O’Shea was a risky pre-season signing in many ways: past his peak, and slightly average even at his peak.

But he has been more than adequate in defence, and presents a danger up front at corners. It’s been a long time coming, but he got his first goal for Coventry City. It was an atypical situation for him - receiving the ball in open play just outside the box:

In off the post, lovely. Incidentally - see where Marcos chests the ball down following the initial clearance? Well, in PESes past, I’d have first-timed a volley at the goal, but in PES2008 the shoot button seems to be disabled in these kinds of circumstances. Thus I have become adept at doing what I did with Marcos here: turning away, shielding the ball, and laying it off.

In this game I was constantly battling for possession and trying to make something happen. Some matches are just like that. Blackburn scored again to make the score 1-2. Who should step up to get my second equaliser but Braafheid, my other so-far non-scoring defender:

In off the same post. How peculiar.

After losing 1-2 to Man Utd (tough game) and then thumping the Villa 4-2, I received a notification message: qualification for next season’s European Championships was assured. It was mathematically impossible for me to finish outside the top 6.

This left a couple of fairly meaningless games to get out of the way before the end of the season. All that was at stake was whether I would finish 3rd or 4th. I had my heart set on 3rd, and played accordingly.

I destroyed Arsenal 4-2 at their ground. Or better to say: Schwarz destroyed them. I was 3-0 up by half time thanks to yet another Schwarz hat trick. His third goal was a bit special:

Another replay angle showed that I’ve still not achieved my aim of planting a long-ranger in the ‘postage stamp’ corner of the net just yet. The ball veers toward the centre of the goal. Schwarz’s shooting power alone beats the keeper. (I’ll post a clip here of this other replay view in a day or two.)

Arsenal came back at me, scoring two completely lame goals that made me groan. Happily, I went up their end late on and secured the win with a poacher’s goal from Chiesa.

Going into the final game of the season against Anderlecht, Schwarz was the division’s top score with 23 goals. Rooney was just behind him with 22. I thought Rooney was sure to score at least one goal in Man Utd’s final game. I played Schwarz against Anderlecht despite his stamina bar being only three quarters full. I figured it was worth the risk, as it was the last game of the season and there was always the chance he’d sneak a goal or two.

I beat Anderlecht 4-1. Traore got a hat trick this time. Bramble headed in from a corner. Schwarz had a poor game, lumbering around with his low stamina.

There was no need to worry, though. Rooney didn’t score, and Schwarz finished the season as the Golden Boot winner.

I finished 3rd by two points (Liverpool drew their last game).

So Chelsea won the league with 93 points - 18 ahead of me - and they lost only 3 games all season. That’s fairly realistic, I suppose - real league winners tend not to lose more than a handful of games all season. It’s something I’ll have to replicate next season if I’m going to challenge for the league - as I expect to do. I’ll be looking for at least three top-drawer players in the negotiations coming up.

——————–

Here’s something I’ve never done before: my Player of the Season, and my personal favourite Goal of the Season.

Schwarz has to be Player of the Season. He got 23 goals in 38 games - and he should have had more. With better players and more experience next season, I’d hope for Schwarz to get 50 goals.

Marcos and Guimaraes are joint runners-up for Player of the Season. Marcos has been superb for a player of such modest abilities. Guimaraes has become a true star in my team. But Schwarz’s all-round performances - not just his goals - have been consistently phenomenal all season.

My Goal of the season: Reyes vs Bolton. You’ll see hundreds of ‘better’ goals in all kinds of places, but this is my personal favourite right now - I just love the technique, the lack of backlift, the high graceful loop over the keeper (I’m gushing with praise about Reyes here, not myself. All I do is press buttons):

In many ways I prefer the long-range Schwarz strike from the Arsenal game, but the Reyes goal just looks beautiful.

And so that was season 2011. No relegation battle this time. Just a season of consolidation. If I’d got to grips with PES2008 a bit quicker (what was wrong with me this year?), I’d have been challenging for the title. I’m ready and waiting for the start of season 2012. I’ll be shooting for the Treble. Scoring 81 goals in a season would have won me the league by a long way in previous instalments of the game.

I’ll score 100+ goals next season. The question is: how many will I let in?

Final position: 3rd (75 pts)
Won:23 Drew:6 Lost:9
Goals scored:81 Goals conceded:47 Goal difference:+34
Yellow cards: 31 Red cards: 6

I didn’t realise until now that this season is a season of European football for me. Winning the Division 1 Cup last year automatically qualified me for the European Masters Cup (the game’s UEFA Cup equivalent). Winning the Cup in every other PES has brought European football in its wake, but for some reason this year I completely forgot, or neglected to remember, which amounts to the same thing, really.

Checking out my upcoming European fixture, I see that I’ll be playing Espanyol away in the first leg of a knockout tie. After four-and-a-half seasons of playing the same clubs twice per year, playing a brand-new club with whom I have no prior history just feels weird. The match is a good few weeks away yet. I’m already worried about fixture congestion and how a stamina-challenged squad will cope in all the games. I’ll worry about it when I get there, though.

For now, there’s league games to get through. Europe will look after itself. Finishing as high as possible in the league is the #1 priority.

