The Hattrick Season 65 Thread

[UncleIan]

The home leg of the double header, and having had a draw last week, and things being pretty even stevens, I was thinking we'd have the lions share of possession, but I had a sneaky feeling they might press, or go more defensive, so didn't risk a PIC. Tuning in after 15 minutes, it was 0-0, we had 63% possession, and their relative defence ratings were a little better than mine. Should be a cakewalk, but they were pressing. We were 2-0 up at half time, they got one back, but we scored again, then they got another, for a nervous final 10 minutes. All was well though, 3-2 final score. Chances were 7-3. The right result, if a bit tight.

Here we are then on 14 points, 3rd in the table. 1st and 2nd played out a 0-0 draw, so first is only five points ahead of me now on 19, and second only on 17. Could I? No, probably not, they are a step above where my team is at the moment. In fact, according to the stats, my team is a step above where they should be. 8th has now gone bot. 7th and 6th are now on 7 points. So my real calculation is to look over my shoulder, and I'm thinking it's going to be tricky for them to make up seven points in six games on me. This is good! Fingers crossed it pans out like that.

Next week I'm away to 7th. They look a bit stronger than me in midfield, and we're having a bit of a defender form crisis. I'm torn between a PIC Press and Pray, or a 2-5-3 AIM. I'll have to think on for this one, a win would basically see me safe from auto-relegation I think, but I can't go too crazy, as losing at home the following week would drag me back towards a qualifier, which wouldn't be the end of the world. Basically I need to just win my home games and all should be ok. It's certainly more interesting than last season.

Ian

[Eastheath]

Well, after last weeks home defeat to one of my two title challengers, I wasn't hopeful with the return away leg. 4-3-3- pressing didn't stop them last time, and I wasn't going to win midfield even with a 3-5-2 or 4-5-1, so I opted instead for a PIN 4-3-3 CA approach. I noticed his defensive wings were not the strongest, so I let my forwards out towards the wings to mix things up a bit. His hatstats were 310 to my 279 and they had 8 chances to our 3. HTMS Prediction was 2-1, and we had a 12% chance of winning.
Well there is a HT God and with last weeks result being rather harsh on us, the balance was restored. We won 0-1 with an early goal down the middle where they were actually strongest.
So, we move three points clear of them again, but only into second place. The other title challenger, whom we beat on the opening day 5-4, has not looked back since, and has won 7 on the trot. Same points as us, but they also have a far superior GD. That last game away to them is a likely league decider if everything else goes to plan.
Next week we are at home again, to #5, which is winnable if we play our first XI. Unfortunately our two oldest IMs, aged 36 and 35, have both dropped a midfield grade today, so the replacement process will have to begin very soon.

[Bink333]

I was away to Paignton, who were now in 2nd spot, behind me on GD, thanks to beating them at mine last week.

I figured they'd go for m/f. As they'd not gone for m/f for 4 weeks, second guessing what m/f they'd get was a bit like wandering across Dartmoor on a moonless night, having had a few too many beers, without falling into a gorse bush.

The last m/f rating they'd posted at home, 4 weeks ago was a low titanic. "So add a full level", I thought to myself, back of a fag packet maths isn't as good as our old midfield spreadsheet, but that had already been blown away into a gorse bush..

My instinct was to set up in a 4-5-1 and soak up the chances as best I could, before switching to a more attacking formation. The problem with this plan was that I reckoned that they'd get more midfield than me (based upon the above carefully crafted midfield rating simulations), and therefore more chances. More chances and similar conversion rates. "Pfft", I thought. "Pfft", without really knowing how much midfield they'd be getting anyway.

So, I decided in the end to go with a 3-5-2, looking to switch to 2-5-3 if not in the lead. Oddly enough, so did they. Possession was split 50/50 with them producing ET (high) (shockingly close to my fag packet set-up) and my lot were ET (low). I was using a WBN on one side, an IMTW on the other, 2xWTM,2xOCD, and two normal forwards. They were using two WBNs, 2xWTM, and all other positions 'normal'.

