FM16 #3 (LFC)

Since I last updated you guys we've played seven Premier League matches, three Euro Cup matches and also played one Capital One Cup match.

I'm not gonna lie.. We've had some mixed results. We met Sunderland right after winning against Chelsea at our home ground. We won this 1-0. I really thought we were starting a winning streak here. Yann M'Vila was sent of after only 17 minutes played against Sunderland which made it a lot easier for us. Joe Allen scored the single and winning goal. We did not create that much.

A couple of days later we welcomed Rapid Wien at Anfield. They might be the weakest team in our group and therefore three points was demanded from me and the fans. We created a lot more this match but we only got a 1-0 victory again. This time with Lallana as our goalscorer.

Next up was West Brom on Anfield. Should be a win - but it was a defeat. It was quite equal all over the field. We had most possession but didn't do much with it. Therefore we lost despite Benteke scoring two fine goals! Quite a downer for me at this point.

With a loss in our minds we should make amends against Middlesbrough again on Anfield. Should be an easy win. Despite Capital One Cup being a tournament I wasn't expecting to play with the best eleven that was actually what I was about to do right now. I needed my time to get back on track.
We created a lot of chances and after only 22 minutes Benteke was right where he should be and scored! But Middlesbrough equalized after 69 minutes. After 90 minutes it was a draw and we went unto extra time. It was some long minutes but at the end - more specific at 118 minute Benteke scored again and got us a win!

Next match gave us a draw against Norwich, a victory against Bordeaux - giving me the first place in my group. Another draw in the league, this time against Watford. I was seriously disappointed with our league performances at this time! Bournemouth was the next opponent and this time we finally got another win. But with a defeat in the following match against Villarreal in the Euro Cup I was disappointed.

Crystal Palace at home should show itself being the turning point for now. We won 3-1 with Daniel Sturridge back from his injury and with two fine goals! Leicester was next. We started out fantastic! We were 3-0 up after only 30 minutes. Our pace dropped and Leicester pushed us back. The final score was 3-2 in our favor.

Next match we were up against Manchester United at Old Trafford. A really though opponent.
Firmino gave us a draw making it great week for us.

With all this happened it has been some fine two months.

Your Football Career - Roleplaying game

Do you like Football? Do you like Football Manager? If you do then keep on reading - if you don't, then try reading this anyway, you might find this interesting.

I'm taking part in an online Football game which is based on the video game Football Manager.
The game gives you the opportunity to create a player and act like him on the website. Everything you do on the website will be as your player. You will be signing contracts with one of the ten teams in the league and playing games.

You will take charge of your player. You choose the position you will play and which kind of player you will be. Will you be the little fast striker or the sky high strong center defender? It's all up to you!
 
The tournament system is build with the YFC League which is the highest ranked league. YFC League contains ten teams from different countries. The two teams placed on the lowest two positions in the league will relegate Beneath that league we have the YFC Division which also contains ten teams controlled by human managers - for now (season 9) the division is only for inactive players (drafts). The two best placed teams at the end of the season will promote to the YFC League.

Beside the league and the division we have the YFC Cup where both teams from the division and league compete against each other.

Every team in the league and the division is managed by human managers - that means that you actually will be able to apply for a managing job at a club if there is spot open. You will of cause then be allowed to create another user for that matter.

If you find this interesting then go ahead and give a try.
If you got any questions feel free to ask! :)

Link: Your Football Career

Leicester champions? Yea, but when??

Leicester - Premier League winner 2015/2016

No one would have guessed it - but Leicester is about the win this year's Premier League. 

What a great performance, from a club that last year was playing their first season in the league after promoting from the Championship. An overall great team performance and with some very important individualists has made it possible to get this far. Jamie Vardy, Mahrez, Kante and my fellow dane Kasper Schmeichel has done incredible! 

There's not a doubt if you're asking me that Leicester is going to win the league this year. But when? Which round would be the magic one?

Their next match will be against Manchester United who's trying to beat Arsenal in the fight of the 4th place. They've been playing better and better for some time now and I think that it's going to be very difficult for Leicester to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford. 

Actually... looking at Leicester remaining schedule it's going to very difficult getting point's although they will get enough. From my perspective they are looking at two future defeats and one victory.

They are going to lose to Manchester United but they are also going to lose to Chelsea. They have to believe that they will be able to defeat Everton - which they should be more that capable of. 

Defeating Everton in round 37 will make the last match against Chelsea totally pointless because then they will already be champions and have nothing at all to play for.

I'm sure. They will win the league and they will do it in round 37 against Everton.

For next season they will be more than matched with both playing in the cups, Premier League and Champions League. I'm thinking we will see a team struggling to get in the top 10 in the Premier League. 

What are your predictions?

