it somehow got all grabled when I emailed to myself at work. Will with what I can decipher for now and will post a screenie later.** Going back in time, he missed 4 months starting in December 2007, 3 weeks in January 2007, 2 months in December 2005, and here's the kicker, 21 months in January 2003. Seeing that, I suspect that he's either injury prone or has some recurrent problem. The latter is confirmed by my physios when I ask them for a report. They recommend surgery which could be lenghty but would cure this recurring injury. Early prognostics are 2 to 6 months. I send him to the OR, he will miss 4 months, putting him out of commission until the end of January. Shit!

Darren Evans, who's been playing with the reserves since the start of the season, will fill in for Big Dan. Darren is kinda young, but has lots of potential.

Achievement News
Matt Cross and Lee Cook are both named on the League One Team of the Week. They are both backup wingers (Cross on the right, Cook on the left), both filling in for injured starters, Jim Paterson (left wing) and Martin Rowlands (right wing). This shows you the depth we have, at least one deep at the winger's position.

**note: as I write player names, I realize I have never correctly introduced the squad. I will try to do that sooner than later, so you start putting names on positions on the field**

October 1st, 2008
The QPR Team Board is now very pleased with my performance as a manager.

18yo Matt Cross finishes second as League One Young Player of the Month.

I come in third for manager of the Month. Weird, I'm kind of disappointed not to have won, I must be getting greedy


FM

[FrogMan]

October 11, 2008
We play Oldham at home. They are currently in 17th place. Ivan Kaviedes is on International Duty with Ecuador, playing World Cup Qualifier matches.

I didn't write any notes for that game, as I was way too busy enjoying the fireworks. After 32 minutes, we were up 4-2. That's 6 goals in the first 32 minutes, or a goal every 5 minutes or so

The game ends with a 7-2 win for us, I tell you, I've never seen a game like that. Everything we fired on target was going in. Nigel Quashie and Steve Brooker (Kavi's replacement) both scored two goals. Both of Quashie's goals came on great looking bending shots from a distance out, I love those. We shot 16 times, 8 of them on target, and we scored 7 goals

That game marks a new QPR record for high scoring game and the board is going crazy with our recent good form. Look at the message they had for me after the game:


Life is good right now

I also had an html dump of the league table, but it got garbled in the mail. I'll try to post it tonight...

FM

edit: to adjust the date of the match to October 11.

[Lucky Jim]

Wow man, you're doing great. And all this with a pretty straightforward 442, just goes to show you can get dominant results without bizarre formations and special instructions for every player. I've never seen 69% possession before, not bad

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Lucky Jim

Wow man, you're doing great. And all this with a pretty straightforward 442, just goes to show you can get dominant results without bizarre formations and special instructions for every player. I've never seen 69% possession before, not bad

I have a few little individual instructions, but I'm the first one to say that I'm very surprised at how well this formation is working for this team. **note to self: get/post screenies of the formation/tactics/individual orders** The craziest thing is that sometimes I decide to pull back the mentality to be a bit more defensive (a rarely set it to more than 12-13 anyway most of the time it's straight in the middle), and then the team controls the ball so much, we start having scoring chances like crazy

And I've never seen this kind of crazy possession either, that's why I thought I had to show the screenie

FM

[FrogMan]

Here's the table of injuries that Danny Shittu has suffered over the last few seasons. As I said, there were some lenghty ones in there...

Date Injured	Type of Injury	Time Out	Received
7.12.2007	Foot injury	4 months	In training
11.8.2007	Shin injury	5 days	In match
3.2.2007	bruised rib	3 days	In match
17.1.2007	fractured ribs	3 weeks	In training
31.10.2006	Arm injury	a week	In match
12.5.2006	Shin injury	2 weeks	In training
29.4.2006	Knee injury	a week	In match
13.12.2005	Neck injury	2 months	In match
28.9.2005	Arm injury	a week	In training
8.2.2005	Knee injury	a week	In training
1.1.2005	Knee injury	a week	In match
3.11.2004	Groin injury	2 weeks	In training
25.9.2004	Thigh injury	5 days	In match
1.1.2003	Knee injury	21 months	Unknown

Hopefully we'll be able to survive without him in there. On top of that, I also hope the surgery will not be in vain and he'll be able to help us in the last stretch of the season...

Next up, a word on tactics, then overview of the squad...

