I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

By: Daryl | January 18th, 2009

Managing: Newcastle
Date: Feb 21st, 2010
Progress: 7th in Prem after 25 games (but with a game in hand over 6th place Everton, fyi)

It’s always gratifying to see your tactical thingies come off. But it’s extra satisfying when they come off in the Tyne-Wear derby.

vs Sunderland (away) W 2-1

This started badly, with George McCartney scoring in the first minute. But then Jonas (the real Geordie Messiah, if you ask me) did this:

(That’s Lewandowski (Lew? Lewie-Lewie? Lewser?) holding it up, and Jonas dribbling through and selling the keeper a dummy)

Which is exactly what I hoped he’d do now that he’s been given a free role on the right wing and not instructed to go for the byline and cross everytime he gets the ball.

And then there’s Clément Chantôme and Alan Dzagoev. Chantôme is still frustrating me, and playing him in this game was a gamble. But he came good in the derby.

And I love this goal because everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do.

1. Chantome is under instructions to play through balls.
2. The team as a whole is under instructions to play the ball wide.
3. Alan Dzagoev has been instructed to make forward runs from midfield.

And when that all comes together, this is what it looks like:

(That’s Dzagoev playing the short ball to Chantôme in midfield before getting on his bike, Chantôme playing a through ball out wide for Fleck and Fleck finding Dzagoev as he arrives in the box. I love it when a plan comes together.)

vs Derby County (home) W 2-0
One goal for Jonas (a header from a John Fleck cross – Fleck’s been very consistent on the left flank lately – and another from Pavel Pogrebnyak, who reacted well to being left out of the team for Lewandowski lately. Also, finally, a debut for Marquinhos. He arrived from Brazil “severley lacking in match fitness”, so I gave him a game for the reserves (had to arrange a few games vs non-league opposition as reserves are apparently on holiday for the month) in which he scored and then brought him on at HT here. Nothing spectacular, but looked… tricky.

Europa League last 32, first leg vs Atletic Bilbao (home) W 1-0
This was Marquinhos first start, very exciting, and… he got injured in the first five minutes. Nothing serious, but had to take him off. Hope that’s not a sign of things to come.

Stuck with The Pog again here, and he had a great start, squaring for his compatriot Dzagoev to score (arriving late in the box again). But the big Russian spent the rest of the game hitting wild wild shots, and missing a penalty. So The Pog ended the game with a 5.3 rating, which is especially bad considering he got an assist. If you follow my logic.

Here’s the main problem. While the new system of one target man and free-rolling wingers going for goal is basically a success, it doesn’t suit The Pog. Turns out The Pog really isn’t that good with his feet, and most of his goals last season were headers from all those crosses.

Had a word with The Pog and asked him to “stop blasting his shots” so often, and he told me where to stick it.

Don’t want to complain about this too much, but isn’t it a little unrealistic for a striker to insist on only ever blasting shots? And believe me, he only ever blasts shots. Not really sure how to respond to that, other than to start looking for a new target man maybe.