- Balslev

Saturday predictions - April 30 - 2016 (Barclays Premier League)

Now for something new on my blog. I'm going to give my predictions on the Barclays Premier League matches every Saturday.

This time it's the following matches that will be put under my microscope:

Newcastle vs Crystal Palace
Stoke vs Sunderland
Everton vs Bournemouth
Watford vs Aston Villa
West Bromwich vs West Ham
Arsenal vs Norwich

If you want to just see my predictions and not read my comments on why they are so - then just look at the following.

If you think it would be interesting to read what I have to say about the fixtures then just keep reading.

Newcastle 2 vs 1 Crystal Palace

Stoke 0 vs 2 Sunderland

Everton 0 vs 0 Bournemouth

Watford 2 vs 1 Aston Villa

West Bromwich 1 vs 1 West Ham

Arsenal 3 vs 0 Norwich

First I'll start with Newcastle and Crystal Palace. 

Newcastle haven't lost for three Premier League games and latest they managed to make a comeback from being down with two against Liverpool on Anfield. They do have a lot to play for still. They need to get point if they would like to stay in the Premier League. On the other side Crystal Palace haven't won the latest nine away matches and only won one of the last ten league matches. They are 8 points away from the relegation zone. They should be rather save. 

I think Newcastle will win this match. 

The next match's between Stoke and Sunderland.

This is rather easy for me to predict. This is going to be a victory for Sunderland. 

Stoke have already gone on vacation or so it seems. They have nothing to play for at all.

Sunderland is still fighting the best they know to stay in the league. They are still able to determine their future - but they need to win.

Everton against Bournemouth. None of the two teams are in the danger zone or about to join the fight in the top. This will be a classic draw. None on the teams are playing very well at this moment and they doesn't need the points more than the other team. A boring 0-0 could be the result.

Watford against Aston Villa. This might be interesting. Aston Villa are as good as relegated but I think their players would like to make a good impression of themselves and therefore I see them do anything possible to do well and rush from when the whistle blows. If Watford make an early goal Aston Villa will break I'm sure. 

Watford are placed well in the middle of the league but are doing OK despite not fighting for a place in the European tournaments. Despite me thinking Aston Villa will give it their best and try to rush from the start I'm pretty sure that Watford will be victorious. 

West Bromwich is also placed in the middle of the league and they are up against a well performing West Ham team who's still fighting for a spot in Europe! Despite not having much fighting for in the league we saw a well performing West Brom team against Spurs getting a draw! I think they will give West Ham hell and probable get at least one point home at The Hawthorns. 

West Ham will do anything possible to get another 3 points and keep Liverpool behind them and keep their Europa League giving sixth place.

At last but not least we have Arsenal against Norwich. 

We will see an Arsenal team that will be pushing Norwich back from the start. They have the fourth place at the moment but Manchester United is right behind them and they smell blood! 

Arsenal will pressure Manchester City on the third place with a victory. 

On the other side of the pitch we find Norwich who's struggling in the bottom. 

They need 3 points if they will keep there fire lit and hope for them to avoid relegation. 

With that said I can't see Norwich take anything from The Gunners home at Emirates. 

This will be all for now.

If you liked this post - please let me know. 

I will be posting those Saturday Predictions for the rest of this season and maybe from next too.

FM16 #2 (LFC)

Transfer window, BPL and EL draw #2 

Now for an update on my journey with Liverpool. I have getting rid of some players just to get some extra cash and save some wage. First I sold José Enrique to AS Monaco for 5 mio euro. He wasn't going to play any matches because I've got Alberto. As a backup I would rather play Brad Smith.

The next outgoing transfers was two center defenders. Kolo Toure sold to Bournemouth for 825K euro and Tiago Ilori to Newcastle for 5 mio euro. 

None of these players would get to play so 10.825.000 euro earned right there. 

I tried getting a new goalkeeper but the good one's were to expensive so I stopped looking for now and instead I focused on bringing some young talents into the squad. I bought Andrija Zivkovic for 1.8 mio euro and Renat Dadachov for 2 mio euro. 

Andrija is bougth as a rotation player. He will get some matches throughout this season. He's a very skilled wing and will mainly be playing the AMR but as an inner forward. 

Renat is a long term investment. He's an 16 year old striker who need's to get some experience so a loan might be the opportunity. 

That's it for this transfer window.

 We've played some friendlies with mixed results. We've lost to Preston but won against Valencia and Zaragoza - those are the most interesting of the matches. All in all we played some fine matches without impressing. 

As the Premier League opener we met Stoke. A match we would be playing at Anfield. The expectations were high but after a shaky start from us Stoke scored after only six minutes!

We came back in the match with Danny Ings scoring in the 39th minute. 

That became the result. A shaky 1-1. 

