Advance Football Results

2009-03-04T21:07:00.000+05:30

Guus Hiddink is happy to see Didier Drogba scoring

"Drogba is very happy with his goal. He knows he has not scored many this season"

- Guus Hiddink

Hiddink happy with Drogba

Guus Hiddink has not had a problem with Didier Drogba's attitude since he became Chelsea's interim manager.

The Ivorian striker hit a late winner against Portsmouth to keep Chelsea's faint Barclays Premier League title hopes alive and earn Hiddink a fourth straight win.

Drogba's season at Chelsea has been hampered by injury, suspension and a personality clash with former manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.

He was dropped by the Brazilian after their 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford in January, but Hiddink says he has seen nothing wrong with his attitude since he arrived.

EMOTIONAL EXPLOSION

Drogba ran to the bench to celebrate his goal and Hiddink added: "He is very happy with his goal. He knows he has not scored many goals this season.

"It gets rid of a bit of tension. When a player is playing in that position and not scoring, then it comes to such an emotional explosion.

"If you are a striker you like to score. They live to score and to assist."

Drogba himself went on record last week as saying that he was getting on well with his new manager.

2009-02-25T20:21:00.002+05:30

Arsenal

Manager is still Arsene Wenger.

Results

Season 1

1st place in PL! 102 points taken!
Lost in European Champions Cup semi final
Winners!
Winners!

Season 2

2nd place in PL
Lost in European Champions Cup semi final
Lost in FA Cup semi final
Lost in League Cup third round.

Current squad

Captain: Francesc Fabregas

Transfers

Season 1

New players were not bought.

Season 2

New players were not bought.

Player statistics

Chelsea

Manager is still Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Results

Season 1

2nd place in PL
Lost in European Champions Cup first knockout round
Lost in FA Cup final
Lost in League Cup fourth round.

Season 2

1st place in PL! 84 points taken.
Lost in European Champions Cup first knockout round
Winners!
Winners!

Current squad

Captain: Deco

Transfers

Season 1

Season 2

Player statistics

Liverpool

Manager is Louis van Gall. Rafa Benitez was sacked during winter transfer window of the 1st season.

Results

Season 1

10th place in PL
Lost in European Champions Cup final
Lost in FA Cup semi final
Lost in League Cup fourth round

Season 2

5th place in PL
-
Lost in FA Cup fifth round
Lost in League Cup quarter final.

Current squad

Captain: Steven Gerrard

Transfers

Season 1

Season 2

Player statistics

Hope you like this information! If you want me to continue posting info about successes and failures, players and transfers of other Premier League clubs – write in comments.

12 comment(s)

Wednesday, 18 February 2009

FM 2009 tactics of different teams

Hello, dear readers! I have prepared very interesting and pretty unusualinformation regarding different tactical approaches used by Premier Leagueclubs in my Hull game. We will try to understand together what tactics AI clubs prefer more and what tactics lead to success. I reviewed all the tactics used inPremier League one by one. Here you can find also enumerations of clubs with their positions in the league per each tactics.

Classic 4-4-2 formation

1. Arsenal

2. Manchester United

3. Tottenham

6. Aston Villa

7. Blackburn

10. Newcastle

11. Middlesbrough

12. West Ham

14. West Bromwich Albion

16. Fulham

17. Sunderland

19. Stoke

20. Bolton

4-4-2 is the most classic tactics for the whole history of football. 13 of 20 teams have been using this tactics since the start of the 3rd season in my game. Among them are top 3 teams (Arsenal, Man Utd, Tottenham) at the moment. Yes, of course, they have different tactical instructions which I cannot investigate so easy. But anyway we can see that this FM 2009 tactics may lead any team to success. It’s just matter of careful tuning of team instructions and selection of squad members.

4-1-3-1-1 – tactics of sacked coach

4. Chelsea

Luiz Felipe Scolari (who was sacked few weeks ago in real life) uses strange centre-concentrated tactics with one forward. As you see he is still ruling the club in my game. This means that he is on the way of success with it! And actually Chelsea won Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup of the previous season (2009/2010) following this smart tactical approach of famous Brazilian coach.

The main strength of this FM 2009 tactics is strong and mobile centre of midfield. Such guys like Essien, Ballack and Mikel can enclose flanks when it’s needed.

If you have some time I will try to investigate this tactics more. I would even like to tune for my team… But it can only happen in case if I’m not happy with the current one.

