Eric Portapotty - Comments

i.e. Is it only going to be FM18 Start Dates that are available from now on?

The thread was 90% Terriersmad ranting that's why

Fuck man, Skacel needs to come back.

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

Jkjk, good luck and have fun with this

Sorry Deano, but Koeman can go fuck himself.

Mads Mikkelsen is smooth.

Welp, so the US are out.

Uncle Sam must be crying himself to sleep now.

You bought Hazard? Why? He's not fully fit isn't he?

Congrats on your first referee rant in the PL thread

I'm just surprised PA isn't back yet, since Brighton are in the PL and all.

For fuck's sake we were linked with Lemar for half that earlier in the window.

It's all smoke and mirrors this shit, while Kroenke funnels the Chamberlain money to build his new fucking stadium in fucking Los fucking Angeles.

Fucking cunt.

I mean Sterling's just another guy who will want out when the opportunity arises, and Kroenke probably just sees him as another asset that he can sell at a profit a few years down the road.

Not that beggars can be choosers...

Was pretty classy of Welbeck to miss it tbf

Bit of trouble with Darmstadt, hopefully you can get them out of this rut.

Liking the story style though, very nice touch on the conversations.

KUTGW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijs8ncZjy3w

Right, I hope you'll forgive the shoddy production, and I'll greatly appreciate any advice and feedback from you guys.

Cheers!

Why do papers keep linking us with Turan? Punching a 70-year old reporter and half-arsing the subsequent apology is about the unlikeliest Wenger signing imaginable.

Oh and he's 30.

In other news... Well there's no other news.

Thanks for the support, much appreciated.

I'm actually looking to try my hand at a video series, and learn a bit of video editing/recording and stuff in the process - you know, make something productive out of my addiction to FM. And getting FM17 was supposed to be a fresh start.

But I've dabbled a bit on 17 and I'm probably too used to 14, so most of the time the time I'm trying to look for things rather than actually playing. So I dunno, do I start afresh with an FM17 career, or stick with this one? And do I go with video?

We'll give Shakespeare's swashbuckling counterattacking side a shock win, don't worry about that.

May 2044

You'd think that after suffering a broken leg of his own Conte would know better than trying to snap someone else's in two. But no, he went in hard an earned himself an early bath.
At least Nikolaou gave us a bit of hope by winning and scoring the penalty for the lead, and though we weren't able to keep the lead for long, playing reactively gave us the opportunity to run at Sociedad's defence, with Cagigas scoring the winner on one such run onto Nikolaou's through pass.

Oh and Conte got another 2 matches on top of his automatic game ban, ruling him out for the season - fantastic.



Getting wrecked in the CL my Real didn't do our ambitions any favours, so for this game it was all about sitting back and defending, all the way.
And it sort of worked, given that we did get 2 goals for it, though Bouadam was never going to beat Guler in the air on the end of crosses, leading to Guler having a brace of his own.
Lots of defending ensued in the 2nd half, before we ran away with a hell of a smash-and-grab with a corner that Arias diverted into his own net.



Vintage Nikolaou on show, alas it was few and far between this season.
At least the hat-trick brought him to double figures in the league, which would normally have been achieved about 5 months ago.
More importantly, we've racked up another run of wins in the business end of the season, and with relegation-threatened Huesca ahead in the final game of the season we could probably end on a positive note.



Absolutely typical - 3 straight wins, up against a side that's in danger of going down, and we concede 2 inside 10 minutes.
Rubbish performance from us, exacerbated by the fact that we were still in the thick of a Europa League chase with 3 other sides, and the nerves got to us evidently.
But our quality did eventually shine through, not least the scoring ability of Nikolaou.
Much less was expected of Otal when he came on for the Greek striker, but how apt it is that it was he who scored the equaliser, and the last goal of our campaign at that - previously going on a 3-month goal drought, wilting at vital points of the season, only to pop up to scrape a hard-fought draw.



