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December isn’t a month I relish in Football Manager because there’s always at least one result or one injury that ruins the entire mood. The flow of games can be good in terms of rotating your squad, keeping everyone happy, but it takes a toll on their fitness. And the concept of rotating heavily is dangerous as we all know the game likes to give you a swift kick in the balls if things are going well.
Let’s try and find some positives though: the only match which, on paper, should cause us some problems is Wolves away. Everybody else is certainly beatable. Ajax is a dead-rubber in the Champions League so even a loss wouldn’t hurt anything but possibly morale. Well, that and the fans being up in arms whenever we don’t obliterate an opponent. Even Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup looks comfortable on paper as they’re currently struggling at the bottom of the Championship. I feel better now, do you?
Back to back away matches against Newcastle (2-0) and Aston Villa (4-0) yield the six points we would expect. Kean bagged a brace in both with Gaillard and Aarons scoring the others against the Midlands’ giants. It makes sense to rotate for the Ajax game but my hand is forced into another change when this email arrives in my Inbox:
Young Chris Wells had wrestled the number one jersey from Jan Oblak this season but, as fate would have it, now the Slovenian international is back between the sticks. Look at that record, too. 909 minutes without conceding a goal. 12 clean sheets in 15 appearances. I shouldn’t complain too much really because Oblak is still technically better. But this is what I get for trying to plan for the future.
Amadou Haidara is also injured at the minute but I’ve got plenty of cover in midfield. The Malian international won’t be back until January because of a groin strain.
There’s also an update on the next batch of youngsters who will be promoted to my U18 side after Christmas. Apparently, it isn’t good news. Seriously, what I am paying all these people for?
Routines wins against Ajax (2-0) and Blackburn Rovers (4-2) see us maintain that 100% record for December. Joseph Harvey is the latest name to add himself to the treatment room and won’t be back until the new year due to strained ligaments. That earlier positivity didn’t do much good, did it?
Next up is Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup quarter final. My XI is Oblak; Villani, Terry, Ake, Lodi; Rice, Tonali, Gaillard, Fernandes; Kean and Parrott. Strong.
All the chances are falling to us but we can’t seem to get the ball in the back of the net. Unsurprisingly, Forest are sitting deep and frustrating us. Guess what happens next? Yep, Forest take the lead. Declan Rice trips Danny Loader and the man himself coverts from the spot. “Demand More” is going to be abused here.
On the stroke of half-time, my cries for more work. Renan Lodi has space to attack down the left and his cross is bundled home by captain Bruno. 1-1 at the break but I’m still not happy.
At the start of the second half, Forest are on the attack and looking to break down the wing. A crossfield pass is cut out by Gaillard and he plays a quick one-two with Troy Parrott. The French wonderkid gets to the edge of the box before unselfishly passing it inside to Fernandes who grabs his – and our – second of the game.
The contest is over before the hour mark. Attacking down the right this time, Tonali threads a pass in behind for Villani. The Argentine crosses to the near post and there’s Kean who nods it past Sondre Rossbach in the Forest goal. 3-1. Joe done.
You know how a lot of people hate the format of the Champions League because it throws up the same fixtures year after year? That issue still exists in the virtual world. In the 1st Knockout Round of the Champions League we are paired with.. Juventus.
The good news is we have won all four matches against them and, despite their dominance in real life, they currently sit 7th in Serie A. The Old Lady’s squad still possesses a lot of ageing superstars but they are beginning to bed in some cracking youngsters.
It appears I didn’t need to worry much about the trip to Molineux as we smash Wolves 4-0 with goals from Parrott (2), Gaillard and Kean. This brings our unbeaten run to a special milestone.
On Christmas Eve we’ve handed the wonderful news that Eduardo Camavinga has sprained his ankle ligaments and will be out for 3-4 weeks. Merry Christmas, Tottenham fans.
The bug which sees us face the same team back-to-back over the Christmas/New Year period is present again this season. On the three previous occasions, I’ve only managed to win both matches once (vs Fulham). Against Chelsea (1W, 1D) and QPR (1W, 1L) we dropped points. Let’s see how it goes against Everton.
We beat them 4-0 at home with goals from Dembele, Fernandes, Kean and Villani. Marcus Rashford, who was so excited to come up against me after his brief spell at Spurs, got himself sent off late in the second half.
The quick turnaround means I have to rotate a little for the trip to Goodison Park. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have only won twice all season and find themselves bottom of the Premier League. But this was the case when we faced QPR and somehow the Football Manager gods decided to reward them with a victory.
All the early pressure is coming from us and that finally tells in the 35th minute. Aarons’ cross is headed down by Gaillard for his fellow countryman Dembele. He can’t quite get the space to unleash a shot and the ball is poked away.. but only to Gaillard who drills it into the bottom corner. Now Everton will need to loosen up a little.
Yet the script is turned on its head thanks to a set-piece. Everton launch it to the back post, Oblak comes and misses it, and there’s Owen Wijndal to head into an empty net. Come on, lads. “Demand More” is needed once again.
There’s a response after the break. Lodi breaks down the left but then finds Gaillard just inside the area. He floats a cross to the unmarked Kean and we’re back in the lead. That’s it, boys.