4 in advance, 6 behind

5. Liverpool

What have we here? Another quite rare approach of team work when 4 players are used only for wide attacks and 6 playersthink about defense. It’s pretty fluently because either defensive midfielders or wing backs can be involved in attacks in case when it’s necessary.

By the way, in my game this tactical style is produced by Louis Van Gaal – not Rafa Benites because he is sacked already.

Standard 4-4-1-1 tactics

8. Everton

18. Wigan

This one is hard to implement for me! I used this formation in different versions Football Manager and actually FM 2009 with Hull. Unfortunately it didn’t give me results I expect. But Everton performs quite good in my game anyway.

Though potentially it looks smart and tough because of 5 midfielders and 4 defenders together.

My 4-1-2-2-1 FM 2009 tactics

9. Manchester City

13. Hull

15. Wolves

There are 3 teams including my Hull left without being discussed. All of them use formation of my best FM2009 tactics! If you are permanent blog reader you should know all its features from this post. Manchester City doesn’t have high achievements with it, though Hughes is still Man City manager. We will see if my Hull is able to prove that this tactical approach is one of the most effective!

And what tactics do you use in FM2009? What’s your favourite?

29 comment(s)

Tags: football manager 2009 , Hull , tactics

Friday, 13 February 2009

“Second start” in Premier League

Hello, my dear readers! Today I’m sharing information about the second attempt of Hull in Premier League. The 3rd season has started!

Matches and league table

Here goes.

The strongest league in the world has started to resist my season expectations of mid-table position. We had 12 matches: 4 wins, 2 draws and 6 losses. I would prefer more victories, of course . But Hull board is already pleased by 12th position in the table. So I incline to be pleased by my team’s start as well.

By the way, Media Prediction for Hull in this season is 17th position (which is not good for me certainly).

The following matches were played by Hull:

Here I can single out very confident 3:0 victory against Stoke (our former competitor for the first place in the Championship) and cool game withBlackburn that is considered more strong team by squad.

The most negative match is the one at home against Middlesbrough (0:2 loss). Their players are not, surely, better than Blackburn players in my game. And I expected to win this match. But somehow my guys gave away advantage of ball control during almost all the time of the match.

Players

Lets review how my players performed during the first Premier League and League Cup matches:

The best two are Olexander Chyzhov (DC) and Fransisco Ochoa (GK). The goalkeeper whom I bought during transfer window is absolutely fantastic!!! He makes brilliant saves very often. And he has already managed to get 4 Man of Match awards in 14 matches!!! Moreover, I decided to build team over his personality setting him as captain!

Olexander Chyzhov (age 24) has becoming better and better footballer since the moment I bought him in the first season. Confident determined central defender with high Pace and Acceleration attributes of 15 points both!

The start of the season was darkened by injuries of the first squad players(you can see this fact in the screen shot by the amount of matches played by each of them): Abdou Rasack Traore, Jonathan Spector, Andriy Rusol and our new leading forward Falcao.

Falcao had actually played 9 games and scored 4 goals. My first impressionsof his performance are fine. I think he is worth of $26.5M paid for him. But unfortunately Falcao has torn a calf muscle in the match with Everton and will be away of football for 4-5 months .

2009-02-25T20:07:00.001+05:30

Hello, dear readers!

Some of you asked me to give an information about other teams that compete with my Hull in the Premier League. I understood you are interested in such facts like:

- for instance, if Chelsea has still Scolari as coach;

- what players were bought and sold in that or another club. And for what money;

- squad screen shots;

- which places teams took during the previous two seasons.

So I decided to try giving you this info. Of course, it’s not so possible to post all the information about all Premier League clubs. Therefore in this post we will start with the grand clubs: Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Manchester United

Manager is still Alex Ferguson.

Results

Season 1

3rd place in PL
European Champions Cup winners!
Lost in FA Cup sixth round
Lost in League Cup final

Season 2

3rd place in PL
Lost in European Champions Cup semi final
Lost in FA Cup final
Lost in League Cup fourth round.

Current squad

Captain: Carlos Tevez

Transfers

Season 1

New players were not bought.

Season 2

New players were not bought.

Player statistics

2009-02-25T19:36:00.000+05:30

The New Football Pools is backing Premier League Health

"Almost 90,000 people took part in health-specific activities at our clubs last season"

- Richard Scudamore

Premier League Health launched

The Premier League and the New Football Pools have joined forces to tackle men's health.

The Premier League today announced an exciting partnership that will see top flight football clubs help tackle the many serious health issues that men suffer.