A single point separating 5th and 8th, which goes to show how much of a nailbiter the Huesca game was.
Somehow we managed to sneak into 5th, after only Sevilla of the other 3 sides managed to win their games, and they were at the bottom of this queue at the start of this final day.
But alas we finished 4 points behind Barca, something that will stick out about this season after our depressing collapse in the latter months of what was initially a promising season.

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Anyway, with regards to FM17... Well watch this space.

April 2044

Count on us to provide a good rebound for a Valencia side having bombed their way out of top spot with a stretch of form comparable to our in the past month or so.
Seriously, what's the point of a back 3 when none of them will track a man when faced with a cross?



Again, what's the point of the back 3 if it can't handle 2 strikers? Shocking stuff.
Roska's goal was little more than fluke, a wayward cross bouncing off the keeper's clutches into an open net. Nikolaou's was far better though, skinning his marker to slot home emphatically - though for what purpose, at that point we were already 4-2 down and not looking stable at all.



Cagigas fired home a spectacular opener, one that won the Goal of the Week, but it was clear we were jaded from the terrible form and struggled to play with the flow that we were capable of. Then Perez diverted another cross into his own net - we have been completely shit with defending crosses as of late.
2nd half saw us continue to plug away at Numancia, but Otal continued his TWO MONTH scoring drought with some hopeless finishing - absolutely shocking that he's not yet had double figures this season, then again he's never hit double figures in La Liga, his best season being the 18-goal Toulouse campaign. But damn has he been shite.
But I digress - Perez eventually made up for his OG with a proper one after some setpiece pinball, before Alava made it safe with one of his trademark freekicks.



Another shocking, shocking game - Infantes and Rincon pulled our backline out of position every time they had the ball and they were making runs into open spaces whenever the other dragged one of the back 3 out of position, truly sickening stuff.
And all this with Sanchez de la Calle 'marshalling' the defence, hard to control a backline when you're a shambles yourself.



Absolutely rubbish, with this form we don't deserve European football.
Well I say that, but with the Copa del Rey final between Real and Atleti 7th place is not a European spot, and I'll definitely want to be in Europe than not.

We are still in European competition though:



Again, a wobbly start from Barca, but this time we actually put them to the sword for it.
The 2nd half saw them threaten to stage an unlikely comeback, but at least we stemmed the tide before they did any more damage to the scoreline.

The semis had us up against Real - look away if you don't want to be traumatised (I did):



The 1st half was as follows: We can't shoot for shit, they can.
And by the 2nd half the hopelessness of the situation took its toll and another 2 strikes made it nigh on impossible for us to make it to the Final.
So as was the case against Juve last season, a B-Team was fielded in the return leg:



Bit of a disastrous start, a bleak performance overall, but hey at least the tangible result wasn't as bad as the 1st leg, where all the starters played mind you.

But whatever, this season has been a disaster and this is only another layer on this cake of shit.

Yeah everyone lost the plot in the return leg, was a shame.

(I've actually got my hands on FM17 (about 7 months too late tbh) so I'm not sure whether I'll continue with this save - watch this space)

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March 2044

(How do you say "We got absolutely dicked" in Spanish?)
Betis featured a 3-man central midfield with some of the most physical players in the league, spearheaded by Caro who is blessed with all of height, pace and strength and was having a fantastic season so far.
So it was probably not wise to play a 2 men up against their 3, and definitely not 2 30-overs including an Alava (bless him) who has always been more brains than brawn.
So while we were dominating possession it rarely passed the halfway line, while Betis would overpower us in the centre and break forwards, often 5v3.
So I tried to play one of the CMs down to DM, and eventually went into a 4-1-3-2 in a bid to stem the swarm of CMs, but that only left our centrebacks without a spare man against another pair of physically all-rounded strikers, and they simply took over the counterattacks.
All in all, absolutely dicked.



