Notts County Story — August 2015

Hello my friends, it’s time for a new episode of my Notts County Football Manager 2010 story! I guess you’re as curious as I was to see how the new players would fit into the squad. I’ll cut the introduction here and go straight to the matches, there were not many of them in August.

The first challenge was the Community Shield game with Manchester United, it was a good opportunity for the new players to show their skills. I was quite pleased with the first part of the game, it was a great spell of dominance from my lads. Unfortunately they were unable to convert the good football into a goal and just when everybody was expecting us to hit the net Man United surprised us with two goals in four minutes, I was in disbelief! It was quite frustrating but fortunately Ashley Young set up Fabian Delph for an easy debut goal just before half time. We were unable to find the right rhythm after the break, Manchester United were keeping us under control. It was another special move from Ashley Young that got us back into the game, he ran past his opponents and played it for Guilherme, a placed shot and we were all square. We were dominating the game but the Red Devils were launching dangerous counter attacks, Adler had to show his skills to stop them. The game was heading towards extra time but Andrea Romano had something in store for the fans, he stole the ball from a defender and went all the way, a good debut for the Italian striker. I guess we deserved to win it and I was pleased with the new players’ contribution, things were looking good.

We had another tough game coming up, the Premier League opening game at home with Chelsea. My boys started well again, we dominated the first half but Petr Cech stopped my strikers with a few magnificent saves. I was quite confident but something changed my mood just before the break: Kjaer got injured, that was not a big problem. The problem was that I didn’t pay too much attention when I selected the substitutes for the game and I found myself with no centre backs on the bench. I had to find a solution and I chose to send in a midfielder to replace him and switch the tactic to a 3-5-2 with Zapata as a lone centre back and two defensive midfielders in front of him. At that point I was just hoping for a draw but the team continued to play surprisingly well and Zapata was having no real problems at the back . We kept on pushing forward and shooting but Cech kept on saving the shots. That was until the last minute, Joe Barton sent in a bullet cross from the left flank, Romano jumped higher than the two defenders that were marking him and headed it home!

We had another home game coming up, Ipswich were coming to face us at Meadow Lane. The first minutes saw us taking the game to our opponents but my strikers were quite wasteful. Ashley Young was in great shape though, he made the difference with a spectacular curling shot from 25 yards out. Ipswich were unable to cause us any trouble, we continued to push forward and should have scored a few more in the second half. I had the impression that some of the players were taking things lightly, they were missing easy chances. Anyway, I was pleased to get another win and I was hoping for more in the next game.

But before that game we found out who we were going to face in the Champions League group. We were seeded second and I guess we could have been more fortunate, we’ll face Atletico Madrid, Lyon and Slovan Bratislava. It could have gone better but it also could have gone worse, so I can’t complain. We’ll surely have a tough time with Atletico and Lyon but we have to go through, there will be no excuses if we wouldn’t.

The last game of the month saw us traveling to Turf Moor to meet Burnley, they always were a troublesome bunch for us. We got off through a great start as Romano played a nice thorough pass for Sobis but Burnley reacted surprisingly well, they were pushing us back. And they scored eventually, they thoroughly deserved that. We got back in control after the break but we were missing too much again. I sent in Chris Gadi for the uninspired Sobis and the Frenchman repaid me, he dribbled through the defense and they failed to stop him without a foul. Captain Defour stepped up to take the penalty but the shot was rather poor and the keeper parried it, I was livid! The ball bounced clear though and Chris Gadi was the quickest to react, he pounced on the rebound and powered it in! Phew, that was a close shave!

The warm up is over, we’ll have to do much better next month. The schedule is quite tough, we’ll have to meet Aston Villa twice plus the two difficult Champions League games with Lyon and Atletico Madrid.

That’s how it was, four games and four narrow wins. I guess that’s OK for now but I’m expecting a lot more from the team, especially from the strikers. The tricky thing is that most teams are quite cautious when playing against us, they always keep many players behind the ball and it’s quite difficult to break them down. We did create chances however and I hope we’ll see better finishing in the future. Thanks for reading folks, I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

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