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.
TheZiggy
26 февраля, 2010 at 16:25
I think that’s a great month, managing to snatch a draw at the San Siro, and good wins over Arsenal and Man United. The slight change to the tactic seems to have had a very good effect, and you still look pretty solid at the back.
One thing I’ve taken to doing in my current season is having Ochoa’s distribution set to defender collect, and he currently has the highest pass completion in the Premiership and the Champions League, and seems to have stopped us giving away the ball so much. It also helps that Cardozo and Gilardino are good at challenging for the ball when he does make a long clearance, which we’d been lacking before. It had always been dangerous before, because Lung jr would at times put his defenders under pressure, whereas Ochoa almost always picks the right option.
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2010 at 17:41
@TheZiggy
Thanks mate. You are right about Ochoa, he seems to have the ability to always pick the right solution. I also have the distribution set to defender collect, it’s much better than blasting the ball up the pitch because we don’t have tall players and secondly I don’t like that type of football, I like the team to build the attack with consecutive passes.
@Lye
Thanks for the comment, I guess Liverpool and Chelsea will be challenging but it’s still to early to say. Now the England squad:
Goalkeepers: Ben Foster, Joe Hart, Robert Green
Right backs: Glen Johnson, Michael Mancienne
Left backs: Joe Barton, Joe Mattock
Centre backs: David Wheater, Ryan Shawcross, Joleon Lescott, Curtis Davies
Right wingers: Sam Hinshelwood, Aaron Lennon
Left wingers: Ashley Young, James Milner, Kieran Gibbs
Central midfielders: Steven Gerrard, Fabian Delph, Tom Huddlestone, Jack Rodwell, Jonjo Shelvey
Strikers: Wayne Rooney, David Welbeck, Theo Walcott, Nathan Delfouneso
These are the players that I picked for those two games, some of them might not be in there for the next games though.
Lye
26 февраля, 2010 at 17:26
Hi mate, to come back from San Siro with a point is certainly not an easy task and your players did really well. You are cruising here back in the league seeing of Arsenal and Man Utd fairly easy. I wonder who will pose the challenge to you this season.
What a debut win over Spain and a good start to the European Championship. Just curious what players did you select for your England Squad?
Calum
26 февраля, 2010 at 17:58
A fantastic month Johnny. Your quite simple but genious tactical change has helped your team a lot as you are now scoring a bit more freely again now. Great start with England too :D
Well done and I hope you can keep up the great form for the next few months :)
paine
26 февраля, 2010 at 19:00
A strange match vs. Milan, from the stats I saw, you controlled the game (possession) but only 2 of your (few) shots reached the target.
It seems that defensively both teams worked very well.
On the other side you obliged them to many not so dangerous, I think, long shots, apart form the Paloschi one.
That result however will give your team lots of confidence, good work as usual.
Johnny Karp
26 февраля, 2010 at 19:05
@Paine
Indeed, both teams worked very well in defense and midfield but overall Milan showed more cutting edge. They were restricted to long shots most of the times though but from what I remember they broke through twice — the first time Huntelaar scored and the second time Ochoa stopped Paloschi with a fine save.
Rob
26 февраля, 2010 at 21:10
Well done gd month :). I am also managing Notts Co and i am currently in the championship and my game has pretty much gone exactly like yours, back to back wins of league 2 and league 1 but i always seem to concede more goals i almost always go 1 or 2 nil up but i can never seem to keep a clean sheet i almost always win 2-1 or 3-1 i have kasper schmeical as my goalie and my defence is ovidiu dananae, shelton martis, marc muniesa and jeremy helan who i got on loan from man city. any advice? cheers.
cory berman
26 февраля, 2010 at 22:24
are yo gonna publish the new tactics that are serving you so well? congrats on a really good month!!
Bilal Ahmad
27 февраля, 2010 at 01:19
Johnny another fantastic month! Wow I am very impressed your on top of the Premiership with Liverpool. Your playing really good with England aswell and looking alright in the Champions League! What a great month! Chelsea and CSKA Moscow are definately going to be hard however I believe you will give them a game. El Shaarawy is one of the quality youngsters that I found on the game I hope he does well for you and breaks into the first team.
Sears
27 февраля, 2010 at 01:27
Splendid month Johnny..Huge improvment on August!..You seem to be crusing in the league and look to win it out easy!You’v defeted 2 of your main rivals allready and that will get the confindence going! Very good point you earned against Milan in the San Siro.Looking forward 2 your next post!
Kevin Mayo
27 февраля, 2010 at 01:40
Hi johnny
Just got in (6.30pm EST) and finished reading your latest installment on the subway.Excellent start to your international career and I was over the moon to see that you gave my boy Hinshelwood his first cap. I can see him being a major star in the 2018 World Cup. Anyways great to see you at the top of the Premier League with two fantastic results over major contendors. You’ve certainly thrown down the guantlet to all other challengers and you will be a force to be feared this season. Glad to see that your tactic tweak paid off for you.
Johnny Karp
27 февраля, 2010 at 11:26
@Rob
Thanks for the comment and well done with Notts County. Actually I remember that my defense was almost the same at some point with Dananae, Martis, Muniesa and Mulgrew on the left flank. Maybe you should pay more attention to the tactical changes that your opponent makes during the game, that could be a cause.
@Cory Berman
Thanks mate, you can download the new version of the tactic from here
@Bilal
Thanks mate. I had my eyes on El Shaarawy for a few seasons now but I was never quite convinced of his potential. Now I was able to get him for a reasonable price, so I brought him in. He’s 21 years old already but maybe he can make some progress.
@Sears
Thanks a lot for your enthusiastic comment and support :)
@Kevin
Thanks, I see Hinshelwood becoming a star too. He’s 20 years old now and once Steven Gerrard will hand up his boots I think that he will have no rivals for the playmaker role in the England team. Or maybe I’ll employ him as a right winger, I haven’t figured that out yet.