Notts County September 2014 — Turning The Page

Hello my friends, the Notts County Football Manager 2010 story continues and you’re invited to read the latest episode! The first month of the new season produced mixed results, we won the Community Shield but the league for was not too good, we won only one of the three games and got two draws from two home games. Things had to change and I hoped that I could find the right solution.

My 4-4-2 tactic employed a rigid philosophy, I felt that I didn’t have good enough players until now and I thought that a more disciplined and hard working team could compensate for the difference in skills. At this point of my career I thought that it could be the right moment to change that, I have better players now and they could give more to the team if given more freedom on the pitch. I tried to gradually implement some changes in the tactic during September, so some portions of some games were used to experiment.

Now let’s move on to the matches. The first of the month was a tough one, away at Arsenal. The Gunners were favorites to win the game, they were coming from two straight wins. We got off to a good start though and Guilherme had a great chance right away but his lob was cleared off the line by Vermaelen. My Brazilian tried the exact same thing six minutes later, his lob went past the keeper again and into the net, there was nobody there to clear it off the line. A few minutes later Sam Hinshelwood found Guilherme with a pinpoint pass and the Brazilian finished the move with a perfectly placed shot, our fans were in dreamland! We continued to play well and kept Arsenal under control until half time. The Gunners tried to react after the break but we restricted them to long shots. Eventually one of those went in, it was a free kick shot from 25 yards out. It took Guilherme only seven minutes to settle the game and earn a hat-trick, he finished off a team move to give us a comfy lead. It was a solid performance and we could have even scored a few more goals while Arsenal were forced to shoot from way out.

The morale was high again within the squad but we were in for a break due to international fixtures. More than 20 of my players had to travel away from Nottingham to join their national teams and I had to do that too, my debut with England was scheduled to be played at Wembley. I would have wanted an easier opponent but there was nothing I could do about that, we had to face fresh World Cup winners Spain! I chose to send in three uncapped players and give them a chance to make their debuts: my wonderkids Sam Hinshelwood and Joe Barton plus  James Milner (I was a bit surprised to see that he didn’t play for England until then).

We got off to a good start, encouraged by the fantastic fans at Wembley. We kept Spain under pressure for a bit and then it happened, James Milner scored a goal on his debut as he was the quickest to react to a defensive error from the Spanish players. We continued to play well, the Spanish world champions were being forced to defend. Welbeck and Rooney were working well together and they managed to produce our second goal as Welbeck crossed the ball into the box and Rooney finished it with a great header that went in off the post! Spain got back into the game immediately though, a fantastic shot from 35 yards out went past Ben Foster. The game was fairly level until the break with no more clear chances. Spain switched to a more offensive setup so I changed the strategy to counter, their attacking force was looking too good to be overlooked. We were defending pretty well and I was hoping for a counter attack strike to make sure of the win. That happened eventually, Ashley Young made a great run on the left flank and then crossed the ball into the box, Welbeck struck it with a fine header and we were 3-1 up! We continued to play well and Spain were unable to create anything more than a number of shots from distance. I was extremely pleased, it was a great debut for me at Wembley with a fantastic win against the best team in the world at that moment.

Such a win can make the team complacent and we couldn’t afford that, we had the first European Championship Qualifying game coming up. It looked easy as we had to play away against Malta but still, we had to do a professional job. Despite all this theory we had a dismal first half, we were unable to create anything upfront and even more, Malta had a great chance of scoring the opener on a counter attack! It seemed that I managed to motivate the players at half time, Rooney solved the game in a few minutes after the break, I was relieved. Then I was pleased as midfielder Jonjo Shelvey scored a goal on his debut with a fine shot from 20 yards out. Malta switched play after that, they were holding the ball inside their half and hoping to get out of the game with only three goals into their net. We failed to create any more pressure so the game ended with a 3-0 win for England.

Back to the Premier League, we had a tough home game coming up against Everton. They were showing some poor form lately though, they still had to get a win this season and they only produced one point out of the first four games. We started the game well but Everton were defending with great determination. We needed something special and Rafael Sobis produced it 22 minutes into the first half, he curled in a spectacular 30 yards strike that went straight into the top corner! We were under control after that but we failed to show more, the game was quite boring. Rodney Sneijder doubled our lead in the second half with one of his trademark free kick shots, he saved a poor performance from the team with that strike. Everton scored a consolation goal right before the final whistle by taking advantage of an error. It wasn’t a mistake from my defense but from myself, I wasn’t paying too much attention and Everton switched to 4-2-4 for the last five minutes. I didn’t make the necessary changes to suit that and they scored, my mistake.

