Written by Hello friends, we are lying near the play-off place now but with a few games played more than our rivals. If they win all their games in hand, my team will be dropping few places down the table. I need to ensure that we consolidate our position by trying to win all the games in this month. We have a pretty relax schedule in February only 4 games to be played.
Here is the results..
It was pretty even, 2 wins and 2 losses. We had a bad start losing the first 2 games and then recover to win the next 2 games. In this crucial month, i must admit that the 6 points lost definitely going to have a say whether we can achieve the play-off spot when the season ends. I was very disappointed as i thought Hereford and Barnet are teams that we are on par with.
First game of the month was against Hereford who is few places below us. We performed better than them in the first half and deservedly took the lead through Paul Hakim in the 32 minute. They came back strongly in the second half and scored 2 goals to take the lead for the first time. Things doesn’t stay the same for too long, my loan signing Kiernan-Hughes Mason smashed a goal to make things even 4 minutes later. Immediately after our second goal, we conceded a corner 2 minutes later. I had a bad feeling when i saw this, some instinct told me that we are going to lose the game. I am right, the corner resulted in a goal. Though we tried to fight back, but just could not find the finishing touch. We lost our first game of the month.
Our next game is an away game to Barnet, a mid-table with a decent home record. It was full of action immediately after the starting whistle. We took a shock lead as early as in the 2 minute. I think this was just fairy tale for us, not only did they equalized 4 minutes later, they even took a lead in the 9 minutes to make the score 2-1. I believe the loss was partly due to my fault. Both of their goals were scored by their January loan signings. Seldom did i go through the players one by one from the opposition as it will take some time to do that often, probably only the key player whom i will check it out. The 2 loan signings they made were absolutely fantastic, i only check out the scorers after the goals were scored. It was too late then.
Dear friends, how many of you actually check out the players attributes from the opposition during a match? I think i am too focus on my strategy and only employ certain opposition instructions but not too often. The information by the assistant is quite limited, they only focus on 1 key player. Somehow there will be other one or two players who could spring a surprise at your team. I believe i should do more as a manager, i cannot solely rely on the opposition information compiled by my assistant in a match. What do you think? Please give me your comments regarding how you approach every game. Fix a strategy and press the play button irregardless of the opposition players or tactics or have a full analysis of your opposition(check out all the players etc), then decide on the strategy and every opposition instructions? I think i belong more of the first type though i will also pay particular attention to their key player.
After suffering 2 defeats in a row, we need to get back to winning ways. Lewes is the next team that we are facing and they are currently fight for survival. I expect my team to win this game. Not only did they won it, they totally demolished Lewes. This game was the biggest margin win for us. We hit six past them, if not for some poor finishing, we will be able to win by a bigger margin. I think this is by far the best performance i had seen during my time here.
Last game of the month was against Kettering who is languishing at the bottom of the table for long period. They are certainly the favorites for one of the few relegation candidates. It was a fairly easy game for us, we took the lead through a penalty in the 12 minute. Their problem worsen when they had a men sent off in the 40 minute. We scored another goal in the second half to win the game by 2 goals. My goalkeeper virtually has nothing to do for the whole game, not even a single shot is aim against him. I am pretty sure that they will get relegated this season.
The 2 defeat suffered this month has caused us to drop down to 9th places, though we are still within touching distance of the play-off place. At least seven or eight teams have a chance of grabbing the 4 play-off spot, so its pretty tight at the moment.
Next month will be a critical month for us as it will be a very congested month. 7 games to be played and we will be facing very strong opposition for the last few games, namely current leader Luton, 3rd place Histon and 4th place Crawley. I hope my team will be able to stand up to the challenge.
Thats all for the updates for February, i will see you in my next post Thurrock-March 2012 results.
It’s going to be a fierce battle for that last play-off place, tension will reach the boiling point soon
About the opposition instructions, I tend to rely on the assistant’s report and the scout’s report (I always have a scout assigned to “next opposition”). I do check out the opposition squad myself for some matches but I reckon it’s easier in the Premier League because I know most of the players already and each team’s tactics and style. Anyway, good luck in the next games, I hope your lads will have the mental strength to face the battles ahead.
Good response from your players to win 6-0 after losing two games, sometimes you can go on a losing run after losing a few in a row so it good that you came back and won. Regarding opposition instructions, I usually listen to the assistant and scout reports like Johnny. Sometimes though if I know the team, Arsenal for example I will make sure I give instructions for Fabregas etc. Another thing I sually do is, at half time I will go to opposition instructions and click “Ask Assistant” this will do all the things you assistant says in the feedback that he gives during match, like when he says things like “Fabregas would be less effective if we showed him onto his weaker foot” etc.
