Hello there! Welcome back to my little page on the famous (infamous?) CoffeehouseFM website. Today I’ll be starting my Football Manager 2022 save with Southend United, with the intentions of turning the Shrimpers fortunes around. I covered my basic goals and objectives here, which will act as a nice refresher before I review…as much as I’m going to review.
Root of the problem
Having loaded the game up for the first time, I am pleased to announce that Southend United’s finances remain as they were in the Beta - circa £750k in the bank, and £1k per week or so over the wage budget. The opening transfer window is closed, so this obviously means that the (Ted)deadwood we are lumbered with in the U23 and U18 squads will just be a drain for a few months at a minimum. As much as I don’t intend on making any signings in the first season, I am acutely aware that I’ll need to renew a few contracts (as cost effectively as possible), and that injuries may take a toll and we need some depth. Off the pitch I’ve decided to hire club icon Spencer Prior, should he be available, and that’s it. We are expected to get Playoffs this season (albeit our Media Prediction is 14th…), and I’m confident that if we find our feet early on a tactical front that we could push on early, and if not, then we should have a relatively clean slate to entirely rebuild the club going into Season Two…if I last a failed promotion campaign.
I wanted to go simple with the tactics to start, and I think this is just about simple enough for my non-league standard players to understand:
I have two good goalkeepers at the start of the save to choose from, and have plumped for Harry Seaden for now - he’s much younger, and is as good as my experienced option in almost all areas…aside from shot stopping. If he has issues early on then I’ll go for the old shot stopper rather than the young cross-claimer
The defence, and Abu Ogogo, have a combined age of 158 at the start of the save. The centre backs are slow, but experienced, and our full backs are technically quite sound and not yet physically incapable. We will be starting with a lower defensive line as we don’t want space behind us to open up, and Ogogo is there to cover for the fullbacks, and for the midfield duo in front of him
I was intending to go for a 4-4-2 at the start of the save, however we are lacking depth up front, and thus decided to go for a couple of interesting wingers to go with a technically able Nathan Ferguson in CM(A), and experienced BBM Will Atkinson. Ferguson is able to play as an AP(A), which I’ll consider if I need to adjust any formations and tactics early on
Up front, as I mentioned, we are a bit light. We have a backup striker who is quite large but does little else, so we go with another player the wrong side of 30 in Rhys Murphy. He’s not agile, but I think he’ll link up the team nicely, and be able to finish off chances. The wingers are fairly interchangeable and largely similar in terms of overall quality, so I’ll be putting 18-year old Oli Coker into the squad to try and get him developing ASAP
The instructions are simple enough - across the defence and central midfield areas we have some decent passers of the ball (I think?), and we are lacking pace in forward areas, thus my intention is for the team to keep passes short and wait for the opposition to position themselves poorly, at which point the likes of Nathans Ralph and Ferguson, Jack Bridge, and Rhys Murphy to find room to play around in. The defence is slow, so we’re playing deeper and regrouping when we lose the ball, however I won’t be telling the team not to counter if the opportunity arises.
I really can’t wait for all of this information to be obsolete in the next blog when it transpires I’ve changed to a 3-1-3-2-1 Gegenpress. I had discussed in my original post the idea that I’ll be doing my own General Training, and my intention is to do so, but I’m going to be a little more fluid on this. To start, I’m seeing through the Pre-Season schedule set by my assistant, and then I’ll review on a week-to-week basis if I need to change anything. I’ll still be relying on FM Athlete’s training planner to play around with training when I’m not in-game, though.
So with all that out of the way, what am I actually doing in Pre-Season? Not a lot. I’ll be managing the friendlies to ensure that my tactic isn’t absolutely woeful, but apart from that I’ll actually be doing very little. What an exciting start to the save!
Vanarama National : Season One
Quite frankly, the above tactic played out exactly as I intended it to 90% of the time, although that means that the other 10% was often catastrophic, and sometimes within that 90% were times when it played perfectly but was still inadequate. Our low defensive line was a masterstroke, and five wins with consecutive clean sheets at the start of the season saw us topping the table, before five games without a win then saw us drop to eighth. At this point I changed the CM(A) role to AP(A), and the lone striker became a Poacher to ensure they were closer to the opponent’s goal. The remainder of our first half of the season saw us have a couple of short winning runs, punctuated by a draw and a defeat by the end of them. By the time we’d played our 22nd game of the league season (the proper halfway point), we found ourselves in fifth place - too far from the single automatic spot, and even the top two playoff spots that get a bye, but also too far ahead of the rest of the league table to worry about missing out. Only 13 goals had been conceded, however Rhys Murphy was pretty much the only player finding the net consistently at this point.