In the following three matches the opponent's was Manchester City at Etihad, Arsenal and then Chelsea at Anfield.

So the start of the season could easily be a massive setback for the club in the fight for getting in the top 4. 

But after another draw against City and then Arsenal we finally got three points against Chelsea where I saw the player's beginning to understand my way of playing. 

As for now we're placed as number 9 in the league but without having lost.

The last thing worth mentioning in this update which is already too long we went through the draw for the group stage in the Europa League.

We're going up against Villarreal (Yea....), Bordeaux and Rapid Wien.

I expect us to do well and hope for us to win the group.

That's it for now! Thank you for reading.

 - Balslev

 

 

LFC Starting eleven vs Villarreal

Liverpool has now revealed their starting lineup on their website.

It looks like this:

Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Toure, Lovren, Moreno, Lucas, Allen, Milner, Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino. Subs: Ward, Benteke, Sturridge, Skrtel, Ibe, Smith, Chirivella.

If you read my post about my thought of the starting lineup yesterday you will know I got most of it right. I guessed that Studge would be in front from the beginning but instead Klopp plays Firmino in front and starts with Lucas, Joe and Milner as our midfield.

I'm really pleased with this lineup. Firmino have been at his best when playing as the striker!

Let's do this Reds!

- Balslev

FM16 #1 (LFC)

The beginning #1

Now it's time for me to start this new series on my blog. I'm going to play a game of Football Manager 2016 and I'm going to do it with Liverpool FC!

For a long time now Liverpool has been struggling getting back on track as a serious contender to the Premier League title. They came close a couple of years ago with Brendan in charge and Luiz Suarez on top. We only got second that time and since then we've not been performing well enough to get in the Champions League or near the top in PL. 

In real life Jürgen Klopp could be the man to bring back glory at Anfield Road but in the Football Manager I will try doing it faster and maybe even better!

Let's begin!

First some facts on the game. I'm going to play with the newest official patch. The currency will be Euro because that's the easiest for me when not working with my home country's currency (Danish kroner). I will writing this as me just playing a Football Manager game - not something about me playing the role in some fancy adventure. I will update whenever possible and I will try not to let my updates be too long.

Now we will take a look at the squad.

We have two goalkeepers in the first team squad. It's Simon Mignolet and Adam Bogdan.

In my point of view two really bad keepers. If we shall be able to win back the Premier League and Champions League we need to get some better alternatives for this post. But for now Mignolet will have to do until I have a better option.

In the defense we have Jon Flanagan who's out with an injury for the next 8-9 months. 

Nathaniel Clyne who will be a key player! On the other side we have Alberto Moreno and José Enrique. Between these two it's clear to me that Alberto would be obvious choice.

Central defenders count's a lot more. We have Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren, Steven Caulker, Mamadou Sakho, Joe Gomez and Tiago Ilori.  

My scouts reports that Skrtel and Sakho will be the best match at the moment but I'm very fond of Joe Gomez so he will probably play a lot. 

Looking at the many players I might have to sell some of them.

At the midfield we find Emre Can, Lucas Leiva, Jordan Rossiter, Jordan Henderson (who's out for some months), Joe Allen and James Milner.

Depending on the tactics the midfield will be changing. Jordan, Emre and James will be the one's getting most games.

Moving further we find the offense.

Adam Lallana, Roberto Firmino, Jordon Ibe, Philippe Coutinho

Again depending on the formation there will be changes. Ibe will the one getting the least matches.

In front we have Divock Origi, Christian Benteke, Daniel Sturridge (injured for 3-4 months) and Danny Ings.

All in all a pretty strong team but some changes will be needed! 

Who do you think will be gone before the window closes? 

 - Balslev

CHL: Atletico Madrid vs Bayern Munich

So it happened. Atletico beat Bayern.
I did not see that comming.

For me Atletico should be behind the best teams in the world if you only look at it player by player.
But they have an absolutely fantastic manager who give his everything on the pitch. The team contains some great players, no doubt, but in my opinion not mane of those should be able to get into the starting line-up in teams like Barcelona, Manchester City, Juventus etc.
But that's not necessary. They don't need no Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi or whoever! They are a great team together. They fight for their fans, their manager and their club.
Their defensive organization can hold back any striker - we saw that yesterday and we've seen it before! Their team performance makes their matches won by the team who want's it the most and not by the best team on the paper. I really respect that!

Bayern tried getting the one goal that would have changed it all, but they didn't get it. Now they face a strong and enthusiastic Atletico team that smell's blood! This might be the best opportunity for them to win the Champions League.
But we've seen it before. Bayern not getting a good result in the first fixture but then smash the opponent in the second fixture. We've seen it - but against Atletico I'm not sure that's what's going to happen.

Atletico will go into the final and I think they will be put up against Real Madrid.  