I thumped Anderlecht 4-1 at their ground. Marcos ruled in this game. He owned. He was 1337. He pwnd them. He - I’ll stop that now. Marcos played most excellently against Anderlecht, and bagged himself this goal:

Marcos is a 24-year-old left-footed CMF/SMF in PES2008. He seems to be a made-up Konami player. I’ve played him in my midfield as the left-sided AMF without any problems at all. He’s been one of the best all-round midfielders I have ever had the pleasure of playing with in any PES.

In the next match against Fenerbahce, he showed that he is more than just a rasping left foot. Fenerbahce had the effrontery to score first. I came back, scoring my equaliser quickly (always good for the nerves, that). Then in the second half I was pressing and pressing for another, but making no headway.

What I love about Marcos is that he’s an effective attacking force, but can also put himself about a bit. If I’m ever short of a DMF, I have no doubt he could play there and do well. On the edge of the Fenerbahce box, I lost the ball to a defender. Up stepped Marcos:

In PES2008, stamina and form is as big an issue for Marcos as for everyone else. However, unlike some players I could mention (Shaw, Shimizu, I’m looking at you two), Marcos can play two games in a row before there’s much of a dent in his stamina bar. Sometimes I can play him for three games in row - league, cup, league again - before having to rest him. My best buy from the Unbelonging list so far? Definitely. Player of the season? Possibly. There’s a ways to go yet.

Marcos simply performs - time and again, game in, game out. Looking at his stats, it’s difficult to see what marks him as so special. It’s psychological with some players, I think. I started well with Marcos, so now when I get him on or near the ball I always believe something special can happen, and I play accordingly - with confidence. It was no surprise to me when Spain came knocking on my door for him.

Marcos’ international call-up meant he was unavailable for the next game, which turned out to be an easy 2-0 league win against Newcastle - sweet revenge for their 1-0 victory back in the second game of the season. My other contender for player of the season, Schwarz, got both of the goals. I haven’t scored with many first-time shots in PES2008. I was happy with this one, as it put the game to rest late in the second half:

Arsenal are next in the Division 1 Cup quarter final. In our recent league match I just couldn’t cope with their skills and teamwork. If I’m going to hold onto that trophy it looks as if I’ll have to do it the hard way.

After playing these first five games of season 2011, I had to visit the General Settings section of the main Master League menu to check that the difficulty level is still on Top Player. It is.

The struggles of last season are (mostly) at bay - at least temporarily. Every now and then, it seems, PES2008 plays like a dream and seems easy. I’m having such a period now. They’ve come along before, and gone away before, so I won’t be getting complacent and declaring PES2008 to have finally been cracked.

Fenerbahce 1 - 3 Coventry City

The season opener was against a team who I never had much trouble with last year as far as I can remember. It’s their neighbours, Galatasaray, who are one of my big two bogey teams (Sunderland are the other).

Schwarz scored two quick-fire headed goals from crosses to make it 0-2 to me with barely 20 minutes gone. Fenerbahce showed nothing. Naturally, they scored with their one attack of the second half, making it 1-2. It was the usual scripted rubbish. Curse you Seabass!

However, almost from my kick-off I swept up to their end, and Chiesa found the back of the net with a clipped finish. Lovely.

The league table after 1 game made for some morale-boosting viewing. I was joint-second with Spurs. I was behind Aston Villa only on goal difference.

Newcastle 1 - 0 Coventry City

For the love of… Normal service, it seemed, was resumed in this game. Newcastle scored early. Owen chested the ball down with his back to my goal, turned, and scored - all in the same fluid movement. I’ll bet now that none of my players will ever be able to execute the same move, not even if I play PES2008 from now until the end of time.

I absolutely pounded the Newcastle goal for the rest of the game. But every shot went wide. The ones that didn’t were saved, deflected, hit the bar, hit the post…

Tottenham 1 - 1 Coventry City

This game was almost a carbon copy of the Newcastle game. I got my equaliser five minutes from time. It was a penalty. I got a penalty. My first penalty in five seasons. Schwarz thumped it down the middle as the keeper kindly leapt to one side. A penalty! I had to go and lie down after that. I was in shock.

Galatasaray 0 - 1 Coventry City

Now this was more like it. Tight game, solid defending - Guimaraes running rampant down the right wing - and a deeply satisfying win against one of my two bogey teams. Bring on the Sunderland. I cannot wait.

This was the game when Marcos - my new signing from pre-season - really arrived. He started to dominate the left side of midfield, then all of midfield, then the entire game… He scored the only goal of the game - a goal that was pretty ordinary but vastly significant for me. It came at the end of a spell of pressure where I was starting to think that I had this game exactly where I wanted it and was going to win it. I’ve never really had that feeling in Master League so far. It was very pleasant.

River Plate 0 - 2 Coventry City

After securing this relatively easy this win to round off the opening 5 games, I could hardly bring myself to put down the joypad. But I had to. There was real world stuff to attend to.

Overall, despite the Newcastle defeat, I’d say this was my most satisfying session on the game during the month or so that I’ve had it.

The way my new players have knitted into the team is particularly welcome. Marcos and Braafheid on the left side of my team have been superb. Defensively I’m starting to really, really see that clamping X+Square is the deadliest handicap you can give yourself in PES2008. I know not to do it but I often find myself doing it automatically. I’m trying to stop. Pressing Square on its own, while you control the other player, and block off passing lanes and so forth, is the way to go.

I’m riding high in 5th place after five games. And no red cards yet. I averaged almost one per game last season. So far I’ve had just two yellow cards. All in all, it’s not too shabby. It’s not too shabby at all.