February brought four straight defeats and the vultures are circling. But what will March and April bring? Read on. Whether Football Manager is a matter of life and death or just a welcome escape from everything right now, our dedicated Football Manager podcast β hosted by Macintosh β is almost certainly for you. Listen on all major podcast platforms and, of course, ad-free on The Athletic app.
Iain Macintosh: Alex is in bother. Getting sacked on Football Manager is the ultimate indignity. Against that backdrop, it seems churlish for me to grumble about my own problems. Nevertheless, I am a little gloomy. The fleet-footed, fluid that works so wonderfully for my Marseille save is far too much for this lot. And our expectations were met. While our stodgy formation prevented Eintracht from ever really getting into gear, they took us apart on set pieces, which is something I always take very personally.
We barely made a chance in the first half, it was too late by the second and so on we plod to the end of the season, wheezing like marathon runners who probably should have tried a 10k fun run first. Alex Stewart: That was the month from hell. Surely things can only get better? But fighting my corner is good old Zvoni Soldo, a Stuttgart legend who I had to Google but whose name will be on the back of my next VfB shirt.
He calls for patience and for once I am glad for the intervention of a former pro. So I take a deep breath and switch to a back three. With Nicolas Gonzalez back, I can play my favoured front two ahead of Didavi. OK⦠here goes nothing. They had four times as many shots on target, four times the expected goals, and 10 more corners. We take the lead after Massimo nods a long ball from Waldemar Anton through to Silas Wamangituka, who finishes expertly.
The defence hold up pretty well, although Fabian Bredlow makes a brilliant save from a one-on-one with me cursing down the phone to Iain before pretty much yelling with relief.
