Stade Malherbe Caen: February + March + April 2011

Hey guys! I’ve played too far ahead and I’ll pause and blog about it the next few days instead. It’s driving me a bit crazy that I’m getting to far ahead of my posts each time but I’ll sit back the rest of the week and put some posts up instead, without drowning you in Caen progress.

Here’s 3 months in one sweep, but it’s only league games so this post shouldn’t be that massive. This way I’ll also get a nice ending with just the month of May left, and I might be able to fit in som after event in that post aswell. So on to the games that has been played.. I found that masking over the results with black was just annoying, I don’t know about you, but I don’t see the suspense going away too much. It’s the information you seek not the drama.. well in some cases the drama hightens the value of the post so I’ll save it for the right moments.

I’ll go through some of the games in more detail that has been meaningful to me, and I’ll see this as a concept post, I will resort to my usual style when i catch up with my save. I’ll have to keep a more balanced playing style in the future.

The first game of february: SMC — AS Monaco  0-4

This game really showed what was lacking in my team. They had 3 clear chances against my 2 and they scored 4 goals and I scored nil. The regular possession and chances were more or less even but the lack in my offensive department, except for maybe Figueroa ( though he’s a good goalgetter… but he might lack in other aspects) is highlighting the fact that I don’t have good enough strikers, and i miss the right flair that should be coming from my wingers. Then there’s my below average Goalkeeper, and a shaky defence were only kryvtsov is solid. But I often manage to carry up the weak points by making the most of my best players, this time it just wasn’t enough.

PSG — SMC   2-2 (Kakuta, Yatabaré)

A game I should’ve won really. They scored their equaliser with only 10 men, in the 93rd minute. I was devastated. Having had this slump of form lately I would’ve loved to get 3 points against such a strong opponent. Things just wasn’t going my way at the moment. Kakuta and Yatabaré did well in scoring but my defensive line was not impressing.

SMC — Nice   1-0 (Figueroa)

Nice is a team that I’ve had trouble with before, Their style of play usually doesn’t fit mine and they often breakthrough heavily in their desperate lunges for goal. This time we actually got lucky and kept the scoreline 0-0 for a long time and in the end Figueroa could score a late winner. Maybe the fitness of my players brought this game home because it looked like their attempts were reduced as the clock came closer to 7o minutes. Finally a win!

Sedan Ardennes — SMC   1-0

A game I was overconfident about. Never underestimate your opponent… is what I should’ve been writing on a piece of paper for about 10 times.. I wrote something totally different but it wouldn’t benefit this post as much as this lesson is. I’m blaming this loss on my motivational speeches and my tactical approach during the game.

SMC — Montpellier   3-0  (Pionnier o.g, Rodriguez, Yatabaré)

I got back on track with this win over last placed Montpellier. They’re not a challenge to any team this season and that’s no understatement. Can’t really figure out why because their team isn’t all that bad. We never had any trouble winning and bagging 3 goals was a nice change for us. Tafforeau even allowed us being down to 10 men with 15 minutes to go… unfortunately for him i didn’t allow him to keep his wages for the coming week. It was a pretty blatant foul from a dangerous sliding tackle. He got suspended for 2 games.

Sochaux — SMC   2-4 (Figueroa x 2, Kryvtsov, Guarin)

This turned out to be a very entertaining match with lots of goals, some more beautiful than others, but there was also some suspense. Especially when Sochaux reduced the scoreline to 2-3 in the 87th minute. We opened the scoring after recieving a rare spotkick. Figueroa stepped up and made no mistakes, 1-0. Sochaux did manage to get 1-1 with them into the halftime break through a Poujol header. I encouraged the team to do more out there and they came running off the blocks in the second half scoring our second just minutes in. Figueroa was the man this time again and 1-2 was a fact. Then Kryvtsov added to the scoreline after heading home a corner from Kakuta. Then the suspense came as I mentioned before but Guarin finished of the game in overtime when he drove a long range effort into the far side of the goal. A good win for me as I was pleased with the overall performance.

SMC — Nantes   2-1  (Dady, Figueroa)

Another good win here though not with a very impressive scoreline. We had much more of the game and should’ve won this game with a 3 goal cushion at least but it least it was 3 points and Dady scored. That doesn’t happen every game anymore. He feels a bit outdated and even though he usually starts, because I sold Koné at the end of January for 1,8 M to Blackburn, he doesn’t do much good. Yatabaré gets his fair amount of playing time as a striker when i have both Kakuta and Rodriguez ready to play, but injuries have managed to make the situation this that Yatabaré has to play AMC because I only have 2 left wingers in Rodriguez and Kakuta. But as i mentioned when both of them are healthy I put Rodriguez in the AMC position and move Yatabaré up to a striker next to Figueroa.

Rennais — SMC   1-2 (Deroin, Figueroa)

A very even game and to be fair it should’ve ended a draw. Rennais even missed a penalty to empahize the fact of the real scoreline. I feel like my away stats are far worse than my home record… I’ll look it up, hold on…  Well I have far more wins at home, and a more even number of wins, draws and losses away from home. But that is fairly normal.

SMC — St-Etienne   3-1  (Figueroa x 2, Perrin o.g)

At home it feels that we’re much more comfortable. St-etienne had nothing to gain from this game and should really be happy even getting one goal as we totally hammered them for 90 minutes. James Rodriguez had a great game as AMC having set up both of Figueroas goals and also made the shot that deflected of Perrin and into goal. A rating of 9.0 was well deserved.

USBCO — SMC  0-1  (Figueroa)

Figueroa scores again and leads the way for another victory. He’s been in lethal form this campaign and I’ve got much to thank for him. We dominated this away game, and that’s a bit unorthodox for us. possession was 31 — 69 and we had by far the best chances of the game but I was still happy we got the win in the end. Our winning-streak is ongoing.

SMC — Marseille  1-0  (Yatabaré)

A big win for us as this was an expected do or die game. Winning this keeps us in the running for top 3 from now on seeing as the other top teams have been struggling quite a bit. Yatabaré scored with a brave header and after that we played a more tactical game than we usually do. I had no interest in letting a late goal past Thebaux this time. In the last 10 minutes i shouted from the touchline «Clear the ball to the flanks» as we had deployed a more defensive approach. That worked out great, avoiding having them pressure us in our own half too much. Most of the goals i let in are scored from long shots or silly rebounds so having the game played on the flanks isn’t all that dangerous beacause our defence copes well with crosses.

Toulouse — SMC   1-0

Figueroa got injured in the 30th minute…  after that I had no one to really threat their strong defence. Verratti came on and moved Yatabaré upfield but then Verratti also got injured right away so i had to put Deroin on for him. It was a bit tragic as Verratti got his foot broken and was gonna be out for 3-5 months. Capuoe scored their winner after the HT break and we couldn’t muster any real chances. It was a deserved win for Toulouse. Still.. I have 2nd place in the league, didn’t think that would be possible at this point. There’s only 4 games left to be played and I’m not too far off Lyon who’s in the lead.

I’m amazed at the progress but I must admit that this years ligue 1 must be the worst in years. 4 draws and 11 defeats at this point shouldn’t even put you in top 5.