Football Manager Blog Career

I started my Championship season with first home match against Millwall. My first eleven for that match were based on form during preseason. So decided to take this team. Schemicel/Pantsil,Materazzi,Bjorck,Konchesky/King,Howson,Bjarnasson,Kupisz/Nugent,Beckford.
I think that will be my main squad. During the match i unfortunately got two injuries, with Materazzi being absent for 9 days, and Nugent for 4 weeks. I managed to get easy 2:0 victory and a i dominated through whole match. Here is the screenshot and Youtube match highligts

Leicester City - Millwall Youtube Match Higlight s

3 day after that i had Carling cup match with Burton. which came great for me to test the Nugent replacement, and to test some reserve players if they are up for the challenge. Because my policy is simple. If player can not perform well against much weaker club, he definitely can not cope with strong Championship teams.

Starting line up was Kinsky/Bandalovski,Mills,Bjorck,Keneddy/King,Cardacio,Bjarnasson,Fleck/Vassell,Gallagher.
I was satisfied with Bandalovski and Kennedy in defence. Fleck on the left wing position, and content with Vassell and Gallagher, from which i will look for Nugent replacement. Unfortunately i was far from impressed with team captain Matt Mills who played very poor match, so i will definitely have to speak to him. Nevertheless i manged to get 4:1 away victory and i was satisfied with level of commitment against easy opponent. Here is the screenshot and Youtube match highligts

Burton - Leicester Youtube Match Higlight s

2nd round of Championship was approaching and next opponent was Middlesbrough. Tough away match definitely and i had to decide will i stick to Mills or St. Ledger, as Materazzi replacement, and second striker Vassell or Gallagher. I also have Francis Jefers but he is definitely solution if all 4 strikers get injured... :). Finally i decided for following line up.
Schmeichel/Pantsil,Mills,Bjorck,Konchesky/Kind,Cardacio,Kupisz,Fleck/Vassell,Beckford.
I obviously did not make a mistake, because both of the players Mills and Vassell scored for fantastic 5:1 away win. Man of the match was Fredrik Bjorck. Who definitely is one of the key players in my first matches. Beckford scored twice and also is one of the key players in my Leicester squad. good solid performance from Schmeichel and catastrophic from Jason Steele, Middlesbrough goalie, were a key to this fantastic performance.

Middlesbrough - Leicester Youtube Match Higlights

3 round got me also an away match at London Road against Peterborough. I did not face and problems before the match, so my starting line up was Schemichel/Pantsil,Mills,Bjorck,Konchesky/King,Howson,Kupisz,Fleck/Vassell,Beckford.
It was also an all attacking match with 7 goals. I managed to score 5-2 victory. with 2 goals from Vassell and 1 from Beckford and Fleck.

Peterborough - Leicester Youtube Match Highlights

Next derby match was against Birmingham who i consider as top contenders for promotion so i knew i need to have my best players ready to perform at top level... I decided to stick to my best players from first few matches selecting Schmeichel/Pantsil,Materazzi,Bjorck,Konchesky/Kind,Cardacio,Kupisz,Fleck/Vassell,Beckford. What can i say for this match it was one man show from man in the black. Mike Dean gave 12 yellow cards and 33 fouls. My team reacted much better to that kind of refereeing and managed to get 4:0 victory .

Leicester - Birmingham Youtube Match Highlights

So i managed to get two tough victories against teams i think are contenders from promotion, Birmingham and Middlesbrough and now I am facing 2nd round of Carling Cup against Carlisle. I decided to rest some of the players as i analyzed with my scouts Carlisle and decided i do not need major players for this match. i selected Kinsky/Bandalovski,St.Ledged,Mills,Kennedy/Danns,Howson,Bjarnasson,Fleck/Jeffers,Gallagher.
I obviously underestimated Carlisle because they surprised me with two early goals. I managed to get one at the end of first half and it looked as things are going to get better in second half, At the begining of the second half they scored 3rd goal, so i brought Beckfod, Vassell and Kupisz in hope they will change something. And they did. Bjarnasson and Beckford gave me draw, and late goal from Vassell gave me a victory. Match that definitely lowered my euphoria from first 5 easy victories.

Leicester - Carlisle Youtube Match Highlights

So i managed to pull from 2 behind, but that match was definitely a reminder that there is no easy opponent if you do not give your 100%. I also gave up from testing some players that definitely are not for this level of competition such as Jeffers, Kinsky, Danns. Away match of 5th round of Championship was against Brighton, team which did not manage to win in first 4 rounds, scoring only 3 goals. So i declared this as an easy task. I selected, Schmeichel/Pantsil,Bjorck,St.Ledger,Konchesky/King,Howson,Kupisz,Fleck/Vassell, Beckford
.Match started very well with me scoring first goal but but immediate Brighton counter attack. By the and of first half I was a goal behind. Great match finished with me drawing at 90+4. Brighton outplayed me in all segments of the game. and i managed to get draw thanks to brilliant Schemichel and late equalizer from Beckford.

Brighton - Leicester Youtube Match Highlights

So august is over and now i have a two week break due to international matches before i play home match against Watford.

I have a chance to analyze my team, but in general i am very pleased with their performance. 4 straight wins in Championship, 2 wins in Carling Cup, and only one away draw. is not that bad score at all. I am currently first in Championship with Birmingham behind me, and Reading Nottingham Forrest Portsmouth and Barnsley closing promotion playoff places. At the bottom we have Burnley Brigton and Ipswich. and West Ham near relegation places. But season has just started there is a lot more games to be played. And things will look diferently probably even by the end of next month.

My best player are Darius Vassell,Jermaine Beckford, Frederik Bjorck and John Fleck.

By the way those two are unhappy with my team talk after drawing with Brighton, A agressively critised my teams performance.

Best goalscorer is Beckford who is also topping Championship scorers.

That would be all for August, soon you will see how September went on...
Here are the fixtures that await me through September.

During my preseason i did not play a lot of matches, but i was playing to some better opponents like Rangers and Celtic, and some easier ones in order to get my strikers in to scoring form...

I managed to get my strikers score a lot of goals and also managed to achieve what i wanted my Leicester squad to play attractive attacking football. During some matches i noticed some of the players were analyzed badly, my mistake, so i decided to sold them and buy some new players.

So as you see it was quite a cleaning up as i sold Abe, Bamba, Wellens, but i think i won't regret it, as they played so poorly against very bad teams. So my squad had some deficit roles i had to fill. I brought Johhny Howson from Leeds, Fredrick Bjorck to add depth and experience to my defence, so as Marco Materazzi, John Fleck is loaned from Rangers with option to buy him at the end of season for 4 mil €. I plan to use him as left winger, which is not his primary position, but i plan to develop him to become standard left winger for the future. Also i brought Birkir Bjarnason and Tomasz Kupisz wingers who can both play either on left or on the right. Two young players with promising future. Antonin Kinsky was bought to be third goalkeeper as he is experienced, and did not ask much money to come to Leicester. Mathias Cardacio will be competing with Howson for first eleven. I spent 8.75 mil€ for all of those players and i think i added enough depth to my squad to start concurring the Championship. Here are screenshots of
JOHN FLECK

Birkir Bjarnason

Frederik Bjorck

Jonny Howson

So now i think i created squad that will help me achieve and even surpass this season goals. here is what my assistant Tony Coton thinks about our team......