League 1 will be won

Dear readers, I am in the middle of February with Leeds United. Now you will get an information about my latest matches and squad changes during winter transfer window.

Latest results

League 1, February, FM 2010

Comfortable 10 points lead allowed to try changing squad easily. In first 4 matches of January Leeds gained only 1 point. The reason of such poor performance was intention to sell several players and their unhappiness about that. Few of them were sold by the way. I am going to describe my transfers below.

Leeds United matches in the middle of the season

Leeds United vs Leyton Orient and Oldham

I don’t think it’s really interesting to tell you in details about League 1 matches. Definitely Leeds had an absolute advantage in the most of them. Moreover, it was rather predictable. I have even started thinking about going on holiday to miss several League 1 matches and approach the next season more quickly… Yawn

But one of the most funny and emotional games was against Leyton Orient:

Leyton Orient and Leeds having fun in FM 2010

Follow the goal minutes and how the score had been changing: 1:0, 1:1, 1:2, 2:2, 3:2, 3:3, 3:4, 3:5 Happy

 

It’s a pity but FA Cup match with Bristol City was suddenly lost. Though my team showed better football and earned victory having more shots, corners and possession… But it’s a football. Now we can only win Johnstone’s Paint Trophy – and we are close to the victory. The final against Southampton awaits in the end of March!

 

Leeds Players

Transfers

I had many hopes on this transfer window. Just wanted to sell several players whose price grown up to $2M and higher and buy better guys instead of them. Actually it was my intention of preparation to the next season in the Championship. I think it’s very efficient if you buy new players in the winter window – they will have enough time to adopt in a team and adjust to a new team play.

Players Out

Nevertheless I didn’t cope with task of selling Bromby, Williams and Michalik (their total price is over $9M together!). Only Snodgrass and van der Meyde were sold to other clubs. Why I sold my main wingers? Because they’re slow! I think flank players must be fast and explosive.

Snodgrass and van der Meyde leave Leeds United

Players In

Another problem I met is that the reputation of Leeds and its manager (me Happy) is not enough to get players of really high quality. In spite of this fact the following transfers were made:

Hubnik and others enter Leeds United

19 years old Cameroonian Teicou was bought for $1M + $2.4M of monthly instalments stretched out for 2 years. He will be play as MC in the main squad.

The most valuable signing is central defender Roman Hubnik:

Roman Hubnik in Football Manager 2010

Joel Lindpere is a replacement of Snodgrass with better speed and crossing abilities.

 

Player stats

And now some statistics about Leeds players:

Michalik, Yarmolenko, Campbell, Beckford... - the best guys

Pair of quick forwards – Jermaine Beckford and Andriy Yarmolenko – is a very complicated problem for all League 1 clubs. They have already scored almost 40 goals together!

Among other players I would like to single out Sol Campbell. His experience and wonderful pitch vision allows us to escape unneeded goal moments.

 

Previous posts of Leeds United story, season 1:

- Excellent start in the League One!

- Season expectations and first transfers

- Leeds United squad analysis

- Leeds United will be my first FM2010 team!

37 comment(s):

  1. stefyweffy Says:

    excellent work vitaliy! keep it up! i also believe that wingers,especially those who are mostly dribbling the balls forward from the sides, must be fast, have good stamina and passing and dribbling abilities must be superb. my norwich squad has had couple of new transferred AMR and AML due to the fact that they are the most tired after every match.

  2. amalcr07 Says:

    haha.nice job!

    you are absolutely genius on fm!

  3. Anonymous Says:

    wow, vitaliy, can't believe u had sold snowgrass. i occassionally use him as fwd during 4-3-1-2 lineup. he is fairly good during my 2nd season in CC championship. But, agree wif u, kinda holiday mood when 30+ matches in L1, coz is winning for sure. U really need to bring in good players in 2nd season, kinda tight fight over there. again, robertson still my favourites so far, solid yet anchor type, cheap coz only 250k pound n now is 900k pound in just 3 mths!!

  4. Kiril Says:

    I have to acknowledge, that I follow all of your posts and can't wait to see how you make your tactic, what "Shouts" you use, in what scenarios, situations and time periods of the match you do it, how you set up your player instructions, if you have specific settings for some of the players...I have to admit, that you are one of the guys that think when you do something, and I think of you as e mentor for FM. These words may sound too strong, but that is the truth actually. I like your style of play, I like your thinking and can't wait for such post, which describes all of the things, I've wrote a bit upper.

    Good luck Vitaliy!

  5. Anonymous Says:

    you have mange the club in a good path,how about find some talent from asia, there are good talented players in asia and you can bought in a cheap price

  6. Anonymous Says:

    Nice job signing Joel Lindpere. He's from my country and he could do good job for you.

  7. Anonymous Says:

    Very well done Vitaly! You are doing very well.

    I don't want to offend you but your screenshots are kind of poor; especially for the League Table.

    Well done on your good start with Leeds though!

  8. Anonymous Says:

    next can you post about what new staff you got if you did

  9. Anonymous Says:

    I'm on my fourth season. i went on holiday in february, when it seemed secure enough that i would atleast get to playoffs. then i returned for the last four games or so.