It was a very evenly balanced game, and one that was possibly going to be decided by the coin toss of luck over the awarding of SEs.

They went 1-0 up in the 41st minute. We equalised 2 minutes later.
We went 2-1 up in the 60th, a minute later it was 2-2.
We went 3-2 up in the 63rd, two minutes later it was 3-3.

Then on 67 my WBN came off for a 3rd forward and we scored 4 minutes later to go 4-3 up. On 76 they subbed their CDN for a 3rd forward, but the last chance of the game fell to us in the 80th, to win 3-5.

10 non SE chances were awarded, 5 each. I got the Quick SE and converted it. There was no corner-head SE awarded this week (which they scored last week, and were more likely to get, had it been awarded). That's my second away win this season, both of which have required a fat chunk of luck.

Hatstats:- 507 to my 508.

I'm pretty happy with doing the double over a team that were unbeaten at home and had only lost one away game all season, and who were top of the EPL going into the double header a fortnight ago.

Elsewhere, the English Cup holders PICd at home to win, and they move into 2nd, 2pts behind me. I'm due to play them at my place in the last game of the season, but there's 5 other plenty-tricky fixtures to negotiate before we get there.

[UncleIan]

On paper, or on screen, away to seventh should usually be a cakewalk right? But the fans thought they had the edge, and I thought the fans were right. I knew I couldn't match them in midfield, but I could get close, and with my strikers in good form, and defender in rubbish form, and a suspicion they might press, I though, hell, why not? 2-5-3 AIM. On the grounds that their central defence was usually a bit weaker. Still played my wingers offensive as I didn't want to match them in midfield and negate my AIM tactic. Probably silly logic as thanks to my high passing skill my AIM tactic level was e-t. Not too shabby. Roll on to the start of the match and we were losing possession 45/55. 24 minutes in, and 1-0 down, they had an IM injured, replacement was pants, and possession was now 51/49. Other ratings also suggested a coin toss...

1-0 at half time, but we equalised with a quick special event from Tom "2-4-6-8 motorway" Robinson, then we took the lead through the middle (thanks to the tactic? Or just chance?) with another. That's how it stayed, 1-2 final score. Tails we won then! Chances were 4-5, so yes, definite bonus points. Or played for and got, depending on my ego.

My vanquished opponent still went up from 7th to 6th thanks to six place getting humped by first, while we stayed in third. It's now pretty certain we'll be third or fourth. We're on 17 points, fourth on 16, and 5th on 8. Seeing as we have a bot now, that's only four competitive games to make a difference. Next week we're at home to fourth, week after we've got the bot. You thinking what I'm thinking?

[Eastheath]

I don't think I've had such a bad (unfair) result before.

At home, 2nd versus 5th, we were going to be around 100 hatstats ahead and winning possession in defence, midfield and attack.
No overconfidence, no injuries, the first XI was playing.

We were 2-0 ahead after 30 mins, so far so good. Midfield was 56% in our favour, defence was 94% in our favour, attack was 55 to 73% in our favour. Now, whats not to like about this picture? The second half, thats what.

They scored a goal (a big surprise, but hey ho we would probably get more chances ourselves), but then they got THREE penalties, yes THREE, and they scored two of them. Just to add to the misery, we didn't get another chance, it ended 2-3. Hatstats were 303 vs 196.

Win prediction was 92% to us, a loss was 3%.

We are now in 3rd, three points behind the leader. Our season is pretty much screwed from here, we might catch them on points but are 20+ goals behind on GD so its not likely. Right now I quite hate HT!

[UncleIan]

Win prediction was 92% to us, a loss was 3%.

Bugger! I guess if you always won the one sided affairs it would be an 100% chance of winning not 93%. Every dog has its day etc. I guess that's another consequence of only having 14 games a season, these things never have time to sort themselves out. I think we've all had a few bad beats and ridiculously streaky wins. Doesn't make it any more palatable mind you!