FM

[FrogMan]

Team overview, part 1: The Tactics
I've decided by presenting the tactic first, with player names. I'll then present the players. I figured seeing names and knowing where they play may help when I introduce them...

As you'll see in the screenie right under here, we play a pretty bland 4-4-2 formation. Pretty much all games start like that and when we get a goal or two ahead, I'll often take off the arrows on the wingers. I've also added back arrows on the center midfielders on occasion, but it would have to be us, on the road, ahead by a goal while we're getting our goal sprayed by kicks. This has not happened often this season

Here we go:


This shows about every player that has a chance to step on the field with the senior squad...

Now, here's the interesting part, what's under the hood. As I've stated a few times, we play a very patient, ball control type of game, with a lot of closing down, and the defensive line pushed up a bit, as you'll see in the following screen:


Basically, we're very patient when we have the ball, and very impatient when we don't

The passing style is set to short (sometimes very short) to retain possession and the tempo is set to slow to make sure players don't overkill themselves after closing down so much. Also note the mentality right on the midpoint. It's pretty much the highest I've set it, with often times where I put it in the lower half. My wingers and strikers have their own mentality set to a more attacking one, so this team setting impacts mostly the non attacking players. So far it's worked pretty well...
As far as individual orders, I thought I didn't have many, but I found last night that there are a few still

All defenders are set not to close down as much as the rest of the team. They are set to 8 or about (couple notches below midpoint).

Centrebacks are asked not to run forward, not to run with the ball too much and try through balls often. Their mentality is also

As mentionned before, both wingers have a more attacking mentality (a couple notches above midpoint, say about 13) and are both asked to run forward often and allowed to run with the ball often too. Obviously, as they have good crossing skill, they are asked to cross the ball often, aiming for the target man (usually either Kaviedes or Brooker) from deep.

My two MC's have slightly different orders. One of them is given a bit more attacking mentality (say 13 or so), with more creativity involved, while the other has the team standard in both orders. Both are allowed to try for long shots often, as all my middies have decent long shot skill. The one who's a bit more defensive (second one) is also asked to man marked, while the first one is on the team setting of zonal marking.

My strikers are both set to attack more (mentality around 13), while one is allowed to be very creative and the other a little more than team setting. They both have short passing set, but a little longer than the team setting and both are asked to keep a tight marking on the opponent's defenders.

Nobody is asked to hold up the ball, or to free role.

Next up will be the squad overview, but it probably won't come until very late this afternoon, if not tonight...

FM

[tanglewood]

Typical Italian football style there FM. Patient with ball (sometimes to the point of boredom) and hard working without. You're only missing the gritty, 30-something enforcer in midfield and the primadonna striker goven lisence up-front.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by tanglewood

Typical Italian football style there FM. Patient with ball (sometimes to the point of boredom) and hard working without. You're only missing the gritty, 30-something enforcer in midfield and the primadonna striker goven lisence up-front.

That's good to know

I don't follow enough international football to be able to say. Wait until you see my lineup before you say I don't have these two in there. While I may not give him complete free role, I'd say Kavi could probably do it up front

And my enforcer in the middle could well be a Canuck, wait, you'll see

FM

[terpkristin]

Dang it, all this FM talk really makes me wish my computer were strong enough to play it. Of course, maybe I'll try CM0304 again on my computer, now that it's clean.

Oh, so you're recruiting a Canuck, eh?

/tk

[FrogMan]

oh, and nothing is boring with us!!! 7-2! BORING!!! NO WAY

And I almost forgot. I wanted to post the league table even before getting started with the team and all that, but was forgetting about it. So, while the team overview isn't ready, let's go with the league table for now...

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Q.P.R.	10	8	2	0	21	4	+17	26
2nd	Bournemouth	10	6	3	1	16	7	+9	21
3rd	Swansea	10	6	2	2	20	10	+10	20
4th	Derby	10	6	2	2	17	11	+6	20
5th	Watford	10	5	4	1	13	5	+8	19
6th	Preston	10	5	2	3	12	8	+4	17
7th	Southend	10	4	5	1	9	5	+4	17
8th	Cardiff	10	4	4	2	11	5	+6	16
9th	Colchester	10	4	4	2	17	12	+5	16
10th	Huddersfield	10	3	6	1	10	4	+6	15
11th	Rushden	10	4	3	3	10	9	+1	15
12th	MK Dons	10	4	2	4	11	11	0	14
13th	Wycombe	10	3	4	3	8	6	+2	13
14th	Barnsley	10	3	4	3	11	12	-1	13
15th	Swindon	10	4	1	5	9	12	-3	13
16th	Luton	10	3	3	4	9	12	-3	12
17th	Hartlepool	10	2	3	5	7	12	-5	9
18th	Doncaster	10	2	3	5	8	14	-6	9
19th	Oldham	10	2	3	5	14	23	-9	9
20th	Cambridge	10	1	5	4	6	12	-6	8
21st	Stockport	10	1	4	5	8	12	-4	7
22nd	Hereford	10	1	2	7	4	18	-14	5
23rd	Chesterfield	10	0	4	6	5	18	-13	4
24th	Wrexham	10	0	3	7	5	19	-14	3

