Red Star Belgrade FM 2012 Story

After my derby win, 2-1 against Partizan, I was feeling good about my team when it comes to beating strong teams. Next match was a cup game, against a rival that I thought was going to be easy. I was wrong. I had to win this game on penalties, as it finished 1-1. The early red card for Dominguez did no let my team play their game. Poor game played by my team overall, I was lucky that all the penalty takers for me scored and 2 of theirs missed. I was now worried, and a bit confused as to what went wrong….

Next up was a 2-0 against OFK Beograd. A game where nothing special happened, my strikers were playing good enough to score a goal each thanks to their running and good timing. If you look at the stats you can see that i killed them, so I think I should have won with more than just 2 goals, but a victory is a victory, and Dimitrijevic picked up the man of the match award, I need to see more performances like that from him. But with an average rating of 7.09, the team was nothing special.

Next up, another big game for the Europa Leage group, against AEK. LAt time I managed to trash them 6-0. Was this luck? Or was it talent and good strategy? Take a look and see how the next game went on…

4-1! Another impressive game by my boys against the Greek Team. Kaludjerovic once again accurate from the penalty kick, and Dimitrijevic adding a flying header at the end (check out the video). But the man of this match was Omar Wade, my new striker who is now finally free of injury. He scored 2 goals and added an assist. Look at the video and you will see he moves very well when he scored his goals, and keeps his composure. Excellent finishing! Wade scored 3 goals in the last 2 games.

But Wade didn’t stop there. Another league game, against Metalac, finished up with a 3-0 win. Wade scored another 2 goals within the space of 5 minutes from each other. He took 3 shots, all 3 were on target, and 2 were goals. Also, he added an assist! Great efficiency! The midfield anchor (Dimitrijevic) is now starting to prove himself, scoring another long range goal, and adding an assist. From my subs, Borja was wasteful (3 shots, and 0 on target) while Evandro managed 2 shots (both on target) within 10 minutes of being on the pitch.

5 goals in 3 games, impressive, huh? Well it didn’t stop there. In the next game against Javor, we won 3-0, and my main 2 strikers, Kaludjerovic and Wade paired up well. Kaludjerovic scored 2, and Wade scored one. So that is 6 goals in 4 games for Wade.

Unfortunately, Wade picked up an injury at training, so I had to rest him. However, Kaludjerovic picked up the slack and started getting hot himself. In the next game, we won 4-0, and he scored another 2 goals. Darko Lazovic, my talented young right winger had his 6^th straight assist in the last 6 games. Dominguez has not scored much lately, but he is racking up the assists and really helping the other strikers. I gave a chance to Vrsic and Savio, and Savio (the defensive midfielder) scored a beautiful curling long shot. I found it interesting that after Mihajlovic got a red card, and my team played with 10 men, I scored another 3 goals…hmmm

Against Metalac in the next game, Kaludjerovic scored one more time, making it 5 goals in 3 games! My other striker Borja finally scored. Evandro also put in another good performance, and added a goal himself. This was another game, another big win, another dominated team.

So I think this post has quite a bit to read and look at, so I will end it here and pick up very soon…tune it for my next Europa League game !! Can I win again?!? Will the fairy tale go on??? Will Red Star progress in Europe? FIND OUT NEXT TIME

I’m baaaaaaaaack ! Many apologies for once again being absent, I am trying to juggle my work and this, but I think I have a better grasp of it now  :)

As the first derby approached, I started getting excited and nervous. You could cut the tension with the knife. Even though I was first in the league, and been demolishing teams both in Serbia and rest of Europe, I still thought that this was going to bei  a very tough game. Partizan did not start the season well, and dropped quite a few points, and found themselves in 4^th place due to many 0-0draws they had at the beginning of the season. But I was not fooled by this, Partizan have now been on a roll and are quickly catching up and are 1 point away from 3^rd place, and their recent form has been very strong.

The Serbian derby between Red Star and Partizan is something to behold, and there aren’t many derbies like such. The only other examples that are similar are Rangers v Celtic in Scotland, and Barcelona v Real Madrid in Spain. The intensity, the rivalry, the expectations are so strong. Both Red Star have die-hard fans to always stand up and scream their heads off whenever its time for the derby.  The rivalry is so strong, that hatred appears between the supporters of the two teams, and results in gangs and violence. These are the harsh realities, so let us return to the Football Manager world where life is a little easier, shall we

From the previous FM games I had played with Red Star, I knew that sometimes I had to play a 4-4-1-1 against partisan but I decided to start with my standard 4-4-2 which had brought me so much success so far. My plan was to play close attention to the statistics as the game went on, and make immediate changes in order of improving my chances of winning.