Premier League Health is a unique £1.63m programme funded by the New Football Pools to help improve the state of men's health, particularly in deprived areas, all over the country.

• The fact remains that English males have a major problem with the poor state of their health;

• Men still have a lower life expectancy than women (77, compared with 81);

• Men have a higher incidence rate for cancers and suicide;

• More than 120,000 men in the UK die prematurely each year;

• Men are less likely to go to a GP or pharmacy and don't seem to want to participate in public health improvement programmes as much as women do.

MORE SPORT

Premier League Health will see 17 of the clubs currently in the Premier League work with local health agencies such as Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to engage over 4,000 men. The project will aim to tackle issues as diverse as depression linked to unemployment, obesity and general poor physical health, as well as alcohol and substance abuse. It will target men aged 18 and over, with many clubs placing NHS health trainers within the stadiums themselves, taking referrals from local GPs.

The project will also encourage men to play more sport, with some training them to become football coaches themselves. They will also point the men who take part in the direction of other agencies that might be able to help improve their health.

Launching the project at Fulham's Craven Cottage ground, Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore said: "Premier League clubs have shown in recent years the diverse range of issues that they can tackle through the extensive work they do in their communities. Many already partner with their local Primary Care Trusts, using the interest that people have in the club to help improve their health. In fact, almost 90,000 people took part in health-specific activities at our clubs last season.

"Only a few years ago football clubs were viewed solely as teams that competed on the pitch every weekend. A modern day Premier League club does far more than that. They now employ hundreds of staff dedicated solely to running an array of community-focused projects that are having an enormous impact. I am sure Premier League Health will go on to do the same."

WELLBEING MATTERS

Ian Penrose, Chief Executive of Sportech PLC, who own The New Football Pools said: "With the re-launch of the Pools this season comes a renewed commitment to fans and their communities. Over its 85-year history the Pools have contributed over £1.1billion to football, other sports and good causes.

"Today, we are delighted to be contributing further to this legacy ensuring The New Football Pools are as relevant to football and society as ever. Our new games and products engage daily with a new generation of Pools players, providing ongoing funding opportunities for tremendous social programmes such as Premier League Health."

Professor Alan White of Leeds Metropolitan University, the world's first Professor of Men's Health, who sits on the steering group of Premier League Health, said: "The men this partnership is aimed at are a generation that have very few services specifically designed for them yet face some of the greatest health challenges both now and throughout their lives.

"Using Premier League clubs sends a very clear message to these men that their health and wellbeing matters, that thought has gone into using locations that they will enjoy being in, and that they are valued."

Former Fulham player Geoff Horsfield said: "I was fortunate to be diagnosed with testicular cancer at an early enough stage to be able to fully recover and return to playing football with Lincoln City. I know from my experience that awareness of potential health problems and then engaging with the health services is a problem for many men. That is why I fully support the efforts of the Premier League and the New Football Pools to use the iconic nature of Premier League football clubs and players to start addressing these issues."

The Premier League Health Steering Group has already confirmed over £1m of the funding for 10 clubs to start their projects immediately, with each targeting issues that are a particular problem in their own area.

To see what each club is doing for the Premier League Health, click here.

2009-02-25T19:35:00.000+05:30

Frank Lampard would love to win the Champions League with Chelsea

"After last year of course we want to win the Champions League"

- Frank Lampard

Added incentive for Lampard

Frank Lampard says Chelsea are desperate to erase their Champions League final heartbreak.

The width of an upright prevented the Blues from beating Manchester United in a dramatic penalty shootout in the Moscow final last May.

Captain John Terry's miss allowed United to win their third European crown and Lampard says the squad's desire to go one better this season is very much on their minds ahead of the last-16 tie with Juventus at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

"There's an added incentive because of the manner in which we came so close last year," said Lampard. "You can't but help having that in the back of your mind after what happened.

"You want to go back and actually win it, whether this year or not. But so much can happen. Little moments can go either way on the way to the final, and you need that bit of luck to succeed.

"We're very determined, but after last year of course we want to win the Champions League."

WELCOME BACK

Chelsea welcome back former boss Claudio Ranieri on Wednesday night.

Ranieri guided the Blues to their first Champions League semi-final in his last season at Stamford Bridge and his Juventus side will provide formidable opposition.

The Italian was sacked by owner Roman Abramovich in 2004 but Lampard still has great affection for the man who signed him from West Ham United for £11m.