[Bink333]

This week I was away to Posti's Jol-lification. We ground out a 1-0 to them in week 6, but this week they had the added distraction of a Cup quarter final (against Asgard).

I was faced with a choice. A. PIN for the third game on the spin, on the off chance the opposition m/f would give me an inch B. PIC CA OK so there are other options, but these were the best two of them.

My gut said option A. So that's how I set up. Fiddling around with player orientation and watching my TS position, I was confident I could get a low ET m/f and enough attack to make a nuisance of myself, but figured it would be another 50/50 game, and I was due to lose one of those. I also had an inkling that Posti wouldn't PIC. He's been in the Prem too long without a title to let this chance go, even if it might be at the expense of a Cup exit.

So, I went plan B. I didn't like it, I didn't think it would win, but I also didn't think Posti would be prepared for it, so at least it might make it interesting. Essentially I was going to CA in a 4-5-1 loading up my defence against his weaker flank attack, and leaving my weak form quick WBD somewhat stranded on the other side. An FTW on one side and an IMTW on the other boosted my side attack ratings, and I gambled on no central attack to speak of.

I also spent the first two minutes in a 5-4-1 before switching, to try out Paignton Dynamo's CA 'trick', and as expected had fewer CA chances than I'd have expected to get with the rating I had (as a result of the two minutes in 5-4-1). It might give the others something to think about though...

In the match, I very quickly scored two left sided CA chances, and bagged the corner-head SE. They scored 2 in the first half, and my England 'flop' Harry Cochrane (who failed to score his chances against both Indonesia and Hungary before we got knocked out on GD), underlined his atrocious week by fluffing our quick SE against Jol. 6 chances to 4 in the first half, but in the second half they scored 3 more and that was that. A late reshuffling of deckchairs on the titanic resulted in no more chances, and we went down to 2nd, as expected.

The good news is that my TS is back where it needs to be for the start of this run in (especially as my next opponent PIC'd yesterday as well) and that the top 4 teams are separated by just 2pts. The big problem is (and was always) going to be Red, the Cup holders and new table leaders, as they have both 3rd & 4th as away sides visiting them over the next 4 weeks (as well as facing each other), and Red's away fixtures should see him picking up wins on the road as well. I face them in week 14 at mine, but they may already be champions by the time they get there unless I can find some way to stay within touching distance.

[Ashfordian]

Conceeded my second goal of the season, both have been special events, but maintained my 100% winning record with a 7-1 win. As I finish with a bot I am starting to formulate a triple MOTS finishing plan.

Lost in the consolation cup last Tuesday. Overestimated my opponents MF and went for a CA tactic which didn't come off. Not sure I would have won going toe-to-toe with them and while I could have taken MF by up to 1 full level I was a long way behind on defence and attack ratings.

Really hoping I can get to IV and have some competitive games next season

[UncleIan]

This week we were at home to 4th place, who started the match one point behind me in the table. So obviously a win would be a damn fine thing. They normally went with a 2-5-3 and got some very good attack ratings, but I reckoned I could beat them in midfield. I looked at the form of my players, and decided to just let them score, take midfield, and score more than them, as their defence is very pants. We went 2-5-3 with an OCD and a Fwd played defensively. Ratings panned out as expected, both of our attacks trumping the others defence, but I had possession 53/47%. Oh, and a full house despite the grey clouds. Nice!

First half we romped to a 4-1 lead, and while they got to 4-2 in the second half, we banged in another couple for a convincing 6-2 final score. Only fly in the ointment a plaster for my best striker and a +1 for my ex-U20 England goalie, he's already back to a plaster so no great shakes.

We're now four points ahead of fourth, and nine points ahead of fifth, and as I have a bot next week, that makes it highly improbable to finish lower than fourth. We're five points behind first, and three behind second, but am away to both of them, unlikely we'll be making a title challenge. Seeing as my stats at the start of the season put me down near the bottom of the table, I'll take that.

[Bink333]

Well, that didn't go according to plan.

At all.

