Alan Smith Will Have His Revenge on Newcastle

By: Daryl | November 28th, 2008

Managing: Newcastle
Date: Jan 1st, 2009 (happy pretend new year!)
Progress: 6th in Prem after 20 games.

Remember I predicted my top four challenge wouldn’t last? Well, that’s what’s happening now.

All it took was a white haired Eminem wannabe striker who’d just been waiting to make me regret selling him. Yep, Alan Smith.

vs WBA (away) L 5-2. So, my “score more than you” approach falls apart when the opposition has some seriously motivated strikers. First, there was Juan Pablo Angel making his debut after escaping MLS. He scored a header in the first minute. More importantly Alan Smith was out for blood. I sold him to WBA during the summer, saying right here on this blog that “he seems like one of those players it’s best to get rid of”. Apparently he’s a reader. Because he’d done nothing for WBA all season, but ran my defence ragged and scored two beauties. I did pull two goals back through Belletti and Joey Barton (two great strikes) but final score was 5-2.

vs Blackburn (away) W 1-0 Blackburn were top of the Prem for a while in this game, so they’re no mugs. And I had to deviate from the surprisingly solid (previous match excepted) Colocini-Taylor central defensive partnership for the first time, because Taylor was suspended. Cacapa came in for his first game of the season (which he’s not happy about) and did well. Unfortunately Colocini got himself red carded (my first as a manager) in the 27th minute for elbowing Roque Santa Cruz in the face. I’d told him to go in hard on RSQ, but not to try and disfigure him. So, time for tactical shuffle.

Doesn’t sound like it makes sense now, but it did at the time: I took Oba Martins off (he’d been poor so far) so Alexandre Song could replace Colocini at centre back. So it was 4-5-1 with just Pogrebnyak up front. PLayers were instructed to play to the big mans feet isnstead of his head, and The Pog was instructed to “hold the ball up.” Worked a treat as Pog held it while wingers Jonas, N’Zogbia and Barton made attacking runs. Belletti scoreed (again) in the 85th and I got a very nice 1-0 win.

vs Liverpool (home) D 1-1. I’ll say this: Fernando Torres is fast. Far too fast for my defenders. I tried defending deep and even tried defending high up the field. He was just too quick. He didn’t score though, Shay Given was in his way. But Robbie Keane did score, prompting me to push more and more men forward until I ended up with a 3-3-4 that had four actual strikers up front. Oba Martins dribbled down the right and crossed for The Pog to head an equalizer in the 82nd. Good result.

vs Fulham (away) W 3-1. Despite his recent attitude malfunction I decided to give Alan Dzagoev another chance in the first team. He still wasn’t brilliant, but he did arrive late in the box and bury one in the far corner. Two more from Martins (had to yell at him at HT again, but it worked so I’m not complaining) and we have a 3-1 win away from home.

Next challenge: the January transfer window…