Catch up with part 1 here.

After a couple of friendlies I’m going with this formation and starting line up. Competition for places.

This had alway been my go-to formation. Again before joining Twitter, was unaware of the 2-3-1-2-2. That’s a good formation and effective, but I find it’s difficult to get the whole team to play well. Wing-backs in particular. This formation will get everyone 7.20+ if they are the right fit and good enough. It’s all opinions and preferences.

Upping wages:

I’ve given Wright, Ferdinand, Lennon, Owen and Fitzgerald new contracts. I’ve got no evidence but I have found that if you want particular players to play better, pay them more money. It worked in a previous blog with Adrian Littlejohn who on £50k a week, way out-performed his ability and potential.

First up it’s Reggina who you could make an argument that they rhyme with vagina, depending on your accent and pronunciation. It’s a close game but we are too strong for the Serie B fannies.

Captain Colin with a Leader’s performance.

Injury crisis already with Goram out for a few weeks. 

Wright will step in although I’m not that confident in him for season one.

First game in Serie A goes swimmingly 

Team GB 4 – 1 Sampdoria

(Scholes, Sheringham 2, Owen; Mihaijlovic)

Team GB 2 – 0 Brescia 

(Scholes 2)

Champions League opener vs Bayern. Owen wins it off the bench.

Although we lost Captain Colin for a few weeks.

Big test away at Milan. We had a disallowed goal at 2-2 but no complaints really. Defeat.

With Hendry out, Dailly comes in for the next game instead of Ferdinand for a bit more experience. And we bounced-back against Lazio thanks to Nicky Butt.

Udinese 0 – 2 Team GB

(Scholes, Owen)

Second group match in the CL. I have no idea what happened here.

Goram is out for a few days. Good job as I was going to drop him after the last game. If Wright plays well, he’ll keep his place. 

Hendry is back and puts us ahead. Scholes is on fire. 

Team GB 1 -1 Fiorentina

(Beckham; Oliveria)

Bari 1 – 3 Team GB

(Masinga; Scholes 2, Sheringham)

Rangers next in the CL. They haven’t got Goram so it shouldn’t be a problem. 3-0, could have been 6.

Team GB 0 – 0 Lecce

How didn’t we win this? Fortunately we won the replay. 

Team GB 0 – 0 Inter

Battering Bayern. Fitzgerald gets his first goal. 

Epic turnaround in Rome. Are you not entertained!

Parma 1 – 2 Team GB

(Chiesa; Butt, Giggs)

Big win against table-topping Juve. 

Into 2nd with a game in hand.

Revenge on Parma in the CL.

Owen is out for 6 weeks though. 

Fowler can get a run in the team. He’s been useless thus far. But gets the only goal vs Empoli in our next game.

Coppa Italia QF Leg 1 

Sampdoria 2 – 0 Team GB

(Montella, Signori (pen); G.Nev sent off)

We drew the second leg and we’re out 🙁

Giggs is out for 2 months.

Rangers 0 – 0 Team GB 

That draw is enough for us to qualify as group winners.

We’ll face Man Utd without most of their good players that we pinched for international duty. Shame Schmeichel isn’t Welsh.

Atalanta 1 – 2 Team GB

(G.Nev (OG); Fowler 2)

That takes us up until Christmas. In a good position and doing better than I thought we would. 

SCORES ON THE DOORS – AS IT STANDS