I was in 2nd at home to 7th. They were on 4-4-2 CA, I was in 2-5-3 full on attack mode. After kick-off I had an over-confidence event. This meant that my m/f possession started at 56%. I was, at this point, just glad they hadn't decided to play 3-5-2.

We scored first, but then they got the coin toss of the corner-head SE (both teams with 4 head specs on the pitch at the time). This was in the 21st minute. In the 25th minute I had a planned sub as I brought on a head spec IM for a no spec one (stamina sub - the incoming player could have come in a wee bit earlier, but the head event goal was always going to be allocated such that it would just be ht mocking me).

They then scored a corner to anyone SE, followed by a normal chance on the right to lead 1-3. This triggered a sub. If they'd gone for m/f, I'd figured I'd need a m/f boost, and my new forward, bought this week, came on for my FTW (Head spec count back down to 4 - had they not already bagged the corner head SE before, no doubt it would have come after this - lol). Possession went up to 57% for all of 2 minutes.

Then, I had an IM injury....

An IM injury when you've already used an IM sub is not ideal. A second lesson perhaps, to suggest I should have started my HIM with late orders to sub him off? On came a full-back from the defender sub slot to replace him. An inadequate playmaker would be playing in my midfield during a Premiership league fixture for 50 minutes.... Next season or whenever it is they introduce the new match orders page, I'm expecting to be able to avoid such problems. I had a titanic playmaking winger on the bench, so yes, that was a bit frustrating.

For the last 5 minutes of the first half, possession was down to 52%. I'd have actually been behind had I not subbed my FTW!

At half time, my coach let rip on the over-confidence issue, and possession was back up, but only to 57%. When you are playing 2-5-3 with no side defence to speak of against an expected CA, the idea of getting 63%+ possession is to restrict their total number of chances as much as possible. I'd also compromised my left side attack ratings in order to try to boost m/f earlier, and of course chances fell to that side had little chance for conversion, and as expected, 2 failed.

We lost 2-4. I had a 1 in 4 conversion rate, half that I'd planned for, and my oppo scored 1 more than the most I'd planned/expected them to get. The leaders had a dose of luck as their MoTsing oppo had a player red-carded helping them seal possession and a 5-2 win, whilst 3rd place is now 2nd after winning their game. I'm down to 3rd and 4pts off the top, and will need the top team to have a slip up before I play them in week 14 to have any hope for nicking off with the trophy.

4 games to go.

Pfft.

[Eastheath]

no stupid result this week, won 0-5 away to the team in 7th to keep us in =2nd place, 3pts off the top team, but well behind on GD to both teams above me.
I'm at home to the bot in 8th next week, so 3pts are on the cards. However, the big game in our league will be 1st vs =2nd. The only way to re-light my season would be if this game ended in a draw. We can but hope.

[Donut102]

Won this week to 3rd place team. My unbeaten record continues with 4 games to go.
3 of those are against bots, and the final human team is in 2nd just 3 points behind me.
I need to win that game in 2 weeks as he has superior GD.

[Bink333]

This week I was away to the English Champions. They were bottom, in the middle of a relegation dog fight, with the top three teams from last season being separated by a single point with 4 games to play, in 6th-8th.

Table toppers Red had been knocked out of the Cup last week after posting a divine m/f on neutral ground, and had the fortune to face Les philosophes who won their semi-final and would be saving TS for Tuesday.

I set up in a 3-5-2 all set to go 2-5-3 if not in the lead for the last half hour, using all 3 subs in order to replace lower stamina m/f contributors as a priority with the other two subs.

At kick off I had 51% with mythical low m/f, and they had a TDF lose PM/scoring with a -ev weather event.... I had two attack sectors with 51-52% including the middle, and two defence sectors with 50/52% including the middle. Head specs 5 for them, 4 for me, and I had advantage with quicks.