Only undefeated team, most scored goals, least conceded goals...

FM is happy with that table

FM

[terpkristin]

Nice cushion there on top.

/tk

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Dang it, all this FM talk really makes me wish my computer were strong enough to play it. Of course, maybe I'll try CM0304 again on my computer, now that it's clean.

Glad to be the tease that will push you overboard

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Oh, so you're recruiting a Canuck, eh?

Funny thing is he was already there and seems to have been there for a while from all I've read. Marc Bircham is the Canuck, actually even acts as the team captain for Canada's National Team. I find this extremely cool because I get international roundup everytime he plays, so I can follow how Canada's National Team does, which I sometimes missed before.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Nice cushion there on top.

/tk

agreed, but it wasn't alwasy like that. Up until two games ago, we were like 3 teams within a point of each other... That 7-2 win sure showed them we're coming for a fight

FM

[SunDancer]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Thanks Tim. I'm still not over getting fired by Luton. Gotta say this has not happened often in real life, being fired that is

FM

Great read....

I read in the FM 2005 Tatics thread over the in the general discussion area where your son would come and ask you how your Luton team was going. How he respond, if he asked, when you were let go?

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by SunDancer

Great read....

I read in the FM 2005 Tatics thread over the in the general discussion area where your son would come and ask you how your Luton team was going. How he respond, if he asked, when you were let go?

I'm not too sure what the question is, to be honest I was let go when he was sleeping as most of my playing time comes when both kids are asleep, in the evening. My first thought when I got sacked was to tell my wife that Andrew would be disturbed of the news, to which she shrugged her shoulders, like "you think so?"

He was a bit wide eyed when I told him the next morning. He looked at me and asked "but why???" I love my son I told him we had not been winning as much lately and that they thought they could find somebody better than daddy, but it was okay cause I was now managing another team, a team with baby blue jerseys, not orange ones this time. And now he asks me how my QPR team is doing

FM

[FrogMan]

forgot to say, thanks for the comment. Glad you like the read, hope you'll come back to read it whenever I post about it

FM

[SunDancer]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I'm not too sure what the question is, to be honest I was let go when he was sleeping as most of my playing time comes when both kids are asleep, in the evening. My first thought when I got sacked was to tell my wife that Andrew would be disturbed of the news, to which she shrugged her shoulders, like "you think so?"

He was a bit wide eyed when I told him the next morning. He looked at me and asked "but why???" I love my son I told him we had not been winning as much lately and that they thought they could find somebody better than daddy, but it was okay cause I was now managing another team, a team with baby blue jerseys, not orange ones this time. And now he asks me how my QPR team is doing

FM

LOL...You answered my question (which was how would he respond when you told him you got sacked ).

[FrogMan]

Time to get started with the squad...

Team overview, part 2: The Squad

Goalkeepers

Name	Age	Position	Aer	Cmd	Com	Ecc	Han	Kic	One	Ref	Rus	Pun	Thr	Pos	Jum	Bra
Chris Day	33	GK	13	13	13	7	12	10	13	17	14	7	8	9	14	10
Jamie Young	23	GK	14	10	12	6	15	14	8	17	3	11	13	4	10	10
Neil Murray	19	GK	10	10	10	7	10	10	10	10	1	1	9	11	7	2

Chris Day (avg rating: 7.09, 11 appearances)
Chris is the first guy I offered a new contract when I got to QPR. And he paid me back well. He is capable of great games, followed by ordinary ones, which can be a concern, but he's an experienced keeper, in whom I have put my trust...