So let’s begin. Right from the kick off Partizan rushed, and Jovancic (who was leading the goal scoring chart) headed a cross just over my cross bar after just 26 seconds. I knew right away I was in for a bumpy ride…The next couple of chances fell to my side, with Kaludjerovic being caught offside, and Darko Lazovic breaking through the defence but his shot went wide of the right post. THEN, ON THE 23^RD MINUTE, LAZOVIC CROSSES THE CORNER FOR DRAGUTINOVIC, BUT VOLKOV HOLDS HIM BACK, AND A PRENALTY IS REWARDED!! Christian Borja is the brave man that takes the ball and takes  the penalty. HE SHOOTS LEFT, THE PARTIZAN GOALKEEPER LUNGES TO THE LEFT, BUT THE SHOT WENT RIGHT TO THE TOP LEFT CORNER!! 1-0 TO RED STAR!! What followed afterwards, can only be described as a gladiatorial battle. Very soon, with quick effective passing, Jovancic found himself free just 3 meters in front of my goal, but my goalkeeper quickly dove to the ground and saved the quick shot.  Following that Petkovic earned a free kick for me at the half way line and fired a quick cross to Lazovic, who ran past all the defenders and DOVE TOWARDS THE BALL, BUT HE HEADS IT JUST WIDE OF THE RIGHT POST AGAIN. The half ends with 4 yellow cards, chances were equal, but my team leads 1-0…Onto the second half…Once again, Partizan rushes and gets almost a shot on goal, whistling past my right post. Then, a midfield battle followed for almost 20 minutes….IN  THE 86^TH MINUTE, PARTZIAN BREAKS THROUGH MY DEFENCE WITH QUICK PASSES ONCE AGAIN, AND DIARRA FINDHIMSELF FREE RIGHT INFRONT OF MY GOALKEEPER AND SHOOTS, BUT DEFLECTED BY THE KEEPER, ONLY FOR BABOVIC TO POUNCE ON THE REBOUND AND SCORE!! 1-1 !! I was furious they equalised so late, I subbed off Kaludjerovic and gave Omar Wade his season debut on the 88^th minute. Both sides are pushing for the win, but get stopped in front of the 16 yard box. My star player Petkovic stops a Partizan attack in the 92^nd minute and hits a 45 yard pass towards Dominguez upfront. DONINGUEZ GETS THE BALL, RUNS THROUGH THE LAST 2 DEFENDS, AND WITH ONLY THE GOALKEEPER LEFT INFRONT OF HIM HE PASSES THE BALL INTO THE PATH OF WADE, AND WADE SCORES!!! HIS FIRST GOAL IN THE LEAGUE!! GAME OVER, RED STAR WINS 2-1 !! Time to party now

The match ended up with 10 yellow cards (7 were from Partizan) so it was a very physical match. I also found out I need to tighten up my defence which was solid so far, because the quick passes could have really cost me today if my goalkeeper wasn’t having such a good game.

Hope you all enjoyed this tense match! I will write more very soon

So far in the Europa League, I had played 2 games and won both, beating Sporting comfortably and getting a narrow win against Maccabi Haifa. A clash against the Greek team AEK was going to be tricky, they had a lot more experience on their side…but my side….well, my side has DARKO LAZOVIC, and this was the DARKO LAZOVIC show!

A goal, a free kick and a penalty, plus 1 assist by Lazovic, this guy is VERY talented !

Another amazing performance also tuned in by Trisovic, who ended up with an assist and an amazing goal. Check out the video to see his amazing one touch goal. Both Trisovic and Lazovic had all of their shots on target as you can see above, great concentration! Dare Vrsic came on as a  sub, and had 2 very good chances out of his 3 shots overall.

A lot of yellow cards, which means some suspensions for the next game, which could be tricky, but overall an amazing performance. In fact, after the 2-2 draw with Vojvodina, I told the team how bad their performance was and they all responded by feeling fired up for the next game. I guess you need to do that whenever you don’t win a game that you were supposed to win. This victory has even more meaning because my next game is against the most bitter rival Partizan,the first derby of the season !! Very excited about that game, interested to see how my team will perform after this demolition of AEK

Here are the goals from the game, check it out.

So, the question was can my run of 26-0 go on further?? Well yes…and no…in the next game, I managed to extend my run to 30-0, but unfortunately I let in one goal at the end as well. I was not pleased as this came against a lower team, who I dominated and easily managed to beat.

By looking at the stats, you can see I beat them in every single aspect, and they only had 1 shot on goal, which ended up going into the back of my net   On the bright side, MIhajlovic (my DC) scored 2 goals (2 headers from corners) which was great. The 2 starting strikers, Borja and Kaludjerovic both scored one each, so overall a good performance by my team. However both of my strikers kept firing off target, especially Borja, who had only 1 shot on goal out of 7. He is developing a habit of taking wild shots from distance, even though I directed him to not take long shots in the settings. Any ideas what to do??..