No more central midfield trio of bruisers, should be an easier time for the back 3 - or so I thought.
Di Meo (who by now has been converted into an LCB-type of player no unlike Monreal at Arsenal) had Masrchlich to deal with, and needless to say he utterly failed at that.
Being beaten for sheer pace for his 1st then losing him for the 2nd, the Italian did not impress with his defending.
It was another Italian centreback who put the game out of reach though, Delmorgine taking advantage of some set piece chaos.



Not quite as bad as our Copa del Rey capitulation, but still a bleak performance from us.
But to be honest we should not have lost 5-1, we didn't do well but that last 5 minutes was another level of awful.



Unfortunately for Villareal we sorely needed a boost after our worst run of form this season, and this time their shot-stopper wasn't able to save them.
1st half was a bit flat as we looked like we were still licking our wounds, so some choices works at the break seemed to wake the guys up and they proceeded to vent their frustration at the poor Yellow Submarine.



So we're still clinging on to a European spot, only this time it's the Europa League spot that we'll now have to defend.
But that's 4 points separating 4th from 9th, so there's a hell lot to play for both ways.

Enough with the depressing goings-on in La Liga though, we've got something else to hunt:



I was expecting City to take advantage of our poor form and morale and go through, and that pessimism only increased when they took the lead with 75+ minutes to go.
But their shooting was so off throughout the match - we'd set up shop to defend and have them come at us, but most of the time all they did was take potshots from outside the area, and barely any effort was made to pick apart our defensive block.
We found a morale-boosting equaliser late in the game which only intensified City's efforts to rinse and repeat their wayward attempts from downtown, and that was eventually that.

Next up? Barca - great:



Tense game, as shown by the relative lack of shots from both sides and the goalless 1st half, and only Canedo's goal (off a corner no less) managed to spark some life into the game.
Roska then came on, and as skilled as he was on the ball he was not the speediest guy around, which made it all the more surprising that he was bundled down in the box - he wasn't going to go anywhere regardless.
Cagigas then put the icing on the cake, rushing onto a loose ball to tap into an empty net.

OK enough of on-field stuff, now to the new batch of youngsters:





Honestly the last thing I needed was a goalkeeper - we've got 3 top class stoppers that (barring disaster) will last us the next decade or so, so unfortunately I expect him to go down the same way many a youth goalkeeper has gone through the club - sit in the U19s, then sit at the B-Team, then leave the club having wasted his younger years at the club what will in all likelihood never need his services.
So I'll look to sell him.

February 2044

Should've lost this unfortunately, the past month or so seemed to take a lot out of us and the rotation didn't help either.
But fancy it being the one guy who didn't partake in the January squeeze to save a point - Koska's wicked cross from wide left sneaking in to the near post.
It was an effort that Roberto Carlos would've been proud of, but not even Koska could claim that as a shot on goal with a straight face.



Well it's been coming, and at least we didn't lose by a dodgy goal or something, but we lost deservedly.
We showed desperately little cohesiveness in attack and while Granada were little better they did at least produce the goods when needed, Parrales proving to be our bane once again.
Unlike our first encounter though, we weren't able to find a way back into the game.



Business resumed for the most part, as another under-strength side was fielded but was enough to dispatch of Celta 2-0.
Apparently Beorlegui scored his first league goal (must've been a mistake, I'll have to look that up) and Demirev again made the most of his marauding runs forward with another strike.



Our stuttering league form continues (and thankfully ends) for the month, with another draw at home to Depor.
Roska popped up with another goal, this time a more conventional effort - another forward run which was spotted by Zhong, who supplied the ball for him to smash home on the volley. It was a great goal, even won Goal of the Week.
But we had little else to show in the way of tangible outcomes, and it was Depor who fired the next salvo, and that was how it stayed till the final whistle.



A blip this month saw us drop to 4th, and the lowest piece of meat hanging above the sharks of Granada(!), Betis and Barca.
We can't afford to go into another run of draw again that much I know.