We were taking the good morale for the Champions League debut but we definitely needed to play better to get a result at San Siro, A.C. Milan have an impressive squad. In fact, Milan were all over us right from the first second of the game, we were being forced to defend. We did that well most times but eventually Huntelaar broke through and gave Milan the lead. Ten minutes later we had a good chance to counter, Guilherme did almost everything by himself and placed the ball past the keeper! We were quite lucky to go to the dressing rooms with a 1-1 draw, Guilherme‘s goal was our only shot on goal in the first 45 minutes. We played better after the interval but we missed a good chance right away. We kept things under control until the last 15 minutes when Milan picked up the pace and forced us back again. Goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa saved the result for us in the last minute of the game, his fantastic reflexes denied Paloschi a certain goal. We were not impressive at San Siro but we walked away with a great result. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Back to the Premier League, the away game at Newcastle was coming up next. We started the game well, kept Newcastle under pressure but failed to convert the chances into goals. Rafael Sobis finally shoved one in a few minutes before the break and then Guilherme caught them on a counter attack and doubled the lead. Newcastle switched to a 4-2-4 set up after the interval so we had to be careful in defense. We had chances on counter attacks though, one of them went all the way as Young curled in a perfect cross leaving Sobis with an easy goal ahead of him. Then we contained Newcastle’s attacks well but we didn’t have any more chances to score. The result was quite pleasing though.

We had a chance to rest a few players in the next game, the Carling Cup 3rd round match with Championship side Norwich. I chose to send in some of the youngsters from the reserves squad and they looked quite determined to do well right away. Italian right winger Stephan El Shaarawy made a fantastic debut, he gave Norwich‘s defenders quite a few headaches before scoring with a powerful effort from inside the penalty area. A few minutes later he produced another goal, his cross was headed in by Ibrahimovic who scored his first goal for the club. Marcelo Moreno made it 3-0 before the break  by finishing a team move. It was a good first half and the result was already secured, the second half was rather poor.

Young right winger Stephan El Shaarawy was elected Man of the Match, so I guess he deserves a screen shot. He was touted as one of the best talents in Italy a few years ago, was bought by Manchester United from Genoa but then failed to break into the first team setup at Old Trafford. He was loaned out for a few seasons and now he’s in our reserves squad, waiting for his chance. If he’ll continue to show that type of determination I think that he’ll get more and more chances to play in the first team.

We had one more league game to play in September but it wasn’t just any game, Manchester United were coming at Meadow Lane. They had a bad start to the season, they had only two wins out of 6 games! We started the game well, dominating the midfield but we missed a couple of good chances. We managed to score before the break eventually, right winger Nicola Bonetti cut infield and surprised the opposition defenders, he finished the move with a placed shot to give us a lead. We doubled the lead right after the break, Ashley Young started a team move and after another two passes the ball went to Guilherme who coolly placed it in. Manchester United were more offensive after the goal but we defended well, Ochoa had lots of fun with stopping Rooney‘s countless shots from distance.

The four straight wins bounced us to the top of the Premier League table, tied with Liverpool at 17 points. It seems that I managed to find the right balance between discipline and creativity in the new version of my 4-4-2 tactic.

The month was not over yet though, we had one more game to play in the Champions League group, at home with Brondby. They got beaten quite heavily in their first game, CSKA thrashed them 4-1. We got off to a good start, Guilherme gave us the lead with a fine shot from the edge of the area, straight into the top corner. A few minutes later we conceded an useless penalty kick, something happened inside the penalty area during a free kick from out wide, the cross went high over the bar but the referee spotted something. The team didn’t suffer too much though, we continued to play well and Demba Ba gave us the lead again with a fine header. I sent in Ibrahimovic for Ba at half time and the Swede made an instant impact but it was an easy goal set up by Ashley Young. Guilherme completed the fine evening with a splendid volley from inside the area. Milan won 2-1 at Moscow, so I guess we’ll have to fight with the Russians for the second place.

Next month will be a bit more relaxed, only 5 games to play but there will be two important ones in the middle with CSKA and Chelsea. I’ll also have an official game to play with England, at home with Estonia if I remember correctly.

That’s how it was folks, a solid month for my Notts County that saw us bouncing back up the table. The new version of the tactic seems to produce enough movement in attack to overcome the opponents but also a fairly solid defensive approach. Thanks for reading, looking forward to commenting on it together.

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