Next on, can I continue my amazing run in the Europa League against Maccabi Haifa? I destroyed Sporting so I expected I could win this game too…

Goals coming from Mihajlovic and Kaludjerovic in this game, repeating their performance from the previous game. My 2 wingers Lazovic and Jeremic both came up with assists. Darko Lazovic is turning into an excellent corner taker, and it resulted in Mihajlovic getting 3 goals from corners in last 2 games. My concern now is Kezman, who was on for the whole second half and was horrible! He did not even attempt a single shot in 45 minutes, it seems his good form has disappeared

Next, another league game, another domination! 4-0

This game was a bit different as my strikers did not score. I put Trisovic back into the starting 11 and he answered with a goal. Also was pleasing to see Kovacevic finally put in a high quality performance. Lazovic created another goal from a corner, this time finding Dragutinovic for the goal. The stats speak for themselves.

However, for the next game, the stats do not speak for themselves. The stats LIE !!!

It resulted in the first League game that I haven’t won so far, a 2-2 draw in a match where my team struggled a lot. I guess the overconfidence of a 36-2 run finally caught up with my team. Look at the team ratings, they were horrible. The stats show how I dominated another match, but the truth is Vojvodina lead twice and I played catch-up. This was my first big test in the League and I was far from happy.

I was worried by this since my next game is against AEK in the Europa League. Can I win another group game? Or will the draw against Vojvodina knock the morale and cost me??… Tune in next time to find out

hi guys,

apologies for not posting for a while. Christmas and new years are really busy for me so i really had no time to write up a post. But I am back now and will be posting tomorrow

Also, I wish everyone here a happy and joyful 2012!

yes, you read it right, 26-0!   Oh, it’s not in one single game though…It is the run I went on, scoring 26 goals straight without conceding a single goal!! Want to see how it happened? Let’s get right to it:

So a comfortable win in a match where my strikers were not very active (Borja did not even get a shot off in 50 minutes!). The closest was Dominguez who hit the right post from just outside the box. As for the goals, Mihajlovic rose up to head the ball into the back of the net from a corner kick taken by Lazovic. Lazovic also showed that his speed and his ability to be in the right place at the right time = scoring goals. Dimitrijevic added a powerful goal that he smashed in from just inside the box. Petkovic added 2 assists, and  finished with a 8.5 rating, he is doing extremely well so far ! I dominated this match and did not allow Rad to get really involved into the match.

So I had some free time so I decided to play a friendly to get some other players a chance to play, to see if I am missing out on some gems. In the defense, I gave a chance to the young GK Vesic and DR Stojkovic, as well as the veteran Ignjiatevic, and let my Brailian DM Savio and new singing Vrsic take control of the midfield. I eventually subbed in Mijailovic, an 18 year old DM and he ended up getting himself a goal, good contribution. Vrsic also scored his first goal. But the story of this friendly is Filip Stojkovic, the 18 year old DR who had an amazing game, with an 8.1 rating! I now know I finally have a sub for Mikic. If you look at the match stats, you can see how poor of a opponent this team actually was….

Let me sum this up:

Lazovic: 2 goals, 1 assist

Petkovic: 2 assists

Kaludjerovic: 1 assist

Dragutinovic: 1 assist

Borja: 2 goals

Dominguez: 1 goal

10 shots on target, 5 goals and hit the woodwork twice, my players were very focused this time around. Dragutinovic delivered his assist right from the free kick that Dominguez smashed in the goal. Kaludjerovic showed his class by running constantly and setting up Borja with a very easy chance that he converted. Borja really stepped up from the previous game, where he did not even get a shot off!! Petkovic and Lazovic are playing like superstars, and i am amazed at how well Lazovic is playing right now! You can see now why I recommended him earlier on!

So now, onto the first game of Europa League Group stages, against Sporting….

BOOOOOOM BOOOOOOM !! TOTAL DOMINATION

I have to say I have never seen this happen before, my team totally dominated (even more than the match stats show). The best Sporting could manage was long shots, because every time they went inside, my defenders stopped them right away. Lee Addy did a good job when he stepped in to replace the injured Dragutinovic. Kaludjerovic showed his class in a different way now, by scoring goals. Check them out in the video below, as well as the ROCKET GOAL from Dimitrijevic!!

Moving on….

The story continues and my defense continues to DOMINATE! They did not allow the opponents to even get a shot on target in this game! Both Petkovic and Mihajlovic ended up with assists, and Mikic added a goal, what more can you ask from your defensive row?? Borja and Kezman ended up pairing well up front to contribute 3 goals. 12 goals on target out of a total of 20? i think they are getting better and better

This match was a different story. There was little time from the last game, so a lot of players were tired.So i combined my defense by putting in Addy, and Cosis who is on loan. But even  with the mixed defense, they were still rock solid. Lazovic and Petkovic once again provided assists each. Marko Vesovic (who is highly rated by my scouts) got a chance to play and eded up getting an assist himself with a sweet cross. Man of the Match was Jeremic who was on instead of the tired Trisovic, but ended up bagging 2 goals and hitting the cross bar, so just narrowly missed getting a hat-trick. It i s always good to know that the subs are abale to give quality performances too.

So there it is, my run of 26-0, and here is the overview:

WHO CAN STOP ME?