It was 1-1 after 45 minutes, and tight as a gnat's chuff. At 60 minutes they scored to go 2-1 up. At this point we'd had 5 chances each and my switch to 2-5-3 kicked in dropping possession to 50%. Of the 5 chances we'd had, 2 had fallen to my weaker side attack, and they'd converted 2 of 4 chances in the middle, despite the weather event, and my 'edge', which was on par for what you'd expect. I'd scored one from 3 chances in sectors I was favourite, which probably just required another chance in those sectors to balance things out.

Half an hour to play, and you'll never guess what happened next.

That's right.

You've been reading this thread before, I can tell.

Nada.

Zip.

Zilch.

Absolutely nothing.

Ingenting (it's a Swedish word meaning NOTHING)

Nichts.

Rrrrrien (using as much flem as possible)

Niets.

Niente.

Hakuna (as in hakuna matata meaning no worries, except in this case I had many worries - apparently that's translated as
"Wasiwasi wengi" in Swahili).

Nani mo.

No bookings, no special events (not even a hateful head spec SE against me after my subs reduced my head spec count to 2).

30 minutes of watching the clock tick down, slowly but gradually strangulating the last glimmer of hope I had for the title. It was like watching Terminator's last red eye growing fainter and fainter in ultra slow motion, until, in the 89th minute, we had some news.

"1 minute extra to play"

Damn. Blast, and dare I say it, "bugger".

Red smashed their opponent 3-6 and I face them next. After (as opposed to before) their Cup final, and as they are now in danger of dropping into the relegation dog-fight, I can expect them to make life considerably more 'tricky' for their next league opponent.

I'm now 7pts back with 3 to play.

2nd lost as well, and are now 4pts off the top, and they are away to Red in a fortnight.

It's all over bar the shouting, and the fat lady can be heard gargling from behind the post box.

The only silver lining seems to be, that I should be in with a very good chance for picking up 3pts to secure my place in the Prem next season in week 14 at home to what seem certain to be the newly crowned Champions of England.

It's been fun though!

[UncleIan]

Been away...

Two Sundays back was a bot. Yesterday we were away to the league leaders, not a prayer, they have a huge midfield and defence, so damage limitation was the order of the day. PIC Press Pray. We lost possession 60/40, and managed to hold on 0-0 until the 70th minute, when they banged in a couple, then my winger got injured, and a defender picked up his second yellow, tut tut. 2-0 final score. Could have been much worse with 8-1 in chances, so I'll take that.

I'm 6 points behind first and second who are both on 29, but as they both have the bot to play, that's that, seven points ahead of 4th, so that's also that, third it is. Seeing as I was thinking whether I'd survive the season, and the stats have me 5th on average ratings and 4th on average evil stars, I'll take that with pleasure!

Ian

[Bink333]

I was 4th going into this one, 7pts behind the lead and 6pts ahead of 5th. The leader won, as expected, and I beat 5th (the new Cup Holders) who'd MoTsed on Tuesday and not TI tricked, so I was able to PIC and max out attack ratings (utopian average at kick off - mythical average at the final whistle thanks to pull-back).

Like Ian, this means I'm now clear of the qualifiers, so have secured another season in the Prem which I'm quite pleased about. I'm mathematically out of the hunt for the title, and in 3rd place - on track to match my best ever result in the Prem (3rd - s40 - 18 December 2009). I may even, fingers crossed, manage to benefit from another one of my home-grown players being called up for England NT in Q1 next season, which has been the catalyst behind the team reaching these dizzy heights in the first place!

He's another quick winger, and finally popped to double mythical (with PM) last week, although he dropped wing to ET today, which I'll top up next week. His inclusion will of course depend upon the elections, and if he isn't, it will open up the possibilities for using some TI trickery next season, so I won't be too upset if he's left out.

[Donut102]

Last Sunday was the must win game for the season. Opponent was in 2nd place, 3 points behind me.
Away from home I went MOTS, but only managed to deliver a paltry 240 hatstats, compared to my opponents 305.
I did however manage to edge possession at 55%.

And then the HT match engine threw a spanner in the works - awarding me 11 chances to opponents 1. Final score 5-1 to us!

