Attack, Attack, Attack-Attack-Attack!

By: Daryl | November 25th, 2008

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Managing: Newcastle
Date: October 18th, 2008
Progress: 8th in the Prem after 8 games
Today’s Magic Number: 8
After beating Wolves in the Carling Cup (no thanks to Jozy “shoots high and wide” Altidore) I faced my first big test. Arsenal away. Not the sinking ship Arsenal we see in the Premier League today, but a machine-like mega-Arsenal who are top of the league and destroying all before them.

So, after learning a lesson against Man City – don’t attack away from home when you’re outgunned – I went into this game cautiously. 4-1-4-1 with just Pavel Pogrebnyak on his own up front and Joey Barton in sitting in front of my back four ready to snap Cesc Fabbregas like a twig should he dare try any of that fancy playmaking.

And – for 45 minutes – it worked. I’d set the game to show me “key” highlights, and it showed me more or less nothing. “Surely the second half can only get better” said the commentary, which I thought was meant to be neutral but apparently now possesses the human emotion known as boredom.

“It won’t”, I thought and steeled myself for another soul-crushing 45 minutes and the relative victory of a 0-0 draw at the Emirates. And then Emmanuel Adebayor broke through my defence in the 49th and buried one past Shay Given. Time for a rethink.

A quick word with Chris Hughton (via the assistant feedback screen) told me that my wingers Jonas and N’Zogbia (Leonardo was – shock! – injured) were uncomfortable with the amount of tracking back I was asking them to do. And that’s how I came up with the idea for Kevin Keegan redux.

If my wingers were incapable of tracking back (and it would only get worse when Leonardo and his work rate of 2 out of 20 returned from injury) then why bother asking them to do it? I gave both wingers these new instructions:

All out attacking and as much creative freedom as you like. Basically, go for it and don’t look back. Jonas Gutierrez was so excited he tried to kiss me.

I also took of my d-mid Barton and sent Oba Martins up front to join the Pog.

And from the 50th minute until full-time my boys battered Arsenal at the Emirates. A Jose Enrique cross was headed into his own net by Gael Clichy in the 55th, and Oba Martins got on the end of a Belletti flick on to score the winner in the 84th. 2-1 to the Toon.

In the next two games (vs Bolton at home and Everton away) I started out with my all out attacking 4-4-2 and tried to be clever by sitting on my lead. Both times I regretted it.

Against Bolton I was 1-0 up thanks to the Pog’s first Premier League goal, but pulled men back for the last 20 and ended up conceding an equalizer to Kevin Nolan. Just bad luck I thought.

Against Everton I went 1-0 to a Yakubu goal in the 8th and responded by going balls out attacking: pushing my wingers on even further so it was more like 4-2-4 than 4-4-2. That yielded a 65th minute Oba Martins equalizer which caused me to chicken out and go back to a regular 4-4-2. Tim Cahill scored the winner 5 minutes later.

The lesson seems to be: don’t ever give up your momentum. This is Newcastle after all, and I’ve promised the fans some attacking football. So from here on out I’m resolving to be brave, stick with the very attacking 4-4-2 and throw everything at the opposition. Kevin Keegan would be proud.

Part of this is my own tactical ineptitude, I just don’t seem capable of effectively closing down a game (and I’ve tried everything: time wasting, slow tempo etc). Part of it is that I just don’t have the players to do it. When your squad’s full of old fashioned dribbly wibbly wingers, it’s almost impossible to go into defensive lockdown.

Next up: Aston Villa at home, Chelsea away and Man Utd at home. Any predictions on how this is going to go? Will FM reward me with spectacular results and adoring fans, or have I just signed my own death warrant.