Matt Wills has been at the editor again but what has he spun together this time? Let’s find out…
Hello, I’m back again with another one season save, Alive and Kicking was a lot of fun, but I’m after a team with some substance this time.
Partly inspired by Nick Rowe’s excellent CM97/98 classic squads series on Twitter, partly inspired by Liverpool getting ‘back on their perch’ and partly because I love fiddling about with the editor, I’m bringing you the last pre-covid19 squad to win the league.
Liverpool 89/90 – 30 Years of Hurt?
Hello, I’m back again with another one season save, Alive and Kicking was a lot of fun, but I’m after a team with some substance this time.
Partly inspired by Nick Rowe’s excellent CM97/98 classic squads series on Twitter, partly inspired by Liverpool getting ‘back on their perch’ and partly because I love fiddlign about with the editor, I’m bringing you the last pre-covid19 squad to win the league.
When Liverpool last won the league in the 1989/90 season I had just started following Man Utd who were about to start Fergie’s glory period. At the time, this was unknown, and similarly, no one could foresee Liverpool having to wait 30 years to pick up their next league title. To put that into context, that’s the length of a Champ Manager 97/98 career save without a league title!
By the following season, Kenny Dalglish would resign and the great Liverpool team of the 1980’s would slowly be taken apart.
Well, I’m here to put it all back together again with the wonder that is the cm2ed.exe file.
Thankfully, most of the 89/90 squad are still playing by 97/98, but I still had to create Alan Hansen, Kenny Dalglish and Alan Tate (who?).
So, with a bit of tinkering, we have a squad.
The existing squad have all been shipped off to their next real life destination. So while Owen and McManaman bolster Real Madrids ranks, Karl Heinze Riedle finds himself parterning Paul Peschisolido at Fulham.
However, I’m not aiming to try and drag a team of players pushing 40 through a Premier League campaign, no, for this save I’m invoking the spirit of Back To The Future and knocking 8 years off all the players ages and upping the stats a little here and there.
So I’ll have a 28 year old Ian Rush, a 26 year old John Barnes on the left wing (none of this DMC nonsense) and Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish will be 34 and 38 respecively.
Alan’s last full season was in 89/90 until injury forced retirement after Kenny resigned.
Kenny played his final game at the end of the 89/90 season but I fancy getting a few games out of him in our league quest.
John Barnes will be key for us if he can stay fit – at least there’s no flash mobile phones to distract him.
Ian Rush at the peak of his powers is going to be interesting, but doubt he’ll have enough to save Bobby Gould’s job.
Signs are promising in pre-season, but Man Utd, Newcastle, Arsenal and Chelsea are not Rhyl (even if they do have their own John Barnes).
Here’s the system I’ve settled on in pre-season, hopefully the right balance of power and skill.
Pass and move, it’s the Liverpool groove.
Before we can get into our groove though, Charity Shield curtain raiser time.
United mean business, even with the kids. Alan Hansen tells me we should not be worried about them…
The crowds flock to see this Anfield side from another time, but we can only squeeze past Balckburn
Liverpool had some great tussles with Palace back in 89/90
Maybe we won’t travel so well this season though…
Man Utd set out so show us who the 90’s really belonged to
Things seem easier when we have home and numerical advantage. Kenny replacing the injured Jan Molby and getting us off to a great start
Until things start to click on the road
Kenny dons his boots in his player-manager role for our trip to Switzerland, setting us up nicely for the return leg in a few weeks time.
Kenny keeps his place in for the injured Danish Scouser Jan Molby and its inspring
Barcelona didn’t even bid? Strange – I had to double check Bobby Gould had actualy been sacked by Wales for a second…
The return leg against Grasshoppers is textbook and it’ll be Olympiakos in the next round
We leave it late to make it safe against Coventry
But it’s enough to take us top of the table with a game in hand
2 pts clear and a game in hand is an excellent start to life, and this team is a lot of fun to manage. I don’t think I’ve ever taken over Liverpool in CM, being a Man Utd fan, but this squad looks like being a joy to manage.
Our exploits are being noticed on the international stage. Barnes and Beardsley get a call up to the England squad, even if they don’t play. New Wales manager Carlos Alberto Silva can’t ignore Rushie and Alan Hansen gets a chance to add to his surprisingly low 26 caps for Scotland.
Join me next week for more retro retro Liverpool tales.
Great post thanks – what were Kenny stats 0-200? Potential and Ability
Hey, can’t remember off the top of my head – I’ll check the editor next time I load up but imagine I put them around 180ish?
Random question mate, how did you do this and is there a way for fans like myself to upload this database?