It's time Tou... Louse?

The Beginning!
Welcome to my Toulouse story - my first . I am doing it on FM17 simply due to personal opinion of FM18 not being as good in the BETA state. The long term goals for this save are to eventually overcome PSG/OL/OM/Monaco and become the main French powerhouse of football, and also to win the champions league, eventually.

I have the latest transfers database, as well as the DF11 Player Faces Megapack and some kits and logos.

Let's jump right in!

-10 points for not going with "It's time Toulouse" for the title.

Jkjk, good luck and have fun with this

Starting out, the board want me to avoid automatic relegation. Pretty simple task considering we are predicted to finish 9th in the league this season - so the board will be happy unless something goes disastrously wrong.
Let's have a look at some of the best players in my squad.

Max Gradel

The best player at the club, on loan from Bournemouth. Great dribbling, technique, and very fast. With 4 and a half star ability he will be one of our key men.

Giannelli Imbula

Another loanee, this time from Stoke. Great technique, dribbling and first touch, an all round great player with no real weaknesses apart from corners and his leadership.

Andy Delort

Most likely our main striker for the season, would prefer him to be able to play as more of a false nine for the tactic I have in mind. Brave, lots of stamina, good finishing, he has pretty much all the thing a solid striker needs. 3 and a half star ability is decent.

Jimmy Durmaz

Our best option on the left wing, good crosser, dribbler, pretty fast, and a good free kick taker too. Solid player, although he has reached his potential already at the age of 27.

That wraps up our key players for the season ahead: time to see how we fared in the transfer window.

So. The transfer window didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped - but it wasn't too bad. The squad was strong enough in most areas that we don't need to many improvements anyway with the amount of money we had.

IN:

Adrien Thomasson

Thomasson was our one and only first team signing this window, signed for 4.5 million. (He is declining due to having being injured recently, he'll be back on the rise soon). We needed more quality in central midfield with only 3 players above 3 star ability (one of which was going to be in a DM position anyway) could play there, and he comes in with still some potential to be reached. A first teamer.

Quentin Boisgard

A youngster with some potential. As you can see he went out on loan straight away to get some first team football. One for the future. This transfer was arranged before I arrived.

OUT:
No players left the club properly, but there were some loans.

Quentin Boisgard to Creteil Lusitanos

Clement Michelin to Nimes Olimpique

That wraps up the transfers, a quiet window with only four moves overall.

TACTIC:

Going with a 4-1-2-3 wide to suit our players, and adopting a short passing, high tempo style.

The friendlies were pretty positive, although not as dominant as I would have hoped them to be.


Time for the season to start!

The season starts

Toulouse 1-1 RC Strasbourg Alsace
Alsace had just been promoted, so I was hoping for a win. Unfortunately it didn't come. It was a pretty bad performance from us with too many yellow cards and not enough possession. Andy Delort scored with a header which bounced off the post and in after a beautiful cross from Jimmy Durmaz, and they equalised on the counter and scored a placed shot into the bottom right. Hopefully we can improve in the next game.


Toulouse 1-2 LOSC
Not the best result again, LOSC had a small advantage according to the press going into the game and it showed. It was a better performance overall than last time, but we still need to work on the fouls count and the possession.


Toulouse 1-0 Metz
A very good performance compared to the last two games, against a side weaker than us. This time our advantage showed and we dominated the game with Jimmy Durmaz scoring his second goal of the season from close range after dribbling past two opposition defenders. Let's keep playing this way, please!

END OF THE MONTH
Overall a mixed month with our first three games in the league, with our play improving as the games went on. Hopefully we can find our form and continue to win some more games.



LADDER:


MY PLAYER OF THE MONTH:
Jimmy Durmaz. 2 goals and 3 great performances to start the season off. Always dangerous down the left flank with his expert dribbling and crossing.

This was my initial thought too! Missed a trick there!

Average start to the league though @benglish ssure it'll come together soon

Second month finishes - and its an unbeaten one!

This month was a massive improvement on the last one. We had two draws and two wins from our four games played, although admittedly none of them were against one of the big, heavily invested-in sides - that challenge comes next month when we face both OL and AS Monaco...
Anyway, onto this month's fixtures:

FC Nantes 1-1 Toulouse FC
An interesting game.... Jimmy Durmaz getting sent off right after me praising him so much. Later in the game Nantes lost a man and we dominated the game when numbers were even.

Dijon FCO 1-1 Toulouse FC
Another 1-1. An extremely even game against a team of generally equal stature. 50% Possession each and similar stats in most areas. Max Gradel with the goal - a stunning free kick from the top right corner of the box, into the top left corner of the goal. Not too bad, not anything groundbreaking from anyone.

Toulouse FC 2-0 Amiens SC
Finally another win! This was a dominant performance - 15 shots to their two. Max Gradel scored both goals proving once more he is the best player on the team. I will definitely have to find a good replacement when his loan ends at the end of this season. A good performance all round, very happy if we continue to play like this.

Toulouse FC 3-2 Stade Malherbe Caen
What a game! We score two goals, they bring it back to 2-2, and then Thomasson scores a worldie from outside the box - a first time volley into the top right corner - in the 89th minute! Thomasson had a great game in general, and the rest of the team impressed as well. A good result considering Caen were 4th on the ladder when we faced them. A good way to end off the month and ensure morale is high to head into the games against Lyon and Monaco.


OTHER NEWS:
We drew ESTAC Troyes in the cup, another Ligue 1 side. Not a great draw considering there were plenty of Ligue 2 sides in the mix but not everything can go your way.

The board are very happy as is to be expected considering they thought we would end up in a relegation battle, which doesn't look insanely likely at the moment. We are also on a 5 game unbeaten streak at the moment, which is nice although I have a strong feeling it will end next month...