Jamie Young (avg rating: 6.5, 2 appearances)
Jamie had a 3 month for me at Luton back in 2004-05 and had been on my shortlist for a while when I heard he had just signed a new contract. He was still listed as available for a loan, so I made an offer for a season long loan, offer which was accepted. However, he will only see the field in case of injury, or if Chris Day falls into a slump (see my Luton dynasty for what the downfall of a bad keeper can be)...

Neal Murray
Neal was the backup before I signed Jamie Young to his loan contract. While a good prospect, coming from the QPR youth system, I didn't feel comfortable with him as my backup, especially not comfortable putting him in as the starter in order to shake things up. You don't want to put your team's future on the shoulders of a kid when it really counts.

Position summary
I think Chris Day can support the team quite well back there. He did well at the end of last season, despite the team not playing as a team and allowing way too many shots.

FM

[FrogMan]

Centrebacks

Name	Age	Position	Acc	Ant	Hea	Jum	Mar	Pac	Pos	Sta	Str	Tac	Pas	Pac	Wor
Danny Shittu	28	D C	14	10	20	18	11	14	12	16	18	14	6	14	16
Darren Ward	30	D C	11	14	18	16	14	13	13	16	15	14	10	13	16
Darren Evans	17	D C	10	16	11	11	14	8	15	11	18	14	11	8	18

Danny Shittu (avg rating: 7.55, 11 appearances)
Big Dan was machine before it broke down. He'll miss the next four months while recuperating from surgery to correct a slipped disk. He's got it all for the centreback position, and he was using it all while he was on the field. Hopefully, young Darren Evans will be able to fill in for him. He should be back around the end of January, hopefully fit from middle of February for the last stretch of league play.

Darren Ward (avg rating: 7.50, 10 appearances)
Darren was one of the first player I transfered in when I got to QPR in January 2008. I paid 1.6M to Reading for the rights to his contract, and it was well worth it. He was on and off the field at the end of last season, suffering from tiredness, and I'll have to keep him in check to keep him fresh for the last stretch of the season. He's got the skills and the experience you want in a centreback.

Darren Evans (avg rating: 7.50, 2 appearances)
At only 17 years of age, Darren is a little wet behind the ears but had played well when asked to, in Cup matches mostly. Now, he's asked to step up and play for Big Dan Shittu. I think he'll have down games, but he's got skills and a great work ethic, which should help him get better as the season goes on.

Position summary
With Danny Shittu now out of commission for some time, we're not as deep as I'd like us to be. This said, you'll see that a few players listed with the fullbacks are quite capable of playing centrebacks if we need them to.

FM

[FrogMan]

Fullbacks

Name	Age	Position	Acc	Ant	Hea	Jum	Mar	Pac	Pos	Sta	Str	Tac	Pas	Pac	Str	Wor	Cro
Gino Padula	32	D/DM L	11	13	7	12	13	13	14	13	12	14	12	13	12	11	12
Matthew Rose	33	SW/D/DM RC	9	12	11	11	13	9	13	9	7	15	7	9	7	15	5
Mathew Sadler	23	D L	13	14	14	5	14	13	11	10	6	17	10	13	6	5	11
Marcus Bignot	34	D/DM RL	9	10	8	10	10	10	12	9	10	12	7	10	10	16	7

Gino Padula (avg rating: 7.33, 12 appearances)
Gino is definitely the best of our fullbacks, as he's pretty much the only one who can cross the ball effectively, other than Mathew Sadler, but they're usually not on the field at the same time (both D L). He's currently injured, but should be back on the field shortly

Matthew Rose (avg rating: 7.40, 10 appearances)
Matthew is not really a fullback, but he's played well in that position since the start of the season. Very versatile, he could be called upon to play some centreback, should we need him to.

Marcus Bignot (avg rating: 7.33, 3 appearances)
Marcus has played mostly with the reserves since the start of the season, until I called him back up for a Cup match, then a couple of league matches. He's done well and has the experience to support the young Evans when played on the same side. The fact he can play both right and left fullback is a plus for us.

Mathew Sadler (avg rating: 8.00, 1 appearances)
I brought Mathew to the club from Birmingham reserve squad for 130k in early January 2008, when Gino Padula got injured. Since then, he's not played much with the senior squad and has even complained about it lately. Sadly for him, unless something happens to Padula, he'll remain buried in the depth chart. Right now, he's seeing some playing time, and I may start playing him during Cup matches, as he's a good alternative to the more experienced Padula, but I don't see a way that he could overtake him as the starting left fullback...

