Wait, what’s that now? Is this a news article about Afan Lido winning games!? Why yes guys and gals, I do believe it is. Welcome back to our Afan Lido tale, and for once, I have good news to share with you.
As you’re no doubt aware, it’s been a bit of a rough ride in our first season of Welsh Premier action. We jumped off to a thrilling start, and have been on a downhill slide ever since. I’ve had to make a few emergency signings here and there, and even convinced the board to give me a modest transfer budget to try and bring some January help on board. Unfortunately none of this had really helped change our results, and I was starting to get pretty frustrated (mercifully my board was quite supportive, and my job security never dipped below stable).
I was scraping the bottom of the barrel, and was nearly out of ideas when I received the advice I needed from a most unlikely source. Following another gut-wrenching close loss, I received a note in my inbox from our supporter’s representative Scott Powell. He said that while they were pleased the team was managing to avoid the relegation zone (barely), they were concerned that I hadn’t tried to mix up my formations.
I couldn’t believe it. The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, and I’d even been prepping two backup formations all season long! With cheeks rosy red, I moseyed over to the training facility and quietly informed my assistant manager that we’d be changing things around for the next game. We would be departing from our now standard 4-5-1 and switching over to a more ambitious 4-2-4 (ZeroSea’s 4-2-4 to be exact). The players seemed excited by the change, and were eager to try out the new strategies.
I was completely floored by the turnaround. I swear to you the only thing I changed was my tactic. This run of wins was preceeded by two 2-2 draws, from which we took off and never looked back. We were obviously too far gone to move out of the lower six, and thus were drawn into the relegation group once the league split in half come February. This gave us an unexpected windfall, and were to play nothing but lower table teams for the remainder of the season (an ideal opportunity to refine our new formation and build for next season).
I’m now completely convinced that I was the only thing standing between this team and success. Darren’s 4-5-1, while excellent, really doesn’t perform exceptionally well a league of Wales’ calibre. That tactic relies on having a very gifted striker up front (aka Fredy Montero), and there is no such thing in the Welsh Premier League (at least not yet). That said, there was one other critical signing during January that I firmly believe was a major contribution to our sudden rise in form:
Shane Sutton replaced a gaping hole in our back four, and we saw a marked defensive boost after he joined up with us. Combined with our other spring signing in Robert Frame (who you’ll see in the accompaning video), and the new tactical formation, we were able to continue our good form. We did drop a few points along the way, but we continued to perform well during the latter stages of the season:
The Airbus and Prestatyn results highlighted the short-comings of our new strategy: a weaker defense. Fortunately, with my team now able to score 2-5 goals a game, that didn’t matter as much anymore. The May 2nd match against Prestatyn solidified our place at the top of the relegation group and we secured ourselves a 7th place finish. I was quite please with this result after spending nearly half the season stuck in 11th, and we even ended up with a winning record! At this point I thought my season was done, but it turned out we qualified for the Europa Playoffs (this is a special playoff in the Welsh League where 5 teams enter a playoff for Wales’ final Europa position.
I was pleasantly optimistic, but we were easily handled by Port Talbot. I suppose I’d become overly confident after playing weaker teams since January, and Talbot were quick to remind us of where we stood in the Welsh heierarchy. We were rising, but we weren’t there yet. As our season closed, I received another startling piece of news in my inbox:
Oh my! Apparently our 7th place finish was impressive enough to warrent the adolation of others. I hardly feel worthy of the honor, especially when you consider my tactical blundering in the early going, but I’ll go ahead and take it all the same! My board, ever supportive and understanding, saw fit to offer me a contract extension for my efforts:
I graciously accepted the offer, and immediately set to work preparing for next season. Meanwhile, the final tabled looks as thus:
A mid-table finish won’t be good enough next year, and we need to be making a serious title challenge for me to be satisfied. We have some decent players already onboard, but we’ll need to bring in some extra talent if we want to break into the Championship group on a regular basis. For the time being, our best eleven:
And for whatever reason, you lot seem to like hearing me say stupid things into a microphone, so I have another video for your viewing pleasure (it’s about 15 minutes long and can be considered optional):
Closing Thoughts:
I think I’m going to experiment with my format in the next few updates. I’d like to turn this into more of a «story» than a progress report, and so I’d ask for your patience and thoughts as events unfold. As always, thank you all for your continued support!
Sibo
7 июня, 2011 at 14:51
Wow! What a turnaround! Great end to the season there Stromo! You must have done something incredible at the end of the season as I never would have seen you entering the Europa League places at the end of your last update (no offence!) :D
Well done and good luck for next season! :D
P.S. I sent you an e-mail so you can send me the .wmv file for the Prestatyn game if you want. Thanks! :D
Stromson
7 июня, 2011 at 15:32
Thanks Sibo, I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we’d be entering Europa playoff places either! I’m pumped up for next season though, and I really think we might be able to go somewhere! I sent you an e-mail regarding the video file for this latest update.
vaibhavc
7 июня, 2011 at 14:58
Hey Stromson
Great turnaround. Well done. The video was great as usual. I think you messed up on the video. You start the game and it goes back to the match analysis. If you watch it you will understand.
vaibhavc
7 июня, 2011 at 15:05
It is a different game as well.