LADDER:

PLAYER OF THE MONTH:
This month it goes to....

Max Gradel

It was a tough one between him and Thomasson who had been putting in great performances in the midfield, but his clinical finishing and the fact that we would have lost some games without him got him the win this month.

Next month our first real tests - OL and Monaco, straight after one another. If we win one i'll be very happy. Anyway, until then, happy reading!

PS: Took your advice with the title, thanks guys! Can't believe I missed it myself.

Unbeaten run continues!

Our great form continues into this month with 5 games, 1 draw and four wins! We haven't lost for 10 games now, which is amazing. Onto the fixtures:

Toulouse FC 2-2 Olympique Lyonnais
I would have been even happier with this result if we hadn't let go of a 2-0 lead. Andy Delort (who had recently complained about lack of first team football) kicked it off, and Max Gradel scored again moderately early into the first half. Unfortunately Lyon came back with two goals and our defence just couldn't do anything. We still managed to dominate possession and shots, but overall I am happy with the result against a team such as Lyon who were 2nd at the time.


AS Monaco 1-2 Toulouse FC
What a win! We managed to beat Monaco, an achievement for us considering the quality of the two squads. We scored early before they equalised, but Jimmy Durmaz scored in the last minutes of the game for an emphatic win. Andy Delort scored his second goal of the month for us. Gradel played well picking up the POM award. Overall a good win which saw us move up the table nicely.


FC Toulouse 2-1 Girondins de Bordeaux
We just can't have a boring game can we?! We scored in the first - and last - minutes of the game. It wasn't the most convincing performance from us despite the stats. We consistently missed good chances and hit the bar twice from close range. It took a dramatic last minute penalty for us to come home winners in this game, Andy Delort converting yet another one for his third of the month. Somalia, who I was playing to rest Max Gradel, also scored his second goal of the season. He has scored on both of his starts so maybe I should consider him more for future matches.


FC Toulouse 1-0 ESTAC Troyes
For our first game in the Coupe de la Ligue we faced a fellow Ligue 1 team, ESTAC Troyes. We came into the game as clear favourites but played a less than convincing game. This was our worst performance of all, the stats showing our dominance in possession and shots (once again) but we couldn't convert anything! It took an own goal for us to win, not a great performance but we are through to the 4th round of this cup.


Montpellier HSC 0-3 Toulouse FC
Our last game of the month was a much more convincing 3-0 win although until the 79th minute it was looking like it could be another 1-0. Overall a great game for Andy Delort, whose last goal was a great finish from outside the box into the bottom right corner. Convincing and thorough in all aspects, very happy with the win although we shouldn't have been expecting anything less from the bottom of the table side.


OTHER NEWS:
We broke the club's unbeaten streak, which was previously 6 (seriously?) and we are still improving it - up to 10 at the moment. Somalia also broke the record for the quickest goal scored for our club at just 24 seconds into the Bordeaux game. Andy Delort is currently on 6 goals for the side, having scored no less than 5 this month. I am happy with the team's performance so far with us seeming in contention for European spots, although it is still very early in the season.



LADDER:


PLAYER OF THE MONTH:
It should be no surprise this month,

Andy Delort

With 5 goals in 5 games this month he is in great form, I can't believe I hadn't been playing him enough earlier. A good month from him.

Next month sees us face PSG for the first time in the 4th of our four games, until then, happy reading!

Some really good wins in there, esp. away to Monaco!

Yeah I couldn't be happier, wasn't expecting much going into the game but it turned out really well!

Not to be "that guy" but I'm blinded by that yellow text for a draw, other than that good work, KIU!

A French football magazine's article on our new midfielder

A mixed month

Not a bad month, not a great month. It was basically what I was expecting from us - except with different results against different teams. 4 games this month, let's jump in.

Toulouse FC 2-1 EAG
A good result, comfortably outclassing EAG in most aspects, 2 quick goals in the first half gave us the lead, before they pulled one back near the end mainly due to me fiddling with tactics (bad idea). Still, the result I was looking for and continued our unbeaten run.


Stade Rennais FC 3-1 Toulouse FC
Really disappointing, I would almost say unlucky. We took the lead in the 57th minute through a nice strike from close range from Jimmy Durmaz, but then for some stupid reason Jullien decided to concede TWO penalties within ten minutes. After that we completely let go of the game and they scored one late from a deflection from a corner to rub it in. Unbeaten streak over, and was hoping for a better result.


FC Toulouse 1-0 OM
A good way to turn around from the Rennais result - beating OM! A decent performance, we had the possession (just) and OM had the shots (just) but we just scraped through when Andy Delort confidently converted a penalty into the bottom right in the 85th minute. Good result, I tried a 4-2-3-1 for the first half of the game then defaulted back to the 4-1-2-3 for the second half which seemed to work better. Good result.


PSG 3-0 Toulouse FC
I was expecting nothing from this game due to PSG consistently beating every other team in the league 4-0 or 5-0, but we performed surprisingly well until we had a man sent off. Despite the Neymar goal, before the 71st minute we were actually playing quite well, keeping the majority of the possession and having a few chances, although once we had 10 men we collapsed and let two more goals in. Overall not anything less than I expected, no upsets here.


OTHER NEWS:
Corentin Jean went out on loan (he just wasn't playing), we drew LOSC in the Coupe de la Ligue, my job security is untouchable, and I got a new contract!


LADDER:


PLAYER OF THE MONTH:
The only real standout (imho) was our goalkeeper -

Alban Lafont

Some solid performances - he really saved us in the OM game, coming up with some spectacular saves and, despite the score, played very well in the PSG game.

Overall, a decent month. Hopefully next month we can continue to cement our position near the top of the table! Until then, happy reading!