    You are getting better results than me in League 1, i wone it by 4 points, was in a fierce battle for the first with hartlepool i think.

    for the championship take a look at Mariano Pernía, i had him for two years, he scored loads of free kicks and was such a favorite of mine that i hired him as a coach upon his retirement

  10. Anonymous Says:

    my team...Leeds first season ---> gk-cavallero, dr-lauren,dl-ball,dc-campbell-kisnorbo,mr-viudez,ml-zenden (snodgrass),mc-appiah-hemdani(cardacio),st-smolarek-henri camara-beckford...i'm first, have score 10-3-0...league cup, 3rd round vs burnley lost 3-0....in 2nd round past blackburn on dramatic penalties :)they scored in 94min for 2-2 -.- but...they missed a penalty for win in 119 or 120 .. not sure...
    Ebi Smolarek---> 16 apps 17 goals...
    Henri Camara--->12(4)apps 12 goals :)
    Beckford was injured for 2 months -.-'' 3 apps 2 goals...

  11. lalala Says:

    though Joel Lindpere has better speed, i don't think it dribble past players as good as snodgrass. snodgrass in my game have 10assist in 15games its a pity he's sold but 3.5 mil is a lot. so its not bad. all the best vitaliy!

  12. Anonymous Says:

    well done!

    in my game, i managed to bring leeds utd to championship by 10 points difference as well. and then in nov 2010, i was approached by man city so i moved because of the 120m tranfer budget!

    and then in my 3rd season, i applied for the england job when capello left after winning europe cup. so, now i'm also leading the england team to the world cup 2014!

    by the way, in the game, i'm GARY LINEKER.

  13. Anonymous Says:

    Good Job m8, I am currently notts county, got promoted 1st season champions, now in League 1 i am 8th after about 2 months. Looking for back 2 back promotions playing 4222 narrow very well, good signings i have are fabian brandy, leacock, angel, to name a few

  14. Anonymous Says:

    i holidayed quite a lot with altrincham coz i was top of the league by about 15 points.

  15. Steve Says:

    Well done Vitaliy, knew u would get promoted. Leeds have a strong team in league 1. The championship will be much tougher though!

  16. Ahmad Says:

    hi vitality...i want to ask you one question...how do i want to extend my contract as a manager of my club... i don't know because i never play football manager game before this

  17. Anonymous Says:

    ive started a game wiv man utd and i have to say danny welbeck is amazing. He's scored 5 in 5 for me so far and follwoing his form was called up 2 the england squad,, and has 2 caps and 4 goals!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  18. Eddie eddie Says:

    Hey I made a new blog like this here is the link thanks if you have a look:
    http://ultimatefootballmanagerblog.blogspot.com/

  19. tom Says:

    vitaly this involves the facepacks ive dwnloaded all the parts now do i extract each one now thn they sud work or wa plz wrt back

  20. Chelsea Bloggari Says:

    I'm managing Leeds aswell. Do you have your defence set to push up, normal or deep?

  21. rob Says:

    You should try and buy Morgan Schneiderlin from Southampton when you finish the season Vitaliy! I bought him for my Heerenveen squad for 2,2 million and he has an average of 7.10 over 5 matches!

    Surprising that you lost against Bristol City.. considering you won against Southampton and Charlton, Bristol shouldn't have been that difficult to overcome. (no offense to Bristol City fans!)

  22. Mac Says:

    hi
    look for david prieto(DC) before your second season in leeds. In my leeds he got 42app 7gls and 7.28avg. And i got him for free.ra

  23. Anonymous Says:

    With Leeds got promoted and got a lot of players in and out . Bought Benjani, Anichebe, Pennant, De Laet and a lot of Young Prospect xD doing good on Coca Cola Championship !

  24. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says:

    Kiril,
    I would like to ask you being patient about my FM10 tactics post. I am going to write it only when my tactical approach will become successful in the Championship

  25. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says:

    Anonymous,
    I cannot insert bigger screenshots because of the current blog width. But pay attention that every screenshot is clickable. And if you click on a picture, you will see it in full size!

  26. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says:

    Anonymous,
    it's hard to imagine Gary Lineker boasting his person in the comments to this post :)

  27. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says:

    Ahmad,
    you will be offered with a new contract from your club's board as soon as they decide. It depends on your results with the club.

  28. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says:

    Chelsea Bloggari,
    I use 'Control' strategy for my tactics. So Defensive Line is Push Up as a result. I prefer attacking style of football actually

  29. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says:

    rob,
    Morgan Schneiderlin - yes, he is already in my shortlist.

  30. tom Says:

    vitaly u havent tld me about the facpacks ive got all the parts of the pack but everytime i try extracting it says nxt volume and cant break the operation please help please help

  31. Anonymous Says:

    I like cheese

  32. adam Says:

    apparently my contract with newcastle ran out on 30th june 2011 and i am currently on 20th february 2012, anyone know whay that has happened? apparently im working without a contract :s

  33. Anonymous Says:

    I'm currently managing with Leeds United as well, just starting my second season. My first year was a complete success, winning league 1 by a 12 point margin, with a +75 goal differential. My best player by far was John Sutton, who I purchased for $60k. He then went on to score 37 league goals and is now worth $2.4 million

  34. Anonymous Says:

    Hi vitaliy can i ask u something?
    i'm now managing wolves..
    actually i wanna buy lukaku..
    but i must offer 14M to buy him..
    but buyern munchen can just buy him for 3,1M..
    can u give me a hint so i can buy player more cheaper?
    i actually use interact n build relationship with the manager..but it's useless..TT

  35. Anonymous Says:

    who do you play at right wing without andy van der meyde??

  36. Vitaliy Mokosiy Says:

    I used Somma and Howson instead of van der Meide.

    In the second season Giuliano, Wobay and Merino were bought to cover this position

  37. Tommy Kim Says:

    This is interesting... I signed Sibierski and Lindpere from free transfer, too! Lindpere actually stuck around for half of my first season in Premiership :0