What I do know is we had a semifinal clash in the Copa del Rey, up against Atletico no less:



We definitely rode our luck here, they were camped in our half at times and only awful shooting prevented them from grabbing an away goal or two.
Not so for us, who despite not doing much more found ourselves 3 goals up going into the return leg.



A role reversal at Madrid, though it was much more of the capital side reverting to type and playing us off the park for the first time this season.
Nikolaou was a peripheral figure so we couldn't count on him, but the backline was all over the place here, particularly in the latter stages of the game where oddly enough we kept finding ourselves understaffed on the break, despite not playing with much ambition anyway.
It should've been at least 6 the way they were carving us up, but we made it all the way to penalties, where Szeman (regular penalty taker and brought on specifically for pens) missed his first effort. And that was that.
On hindsight I shouldn't have listened to my asst man, who wanted to go with attacking match prep - Nikolaou's not much of a pace merchant was shut out of the game easily, while Atleti's attack should never have been taken lightly.

Finally, the big one - the CL knockouts:



I was expecting us to crumble after we'd lost the lead, but credit to the players for pushing on for a famous win.
Cagigas led the line fantastically in his false-nine role - his goals weren't the most inspirational (a tap-in from inside the 6-yard box and poaching on an underhit backpass) but he also assisted Panagiotou and spearheaded attacks admirably.
The away goal's quite a bummer, but there's only so much we could do when up against 3 central strikers eh (even if their goal was from their midfielder).

Yeah, both being bankrolled by tycoons in the past few years or so.


Ehh, I love the stability inb4 "strong and stable" and I've never been really fond of leaving clubs - might be a bit of Wenger rubbing off me.
And I've got a sneaky feeling that next year's squad could be the best I've had thus far, with lots of players coming back from loan and a few of the deadwood being shipped out.

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January 2044

Some way to start the new year, a trip to the Santiago Bernabeu Peruzzi Arena, named after Gino Peruzzi of all people.
We did threaten, but only sporadically on the counter, as Real played like a team like Real Madrid playing at home should.
Our opener came after Cagigas showed some proper aggression and won the ball off one of their hapless centrebacks to race through and finish, but it had to be on virtually the next attack that we were pegged back.
Still, could've been much worse, and coming back from the capital with a point is almost always a point earned.



Ah this one we definitely cocked up, looked thoroughly uncomfortable in the 1st half as Vicente ran riot on our right flank and eventually scored the opener.
After a round of rollicking in the dressing room the guys came out to put in an improved shift, Otal showing some proper grit in particular with a brace.
Still, it's undeniably 2 points dropped.



Bilbao have been going with a generic 4-4-2 for a while now, and with our 3-6-1 we looked to exploit their space between the lines - sometimes it doesn't really work as their quality shines through, but this time it did, and then some.
One aspect of the 3-6-1 was our wingbacks bombing forwards regularly, and it paid dividends with Bouadam getting a brace and Demirev having an assist of his own.



I should add at this point that the squad was not in the best of health (as you'll understand at the end of all this) so it was a rotated team on the day.
But even then we comfortably outplayed a struggling Espanyol side, with youth product and DM Oliver popping up on the break to fire home the opener.
A bit of a dodgy period then followed as we struggle to keep the ball, needed to keep our wits together all while still being a threat on the break.
It finally took substitute Schultz to head in the 2nd goal to give us the vital breathing space, as we continue our unbeaten run.



By this stage we were really on the ropes fitness-wise, and thankfully we were up against a Recreativo side destined for relegation and without their(our) sixteen year old loanee centreback - shows you the state of the rest of their team.
But they did nick a draw earlier in the season, and judging by the scoreline you'd think they were close to another scalp.
I would agree, but only by virtue of our profligacy - they scored with their only shot on target, while we dominated proceedings well enough to warrant at least double our well, double.



