Season 33 Week 13 processing...

Welcome to week 13.

The reset has finished and data entry has started...

Data entry is complete and the Friendlies have kicked off.

WATFORD

A lack of proper finishing from the Watford players, allowing Chelsea to take a point from the last game. Manager has tweaked things a little this week to help give edge in this weeks game. Only change will see Luke Shaw come back in at LB, who has only played 8 games so far this season after the fine form my Baines at LB. But now fully up to speed, good time to get him back into starting XI. Otherwise, hopefully a straightforward week for Watford with Blackpool in the CUP, and rotations should be more than enough to progress to the next round. 
Mix up at the passport office, see's Renan Lodi has applied for a Working Permit to be eligible.

GENK

The rampant belgian side see off-field improvements continue to help build on the fan base and revenue opportunities identified by the 'Revenue manager'. 

On the pitch, Amadou Onana comes into the middle of the park to replace the departed Gravenberch. The youthful side is looking to reduce the age further with Full Review of Illan Meslier on the cards to help bring him into the side. What does that mean for Bernd Leno..

CUP game sees Hugo Ekitike and Noa Lang get some game time to hopefully give the manager a headache for future fixtures! How long will the new Chelsea player Nkunku stay in Belgium... 

LEVERKUSEN

Another strong performance by Leverkusen last week out. Led by the phenomenal Milinkovic-Savic. Hopefully the side has the right amount of youth and experience to see them over the coming weeks to maintain there title challenge. Eden Hazard has been seen by a specialist and helped improve his robustness so should see him get a prolonged period in the XI to help bring that edge. Musiala, showcasing his abilities on the world stage at the moment... Can he replicate the form ingame to help push his side forward. 

Gravenberch made to wait for his league debut, but gets to play in the CUP, alongside Nainggolan and Hlozek who aim to provide some more rotation options.

Efrain Alvarez time at the side looks to becoming to an end, as manager as profiled the player and decided would be better to cash in on the young international to allow for investment into the infrastructure and stadium capacity of the side.  

BOTAFOGO

Another one to suffer from the poor finishing in front of goal, with 14 shots in the last game but couldn't find the back of the net. Causing the side to drop 2 vital points... Could that prove extremely costly in the charge for the Brazilian title... With santos in red hot form and Fluminense not far behind!

Manager keeping faith with the side, no changes made. In the CUP, Endrick keeps his place in the having scored 7 goals in 5 games. Despite picking up a knock should be fit enough to play 60 mins. Nico Williams making fine start to South American football. Scoring on his CUP debut last week!

Big fan of those Phil - what’s the site you’ve used?

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Ben@Plymouth wrote:

Big fan of those Phil - what’s the site you’ve used?

https://www.createformation.com/


Prefered that one cause it used Player Pictures rather than names Download the picture, upload to post at 320 px width and then embedded the URL

Phil has raised the bar

Thanks Phil!

gary@chelsea wrote:

Phil has raised the bar

I try to make the match previews as interesting as possible! And give Paul something to read and view now  

Thanks Phil, great stuff.

League games will kickoff at 1000 hours Wednesday morning...

Great read Phil as always. Loving the graphics but not as much as I’ll be loving watching the vidiprinter if Botafogo line up with no keeper! 

Quote :

Great read Phil as always. Loving the graphics but not as much as I’ll be loving watching the vidiprinter if Botafogo line up with no keeper!

Quote :

Haha I did try to find Weverton, but appeared the Database didn't have him. Was tempted to stick a random keeper in between sticks... but didn't feel right 

Domestic Cup - Third Round highlights

Independente 4 Racing Club 0
Argentinos 1 River Plate 2

Anderlecht 4 Lokeren 0
Genk 6 Waregem 0
Liege 0 Mechelen 2

Bate 4 Minsk 2

Fluminense 4 Coritiba 1
Juventude 1 Santos 3
Botafogo 4 Mirim 0
Corinthians 0 Sao Paulo 1

Coventry 0 Bournemouth 1
Charlton 8 ( eight ) Norwich 0
Watford 4 Blackpool 1
Man City 3 QPR 0
Plymouth 5 Soton 1
Man United 2 Leeds 1
Arsenal 2 Liverpool 0
Villa 2 Tranmere 0

Lille 4 Chatearoux 0
Nantes 2 Bordeaux 1
Etienne 4 Auxerre 0
Paris 5 Lyon 1
Monaco 1 Toulouse 0
Rennais 4 Guingamp 0
Toulon 1 Sedan 2
Marseille 3 Brestois 0

Leverkusen 6 Hamburg 0
Bremen 2 Dortmund 1
Bayern 3 Dusseldorf 0
Hannover 3 Karlsruhe 0
Schalke 4 Kaiserlautern 0
Stuttgart 0 Berlin 1
Hoffenheim 0 Cologne 2
Leipzig 0 Jena 2

PSV 4 Nijmegan 0
Ajax 4 Nac Breda 0
Feyenoord 3 Den Haag 0
Twente 3 Rotterdam 0

Napoli 4 Ancona 0
Inter 3 Atalanta 2
Milan 5 Pescara 0
Juventus 3 Crotone 0
Cagliari 2 Fiorentina 0
Lazio 4 Sassuolo 0

Setubal 4 Tondela 0
Vicente 2 Lisbon 3
Rio Avenue 0 Porto 5
Benfica 5 Academica 0
Braga 5 Feirense 0

Aberdeen 3 Livingston 0
St Johnstone 1 Kilmarnock 2
Rangers 2 Motherwell 1

Barcelona 4 Lleida 0
Real 5 Santander 0
Betis 4 Vallecano 0
Atletico 4 Sociedad 0
Sevilla 4 Mallorca 0
Bilbao 0 Malaga 1
Zaragoza 0 Deportivo 1

Bellavista 0 Penarol 1
Danubio 4 Progreso 0
Nacional 6 Cerrito 0

Chicago 4 NewYork 0
Tampa 1 Harrisburg 0
Cosmos 4 Portland 0

Partizan 0 Red Star 2

Some big clashes amongst those third round games but no real shocks, looks like the last eight games are going to be very tough. Congratulations to all the winners. 

Quarter-Final draw happens next week in week 14.

Not a huge preview from me this week but, as ever, Plymouth, Twente and Independiente need to step up and continue winning games - some big ties see Plymouth vs Arsenal and Independiente vs River Plate!

Atletico host Madrid with some exciting, younger new players coming in this turn - not expecting much from the side in transition but you never know...

The players are lined up and the ref blows his whistle for the start of this week's games, good luck to everybody...

Lyon 0 Nantes 1 Fekir on 3 minutes.

Berlin 0 Hannover 1 Jonathan David header on 4 minutes.
Betis 0 Barcelona 1 Ruiz.

Genk 1 Antwerp 0 Camavinga on 5 minutes.
Newcastle 1 Charlton 0 Almiron.
Lyon 0 Nantes 2 Lemos.