Good Times

By: Daryl | November 25th, 2008

Managing: Newcastle
Date: November 1st, 2008
Progress: 7th in Prem after 11 games.

So, my new attacking scheme is a success. In addition to telling wingers Leonardo and Jonas to just go all out attack and don’t bother coming back, I’ve got Charles N’Zogbia and Habib Beye playing as overlapping fullbacks. And here are the results:

vs Aston Villa (home) W 4-0: Goals from Belletti, The Pog, Oba Martins, and a sweet free kick from Alan Dzagoev (the only thing he’s contributed so far.) It was a slaughter, and no mistake, but Villa actually had a few chances, enough that Shay Given was my man of the match. Seems the new gung-ho attitude brings the best out of my keeper.

vs Chelsea (away) D 1-1: Chelsea had the better of the game, and Given was again man of the match. But I took an 84th minute lead when new signing Sebastian Abreu (free agent, 6′4″ target man signed as a backup to The Pog) scored an 84th minute pen, only for Nic Anelka to level things two minutes later. Maybe should have defended that lead.

vs Man Utd (home) W 4-2: This was the big test. If I’d tried to go 4-5-1 and defend against Man Utd, they’d have picked me apart. Turns out going for it was much the better option. Didn’t feel that way when Rooney gave them a 4th minute lead, but I stuck with it and goals from Belletti, Duff, Barton and Leonardo (header!) gave me the sort of win that should have Geordie’s tattooing images of me on their bellies.

The other good thing is that I’ve started to get a bit of rotation going. Leonardo, Martins, Pogrebnyak and Belletti all get tired, and when the games pile up they’re in no condition to start every single game. Luckily the likes of Duff, Abreu, Barton, Song and Guthrie can step in and the team doesn’t miss a beat (Martins and Leonardo didn’t even start vs Utd).

Maybe the fact that all these games depended on heroics from Shay Given is something to worry about, but I’m not going to start stressing about that until results start going against me.