Football Manager 2010 Blog | Football Manager Guru | Wolves and the Artem Milveskyi show

This whole post, can be summarized by simply exclaiming “Artem Milevskyi is a god in the body of a striker.” Okay, I might be exaggerating, but I felt the moment Milevskyi have settled in, he has nothing been short of brilliant and we had some really tough fixture this few weeks, but Milevskyi has really came through strong for us. Our current 2nd position in the league can be mainly attributed to the magic he weaves on the pitch. What a player! Without further delay, I give you, the Artem Milevskyi show.

We started the week, with a comfortable home encounter against easy opponents Bristol Rovers. I played an extremely youthful team, and all the first-team players were rested except for a few. Verratti , new transfer striker Kone, Gomis and Kryvtsov all had a run out. Backup midfielder and former Dundee star Gomis. Gomis repaid the faith I showed in him by threading an early through ball to Ebanks-Blake. Canales doubled our lead with a long range effort before half time and Ebanks-Blake got his 2nd goal shortly after half time. Bristol Rovers had no response to our goals at all, and I had no reasons to bring out the big guns. A comfortable win.

The second game saw us travel to White Hart Lane, which is always a place that is hard to obtain all three points.  Kacar almost scored with a curling long range effort in the early stages (it is frightening how a DM like him has such a stinging long range ability). I attribute our win largely to only one factor: Aerial Dominance. Here is a tip for people who struggle against Spurs, I realised the key to beating them is to field players who have the ability to win headers in the middle of the park. You’ll see what I mean from the post game analysis in a short while. We had quite a bit of possession in the first half due to the amount of headers we were winning in the midfield area. Ebanks-Blake missed a penalty for us when he was brought down in the penalty box by a Spurs defender. This is always a demoralizing situation to be in.

After dominating the whole of first half, my squad was finally rewarded when Inler put Krivets through on goal. Krivets made no mistake when he found himself one-on-one with the keeper, as he passed calmly into the net. He has really matured into a great player since I bought him in my first season with Wolves. In the second half, I realised that we dominated possession due to headers won, and I put on Fonseca who had a much stronger physical presence than Ebanks-Blake. He will partner Milevskyi upfront. And it only took a few minutes for this change to pay off, when Milevskyi dribble down the right flank, and crossed for Fonseca. Before Fonseca could put a header to it, he was fouled in the box, and Milevskyi scored from the resulting penalty. 2-0 the score line. So far in the league, only Man united and my squad have 0 losses. Things are looking good.

Look at the stats for the game at full-time. We had 16 shots on goal, while Spurs the home team only had 7. More importantly, we won a whopping 73% of the headers we attempted. Ladies and gentlemen, this is how you beat Spurs.

Kacar who was playing in the DM role, won 6 out of 6 headers and all of which are upfield in the Spurs half. This helped alot in making sure we camped in the Spurs half when we were laying siege on the goal.

Fonseca, who came on as a 2nd half sub, also won 5 out of 5 headers, showing how vulnerable Spurs is in mid-air.

Shevchuk does a brilliant job for a LB at 31 years-old, against of the most talented attacking teams in the EPL, with 8 out of 8 tackles won. Brilliant LB. I still can’t believe I bought him for 450k and no one has used him more often in FM 2010.

I will make a mental note to exploits Spurs’ vulnerabilities in the header department when they return to the Molineux this season. A comfortable 2-0 win for us.

Shortly after the game, I gave Kryvtsov a leave of absence to try to sort out his personal issues, as he was having a hard time settling in England. It is such a pity because he is a talented defender and I am sure he will do great in the future.

We hosted previous league champions Man City at the Molineux, and Artem Milevskyi single handedly won the match for us. In the 6th minute of the game, Milevskyi dribbled past a City defender and just as he was about to pull the trigger he was brought down in the box. Milevskyi made no mistake from the resulting penalty, and that made him have 2 goals in 2 games now, hopefully this is the start of good things to come. It turned out that Milevskyi was on fire, when he made a through pass for Krivets who have made a sneaky run from midfield, however Krivets’ shot was saved. Milevskyi struck again just before half-time, when he dribbled past two City defenders to double the scoreline. Milevskyi is finally justifying the 10 million transfer fee I paid for him. What a day for him.

In the 2nd half, Shevchuk was lightly injured and Forren came on as a sub for Shevchuk. Adebayor pulled one back in the 60th minute, but my defence held resilient till the final whistle. Jones almost gave Milevskyi his hat-trick just before full time when he set Milevskyi through on goal, but Milevskyi’s shot was saved. We held on for a historic win that we deserved last season only to let Man City steal a point (We were 2-0 up at home before Otamendi got sent off and City clawed two back last season). A fuffiling win for us.

