The Anfield Story

So it begins. I've taken over at Liverpool for a long term save. I've used the data update to get most of the summer transfers included and the league restructures.

So in terms of my squad for the upcoming season we can start with my transfers. I have only made 3 summer signings, but they each set me back a fair amount.



After Liverpool's failed attempts in real life to sign Zielinski and Dahoud I decided to scout them and then managed to negotiate a fee to bring them to the club. Central midfielders are key to me and these two both have the potential to grow and become solid first team players. I'm likely to loan one of them out for the season and keep the other on the bench and play in a rotation format, but that still needs to be finalised. My final signing was that of Garcia from Bremen II. He is a 19 year old left back who comes in as quite highly regarded for the future. We currently have Alberto Moreno as our first choice left back but I will be hoping to get him some game time on his first season at Anfield where possible.



In terms of outgoing transfers there was a lot of them. We managed to recoup around £40 million from the transfers themselves, meaning we actually made money in the transfer market.



There were 5 permanent transfers and the rest were all loan deals. Those going out on loan have done so with the idea of returning and being reassessed at the end of the season. Those moving on were Lazar Markovic, who didn't really fit the bill and I was quite happy to get an £11 million fee for him at this stage. Martin Skrtel has also left us and moves on to Fiorentina for a £4.5 million fee. Balotelli also didn't feature in my plans and we were able to part ways with him and he joined PSG for £5 million. The highest transfer fee on the outgoings was that of Lucas who joined Valencia for £15 million. He didn't really fit in to my plans in central midfield, especially with the two new additions in that position, it made sense. Finally, Joe Allen departed for £5 million, despite me rating him as a player, he wasn't going to get the game time he wanted and so it was right to let him go.

As I am writing this having started the season, I will show you the results and then what the team looks like currently.



The opening game of the new season saw us travel to Leicester City. A tricky first fixture in truth but a comfortable one in the end thanks to Sadio Mane and his first two goals for the club. We followed this up with another away fixture, this time at Tottenham, but the scoreline was the same as Danny Ings and Coutinho fired us to a 2-1 victory. Not an ideal first home fixture as we suffered a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in a game where Roberton Firmino fired us in to the lead before Frazer Campbell scored the winner in the 89th minute. I named a strong side to face Nottingham Forest in the Capital One Cup and a solid all round performance saw us progress as 4-1 victors. The final game of August saw us visit Sunderland and a composed performance saw us home with goals from Danny Ings and Roberto Firmino.



September was a faltering month for us, although it wasn't that bad, I would have expected better. We started with Watford at home and a rather drab performance ended in a 1-1 draw with Danny Ings once again getting on the score sheet. I'm not sure what it is about the smaller teams but we just can't perform against them and it showed as we lost 2-1 to newly promoted Middlesbrough. We did have some positives as we progressed to the next round of the Capital One Cup after defeating Blackburn 3-2. The month ended on a positive with a good 2-2 draw against Chelsea at Anfield.



October was a month of 2 halves. We started positively by beating Hull 4-1 away from home and keeping up with the top 4. We then welcomed Southampton to Anfield and we dispatched them 4-1 with a good team performance. Manchester City were too good for us as we fell to a 2-1 defeat at the Etihad. The month ended on a downer as we got knocked out of the Capital One Cup at the hands of Tottenham who scraped over the line in a 3-2 loss.



November was a lot more positive for us. We now have just the Premier League and the FA Cup to focus on after being dumped out of the Capital One Cup. Sadio Mane inspired us to a derby day victory over Everton with a 3-1 scoreline at Anfield. We then had to travel to Arsenal where we received our first real embarrassing result of the season. We were outplayed in all departments and didn't turn up. We then welcomed West Brom and turned them over 4-0 before travelling to Burnely and taking them down 3-0.

Looks good so far! I have done a few Liverpool saves myself and I am interested to see how yours turns out. You seem to have got Danny Ings scoring a few goals, I always found it difficult to get him to score in my saves. So it would be interesting to find out what tactics you are using when you are playing him. I am also interested to know how Adam Lallana features in your team, I always found it difficult to give him a starting place as he lacks physical ability.

F*ck, PSG signed Mario Balotelli? They'd sign anyone @Manno when the AI manages them.

Gotta love PSG and their love of buying unwanted players for decent money! Surprised you got £15mill for Lucas.

Ings seems to have had a good start to your season, maybe that's where Klopp is going wrong irl!