4 ahead of Atleti, and crucially 5 ahead of Betis in 5th, which is as good as I can hope for given this month, which has already seen 5 league games.
Oh yeah, there's more:



6 months after arriving at the club with damaged cruciates on tow, Gordillo finally made his debut.
It was a virtuoso from the team, with the Colombian serving up 2 assists for Nikolaou's first-half hat trick.
It was annoying to not keep the clean sheet after the game we had, but oh well you can't have them all.



An even more rotated team started this, but with the quality of NIkolaou still present we would have to completely capitulate to lose this tie.
Vulovic is a guy signed to make up the numbers for the B-Team so he's not relevant in the greater scheme of things, but it goes to show how we had to maintain the squad this month. And it was a goal on his debut too, which was nice.
Nikolaou then made it 5 in 2 cup games to extinguish any hope of a comeback.



Huesca might be sitting in the relegation zone in La Liga, but they are at least in La Liga, and it'd be completely daft to underestimate them.
So we didn't - a much less understrength team than the ones put out against Rayo, and it paid dividends with Escobar came up with a hat-trick of his own. Too bad he then picked up a knock and would be ruled out for the rest of the month, which would also turn out be a recurring story.
It has to be said though, either the refs are particularly biased towards us in games against Huesca or the latter has a serious problem with fouls - another red here, this time before the 20 min mark.



Nearly blew it here, though with Otal's injury we might as well have.
The team was not up to scratch, conditioning in particular, and it showed - but you know what they say, all's well that ends well, especially after this hellish month as well.

But this month took a hell lot out of the players, and I feel a look at this shows the extent of our fitness issues:



Anyway, with these injuries we looked to make a few signings - granted I should've signed them way, way earlier than the last week of January (3 of those on deadline day itself no less):



Ghanian CB/RB Addo is set to leave the club after signing a pre-contract with Korean side Ulsan, and Voinea is acquired so we could have a look at him for a permanent deal nest season.
He can't play CB yet and he's not a peach of a defender, but his physicals might just bail him out, and at worst he's only going to be a 3rd choice RB on loan, very little to lose here.



Roska's come in and he's immediately our best LWB apparently, which says as much of our quality in that area.
I could play him there too, despite his lack of speed - a relatively slow wingback could conceivably be helped out by a pacier LCB in a back 3.
But it's for the same reason that I won't dare play him at LB in a back 4, absolute suicide that.



Can play on the wing, can play LCM, so he's already (sort of) solved the injury dilemmas we had for Escobar and Camilo.
But he's obviously complete trash bar his pace and versatility, so he will be the very last resort.



This was made completely on impulse, chances are he won't get any play time for the 1st team now that we already have cover there.
He will however play with the U19s, who have also qualified for the knockouts of the UEFA Youth League.
Not to mention he's got fantastic technical ability, so if he makes something of them in his time here I'll definitely want him for the long term.

Of the outs, Gordillo has gone to Barca on loan to get regular game time (Escobar's still here, and I don't really want to end his stint abruptly).
Funny story, he was actually initially loaned to Valencia (yes league leaders Valencia) and already played a couple of cup games for them, but Valencia bizarrely refused to register him for their La Liga squad - I wasn't having any of that, so I recalled him, offered him out on loan again (where they made another bid!) before going to the Catalans, who were all too happy to make him part of their league squad.

Reading look like a Boro in the making from what I'm seeing, Stam will need to show more ambition if they do win this one.

Aye, the group has been completely mental so far, and that last day will definitely be a cracker no matter the outcome!

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December2043

Sociedad are deep in the relegation battle again, and unfortunately forthem we weren't going to let up on our chase for the top 4.
Nikolaou was quite poor on the day, but the amount of service he got - I don't want to insinuate that he's shit (he's clearly not) but throw enough shit at the wall and some will eventually stick. It's pretty much what happened here, 2 headers from the 6-yard line to give us the win and him the MoTM.
But the highlight of the game had to be Alava's goal, a half-volleyed first-time piledriver from outside the area - might not have as much legs as he did but he does still have the quality.