Wijndal then goes from hero to villain. He clips Lodi and Kean has a chance to extend our lead from the spot. The Italian stallion steps up.. and scores! 3-1 and that should be all she wrote for the Toffees.
The drama isn’t over though. Less than five minutes later and Lodi brings down Eddie Nketiah in the box. From the penalty spot, Florent Da Silva reduces our lead to just one.
I take off Kean and Gaillard with 20 minutes to go but immediately afterwards Aarons is sent off for a second bookable offence. Bloody hell, Max. Either way there’s no need to panic. My record with 10-men, and sometimes even 9-men, is pretty strong.
Lodi sends a long freekick into the box looking for Dembele but Mina clears. For some unknown reason – I guess one of my centre backs went forward for the freekick – there’s a gaping hole in my defence. Da Silva passes it through to (newgen) Leandro Gutierrez. The Colombian has a free run at goal.. and curls it past Oblak. 3-3!
There are still 15 minutes to go. From being 3-1 up and looking set for another victory, we need have to hold on for a point. And we do. Just. I swear, these double fixtures are cursed. Damn you, Football Manager.
There is some good news on the eve of 2026. Moise Kean is awarded the ‘Ballon d’Or’, ‘FIFA’s The Best’ and ‘World Soccer Magazine’s World Player of the Year’ awards. Fully deserved too, I might add. When Dembele’s goals dried up, he stepped into action and carried the team. Even if Kean ended up missing the Champions League final through injury, he’s been instrumental in everything positive about our team.
And so we move into January and the transfer window re-opens. Maximo Acuña, yet another Argentine wonderkid, is now old enough to make the switch to North London. He’s going to be loaned out for now but after paying just 3.5M for him, I know we won’t lose money on the guy.
Our first opponents in January are West Ham United. The Hammers are led by former Manchester City coach Ben Wilkinson these days. Yet they, a bit like Leicester, are always a different proposition when playing in front of their own fans. They’ve taken points off us in four of the previous six matches at the London Stadium so it won’t be easy.
It’s a fairly even contest in the early goings. No real chances created but at this stage I’d probably take a draw. Not a winner’s mentality, I know, but I don’t want to lose and see the morale drop in the dressing room. It’s important to remain alert, smart and not make any mist– Sessegnon clumsily brings down Albian Ajeti and West Ham have a penalty. What did I just say, Ryan?!
Ricardo Rodriguez, who moved from Arsenal to West Ham in the summer, slots home the spot kick and we’re 1-0 down. Son of a bitch.
As the game continues, I throw on Fernandes, Simpson and Troy to rescue something for us here. It feels like there is another goal in this match.
And there is…
.. for West Ham.
We fail to clear a corner in the 88th minute, it bounces off Terry and lands at the feet of the 34-year-old N’Golo Kante to poke home and send the home fans into raptures. In an ironic twist, they are going to release DVDs about this match, aren’t they?
Our unbeaten run is over.
The draw for the Carabao Cup semi-final, two-legged affairs from now on remember, sees us paired with.. West Ham. A quick glance at the fixture list shows that we’ll be facing them in the league again this month. Seriously, sort out your fixture list generator.
We breeze past Watford (3-0) in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup before drawing 0-0 against West Ham in the away leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. Southampton are crushed 5-0 to restore some much-needed confidence to the group (Dembele 2, Kean, Trecco and Reinier). Then it’s onto Manchester United at Old Trafford.
This will represent our first match against Niko Kovac’s version of United. Although after looking at our history against them, it doesn’t make for good reading. I’ve never beaten United at Old Trafford, in any competition, throughout the previous six seasons.
And that doesn’t change this time around either.
We are poor across the park except for Rice and Oblak. Both strikers fail to get into the match. Reinier, who I tasked with linking midfield and attack, doesn’t perform well either. He was replaced by Fernandes and the Portuguese star, club captain remember, manages to put in an even worse 45-minute display.
United aren’t exactly great themselves but they didn’t need to be. Pellegrini’s short freekick catches out my sleeping defence and Nikola Milenkovic, in acres of space, blasts it past Oblak and that was all she wrote.
From zero defeats in 52 Premier League matches to two in our last three. Is this a crisis?
It doesn’t feel right to end things on a sour note so let’s jump into Bournemouth at home. The Cherries are 19th in the league and struggling big time. We compile their misery as Kean (pen), Troy and Foden give us a 3-0 victory.
Despite those two defeats, a look at the Premier League table is reason to be optimistic. We’ve found our groove in front of goal whilst, generally speaking, keeping the opposition out. Sitting eight points clear of United in second place just shows how consistent we’ve been in the first half of the campaign.
Likewise the goal difference column is miles ahead of anybody else. Spurs are on +50 whereas United are on just +18. Kean tops the goalscoring charts with 17, five ahead of Arsenal’s Krzysztof Piatek. Kean is also just two assists behind Chelsea’s Diego Lainez’s 10.
Maybe this isn’t a crisis but rather a reminder that for however good we might be – and make no mistake about it, we are very good – we must guard against complacency.
We’ll take on Brentford in the next round of the FA Cup, face West Ham at home in both the Carabao Cup and the Premier League, then begin the knockout rounds of the Champions League. Oh, and the transfer window is still open…
Andrew Gaffney 