Milevskyi made 5 shots on goals, 3 on target and 2 resulted in goals for us. Great performance from him.

Milevskyi also tormented the City center backs with 4 dribbles past them.

Stearman was a rock at the RB position making a whooping 13 tackles this game, 11 of whihc are successful. A big reason why City failed to threatened down the right flank. And the lad is only 24 year-old!

We received some saddening news shortly after the historic City win, when Sergio Canales the Spannish wonderkid who was an understudy to Krivets, opted to be transfer listed. The main reason being he felt too much competition for a spot in the first team squad, after I bought Marco Verratti another wonderkid into the squad. It’s a pity because Canales had shown some brief moments of brilliance for me in the past. I wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

The next game was the toughest game of the season so far. We travelled to Old Trafford to play Man United, who was the only team in the league to be unbeaten except us. A lot was on the line here. United was a squad totally on fire as they were leading at the 1st position of the league. Our 11 match unbeaten run might really come to an end here, at the Theatre of Dreams. Shockingly, we were the first team to grab a goal, when Milevskyi was set through by Krivets on a quick counter by us, and Milevskyi made no mistake in front of goal. It was evident that Milevskyi’s good recent form is continuing in this game as well. The boy is on fire. Even more shockingly, we found ourselves 2-0 up after 11 minutes at Old Trafford when Milevskyi squared the ball from the flanks for Krivets to apply a nice finish to the bottom corner of the net. These two were starting to really hit it off.

I went into the dressing room instructing the players to not be complacent, and they really did their job and United only managed to claw one back via an oustanding piece of skill from Zoran Tosic. Tosic dribbled past 2 defenders from the flank to slot the ball into the near post of Enyeama. Brilliant solo goal. Sensing, a chance to equalised United surged forward and we withstood heavy pressure.

Milevskyi almost reestablished our 2 goal lead when he crossed from the flanks that almost lead to another goal. However Van der Saar saved the resulting header from Krivets. In the 75 minute, Milevskyi pulled a fingertip saved from Van der Saar, we could have been 3-1 up. I was agonising when Valencia equalised in the 83 minutes. We were so close to a great away win at Old Trafford. I wished we were the team to make United incur their first lost of the season. Valencia was played through on goal by a clever reverse pass from Rooney. 2-2 the final score line.

We have now played Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, and yet we have not lost a single game this season. Brilliant run.

We played at home to Aston Villa at home in the next game, and I vividly remmeber Villa was a team that finished in front of us last season, and it will be crucial to see if we really have improved against them this season.

Against Villa, Otamendi was injured so Forren was playing at center back, he finally proves useful as a quality utility man. Milveskyi continues his brilliant form for me, after Krivets made crossfield pass from our own half, and Milevskyi burst into their penalty box to drive home our opening goal. Krivets – Milveskyi was at work once again. Ashley Young equalized from them with a thunderbolt of a show immediately, to bring it back to square one at 1-1 each. Krivets almost restored our lead but a fantastic save denied him of a great effort. The remaing of the first half was uneventful as both teams played cautiously after we drew level.

In the 2nd half, I played Canales and Verratti, because Krivets and Jones were starting to fade into the background. Canales played in the AMC slot, while Verratti was playing CM. Time to see if the wonderkids could pull off another magic. And they really did, because both of them were an real menace going forward. Verratti showed why he is so brilliant as a kid as he volleyed a curling shot on goal, and the keeper Begovic could only parry the shot onto Milevskyi feet who drove home the goal to make us lead 2-1 again. Time to close shop and take home the three points. We went into a defensive stance, and as Villa surged forward we delivered the sucker punch in the form of a counter when Canales set Milveskyi up for his hattrick. Milevskyi picked up a ball from Canales and dribbled past a Villa defender to slot home the winner. 3-1 the scoreline. Mileveskyi strikes again.

Villa pulled one consolation goal back in injury time but it was too late for anything. Another satisfying 3 points for my boys. Milevskyi is absolutely on fire. I was right, all he needed was a little time to settle in.

As you can see, Milevskyi made 5 shots, 4 of which were on target and 3 were resulting goals. Brilliant striker.

After the game we received good news that Kryvtsov has returned from his break and was happy to stay. That is great news for us.

As I end this post, we find ourselves at the 2nd position in the league after a total of 10 games played. In addition we were the only other team to not have lost other than Chelsea. What a flying start of the season for us. A Euro spot seems like reality for us this season. Will the Artem Milveskyi show continue? And will we continue our rampage in recent games. Find out in the next post!

Related posts:

1. Wolves 09/10 Season Run-In
2. Title Race Heats Up For Wolves
3. So The Season Begins for Wolves
4. Wolves Stays Defiantly In Top 3
5. Wolves Kicks Off Euro Dreams