Huesca are being bankrolled by a Latvian tycoon and dumped quite a bit of cash (for a 2nd tier side) to get promoted.
Alas they were awful here, offering nothing in attack and being so, so careless at the back.
I mean, if both sides had 10 fouls but yours resulted in 2 penalties and a dismissal then you're doing something wrong.
That said we didn't cover ourselves in glory either, should've got more than just 2 goals from the spot.



Onwards we march towards the CL spots, and we now have a sizeable gap over Sevilla in 6th.
But beyond that the table is TIGHT, a point separating Sevilla and Granada in 10th, with an underachieving Barca in between.

I'll leave the CL for the last (it is the climax for this month after all), and we move on to the Copa del Rey:



It was a 2nd/3rd string side yes, but games like these are opportunities to impress and frankly, most of the attackers didn't exactly cover themselves in glory.
Can't say much about the defence, it's a Mallorca side that have fallen to the 3rd division so we should've had the capabilities to deal with them anyway.



Now that's more like it.
Beorlegui was one who did take the chance to impress with 3 in 2 games, so much so that Bilbao and Sevilla have begun sniffing around.
But there wasn't much more to be said here, and we move on.



Rayo.... We used to meet in La Liga in seasons past, and have traded a fair few blows (their Italian battering ram of a striker comes to mind).
But that striker of theirs has gone (to Iran), and they're currently battling the drop from the 2nd division.
Logic says they should be an easy proposition, but this is the cup so no way is this going to be a walk in the park, especially given our history.

Now for the real story - the CL, and Matchday 6:



We've actually done it, the absolute madmen.
In another bizarre case of a big team coming to Oviedo and wilting, both sides played as if it was Freaky Friday, with us completely domination proceedings.
Otal and Gomez ran riot between the lines with their pace, playing off the false 9 of Cagigas, and it was the former 2 that got the opening goal - Otal's shot parried onto the oncoming Gomez who didn't miss.
We then continued (and arguably fail) to look for another goal, all the while looking nervously our shoulders for a United suckerpunch, before Gomez made the game safe - Cagigas this time with the layoff to Gomez whose run into their defensive gap led to his brace.
Alfonso then came forward and nodded in a rebound (from his wingback position no less) to add icing on the cake.



A hell of a group stage, imagine qualifying for the knockouts after losing the 1st 3 games, absolutely mental stuff this.
And yeah like you said Dan, no one on double figures! It's been quite the competitive group, definitely not one that I expected us to make it out of as well as it did.

We also got to know our next opponents for the 1st knockout round:




We've got history, City and us - they did us for 4 in our debut CL outing (at home too), but Otal got back at them with a match-winning brace in the return fixture.
Now the hope is that Sanchez de la Calle will be able to call on his experience to ensure we won't have as porous a backline as we did all those seasons ago.

Welp, goodight guys.

Fucking awful from Koscielny.


I'm not one of them, but y'know, top 4 is no longer in our hands so it's little more than looking at the positives of what we'll probably end up having.

Surely no one's delusional enough to come up with that...

People keep confusing 'languid' with 'lazy'.

Yeah last month was an utter disaster, but the upside is I can't do much worse*.

*Unless I lose all my games of course.

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November 2043

Called it... Rather unfortunately.
And it was a familiar foe who was responsible for our downfall, Curbelo leading the line admittedly superbly as a sole striker in a 4-5-1 and finishing with a brace.
Not so good from Sanchez de la Calle, who was tasked specifically with marking him.



Fantastic start for us, a counterattack led by Otal (and his pace) as he ran at the Barca backline and spread the ball wide to an unlikely goalscorer, the right wingback Demirev.
But that and another effort soon after was to be the extent of our ambitions, if only because Barca eventually forced us back into our own half, and kept us there.
And with that came the leveller, but that was also to be the extent of their shooting effectiveness - fortunately for us.