Position summary
Fullback isn't really our strength but it's not really a big weakness either. I tried signing former Hatter Kevin Foley to overtake the right fullback spot, but after my 400k bid had been accepted, I realized I didn't have any budget left, oops... I didn't even make him a contract offer, but he wasn't asking for all that much. I have him on my shortlist and will certainly try to bring him back to play for me at some point, especially since he's only 23 or about right now...

FM

[FrogMan]

Inner Midfielders

Name	Age	Position	Cre	Dri	Fin	Fir	Lon	Off	Pas	Mar	Pac	Pos	Sta	Tac	Agg	Tea	Wor
Nigel Quashie	30	M C	14	10	12	12	17	13	13	8	12	12	16	12	14	12	15
Marc Bircham	30	DM C	11	7	7	9	8	10	11	13	13	13	16	19	18	20	20
Ben Watson	23	M C	18	12	10	16	16	13	20	10	11	13	14	8	11	12	12
Lee Mansell	25	AM C	10	11	15	6	14	15	11	11	10	11	16	12	10	11	13

Nigel Quashie (avg rating: 7.50, 9(3) appearances)
Nigel is possibly the player I've seen who can bend the most beautiful ball, at least among those who've played for me. In that regard, he reminds me a lot of Marc Bridge-Wilkinson who was with me at Luton Town. He can do it all, but mostly, he can shoot it accurately from a long range.

Marc Bircham (avg rating: 7.17, 5(7) appearances)
Marc is one of my favorite players on the squad. Heck how can I not like that guy, he's Canadian and paints his hair blue A defensive middie at heart, he's played at the M C position, which he plays fairly well. Member of the Canadian National Team, he's even often the team captain. A great worker and great teammate, Marc is often called upon to come from the bench, but I see him as our second best inner mid.

Ben Watson (avg rating: 7.45, 11 appearances)
Ben's transfer to QPR wasn't easy. At first, in the middle of all my spending in January 2008, I had agreed Crystal Palace on a 1.5M up front plus 2M more paid over 18 months. This was rejected as I apparently didn't have enough transfer budget to make it happen. Ben being only 23 at the time, he was not available to Bosman type transfers, despite his contract coming to term on June 30, 2008. Compensation was set to $2M. I offered him a contract, a hefty one, to which he agreed, gambling on the fact that the team board would probably unlock some transfer budget for the new season. When the new transfer budget was unveiled, it came ot only $1.55M... I was sure I'd get the message that the transfer was cancelled because I didn't have the money for it, but for some reasons, they allowed it, making it official on July 1st. At the time, the fans applauded the move, saying I had found a great bargain and that Ben would become a great player some day. This day is pretty much now, as he is playing very well for us...

Lee Mansell (avg rating: 6.75, 1(3) appearances)
Those of you who read my dealing at Luton Town may remember Lee as part of the one-two punch with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson both alternating at AMC. I signed him as a Bosman transfer, getting him cheap, at a low wage. I had not realized that when I signed him, I had put "First Team" on his contract. When the season started, I changed his status to "Rotation Player" and he didn't like that, until I played him in a couple of Cup matches. Since then, he's come to grip with his role at the club ans seems to have accepted it. An attacking midfielder at heart, I play him at M C and while he's struggling a little, this may have been cause by him not being always match fit. He's mostly a backup for us.

Position summary
That triple-headed monster of Quashie/Bircham/Watson is simply amazing and a great anchor to our success. As long as we'll be able to avoid injury to these three, we'll be in great shape. Depth may be a concern, but we have players that I listed with the wingers (still to come) that can double in the center without too much problem.


FM

[kingfc22]

Nice recent run FM.

[FrogMan]

Wingers

Name	Age	Position	Cre	Cro	Dri	Fin	Fir	Lon	Off	Pas	Mar	Pac	Sta	Tac	Dec	Tea	Wor
Martin Rowlands	29	AM RC	11	16	13	13	13	13	14	12	9	12	15	10	12	13	13
Jim Paterson	29	AM L	13	15	14	11	13	13	11	13	13	11	15	13	8	12	12
Matt Cross	18	AM/F RC	12	13	12	11	12	12	12	12	10	8	16	11	15	8	10
Lee Cook	26	AM L	11	15	11	11	4	9	12	13	7	13	16	7	11	14	15
Nathan Jameson	23	M RLC	17	16	16	15	7	13	18	14	12	12	15	15	17	10	10
Scott Donnelly	21	AM RC	10	12	11	9	12	10	10	12	6	12	11	6	10	8	10

Martin Rowlands (avg rating: 7.20, 5 appearances)
Martin was named the fans' player of the year in 2007-08 and is really one of the two spark plugs of the club, the other being Jim Paterson. His good overall offensive skills make him a perfect, or almost perfect winger. He has missed some time lately due to a nagging injury that required some physiotherapy, but he should be ready to get back on the field really soon.