The second half of the Vanarama National campaign was fairly similar, although a disastrous period in April where we lost Harry Seaden, Nathan Ralph, Oli Coker, and Tom Clifford (again, having missed half of the season already) to injury contributed to a measly 4 points from six games, and mostly against our rivals at the top of the table. It didn’t give me much confidence in all honesty. We ended the regulation season in May with a domineering win and a game in which we somehow only drew, so I was happy that form was recovering as our players were returning from injury. A seventh place finish was lower than I feel like we deserved, but the important thing was to be in the mix, regardless of the fact that we have an extra Playoff round to play that the teams in 2nd and 3rd don’t have to partake in.
By way of retaining the narrative of this blog, I have to reveal that we played Aldershot in the Playoff First Round, and that Rhys Murphy scored the only goal in first half added time to ensure our progress to the Semi Final…
Cup runs
Having won the old Fourth Division in 1981, and League One in 2006, I decided fairly early on to take the FA Cup and FA Trophy seriously (perhaps this contributed to eventual exhaustion/injuries in the league campaign…) in order to bring some silverware to Roots Hall. The FA Cup obviously wasn’t achievable in terms of victory, but our victories over Non-League side Leamington, and League One side Gillingham, netted us a cool £30k to add to the bank, before Harry Seaden’s only real mistake of the season cost us in a 2-1 home defeat to Fleetwood Town in the Second Round (still making gate receipt money though innit). I’ll be taking the FA Cup with the same amount of seriousness next season as the prospect of a Third Round tie against someone good and making money, or someone rubbish and progressing, is tantalising.
The other silverware on offer at this level is the FA Trophy, which seemed below the like of Non-League ‘super clubs’ Stockport, and Notts County. We played a total of eight games in the competition - Weymouth, Hampton & Richmond, AFC Telford, Boston United (after a replay), and Wrexham (over two legs) were all seen off, and we conceded only two goals en-route to Wembley, where we would face off against Playoff rivals Bromley. The game would be played a couple of days after our Playoff against Aldershot, and at this point I was utilising the manual rest function quite heavily - I wanted our best team out at all times.
After taking a 3rd minute lead courtesy of a low cross by Patrick Ssala (our best Youth Intake prospect) being converted by Rhys Murphy, we then held Bromley at arms length for the majority of the game. I made some changes around the hour mark simply to ensure some of our older heads got a rest ahead of our Playoff Semi Final, and that’s when the pressure started. Bromley equalised in the same manner that we scored - their AMR released by the full back, and a cross converted on the six yard line. Disaster…for all of twenty seconds:
Rhys Murphy has proved to be incredibly clinical at this level, and he once again proved our saviour by scoring the equaliser from the kick off - a long ball by Nathan Ferguson out to the wing was then sent into the box by Jack Bridge, where the former Irish U21 player tucked away a header. This was Southend United’s first cup win in their entire history, and I was naturally delighted, but we had to ensure that we finished off what we started in the league…
The Playoffs
The Semi Final was another away affair, and yet again we played a London-based side, Barnet. I always had a soft spot for The Bees from my Ultimate Soccer Manager 98 days, although I can’t quite remember why. After a gruelling 90 minutes of action, and a few missed chances on our end, we went into Extra Time with the team absolutely shagged. Jack Bridge put us ahead in the 97th minute, and we then held the North Londoners off until the last minute of the game…however Harry Seaden produced a masterful save from a long shot, and we booked our place in the Playoff Final against Notts County. Our record against The Magpies had been pretty horrid having lost both of our league meetings, however the latest was a 3-1 defeat in April when we were lacking a good portion of our starting squad, so I sensed we had a chance.