Though I feel its more important to change your style of play sometimes depending on the opposition, for example if the scout report say they will play defensive and try to counter attack then I will use the Control strategy and the shout Retain Possession. If they play attacking i will counter etc. Again this depends on the opposition if we are much better I will usually just go with standard or attacking.
Thanks for the comments guys. I believe there is still a lot to explore on the tactics and opposition instructions. The assistant can only provide this much of information, mainly it is up to us the manager to decide. But i think thats the fun part of football manager. Doing what the real managers are doing
We are still in for a outside chance for the play-off spot. Next month will be critical for us as we will be facing Luton, Histon and Crawley. I am not so optimistic but will ask my players to do their best.
Shame about the two defeats, but great to bounce with the big win to give the side back a lot of confidence.
The use of opposition instructions can be quite tricky, as sometimes I believe the guidance given can sometimes makes things worse. I’ve had a situation where there was a suggestion that we should man mark a striker with pace of 18 and he has good strength and technical ability too. I’m not quite sure how he can be properly man marked, or maybe I’m not understanding something properly their.
Since Brian McClair decided to join us as a coach, he has been giving some great advice in the backroom meeting about a couple of players that should be close down each match. I’ve seen lots of stuff writen about the opposition instructions, from people that don’t bother to some that really go deep into analysing it.
One thing I always do is check which midfield players are good at passing or have good long shot attribute (although that doesn’t seem make any difference at the moment) and consider having the closed down at all times. If they’re really fast that’s not so easy. Also I check to see if they are a one foot player. If so I tend to show them onto the weak foot. There are exceptions though, if a winger doesn’t have particularly good crossing skills, it’s sometimes nice to let them get down the wing.
With strikers if their weaker foot is reasonable or lower I tend to set to show onto weaker foot.
Sometimes with very fast players it’s worth putting the tackling to easy, especially if they have good dribbling skills. If you go normal or hard, there’s a lot of chance they’ll either just run straight by your man, or you’ll commit a nasty foul.
Sometimes I will look at the defenders to see if there are any slow players with poor passing skill, as they can be worth closing down, to try and force a mistake that way.
These are some of the thoughts I’ve seen, and do often seem to make a difference. Although ocassionally it looks like they aren’t applied under some weird random circumstances.
The thing to remember is, that even if you have everything correct, it’s not always going to stop the other side anyway. A piece of great skill or a mistake from player can completely undo everything.
@ The Ziggy
Thanks, thats a very comprehensive info regarding some opposition instructions there. I believe most of the aspect you already touch on is normally what we need to do.
We really couldn’t shut out everything else the game will become predictable and less of interesting. All this instructions against opposition is to consider every possibilities so that our chance of winning can be increase.
I agree with you sometimes we do everything right but your opposition can still managed to score against you. Thats football..
Hi Lye
i’m cheering for you man.I hope you can get into the play-offs but its really tight. For my strategy I use KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. I check out the opposition instructions and put their strikers and midfield to “weaker foot”. I think the closing down seems to tire out my players. I usually start with Balanced Standard formation and move to control or counter depending how the game is going. If i’m leading by 2-0 or more at half time then usually I go to counter. Use defensive only in the last 6 to 8 minutes. Hope this helps
Thanks Kevin, the rest of the team seems motivated for the play-off places. Besides doing well, we need other result to go our way.
I seldom choose ‘close down’ option either, my players don’t have the stamina for this.
Well done Lye, great 6-0 comeback after two losses! Good luck for that play-off spot!
Kevin, you could be right about keeping it simple, and I may be thinking about this way too much.
I can see that with teams where the stamina isn’t so good, that closing down isn’t really an option. To be honest, it’s only just about okay for my QPR side, and if it’s wet the match becomes really hard work.
@ Laxeymen
Thanks for the comment and wishes, we will definitely fight for the play-off spot.
@ The Ziggy
Talking about wet condition, it rains quite frequently for my last few home games. I wonder if thats the case in Grays area in UK around January times:)
I was born and brought up in London and over the course of the year it rains about on about 120 of those days on average, with them more concentrated to the winter months from November through to February. You will get a lot of wet matches during that time, and I’ve noticed the same as I’m currently playing matches in January.
England is very famous for it supposedly raining all the time. However one odd quirk of London is that the average rainfall in mm’s over a year is less than cities like New York, Rome and Sydney.
Thanks for the info TheZiggy, i am glad the wet condition doesn’t seems to affect too much on the results. We are still pass the ball around and i never noticed any dallying on the ball etc.