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HullDisappointing season finish by Southampton. Though the goal is reached
I played the second half of my 5th season very quickly. That's why I decided to report about it in a one post that will be rather large. Ok, here the matches:
From the last story post you should remember that my Southampton was pretending on UEFA cup place. Unfortunately, the dream doesn't come true because of unstable performance of my team.
Look at the results of matches sequentially. After victory over Arsenal we won away FA Cup match against Liverpool with wonderful score 1:4! Then next game - lost home match to Birmingham missing 3 goals! It was something I can't explain - my players were not able to cope with counter attacks of Birmingham. Then it was another away face-off with Liverpool. Lost 0:1. But the next game was FA Cup match against Birmingham again which resulted in the difficult victory 1:0. So you see The Saints were not able to win 2 matches against a same team in row.
Of course, I would like to single out Chelsea defeat. The football club of Roman Abramovich was thinking only about defence during this game. My midfielders and forwards enclosed The Blues on their half! It was really marvelous!
Then there were 5:0 against Preston, sudden loss to Derby in the replay match, 5:1 against Blackburn... And in the end... When we were really near the so dreamed UEFA Cup position we failed to win the last 4 games of the Premier League championship. Especially poor and unexplainable performance was shown with Watford and Wigan.
After the last Premier League fixture the table standing had the following view:
I was looking at it and thinking of how it's disappointing to get the 9th position when I could pretend to achieve something more sufficient after all that success in the middle of the season. From the other hand, it was officially expected by Southampton board to get to the top-half. And I completed this task - the board congratulates me:
The championship progress of my team is obvious. We started to defend better, score more, gain more points:
The leading star of my club in this season is Geoginio Wijnaldum. This wonderkid was awarded as Best Young Player of Premier League again.
And he is the best assister in the championship! Only Franck Ribery has been competing in this rating with him!
Here are the best 10 players of Southampton also:
I would praise Dmytro Chygrynskiy, Benoit Leroy, Massimo Donati, Stephane Mbia and ,sure, Marius Niculae. These guys can become first squad players anywhere.
Some final nominations from me:
Surprise of the year
1. Benoit Leroy (AMLC/FC) 
- cool performance during the second half of the season
2. Stephane Mbia (DC/DMC) - supplanted Southampton captain Aaron Mokoena from the first squad!
3. Massimo Donati (DMC/MRC) - I didn't expect that he had scored so much
Disappointment
1. Daniel Niculae (FC) - very low finishing from his side. I will sell him! 
2. Martin Fenin (FC) - in the old days prospective forward who is poor scorer now. Seems like I have real problem with substitution forwards.
3. Aaron Mokoena (DC/DMC) - well, he became older and couldn't cope with Mbia for the position of DMC. From the new season Mokoena will loose a captain bandage.
Stability
1. Rune Almenning Jarstein (GK) - Rescues Southampton rather often. His attributes grow slowly but constantly.
2. Massimo Donati (DMC/MRC) - simply new leader of the team.
3. Demy De Zeueuw (DMC/MRC) - again simply new leader of the team. Together with Donati they can overwhelm any centre of midfield of an opposition.
Mister Flamboyant
1. Georginio Wijnaldum (AM LRC/ FC) - He is a wonderkid now. Wanted by many grand clubs. His speed, dribbling and assists are great! 
2. Marius Niculae (FC) - 30 years old but score a lot. Sometimes his power strikes get to the top 3 goals of the month.
3. Daniel De Ridder (AMRC) - Became one of the best players during winter rush matches against Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal...
Most Valued Professional
1. Georginio Wijnaldum 
2. Marius Niculae
3. Dmytro Chygrynskiy
Previous posts of Southampton story for 2011/2012 season:
Southampton. Superb performance during winter rush fixtures of Premier League
New Strength in Premier League - Southampton!
Starting New Season: the First Achievements
Hot Transfers and High Expectations of the New Season in FM 2008
Not the worst finish, are you planning to keep or sell Wijnaldum?
I woudnt call 9th disappointing, If I was you I would sell wijnaldum for atleast 20mil and then go into a deep search for a few (one, two or three) for your weaker spots on the field. Try searching smaller countries like sweden and so on, from my last two seasons at Malmo ive learnt that those countries hold players well underground, whom are actually very very good.
Real Madrid here I come, cant tell more :P
Unfortunate finish, but without the distractions you might perform better in the league. On the other hand you might not be able to attract the same players... but we will see. Only about 10 points back from 5th, so that should be your aim next season I reckon.
Seems like I will sell Wijnaldum because he is unhappy and doesn't want to accept a new contract.
glenn,
yep, you are right absolutely. For the next season I should achieve UEFA Cup position or maybe even Champions League zone.
Vitaliy,don´t sell wijnaldum,i had the same situation with obafemi martins in newcastle,he is my leading goalscorer and was really unhappy when i has rejected offer from chelsea,and wanted to leave and i was really sad and didn´ knew what to do to keep him,and about one month later he resigned to his ambitions ,he was just happy to stay and was again the same old martins :) but if you want to sell him(wijnaldum) then try to swap your unhappy player for any player you want from one of the clubs interesting in wijnaldum ;) thats just my tip,hope to help you
your blog helped me a lot :)
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