It’s All About Confidence

By: Daryl | December 29th, 2008

Managing: Newcastle
Date: November 9th, 2009
Progress: 9th in Prem after 11 games

The new tactics are doing the business and I’m back in the top 10. Just in time too, as my job status was briefly rated as “insecure” (back to “stable” now). I can’t afford to lose this job with the credit crunch on.

I’ve adapted the tactics a little, and they now look like this for tough games:

Emphasis on using the pace of Martins and Jonas for counterattacking, as well as aiming for The Pog for him to flick balls on for the Martins/Jonas to run on to. If I’m feeling really cowardly, I’ll also pull those attacking wingers back into midfield.

For games where I want to go at the opposition a little more, we line up like this:

And it gets desperate, I can always sacrifice one of the mids and go two up top. Word of the week is flexibility, and it’s mostly done wonders:

Europa League vs FC Vaslui (away) W 1-0
First game with the new tactics. A little too cautious in hindsight, but we dominated possession and won 1-0 after Oba Martins squared it for The Pog. If anything Martins looks more dangerous as a right winger than as a striker, where he tended to disappear more often than I was happy with.

vs Blackburn (home) W 2-0
Blackburn were 4th and on a big unbeaten run, so I lined up for counterattacking. Dzagoev pulled the strings like some Russian chavvy version Zinedine Zidane, Chantome buried a header at close range and The Pog flicked on a long ball for Jonas to run on and score. As close to perfect as you could want. Except that The Pog got a big gash down his leg, so will have to sit out for a while.

vs Everton (away) W 3-1
The Toffees were in third place, so this was an even better win. Lewandowski came in for The Pog and if anything looked better. Goals from Chantome, Lewandowski and Martins (brilliant again) did the business.

Bad news between games: Aargh! Oba Martins tore his hamstring in training. It hurt me more than it hurt him. Mostly because he’s not real. He’s going to be out for three months. Not sure how this 4-3-3 business will work with no Pog and no Martins.

Europa League vs Napoli (away) L 4-2
Not well is the answer. A forward trio of Lewandowski, Jonas and Leonardo wasn’t really enough to scare Napoli. And Ezequiel Lavezzi was in ridiculous form, burning through my defenders to bang in two goals. Only bright spot was Javier Saviola coming off the bench to dribble past half the Napoli team and score. With Oba and The Pog out, this is his big chance.

I’m now second in Group B with two games to go. Level with Napoli on nine points, but behind on goal difference, and three points ahead of third place Red Star.

vs Birmingham (home) W 3-0
The Pog is back! He scored one and Javi Saviola came off the bench to pass another two into the net. Clearly Savi is the man on fire.

So that leaves me in ninth place and in good form. But, here’s the problem:

About half my first team have “lost confidence in his manager’s ability”. And I’m pretty sure they mean me. And the players that haven’t lost confidence in my ability to pick a team are complaining about the “lack of harmony” in the dressing room.

Anyone have any experience with this? In older version of Champ/FM it was possible to turn things around with a few good results. But I already have a few good results and the players don’t show any signs of changing their mind.