With 2 bots to play, auto-promotion is assured.

[Bink333]

I had an away game against one of the 4 teams scrapping it out to avoid auto-relegation.

I expected a big m/f (turned out to be Utopian) and opted for a CA set up, which had 52-61% defence vs attack (and 59-68% attack vs their defences), but not enough in midfield (30-32%) to be allocated any regular chances. Its a trade off that almost never pays off, but I was hoping that their TC was a bit more damaged than it turned out to be, and so they had a 33% conversion rate from 9 normal chances and a wing to anyone SE (converted).

My divine CA rating and rebuttal of 6 normal chances produced only one reported CA, and that was our only chance, so we lost 4-1 and drop to 4th, at home to the new Champions of England next week.

[Eastheath]

After the match engine destroyed my season with THE most unlikely away win by one of the weaker teams in our league, in the next four weeks we went on to win against the other four of the bottom five teams, 8-0, 5-0, 5-0 and last week 4-1.
This keeps us 3 pts behind the league leader, whom we will meet away in the last game of the season. We beat them 5-4 at home at the start of the season, but as their goal difference is +20 compared to us, our season is actually over.
In fact, we will probably finish 3rd, as the team currently 3rd will win their last game and probably overhaul us, also on GD.
Time to sell some of the first team and refresh for next season. Ho hum!

[Bink333]

Well my lot had a horrific second half of the season capped off yesterday by a game we lost 2-5 which seemed a little harsh.

The new EPL champions had burned out their TS to win the title and came to my ground playing 5-3-2 CA. I set up in a 2-5-3, mythical m/f securing 80% possession, and a divine+2 central attack good for 55% and a left side attack that was 50/50. My own CA set up last week was stronger based on relative ratings than my opponent's yesterday, and I had one chance to their ten.

Sure enough I had 10 chances, but they had 6 (2 corners and 4 CAs), converting 5. We had 8 of the 10 on the left and ion the middle, and I'd have expected a 4-5 goal return from that with a normal chance conversion, but it was not to be, and we finish the season 4th, on 21pts which was as many as we managed last season when we were 6th 3pts off the Champions. Hatstats of 498 vs 369 mean that I've averaged the best stats and stars in the Prem this season (best average ratings in England and 5th best average stars) with only my managerial ineptitude to blame for losing with such a great squad of players.

Time is ticking however, and I reckon I have just one season in the tank to burn in an attempt to have a go at the title, before the squad ages beyond my capacity to recycle the resources into a competitive enough side. Coincidentally, there's only one season left with the current match engine speciality rules, before the new system is implemented.

Still, I'm happy enough with 4th, I just need to do better!

[Bink333]

Well my lot had a horrific second half of the season capped off yesterday by a game we lost 2-5 which seemed a little harsh.

The new EPL champions had burned out their TS to win the title and came to my ground playing 5-3-2 CA. I set up in a 2-5-3, mythical m/f securing 80% possession, and a divine+2 central attack good for 55% and a left side attack that was 50/50. My own CA set up last week was stronger based on relative ratings than my opponent's yesterday, and I had one chance to their ten.

Sure enough I had 10 chances, but they had 6 (2 corners and 4 CAs), converting 5. We had 8 of the 10 on the left and ion the middle, and I'd have expected a 4-5 goal return from that with a normal chance conversion, but it was not to be, and we finish the season 4th, on 21pts which was as many as we managed last season when we were 6th 3pts off the Champions. Hatstats of 498 vs 369 mean that I've averaged the best stats and stars in the Prem this season (best average ratings in England and 5th best average stars) with only my managerial ineptitude to blame for losing with such a great squad of players.

Time is ticking however, and I reckon I have just one season in the tank to burn in an attempt to have a go at the title, before the squad ages beyond my capacity to recycle the resources into a competitive enough side. Coincidentally, there's only one season left with the current match engine speciality rules, before the new system is implemented.

Still, I'm happy enough with 4th, I just need to do better!