The historic Wembley Stadium was treated to an absolute spectacle in this match. I don’t know about the computer generated crowd, but I was on the edge of my seat (which I should have pre-emptively chosen as the toilet) for the entire match. After a mix-up in the Notts defence, Rhys Murphy fired us ahead in the 13th minute, before Rodel Richards fired an equaliser from the penalty spot in the 20th minute. Straight from kick off we constructed the below move, and Murphy showed his quality yet again…
Unfortunately we gifted Notts yet another penalty, this time via a handball rather than a poor challenge, and Rodel Richards equalised yet again. We created very little for the rest of the half, although Notts were only really trying long shots themselves. Around the hour mark Murphy headed us into the lead to complete his hattrick, and I started to dream of a season full of silverware and acclaim for Ted Redwood…I got too excited, too soon. With twelve minutes left to play Cal Roberts fired in a strike from 25 yards, which left a very sour taste. We had led three times, and been clawed back three times, two of which were absolute gifts, and one was a long range screamer. Our fate was sealed in the 85th minute when Francis Vincent finished off Notts only well-constructed move of the game, and no amount of throwing our players forward seemed to do anything. Our game plan, in this instance, was perfect. We stifled the second best attacking side in the league in open play, and they only really had one good chance to speak of (which they converted). It was just a shame about the other goals we conceded. It’s another season in the Vanarama National for us, and no doubt the board will be expecting automatic promotion...
Every moment I live is agony
We had a few great performers this season, as well as a whole host of decent ones:
Four first-teamers averaged over 7.2 - Nathan Ralph (shortlisted for PotY in the Vanarama National), Shaun Hobson, Rhys Murphy, and Harry Seaden. A further 5 first-teamers averaged around a 7.0
Rhys Murphy was our top scorer with 37 goals in 52(1) games, and was followed by Oli Coker with 11 in 43(1), and Jack Bridge bagged 10 in 29(21)
Nathans Ralph and Ferguson were our top assisters with 11 and 10 respectively
Over the regulation season we had the best defence, conceding 40 goals in 44 games, including 21 clean sheets over that time. Whilst our defensive work was good, this does show that we either tend to keep a clean sheet or concede twice on average. On the forward front we hit 66, which puts us around the midtable mark for goals scored
Our 56% average possession was second only to our Playoff Final conquerors, Notts County. I’m happy with our passing and possession statistics this season, however we may need to adjust our tactics a little in the next campaign to ensure we are getting possession in the right places to boost our scoring statistics
Foundations
Whether or not I’ll be around long enough to benefit from laying foundations at Southend, I don’t know. The toughest thing about choosing a team to start a blog with is that it could all blow up in your face and leave you looking a mug - I’d say that hasn’t happened this season, but realistically it was probably only saved, on paper, by the FA Trophy win. With this in mind, how am I approaching the coming season, and beyond, to ensure success for myself and the club within this save?
Choosing the correct contracts to extend is key, and I think I’ve made a couple of mistakes this season. Will Atkinson, my BBM, is ageing, and probably won’t be a starter next season, and during a few injury-hit moments I panicked and signed up a couple of the U19s to longer deals who are definitely not good enough, but I wanted to ensure continuity and cover. Aside from this, we’ve secured Harry Seaden and Oli Coker to longer deals (for more money, but their development and performances have totally justified this), as well as ensuring we have the talents of Rhys Murphy, and the Nathans Ralph and Ferguson next season. Our core players remain in place, and although it’s increased our wage expenditure for now, we will be shipping a fair few high-earning freebies in the summer, as well as trying to replace all of our squad/backup players with younger, cheaper models. The increase to wages was easily offset by our cup successes, and especially by our share of Wembley gate receipts, netting us over £800k over two matches in a week there..
We have a number of positions that need strengthening, however we had a bit of a result with the Youth Intake being so strong. It may take a further season or so to start seeing these players regularly, but the below four players will very much be part of the squad going forwards, and may even provide us with a payday should we require it. Patrick Ssali is the highlight, but I am confident about our homegrown quota going forwards:
It was my intention to offer a moderately detailed view of our financials this season, what went right, what went wrong, however with no other seasons to compare it becomes moderately irrelevant. At the end of the season we were hit with a circa £800k tax bill as we’d made £3.2m or so profit over the season, with sponsorship, gate receipts, and season tickets bringing in around £6.5m between them bringing in the vast majority of our total £8.4m income. Player and staff wages, including bonuses, cost us circa £2.9m, so my initial target will be to reduce this amount whilst also gaining promotion from Non-League. As we’ve made a load of money, and clearly are in last chance saloon for retaining our job, I’ve decided to try and look after the club’s future by requesting an upgrade to our Training and Youth Facilities, which technically began in Season Two, and will cost around £2.7m and will be completed during the course of the coming campaign. It’s been tough not to go all-in with improving staff and extending the contracts of a few players during this first season, but it will definitely give us a lot of leeway going into an all-important season where promotion is essential.
Join me next time to see whether or not we’ll be taking Southend United into League Two, or if I’ll be doing an Infamous based on my own Football Manager 2022 save.
Laters x