Jim Paterson (avg rating: 8.00, 7(1) appearances)
As you may have read earlier in here, Jim was named the League One Player of the Month for August 2008. Averaging 8 of form ratings over 5 or more appearances is not something I've seen very often in the two teams I've managed. and it's not something you often see in League One either. He has also missed some playing time due to an injury but he too should be back in the starting lineup very soon.

Lee Cook (avg rating: 7.67, 6 appearances)
Lee is kind of a tweener. When you look at his skills, he may not look as impressive as some others in the team, but he delivers when asked to and that's what counts. I feel almost as comfortable with him in the lineup as if starter Jim Paterson was on the field in his place. Being two deep at your cornerstone positions is always nice (see Matt Cross).

Matt Cross (avg rating: 7.27, 6(5) appearances)
Matt will be a star for us someday. One could argue he already is. He started the season as an off the bench striker when Steve Brooker was injured early, he stepped in at the right wing spot when Martin Rowlands went down and didn't miss a beat. At only 18 years of age, he still has some to learn, but he's already got great skills for his age.

Nathan Jameson
Nathan as yet to play a game for us this season. He got injured badly in the last week of training camp and his injury required him to attend Physiotherapy. He has some good skills and could be used as much as a winger as an inner mid, making him very useful to the team. On top of it, he's still young at 23.

Scott Donnelly (avg rating: 7.00, 2 appearances)
Scott is a jack of all trade in our midfield. He played some winger, some inner mid in friendlies. He'll have to take his playing time when it'll come because he is buried in a very deep midfield with a lot of talent.

Position summary
Winger is possibly our deepest position, and that was made even more obvious by the fact that even though both starting wingers (Paterson/Rowlands) got injured at the same time, we didn't miss a beat and their replacements were even named on the Team of the Week at the same time at one point.

FM

[FrogMan]

Strikers

Name	Age	Position	Cre	Dri	Fin	Fir	Fla	Lon	Off	Pas	Hea	Jum	Pac	Sta	Str	Dec	Wor
Iván Kaviedes	30	S C	16	16	16	14	16	13	18	14	17	10	4	3	14	15	6
Andrew Johnson	18	S C	9	13	13	13	3	13	13	13	13	19	11	16	8	11	16
Steve Brooker	27	S C	10	10	15	12	9	15	15	12	15	12	9	16	14	11	15
Jamie Cureton	33	S C	10	10	13	9	14	12	9	9	10	5	12	4	6	8	6

Iván Kaviedes (avg rating: 7.00, 8(2) appearances)
Iván was my find with Luton. Even though he may not perform as well as I think his skills should allow him to, I like the flamboyant Ecuadorian. To me, he's the prototypical "stay at one place and wait for the pass to come so I can knock it in" kind of striker. I just like the guy. And he's gone from not speaking a word of English to some basic English, to speaking fluent English now, gotta admire that

Andrew Johnson (avg rating: 7.23, 13 appearances)
Andrew is possibly what I'd call one of my good transfer. I brought him to QPR in February 2008 for a mere 300k, from League Two Rochdale. Only 18, he's got great skills already, and hopefully, they'll only get better. One of the things I like to see him do is run under a long pass, pick it on the run and kill the keeper on a one on one.

Steve Brooker (avg rating: 7.14, 4(3) appearances)
Steve is another one of the player I brought in when I got with QPR. I paid a hefty 1.85M to get him from Bristol C. At first, he looked like he was a bust, but he got his game into gear this season and he's been playing pretty well lately. He's in the mold of Kavi, usually taking the role of the target man, more than the one of the shifty striker...

Jamie Cureton (avg rating: 7.20, 1(4) appearances)
Jamie is pretty much only a backup. He's also the only striker left from when I took over the team. He better cherish his playing time when it comes because it won't come often...

Position summary
For those of you who have followed me at Luton Town, with my 4-3-4 and 3-4-3 formations, I had plenty of strikers, many of them kinda good. Me having only 4 on the roster is kind of weird, but hey, they work, and all the ones that were there when I got here were all crap! Byebye...