We finally made an adjustment to our 5-4-1, pushing both DMs to CMs. Did it work? Well it depends.
We were definitely better in attack, as shown by the 5 goals, but we were also susceptible to fast breaks, and Infantes made us pay with his 1st goal.
But by far the bigger problem was defending setpieces - Infantes completed his hat-trick from those and could have had 5 if they weren't cleared off the line.
But you know, a win's a win, and more importantly the goals came back.



We had Numancia on the ropes, we should've scored in the 1st half, we should've capitalised on our opener when we did, and we really, really shouldn't have waited so long for the eventual winner.
But again, that's 3 more points, and another win more that the damned October run.



A pretty good month if I may say so myself, as the loss of our unbeaten run seemed to have removed the shackles and allowed us to play with more freedom.
Surprise package Hercules are still around, and then you've got the likes of Barca and Sevilla who will eventually rise to the top like the shitty floaters they are.

We move on to a lost cause:



Well isn't this a surprise.
PSG weren't reminiscent of Atletico last month, but given how they absolutely hammered us you'd think they would give us a similar time in the return game.
That wasn't to be the case, with Cagigas scoring the 1st goal for us this CL campaign, one that could prove to be the starter of a (admittedly, despite our shitty start) remarkable comeback to the knockout rounds, be it the CL or EL.



THE HYPE IS REAL
Otal finally, finally got his scoring boots back, and we tore Ajax a new one as an answer to the rude awakening they handed to us in matchday one.



All this leads to a rather unusual table, where I've got the H2H over Ajax, but not over PSG or United.
But basically: if we beat United we'll qualify for the knockout rounds of the CL, so that's the easy part because I'll be honest, I have no idea about the permutations of a draw or loss for us, or the way(s) we can qualify for the EL knockouts.

Yeah I'm not expecting anything out of this group anymore, it's been a complete disaster.


Ay, you too mate.

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I'll be honest, there's not much good in this month, so I'll just get through the good parts before this gets too depressing.
We start away from Oviedo, in the Asian Games semis:



ezpz
In fairness Qatar was chock-full of virtual players while Furube was a full international, so this was par for the course for us.



Equally so, this Japanese team is the best in Asia by some distance (if only because I haven't loaded enough Asian nations).
So yes, a very smooth Asiad win, and as I mentioned the only positive this month.

Back to Spain then:



Last minute changes to the lineup didn't help the team's cohesiveness, and being outplayed at home is never a good sign, so it's could've been worse than coming away with only a point.



Here we were just bested by by Sevilla, they were dominant from the off, took the lead and finished the half on top.
The 2nd half saw us try to get back in the game, but it wasn't until Bouadam's dismissal that we finally looked like threatening in front of goal.
And even then it took Nikolaou's introduction off the bench for us to snatch a point at the death. Fresh off an injury, he proved to be our clutch sub.



The irony of an Atleti game being the most winnable this month.
I've had games in the past where Atletico were similarly subdued, which I've always found to be weird given how good they are if they want to be.
But lest we forgot they still have a world class backline and GK should their attack not work out, and they definitely proved their worth.



True story, after the final whistle certain sections of our away fans could be head chanting "Are you Man U in disquise?"
For real though, that's a 4th draw this month, and ensured we would be winless in the league this month.
Was quite annoying too, Dimopoulos had a Heading of 6(SIX) but he was able to put the faintest of touches to divert a corner into the par post - in the 1st minute no less.



So our unbeaten run continues, but I'm sure United fans can emphatise with me that it's more of a chore and burden to maintain this record - inevitably this is one of the few things a team clings on to, at the cost of wins.
But all things will come to an end, and I fully expect ours to end against Valencia up next.

We had the good, we had the bad meh, now we have the ugly - the CL:



Awful, we only ever looked capable of carving out a draw, only for Birch-Machin to punch a cross into his own net - after that there was only going to be one outcome.
It does look like the 3-4-2-1 has become too defensive, and I'll have to tweak it soon.



In any case we're going to need something really special to get anything out of this group stage.
And it also meant a winless October in all competitions for Oviedo, happy days.