EL: Villarreal vs Liverpool

 

Tomorrow - or actually today - El Madrigal will be the center of the first of two semifinal matches between Liverpool and Villarreal.
A match which will define the season for both teams.

Villarreal having done very well this season will be facing a Liverpool team who's challenged on the width in the team.
I'm not going to lie here... I haven't been watching many La Liga matches this season. It's find the league rather boring. But I do know that Villarreal is placed in the last champions league giving spot - or at least the spot that gives them the opportunity to qualify. They do have some great players who I do think will be crucial if Villarreal shall proceed into the final.

As you probably know or most definitely will know if you have read the "Who am I" post I'm a Liverpool fan. Therefore I'm obviously hoping for a great starting point in the first match against Villarreal.
We have been on a though ride in this Europa League with matches against Manchester United and the incredible comeback against Dortmund on Anfield.
I think the team have grown a lot in these games and with some more stability and some new players bought and chosen by Klopp we will most definitely be fighting in the top 4 next season!

But for now we have to focus on the Europa League and at first getting in the final by defeating Villarreal.

I think our starting lineup will be with Mignolet as the keeper.
Even though he is a terrible goalkeeper he might be our best at this time. He's a world class shot stopper and he makes some incredible saves but that's just not enough if you can't catch a ball or even make the most easy saves... Non the less he will be in the starting lineup.

As right and left back we will be seeing Clyne and Moreno. Both of them is in good shape and they've been playing really well for a longer period of time.
Moreno have had some problems in the defending play but he has been improving lately.
Clyne's just incredible. The best signing we made for this season besides James Milner.

As center-backs we will probably be seeing Lovren and Kolo.
Lovren as the most secure card. Kolo have been playing a lot more than he should but with lot's on injuries and now Sakho out of the team for an unknown amount of time only waiting for his ban - Kolo might be the answer.
We still have Martin Skrtel but he's shaky. He's not match fit and haven't been playing continuously with the rest of the team in a long time...
My best guess is Lovren and Kolo.

Now it's about to get interesting... Who will be playing on the midfield. Milner is for sure.
He's been great! Will Lucas be the other starter? Take control of the defending part of the mid? I'm not sure. Personally think he will play Joe Allen besides Milner.
Joe shows a lot of power and will! He's a man after Klopps head.

In front of those guys we will see Coutinho, Lallana and Firmino - I hope.
Lallana have had a slow... well let's face it, really slow start at Liverpool but have been working himself through it and he is now a bigger part of the crucial part of the play with assists and goals.
Why Coutinho should play doesn't need any explaining.

Firmino is for me a wildcard. I'm not sure if he's going to play.
If he is then the two midfielders will be Joe and James. If he is not in the starting eleven then we will see Lucas, James and Joe on the midfield.

In front the one and only Daniel Sturridge.
After a long injury he's back and playing continuously. He's scoring goals now and thank god for that!
Divock Origi was about to break through and capture the place in the starting eleven for sure but then got injured. Studge now has got that position and hopefully we will now miss Origi too much.

So my prediction on the starting eleven is:
Mignolet GK
Clyne RB
Moreno LB
Lovren CB
Toure CB
Milner CM
Joe CM
Firmino ATM
Coutinho ATM
Lallana ATM
Sturridge ST

Alternate Lucas instead of Firmino and then placed lower on the field.

So what do I think will be the result?

I'm pretty sure both team's will score. Liverpool's defense is just not good enough. They will not be able to hold Villarreal away from scoring.
On the other hand Liverpool's offense seems to be one of the strongest in the world at the moment. They will score and I think it will be more than one!

My predictions on the match result is:
1-2

Who am I?

Hi there!

My name is Martin and I'm 22 years old and I live in Denmark.
I'm studying at the moment to become an social educator, leisure time teacher or whatever you will call it. I've found out that translating the title I will get when I'm done, from danish till english is a hard thing to do so please bear with me! :)

I'm married as from 8th of January 2015. Yes it's early getting married I know - but when it's the right thing then why hesitate?

My main interests are football, cycling, gaming and of course being with my family and friends.
I will mainly be writing about sports on this blog.

Now for the unavoidable questing when talking about football:
"Who's your favorite team Martin?"
That's easy! Liverpool Football Club and my home countries greatest team Football Club Copenhagen!
I've been following Liverpool since I really started getting interested in international football which will be for about 13 years now. And for the record - I'm not a Rafa fan!
As long as I can remember I've been a fan of FC Copenhagen. I grew up in the Copenhagen and with my brother and sister being fans it was natural for me to become a fan despite my dad cheering for their rivals.

As for now I will stop this late night writing about me and start again when relevant.

- Martin

And so it begins!

This is my first blog ever. I'm not sure of what I will use it for yet but now it's out in the open and at the beginning! Let's try this!