FM

[FrogMan]

Well, this sort of rounds up the whole squad. While I was looking at the whole picture today, I couldn't stop thinking how "mature" this team is. Except for Andrew Johnson, every starter is 28 or older... hmmm, it strikes me as a bit old, but for now they're playing well, who am I to complain???

Hope you enjoyed the writeups, I'll have some more concerning contracts tomorrow. For now, I'm itching to play a little, so if you'll excuse me

FM

[FrogMan]

October 15, 2008
We go to play Swansea on their pitch. They are currently 3rd in League One and were one of the early co-favourites to promote to the Championship. The kind of game we can not drop.

Steve Brooker, playing for Iván Kaviedes who is still on international duty, puts us one up in the 24th minute. We keep them in check, not really dominating possession, but not allowing them many shots on goal. Matt Cross, who came in for Andrew Johnson, closes the game for us with a goal in the 85th minute. We win 2-0. We outshot them 17 to 6, 10 to 1 on target. Backup left fullback Mathew Sadler is named Man of the Match with 12 interceptions and 5 key headers.

We ended the game in a 4-3-1-1 formation, with Matt Cross dropped back in the central attack midfielder position and Steve Brooker the lone striker.

The Team Board are extremely pleased with the win.

FM

edit to add the team board note

[FrogMan]

October 18, 2008
We play Cambridge on their pitch. Even thought they're only in 20th place, the two away games in 3 nights is something that worries me. Both our starting wingers (Paterson/Rowlands) are coming back from injuries and are not in their best shape, so I'll start the backups (Cook/Cross). Cambridge plays an intriguing 4-5-1 formation with a few arrows up.

They score in the 23rd minute to go one up on us. Despite putting more and more pressure, controlling the ball 54% of the time and outshooting them 19 to 9 (5 to 2 on target) we can't get one past their keeper and drop our first league match of the season.

Chris Day had one of his hohum game, with a form rating of 5. I'll probably insert Jamie Young as our starter for our next match, Round 3 of the league Cup against Bristol Rovers.

Despite the loss, we remain in first, still with a nice 7 points cushion after 12 matches out of 46.

Lee Cook was injured during the game. He damaged his shoulder and will have to miss about 5 days.

Following the game, the manager of Cambridge, Frenchman Hervé Renard gets a bit too excited and comments in the media about how good his team is for winning against a team "supposedly" gunning for promotion. In my book, he just pulled a "Freddie Mitchell"...

Following that first comment, a couple of my players, keeper Chris Day and team leader Nigel Quashie, are incensed and just want to prove him wrong and help the team get promoted. I like hearing that kind of reaction.

I reply to his comment, telling the media I am unsure of Hervé Renard, saying he is probably not the kind of manager I'd like to see in the game.

Following my comment another couple of players, youngsters Ben Watson and Andrew Johnson, believe they have the same character traits as me and that we can work well together, both on and off the field.

Injury News
Oh craaaap Jim Paterson fractures his cheekbone and will miss three weeks. Since when have I put "headbutting" as part of the regular training??? Seeing how Lee Cook is still recuperating from his damaged shoulder suffered in our last match, we'll have to juggle our starting lineup a little to fill in that left winger spot. Gino Padula is back from taking 2 weeks off because of injury but is lacking in match fitness. He is a defensive middie, but has the tool of the trade to play well at left winger, I'd think. Another possibility is Nathan Jameson, but he just resumed full training after going to physiotherapy for about 2 months, so he's probably at least a couple weeks away from being effective on the field... We'll see... We have our Cup match (rnd 3) on the 22nd, and a league match on the 25th, if I remember correctly. Many matches in a short period of time...


FM

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I tried signing former Hatter Kevin Foley to overtake the right fullback spot

Foley nothing, there's only one fullback name Kevin to sign . . . and you know who it is!

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Foley nothing, there's only one fullback name Kevin to sign . . . and you know who it is!

hahahaha, took some work on my memory to find who you were talking about.

Let's make this a trivia question: Who is this Kevin that daedalus is talking about?

The answer when I'll have found some more info about where he's at right now, or whenever somebody answers the question

FM
PS: good to see you in here daed

[terpkristin]

Joyce.

I believe I had the same thought daed did when I read "signing" and "Kevin" in the same sentence.

/tk

italics are added in edit