Things Are About to Get Serious

By: Daryl | February 23rd, 2009

Managing: Newcastle
Date: Feb 27th, 2011
Progress: 4th in Prem (yes!) after 27 games, one hand on the Carling Cup

You can tell things are about to gets serious because Wil Smith is wearing his “things are about to get serious” face.

FA Cup 5th Rnd vs Liverpool (home) L 1-0

- – - – - – - – Given – - – - – - -
Jiranek – Rusol – Taylor – Insomnia
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
- – - Camacho – - Skjelbred – - – -
Jonas – - – Marquinhos – - – Arshavin
- – - – - – Lewandowksi- – - – - -

4-2-3-1, lots of width, short passing, slow tempo; offside trap, high defensive line

After beating Sunderland and Boro in the 3rd and 4th Rounds, I thought maybe my name was on the FA Cup. But then again I always think my name’s on the cup. I’m a sucker like that.

Coloccini and Enrique were both suspended, but other than that I went with my strongest team. And lost. Went home and threw a few darts at my Rafa Benitez dartboard, but really it’s my own fault. Basically my high defensive line left literally half a football pitch for Fernando Torres to run into, which is exactly how they scored.

Europa League 1st KO Round, 1st leg vs Sampdoria (away) W 2-1

- – - – - – - – Given – - – - – - -
Taylor – Rusol – Coloccini – Enrique
- – - – - – -Camacho- – - – - – - – - -
- – - Marquinhos – - Diego – - – -
Jonas – - – - – - – - – - – Arshavin
- – - – - – Lewandowksi- – - – - -

4-1-2-2-1 (or something), lots of width, short passing, slow tempo; offside trap, high defensive line

First of all, got to love this from the pre-match info:

Apparently Marco Padalino was “doubtful” for this game with a broken leg. Brave lad.

Second, I know I instructed my players to tackle Antonio Cassano “hard”. But obviously I don’t remember saying “especially inside the penalty area”. Fabricio Coloccini didn’t get the memo and unnecessarily crushed #99 in the box to gift Sampa pen, which Foti scored (about the only thing he did all game by the way).

However… Jonas equalized by dribbling a big right angle down the wing and into the net (video to follow) and Arshavin got us the winner two minutes later. Good stuff, and loving all the comebacks, but I’m also a bit sick of seeing us going a goal down all the time.

vs Aston Villa (away) W 1-0

- – - – - – - – Given – - – - – - -
Taylor – Rusol – Coloccini – Enrique
- – - – Belletti – - -Camacho- – - –
Jonas – - – Marquinhos – - – Fleck
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –
- – - – - – Lewandowksi- – - – - -

4-2-3-1 (cowardly version), narrow, deep defensive line, counter attack, direct passing

Learned my lesson from the Fernando Torres experience, and wasn’t about to get burned by the pace of Gabriel Agbonlahor.

So… one up front, two defensive mids and all attacking mids starting from actual midfield (as opposed to further forward). Deep defensive line. No one’s getting through and I’m hitting Villa on the break. Which is exactly what happened.

John Fleck (love this guy) got the goal, and then Marquinhos terrified Villa in the 2nd half with his pace on the break. Happy days.

And that put me fourth in the Prem people. Boo-yah.

By popular demand (well, Weston asked for it…) here’s the current league table:

Damn, that’s tight. And you can see that Man City just need to win their game in hand to overtake me. But there 14 points between 6th and 7th, so there’s basically a new “big six” who’ve broken away from the rest of the league to compete for the four CL places. And I’d right in there, for now.

But things are about to get very serious. I’ve got the second leg against Sampdoria, followed by the Carling Cup final against Arsenal (chance at first Newcastle silverware since 1969!) and then a run of three consecutive games against my big six opponents. Take a look: