From Zero to Hero: Succeeding a Legend

From Zero to Hero: Succeeding a Legend

After a horrid run of form at the end of the 2016/17 season, Liverpool decided to part ways with unpopular manager Jurgen Klopp and turned to a younger face in Retro Retroson. "Who?" The media ask surprised and after all, why would a top 6 team hire someone essentially off the streets? Anyway, Retro Retroson is in, and his work is cut out for him.

Amidst an injury crisis to the midfield where Adam Lallana is currently injured and Emre Can is suffering from a recurring problem, Retroson looked to the u23s and u18s for help, following the rise of youngsters such as Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ben Woodburn. He identified a potential future star in the form of Neil Ferguson, a 16 year old who idolised Steven Gerrard and has wanted to follow his footsteps ever since he was 8. Ferguson has impressed during u18 matches and finished last season with 5 goals and 9 assists in 24 games for Liverpool's u18 side. Ferguson's role will be to sit on the bench during pre-season and be a rotation option in case of injuries.

Meet Neil:



Back to Liverpool as a whole, this is a leak of the tactic that new manager Retro Retroson has supposedly opted to use:



We caught up with Retroson to chat with him about this leak, to get his thoughts and to see if it's true. "Unfortunately, yes this is true. As much as I'd like to think my staff wouldn't leak private information it appears someone has. However, this is good because now you'll know what to expect from my team, our main goal is to utilise the wingers and their ability to cut inside, with Firmino holding up the ball and Wijnaldum covering for the wingers when they wish to get forward. I believe that with the right signings we can push on and achieve our dreams."

Apart from a loss against Wolves pre-season went well, with Retroson using the games as an opportunity to rotate his squad and try out some young players. Young midfielder Neil Ferguson unfortunately did not make an appearance, sitting on the bench in every game.



Join me tomorrow as I do a transfer round-up and show you the games from August and September! These are my upcoming fixtures:

Good luck with this!

Good introduction. Have a good challenge

From Zero to Hero: Succeeding a Legend - End of August

A whole month has passed since we last spoke, and what a month it's been! There have been 4 major signings coming into Liverpool and 1 major outgoing player which manager Retro Retroson has publicly stated will be some of the best players in the league this season.

Retroson identified four problematic positions with a severe lack of depth or quality, opting to splash the cash on a new striker, right-back, centre-midfielder and goalkeeper. With this, he decided to bring in Allison from Roma for an initial £18.5m, Fekir from Lyon for an initial £29m, Hysaj from Napoli for an initial £17m and Milinkovic-Savic from Lazio for an initial £44.5m. In terms of outgoings, Adam Bogdan left for Cruz Azul in a deal worth £3.8m, Ragnar Klavan joined PSG for £6.5m and Danny Ings traded Anfield for the Britannia Stadium, joining Stoke City for an initial £15.5m.



On deadline day we caught up with Retroson for his thoughts on the transfer window. "I'm glad we managed to finalise these deals, players such as Fekir and Milinkovic-Savic are perfect going forward and will take us to the next level, whereas Allison and Hysaj will solidify our defence and win games alone. I pride myself on great defence and with these additions we should be pushing for the title come May. We also asked him what he thought of some of the major deals around England, with Azpilicueta swapping Chelsea for Barcelona in a deal worth £41.5m and ex-Liverpool player Iago Aspas joining Man City from Celta Vigo for £35.5m. To be honest, I think Man City have made a mistake signing Aspas. He's a great player but where will he fit in? They're stacked across the entire attack and midfield and there'll be no room for him. Who will Guardiola drop? However, Chelsea have made a massive mistake in letting Azpilicueta go. He was the source of most of their assists last season and he had great chemistry with the rest of the squad, he's more than just clean sheets. Without Azpilicueta, I think they'll struggle to finish in the top 4.

During August, Liverpool showed their quality by rising to see off Watford (after going a goal down early on) and Crystal Palace in the league, and beating Club Brugge twice in the Champions League Best Placed Playoff and also drawing with Arsenal back in the Premier League. Retroson was nominated for the Manager of the Month award, ultimately finishing 3rd behind Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola. New signing Allison has kept 2 clean sheets from 3 league games, and 2 clean sheets from 2 Champions League games, showing Liverpool were right to spend almost £20m on him.



And finally, Liverpool found out their Carabao Cup opponents and their Champions League Group Stage opponents towards the end of the month. The first draw was the Carabao Cup, where Liverpool will visit Bristol City on September 19th in the 3rd Round. After this, Liverpool were confirmed to be facing Borussia Dortmund, Shakhtar Donetsk and Sporting CP in the Champions League Group stage, kicking off the stage away at Sporting on September 13th.



Thanks for reading this update, please make sure to join me in a couple of days for September's update!

A solid start retro, good to see you on here writing!

Good signings and a good start !

From Zero to Hero: Succeeding a Legend - September

September didn't get off to a good start, with Liverpool manager Retro Retroson receiving this email:



This email came only a week before Retroson was planning on handing him his debut against Sporting in the Champions League, looking ahead at a chance to rotate his side after a crucial away day at the Etihad stadium. This was not what Retroson had wanted to see, given Adam Lallana's current injury, which now leaves him with a barebones midfield.

So onto the results. Liverpool kicked off September with that away trip to Manchester City, losing 3-1 in an uninspired performance with no real quality across the players. Mo Salah scored Liverpool's only goal of the afternoon, however Joel Matip did appear on the scoresheet with his 7th minute own goal, setting the tone of the game for Liverpool. They never really looked like coming back from this, letting Sergio Aguero double the lead in the 17th minute, with ex-Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling adding a third in the 21st minute. Andy Robertson's 60th minute red card was the icing on the cake for Liverpool in a game they will look to forget instantly.

Four days later Liverpool travelled to Sporting CP for their first Champions League group stage game, hoping to bounce back from that awful game in Manchester and get back to winning ways. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Retroson decided to stick with the same team in a major risk which didn't pay off, with former Red Sebastiàn Coates opening the scoring in the 9th minute with a beautiful header, and only 7 minutes later Stefan Ristovski added a 2nd. Piling on more misery for Liverpool, Bas Dost converted a penalty in the 42nd minute leaving Liverpool staring down the barrel of a 3-0 loss before half time. Luckily, James Milner popped up with a goal straight from kickoff, reducing the deficit to only 2 goals in yet another embarrassing game. Emre Can's red card 7 minutes after half time ended all hopes Liverpool would've had at a comeback and ultimately the game ended 3-1.

Retroson made 2 changes going into the next game, a home match against Burnley, with Hysaj and Robertson dropping out for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alberto Moreno in a tactical gamble that paid off in the end with the Reds running out 2-0 winners. Next up was the Carabao Cup 3rd round trip to Bristol City, with a rotated squad winning 3-0. Back in the Premier League, an away trip to former champions Leicester City awaited, with the same team that faced Burnley drawing 2-2, Firmino and Milner scoring the goals.

The last game of September saw Liverpool face Shakhtar Donetsk at Anfield in their 2nd Champions League Group Stage match which was a must win for Retroson given what happened in the opening game. Retroson made one change to the team that drew at Leicester, bringing Robertson back into the team ahead of Moreno. It was a pretty boring game with very little chances for about 50 minutes, but half time substitute Fekir (substituted on for Firmino) finally broke the deadlock in the 56th minute and opened up the game a lot during the 2nd half. In the 75th minute he doubled the lead with his 2nd goal of the game, and finally hit his hat-trick in the 87th minute after Shakhtar gave away a silly penalty, showing his worth to the Liverpool faithful. Wijnaldum, another substitute, latched onto a great chance in the 91st minute to take the final score to 4-0, showing Liverpool really mean business after all.



The table isn't looking too good for Liverpool at the end of September, with the Reds sitting 7th after 6 games (with a game in hand) with a 3-2-1 record. However, a win against Newcastle at St James' Park on October 1st could propel them into the top 4, so look out for tomorrow's update...

From Zero to Hero: Succeeding a Legend - October

Ah October, the month of Pumpkins, Spice and 14 year olds going crazy when Starbucks run out of their signature lattes. The best month of the year for some, the worst for others. Young midfielder Neil Ferguson would be part of the former group, having finally made his professional debut for Liverpool this month.

Lets start with that big night for the 17 year old. Liverpool were going into their 3rd Champions League Group Stage game, against Borussia Dortmund at home, with a bit of an injury crisis which meant the youngster had to occupy a spot on the bench again, with the whole team looking a little different due to the injuries. Retroson opted to start Wijnaldum in place of Serbian powerhouse Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Emre Can in place of Jordan Henderson who were in dire need of a rest, with Ferguson occupying that midfielder slot on the bench as to avoid injuries to the star midfielders. Elsaid Hysaj also made his return to the starting 11 at right-back and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain started ahead of Mo Salah who was nursing a slight knock.

The game started a bit slow and the entire team looked a bit sluggish for the first 20 minutes, with Dortmund showing their strength in attack and putting pressure on Liverpool's defence, but they hung on and eventually found their feet, picking up pace and getting back into the game, creating multiple clear cut chances before half time. Both teams will feel that they should've been a goal or two up before half time, but it remained goalless at the break. In the 53rd minute Georginio Wijnaldum was substituted for future star Neil Ferguson, who made his official debut for Liverpool with this appearance. He started his Anfield career brightly, bombing forward and creating 2 chances for the front 3 to latch onto, which unfortunately didn't happen but still ultimately showed his class to be able to come on as a sub and influence the game. Unfortunately, he picked up a slight injury which did slow him down as he tried to avoid hurting himself even more in the dying stages of the game. Meanwhile, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had taken the lead with a neat finish in the 74th minute, slotting home coolly after cutting inside from the right flank. Overall, it was a great debut for Neil who will look back on this opportunity and wonder what he might've managed had he played the entire game.



Back to Liverpool as a whole, October was a good month for the club. It started with their game in hand against Newcastle United with a chance to go into the top 4 again, with Liverpool running out 3-1 winners to make sure they start the month in the top 4. Next up was a home game against Manchester United, with Man Utd racing into a 2-0 lead within 25 minutes. Liverpool never really looked like getting back into the game, struggling with United's pressure, until Mo Salah struck in the 39th minute to reduce the deficit to just 1 goal.

Trent Alexander-Arnold's 61st minute red card looked to have ended Liverpool's chances of a comeback and fans were starting to pile out of the stadium early because of the shocking display as a whole by the team, but in the 94th minute a new hero revealed himself in the form of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, latching onto a long ball and volleying past De Gea in exceptional style to salvage a point against all odds.

The next game saw Liverpool take on Dortmund in the Champions League which as stated earlier ended as a 1-0 win to the Reds, with the real show being Neil Ferguson's debut. Back in the Premier League, Liverpool ended their 4 match unbeaten run with a 1-0 loss away at Spurs, with Eric Dier scoring a 93rd minute winner. Liverpool will surely look back and think they deserved at least a point, having held the league leaders until the very last seconds. However, they did bounce back with a 2-0 home win over Man Utd in the Carabao Cup 3 days later, with Firmino scoring a brace to get revenge against United after that 2-2 home draw. Finally, Liverpool welcome Huddersfield to Anfield in a must-win game against the recently promoted side due to the gap opened with that Spurs loss. Goals from Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino (2) secured a 3-0 win to reduce the gap back to 3 points as Spurs drew 0-0 with Man Utd, giving Liverpool a chance to catch up and overtake Spurs eventually.



With these results, Liverpool are currently sitting 2nd in the Premier League after 10 games, with a 5-3-2 record and 18 points, 3 points behind Spurs and 1 point ahead of Man City who have a game in hand. Join me in a couple of days to see what happens in November...

Looking forward to seeing how he progresses

From Zero to Hero: Succeeding a Legend - November

November was a great month for Liverpool, despite Sadio Mane picking up a 4-6 month injury against Sporting CP, with the club going unbeaten in their 6 fixtures across the Premier League and Champions League.

It started with a trip to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League group stage, having beaten Dortmund 1-0 at home, which started very badly for the reds. Retroson handed a first start to young midfielder Neil Ferguson in a rotated team after the impression he left against Dortmund at home. Dortmund came out with the intention to attack straight away and pile pressure on Liverpool, which worked with Gonzalo Castro taking an early lead in the 15th minute. Dortmund came close to making it 2-0 in the 24th minute and they really should've put the game to bed. Liverpool held on and took the game into half time with the score still 1-0. Whatever Retroson said in the dressing room must've worked, with Liverpool coming out and instantly getting a chance to equalise through half time substitute Roberto Firmino in the 47th minute. Dortmund cleared shakily and Liverpool, sensing the nerves, went straight back up the pitch and got the ball to Firmino, who cooly headed home to equalise in the 50th minute. The momentum suddenly shifted and Liverpool were on the front foot, pushing forward and pressuring Dortmund's defence at all times. Minutes later, Mo Salah was tripped in the box and Liverpool were awarded a penalty. Young right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold stepped up and sliced it past Bürki to turn the game around and make it 1-2.

Neil Ferguson had a quiet game however, making 3 key passes and getting an average rating of 6.8 but never really influenced the game at all. After their 2nd goal, Liverpool threw everything into defending the lead while Dortmund sensed the opportunity to attack, but ultimately failed to take their chances and Liverpool held on in the end.

Up next was an away trip to the London Stadium, with Liverpool struggling and only coming away with a point. Javier Hernandez took the lead in the 14th minute which was eventually cancelled out by a Phil Jagielka own goal in the 39th minute. Chances were rare for Liverpool with star winger Mo Salah sitting out due to an injury picked up against Dortmund, and West Ham made it worse for Liverpool by injuring Roberto Firmino with a cynical tackle from Angelo Ogbonna who was lucky to not receive a red card. After this, Liverpool welcomed Southampton to Anfield after the international break and ran out 2-0 winners, with Firmino scoring a brace to seal the win. Mo Salah was back on the bench was was an unused substitute with the team playing very well. Neil Ferguson was also welcomed back to the starting 11, having sat out at West Ham, and had a shocker of a game, picking up a yellow card and not influencing the game before being subbed off at half time. Jordan Henderson also received two yellow cards which will force him to sit out the next league game, Chelsea at home.

Fresh off of that Southampton win, Liverpool faced Sporting CP at home in their penultimate Champions League group stage game and were looking for revenge after that 3-1 loss at the Estádio José Alvalade Século XXI. Liverpool came out with some beautiful football and made Sporting pay early on, taking a 24th minute lead through Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. Firmino then doubled the lead just before half time with a neat finish in the 43rd minute and took the game into half time at 2-0. Bas Dost pulled a goal back in the 54th minute, but ultimately it wasn't enough as Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored twice more and Jordan Henderson put the game to bed, with the game ending 5-1 and Liverpool qualifying for the Champions League Round of 16 in 1st. Neil Ferguson had a much better game today, making 4 key passes and created 2 chances before being taken off at half time due to a slight knock.



Back in the league Liverpool faced Chelsea at Anfield in a game they had to win if they wanted to remain in the top 4. Chelsea got off to a flyer with Alvaro Morata scoring a beautiful goal in the 19th minute with Liverpool backing away from the challenge in the defensive third. Manager Retro Retroson was very frustrated at this on the touchline, shouting at his players to stick to the shape and close down players before it's too late. It wasn't until after half time that Liverpool would finally get back into the game, scoring an equaliser through Mo Salah in the 47th minute against all odds. After this, Liverpool picked up the pace and turned the game around, taking the lead in the 55th minute through Mo Salah again. After this, the game died down and there weren't many chances until the 90th minute, when Salah popped up for a third time and made it 3-1 with his hat-trick. Ethan Ampadu pulled a goal back from kickoff, but that proved to be the last kick of the game. Neil Ferguson once again had a very quiet game, not registering a single key pass or chance created before once again being taken off in the 45th minute.

Liverpool's final game of November was a cold rainy night in stoke trip to Stoke City in mid-week which might as well have not been played, the only major highlight was Andy Robertson going off injured in the 85th minute. Neither side really had any clear cut chances in what was a drab affair for both teams. Firmino came close once but Jack Butland rushed out and met the ball before there was any real danger. Neil Ferguson registered 2 key passes in a game which he played the full 90 minutes but unfortunately neither led to anything and the game ended 0-0.



So this leaves the table like this at the start of December (unfortunately I'd played an extra game which you will see in the next update), Liverpool are sitting in 3rd after dropping points twice in November, but they're only 1 point behind first and second thanks to their unbeaten run. Check back tomorrow for December's update!