Stromson
7 июня, 2011 at 15:09
Weird, I wonder what happened there. I’ll leave it up for now and fix it when I get home. Far as I can tell, it ends where it should’ve (with the 3-2 win over Prestatyn). Maybe that’s why it was 15 minutes… :-p
vaibhavc
7 июня, 2011 at 15:15
Sorry, I mean at the beginning.
Laxeyman
7 июня, 2011 at 16:05
Fantastic end to the season Stromson! The change in tactic worked a treat, and you’ve got a solid base to build on for next season. With a couple of good additions you can climb up the league, and I’m looking forward to seeing who you bring in :)
Stromson
7 июня, 2011 at 17:27
Thanks Laxey! I may have gone a little overboard in my preseason transfers, so hopefully I haven’t completely forked my chances by replacing half my squad. :-x
Johnny Karp
7 июня, 2011 at 16:08
Changing tactics in the middle of a season is generally a bad idea but some situations require drastic measures and it seems that it was exactly what your team needed! Well done and congratulations on the award, I guess the jury might have been impressed by your videos too :)
Stromson
7 июня, 2011 at 17:29
I was pretty durn nervous about the tactical change, but we needed to do *something* if I wanted to manage to stay at a club for longer than a year. :-p Thankfully everything worked out and I won the most undeserved award in history!
Jon Crosby
7 июня, 2011 at 16:20
Quality video again! Kept me entertained for 15 minutes anyway,
Keep doing them!
But Afran Lido survive another season in the Welsh league will be a interesting year for you next year!
Stromson
7 июня, 2011 at 17:31
Haha, thanks Jon, glad you liked it. :) I’m thrilled we’ve managed to survive, and hopefully we can do something meaningful next year.
Kevin
7 июня, 2011 at 17:24
Hi Jon
What a great turnaround and I’m pleased you were able to save your season. It looks like you are onto the start of something promising for next season.
Stromson
7 июня, 2011 at 17:33
Thanks Kevin, I certainly hope so. This could end up being quite the interesting career if I manage to flop in Wales. :-p
Excessive
7 июня, 2011 at 19:38
Haha, mate I loved the video again.. You had me laughing numerous times and that’s what it should be about and why everyone is loving your video updates.
Fantastic turn around since the tactic (its the one I use aswell yay :) )! What I tend to do, is switch to the «control» version if I get 1 up… and then back to the normal when I go 2 up.
Anyway, good luck for next season.. Seeing you in those Europa League spots would be class :)
Stromson
8 июня, 2011 at 00:03
Pfft, Europa, we’re gunning for that coveted Champion’s League spot! Realistically of course, I think we’re still a year or two out from being legitimate title contenders (we are, after all, still just a semi-pro team), but durned if we aren’t going to try. Glad you’re liking the videos still, always worry I just sound like an idiot. :-p
Darren Smith
7 июня, 2011 at 20:36
Excellent work Jon, an incredible revival and one I didn’t expect. I must admit, my 4-5-1 really requires a quality striker with pace. I didn’t have this for my first season with Newcastle and we had inconsistent performances though doing well…then I bought Paloschi and everything was different. I also tried this tactic while messing around in the Championship and my results were shocking. Anyway, excellent post as always and I can’t wait for next season.
Stromson
8 июня, 2011 at 00:06
I was just as surprised as you are about that turn around, I really didn’t think we had that kind of push in us! I’m a big fan of that 4-5-1, but I think I’ll need to get the Welsh Premier League to at least 2 stars in order to attract the kind of strikers that’ll make it fully viable.
Ana Garcia
7 июня, 2011 at 22:11
Yay! Some text so I can follow your story!
I am really enjoying this story, just a shame I cant hear you thoughts in your videos but amazing that a simple change of tactic reaped so many rewards!
Makes you think what could have happened if you had switched earlier but a great run of results at the end of the season.
Well done on winning manager of the year! I think you did deserve it! :)
Anyways good luck next season, this is a great story in the making.
Stromson
8 июня, 2011 at 00:12
You my friend, should invest in some speakers! Seriously though, I’m glad you’re enjoying the story and I’ll be sure to include a fair bit more writing from now on. I’m glad you think I deserved that MoY award, because I certainly saw it as rather dubious. :)
CsAtlantis
8 июня, 2011 at 10:13
That was an amazing run of form with the new tactic, guess Darren might have to work on a new version of his 4-5-1 for the lower leagues perhaps? :P
A safe midtable finish was impressive considering how bad your team’s prospects looked like early on in the season, good luck for next season, perhaps that is a special enough achievement to win Manager of the Year (or maybe just the 6 wins in a streak that won it for you)
Stromson
8 июня, 2011 at 12:17
Thanks :-P It’s a great tactic, but it just isn’t quite as viable at the Welsh level. The 4-2-4 is working well, but I’m trying to cook up something a bit more original (and fun)! I was equally impressed by the squads ability to secure a mid-table finish and a winning record. I really didn’t think the lads had it in them, but they happily proved me wrong.