Lampard was among a host of players signed by Ranieri including William Gallas, Emmanuel Petit, Damien Duff, Wayne Bridge, Joe Cole, Scott Parker, Glen Johnson, Hernan Crespo, Sebastian Veron, Arjen Robben and Claude Makelele.

"He should take credit," said Lampard. "He brought a lot of important players to the team. He signed good players even before the Roman Abramovich era. He elevated John Terry to captain and he's become one of the best in the world since."

2009-02-25T19:18:00.000+05:30

Date Time Match

Friday 26th February	2000	FA Cup 5th Round Replay Hull City v Sheffield United
Saturday 28th February	1330	Scottish Premier League Hamilton v Rangers
Saturday 28th February	1330	Ford Football Special Everton v West Brom
Sunday 1st March	0130	Scottish Premier League Hamilton v Rangers
Sunday 1st March	1400	Barclays Premier League Bolton Wanderers v Newcastle united
Sunday 1st March	1400	Barclays Premier League Bolton Wanderers v Newcastle united
Sunday 1st March	1600	Carling Cup Final Manchester United v Spurs
Monday 2nd March	2030	Football League One Oldham Athletic v Leeds United
Tuesday 3rd March	2050	Ford Football Special Liverpool v Sunderland
Wednesday 4th March	2055	Barclays Premier League Blackburn Rovers v Everton

2009-02-24T12:37:00.001+05:30

Bellamy thwarts Liverpool

Liverpool 1 - Manchester City 1

Sunday, 22 February 2009

Former Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy scored to deny his old club the chance to cut the gap on leaders Manchester United to five points as Manchester City claimed a 1-1 draw at Anfield in the Barclays Premier League today.

Bellamy pounced to score after 49 minutes following good work by Robinho and Vincent Kompany.

Liverpool equalised through Dirk Kuyt when he scored after Fernando Torres had failed to convert Yossi Benayoun's cross.

But a point meant United's lead stands at seven points following their 2-1 win over Blackburn yesterday.

Bobby Zamora finally ended his long barren streak as Fulham condemned bottom side West Brom to a hopelessly one-sided 2-0 defeat.

Zamora had played more than 29 hours of Premier League football since his last goal but tapped home the opener from point-blank range before strike partner Andy Johnson added his ninth of the season in all competitions to seal a well-earned victory.

The home side struck the woodwork on four separate occasions as they ran riot with Clint Dempsey, Brede Hangeland and, on two occasions, Danny Murphy the men to miss out, while Roman Bednar missed an injury-time penalty for the visitors.

Ten-man Newcastle held out for a 0-0 draw at home to Everton after having Kevin Nolan sent off for a bad tackle on Victor Anichebe a minute before half-time.

2009-02-19T19:52:00.002+05:30

Red Devils support deaf-friendly football

Young hearing-impaired footballers met Manchester United's Darren Fletcher and Ben Foster for a training session.

The session was held at the club's Carrington training ground and was the product of a combined effort from the Manchester United Foundation and the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS).

The visit was part of the Premier League Creating Chances programme and involved young people aged 8-18 from schools across the north-west, who attend regular sessions as part of Manchester United's Foundation's disability programme. The Foundation holds deaf-friendly football sessions and deaf-friendly festivals in partnership with the NDCS. The aim of the sessions is to encourage deaf youngsters into football by making facilities and programmes more accessible.

2009-02-19T19:50:00.003+05:30

Essien eyes Blues return

Injured Michael Essien hopes to be back in action for Chelsea next month.

The Ghana international has made encouraging progress in his recovery from knee-ligament damage.

It was initially feared the powerful Ghana midfielder would miss the entire season after sustaining the injury in September while on international duty.

He played just two matches for Chelsea - against Wigan Athletic and Tottenham Hotspur - before undergoing surgery, robbing the Blues of one of their most consistent performers.

The speed of his rehabilitation means Essien could return for the Barclays Premier League fixtures against Manchester City and Tottenham next month.

FANTASTIC MANAGER

And should Chelsea negotiate their Champions League last-16 tie against Juventus, he would surely figure in the quarter finals in early April.

"According to rehabilitation physio Thierry Laurent, it should not take more than one month for me to play actively again," Essien said.

"He has assured me that once we go through a few other exercises for two or three weeks, I should be fit enough to return to the pitch."

Essien's injury meant he missed virtually the whole of Luiz Felipe Scolari's brief reign at Stamford Bridge.

Guus Hiddink, Scolari's successor, has overseen training this week and Essien approves of the appointment.

