Season one part one
Introduction
Welcome to my rollercoaster of a Millwall save. The plan of this save is to get Millwall back to their old-school English roots, which they have shied away from in recent times. The main objective is to finally get Millwall promoted to the Premier League for the first time. I want to make Millwall an ultra aggressive defensive powerhouse with relentless pressing and direct football.
One rule I have set myself is that I can only sign players from the UK, preferably English. The key attributes I look at when signing a player are aggression, bravery, work rate, determination and leadership. More or less experienced workhorses.
The board expectation is to achieve a top half finish. This is going to be a big challenge considering I have been given a grand total of £0 transfer budget to work with.
Tactic
The tactic I have created is a simple 4-4-2 narrow low block to attempt to create a solid foundation at the back. It is designed to be very direct and quick on the counter. I don’t expect us to have much possession so it’s all about using the ball effectively when in possession.
4-4-2 as a formation has regretfully died in recent times. Managers now a days prefers a variation of 3 centre backs over this. I’m determined to prove success can still be achieved with a 4-4-2. Cardiff manager Erol Bulut is one of the last remaining managers in the top English leagues to use a 4-4-2.
The main objective is to flood the box with crosses so there is a heavy emphasis on the wingers which immediately is a big problem because we are very weak in that department and are far from spoilt for choice in terms of quality. We don’t have any left-footed, left-side wingers, so I’ve tried a variety of makeshift options there with little to no success.
Transfers
It’s always going to be a problem when you want to rebuild a squad and the board give you zero transfer and wage budget. But, this is understandable considering we are two million pounds in the red.
Even more concerningly, the board want me to sign players under 23. Despite signing five young London-born talents on free transfers to bolster my under 21 squad, the board are still disappointed as they want me to use these players in the first team!
I have decided to keep every player, giving them all a chance and then reassessing our progress in January. I tried moving on a couple of players, but it was too late in the transfer window to get any bids.
League Table
We sit 15th in the league which I will take considering the recent run of form. I’m confident that after a big January transfer window we can find some form to push back up to top half! The top of the table makes me feel sick.
Mixed bag of form
We started the season really well. Morale was high and despite the fact that a lot of the players didn’t suit my tactic, we were grinding out good results. Six of the seven wins I picked up were at The Den, which was proving to be a fortress.
However, our away form was horrid and we were struggling to pick up points. On multiple occasions, we held leads going into the last ten minutes, only for me to go more defensive to try and hold out for the win. Sadly, every time we seemed to concede a very late heart-breaking equaliser.
Going into November our form fell of a cliff and from Nov-Dec we picked up a record low two draws out of nine games. I was then getting a bit worried and frustrated so with regret, decided to switch the keeper up which proved a costly decision as we shipped 6 to both Leeds and Middlesborough and 4 to Plymouth.
In both games we gave up an XG of 2/3, it didn’t help that wonderkid attackers Gnonto and Encisio both tore us to shreds getting a hat-trick each across both games.
What’s gone wrong
Defensively we have been abysmal, which is deeply concerning. We have conceded the second most goals in the league with 47 in 25 goals – almost 2 a game is just shocking. Our last three games have heavily contributed to this conceding 16 goals in only three games. We also rank highest for most expected goals conceded with 43.
Injuries have hit us thick and fast, which definitely contributed to the horrible run of form. Tom Bradshaw our star striker especially had a torrid time picking up two over month-long injuries so he has been a massive miss.
As expected, we are the worst-disciplined team in the league, racking up the most yellow and red cards. This is likely down to getting stuck in on and being super aggressive in the press.
Training ratings have also been shocking throughout the season. The usually ever-reliable Mike’s best-ever training schedule is failing to work its magic on this set of players. The weekly average is often in the low 6’s which is deeply concerning.
Finally morale was now at an all time low, being abysmal. The whole squad is pretty much on fairly or quite poor morale, so that’s another big catalyst that explains why results on the pitch have been so poor. I fully believe in the term ‘morale manager’ as morale is a crucial element of FM so once you lose the dressing room it is very hard to get it back.
Jake Cooper
On a more positive note, vice captain Jake Cooper has been sensational and I plan to build the team around him. His 6ft 7in man-mountain frame makes him a lethal weapon from set pieces. He is currently our top scorer with 9 goals all through headers!
Defensively he has been just as solid racking up a team high average rating of 7.11 . He ranks highest in the league for most header, possession won and shots blocked. Without him we would without a doubt be in the relegation zone. We rely on him so heavily!
Best game
One game easily stands out for me and that is our complete and utter dominance of Swansea to get my first and only away win of the season. Funnily enough, this is the only game we have won by more than two goals.
The game was all but wrapped up by the 25th minute and a defensive masterclass earned us a very rare clean sheet. This was as good as it got!
Tale of two keepers
I have given two keepers first team chances so far this season:
Firstly, Bart (a keeper I know very well) has been my starter for most of the season so far and has been fantastic in games. However, his training performances every week were at the bottom with below 5 rating and he is steadily declining at the age of 35. I foolishly dropped him for a run of games because of this.
The second keeper I have tried is George Long. I can safely say Long is the worst keeper I have ever used on FM. His record speaks for itself but every single long shot outside of the box goes in. The bloke doesn’t move! If I had a transfer budget, I’d release him on a free. I will be doing everything I can in January to get rid of him at any price. 18 goals conceded in five games makes for grim reading.
How to save my job!
Unsurprisingly, the board are very unimpressed with the obscene number of goals we have been leaking recently and I’ve gone into two meetings discussing my job. Inevitably, my job status is insecure.
I reluctantly agreed with the board that they would give me a month to save my job and that if results didn’t improve, I would get the sack. This is something that hasn’t happened to me on FM for a long time!
As for the players, I’ve seen enough now– very few are safe and luckily the poor morale gives me the perfect opportunity to transfer list a whole host of players and go for a complete rebuild in just a month.
The positions that are essential to target are left and right winger, pressing forward, centre back and a box to box midfielder. It will be impossible to fix everything in just a month so I will give it my best shot for a short term January fix. This is my biggest January transfer window on FM in recent memory.
At this point who knows if there will be an part two!!!