"Hiddink has been around for quite a while and knows what it takes to get positive results out of nothing," he said.

"He is a fantastic manager so we hope he would bring the magic to give us the strength we need to mount a challenge in all competitions."

2009-02-19T19:47:00.001+05:30


Zico

Zico tips Villa for Champions League

1 day ago

Brazilian legend Zico is backing Aston Villa to emulate CSKA Moscow and join them in qualifying for next season's Champions League.

Zico will take charge of CSKA for the first time in Wednesday night's UEFA Cup first-round clash at Villa Park with the Russian club already assured of their place in the Champions League for the 2009-2010 campaign, but he believes Villa will follow the same path if they continue the form which has seen them climb into third spot in the Barclays Premier League.

The former World Cup star said: "If Aston Villa keep playing the type of football they are producing at the moment, they have every chance of participating in the Champions League next season."

He added: "The team is a great team containing great players of very high quality. It is performing now at its best. If it keeps playing like this, it has every chance to keep growing and easily it will join the Champions League for next season."

Zico has been particularly impressed by the contributions of winger Ashley Young and midfielder Gareth Barry but knows CSKA will have to be on their guard in all areas.

He added: "Aston Villa are in third place not just because of the contribution of one or two players. It is because the whole team is very strong and we must take care of every player.

"Ashley Young is a really great player and, if you give him a lot of freedom, then he is going to cause a lot of problems to our team.

"Gareth Barry is also very important as well. He is very dangerous and links up play effectively.

"But, if the team stays in third place in the Premier League, it is because of the whole team and we must pay a lot of attention to every player."

top scorers

2009-02-19T19:01:00.002+05:30

Barclays Premier League Top Scorers

Anelka (Chelsea)

Robinho (Manchester City)

Ronaldo (Manchester United)

Agbonlahor (Aston Villa)

Zaki (Wigan Athletic)

Bent (Tottenham Hotspur)

Cisse (Sunderland)

Gerrard (Liverpool)

Lampard (Chelsea)

Van Persie (Arsenal)

2009-02-18T21:40:00.003+05:30

Saturday 21st February 2009

Barclays Premier League

Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Time	More information
Bolton	vs	West Ham	Reebok Stadium	15:00	Not started
Stoke	vs	Portsmouth	Britannia Stadium	15:00	Not started
Middlesbrough	vs	Wigan	The Riverside Stadium	15:00	Not started
Arsenal	vs	Sunderland	Emirates Stadium	15:00	Not started
Man Utd	vs	Blackburn	Old Trafford	17:30	Not Started

Expected scores : Bolton 0 West Ham 2

Stoke 0 Portsmouth 1

Middlesbrough 1 Wigan 1

Arsenal 4 Sunderland 2

Man utd 2 Blackburn 0

BPL group Table

2009-02-18T21:37:00.002+05:30

Here is the gruoup table for Barclays premier league

1	Man Utd	24	17	5	2	41	10	31	56

2	Liverpool	25	15	9	1	42	17	25	54

3	Aston Villa	25	15	6	4	40	24	16	51

4	Chelsea	25	14	7	4	44	15	29	49

5	Arsenal	25	12	8	5	38	25	13	44

6	Everton	25	11	7	7	34	28	6	40

7	Wigan Athletic	25	9	7	9	26	24	2	34

8	West Ham Utd	25	9	6	10	31	32	-1	33

9	Manchester City	25	9	4	12	42	34	8	31

10	Fulham	23	7	9	7	22	19	3	30

11	Sunderland	25	8	6	11	27	33	-6	30

12	Hull City	25	7	8	10	31	46	-15	29

13	Newcastle	25	6	9	10	33	42	-9	27

14	Bolton	25	8	3	14	27	37	-10	27

15	Portsmouth	25	7	6	12	27	41	-14	27

16	Tottenham	25	6	7	12	26	31	-5	25

17	Stoke City	25	6	6	13	21	40	-19	24

18	Blackburn	24	5	8	11	27	40	-13	23

19	Middlesbrough	25	5	7	13	18	36	-18	22

20	WBA	25	6	4	15	24	47	-23	22

2009-02-18T21:25:00.002+05:30

Saturday 21st February 2009

Barclays Premier League

Home team	Score	Away team	Venue	Time	More information
Aston Villa	vs	Chelsea	Villa Park	12:45

Under the new, Guus Hidink Chelsea has a greater chance to win this

..but Aston villa (3rd) will be a hard ought match for both..

Expected score : Chelsea - 1 Aston Villa 1