Sunderland (A) League Cup Quarter Final
The fans are hopeful that this visit to the Stadium of Light will see us turn over the Black Cats against the odds, and proceed to the Semi Final. I believe we have a slim chance, but Sunderland have a lot of talent with pace, that could seriously test us. We will need another defensive display of the quality we showed when they visited Loftus Road last month, when we managed to sneak a lucky win.
The match started with managing to gain quite a bit of possession early on with Buzsaky taking the first crack at goal from long range, which just whistled past the post. After the first few minutes the match settled down to be an entertaining end to end affair, although worryingly Sunderland were creating more chances than us. The Sunderland strikers were being consistently caught off-side, but it concerned me that this might be a dangerous game if our backline got things wrong. With the match still without a goal as we headed into stoppage time at the end of the first half, I was delighted to see Daeseleire produce a wonderful cross into the 6 yard box, which Fatih Yucel was able to control on his chest and then slam the ball home with venom. This brought the first half to an end with us leading, making me very happy, but I knew there was still a long way to go.
The second half was much as the first had been, with the ball being moved from end to end, with Sunderland always looking the more dangerous and likely to score. Our lead only survived for 5 minutes of the second half, with Lee Cattermole finding space and slamming the ball home from the corner of the penalty box. That was frustrating, but we kept battling, trying to make some more opportunities. In the 64th minute a series of passing moves ended with Buzsaky receiving the ball about 30 yards out from the goal with time and space, and produced a stunning drive. The goalkeeper got a hand to the ball, but it wasn't enough to stop the ball from finishing in the back of the net. Sadly this lead didn't last long, as in the 67th minute, Fraizer Campbell hit a screamer from the edge of the box just out of reach of the keeper to level the score again. This is one of a couple of things I seriously hate, to concede a goal so soon after we've scored one. Just as I was becoming resigned to the annoyance of extra time, we gave away a free kick just outside the penalty area on the left side. In the 2nd minute of stoppage time the free kick was hit across the box, and Fraizer Campbell eased away from his marker to head the ball home for the most annoying of winners. I was angry that we'd conceded from a set piece, and in stoppage time, to throw a match away. The players had given some great performances, but a lapse of concentration destroyed all that good work, and puts an end to our League Cup run, with the final score being 3-2 to the Black Cats.
Tottenham (H) Premier League
Spurs arrive at Loftus Road off the back of 3 straight wins and are unbeaten for two months. Last time we played them, in last years League Cup, we lost in a very close match. Although we are considered underdogs, I feel we have improved since last year, so we will hopefully get something out of this, especially as we're still holding onto our perfect home record. The morale has dropped a bit after the last match, but the players should be up for gaining revenge. In what I hope is a good omen, our under 18's beat Spurs in their match the day before this fixture. Spurs start with Crouch and Pavlyuchenko up front, who are not particularly fast, but a big threat in the air. The wingers are quite fast and Palacios in the centre of midfield was a worry. Spurs have the ability to control play quite well, which would suggest dropping a bit deeper, however, I felt this would be dangerous with their strikers having plenty of strength. Pushing up field wasn't really an option, so decided a Standard strategy would hopefully be the best option. Before the match I changed the setup for defending corners, which is now detailed in a previous post.
The match started with us going on the attack straight away, and in the 3rd minute a mistake from a defensive throw-in, saw the ball drop to Buzsaky on the edge of the area. He moved forward with the ball and stroked home a beautiful curling ball past the helpless Gomes. The rest of the first half saw Tottenham push forward, which allowed us several opportunities to extend our lead but fine saves by Gomes denied us. Lung jr and our defensive line were doing a great job to deny Spurs getting on the scoresheet. A fairly exciting first half ended with us leading by Buzsaky's early strike.
I was fairly happy with our display, and tried to encourage the players to keep going as we could be certain that Spurs would take the attack to us. The second half started with end to end football, with both sides showing great touches. I was annoyed that Palacios was given the space to run into, and strike the ball home from the edge of the penalty area. This was the first time we'd allowed him any space, and paid the price. The exciting end to end play continued, with both sides showing their passing abilities, but also some great defending. The first really bad piece of defending happened when Dawson pulled Fatih Yucel down in the box. He'd already been booked, and was lucky to stay on the pitch, after another talking to by the referee. Fatih Yucel stepped up and dispatched the spot kick with confidence, to restore our lead.
The match continued in the same style, so it was no huge surprise when another goal was scored in the 75th minute. This time Defoe slammed in a strike from just outside the box, curling it just around Puygrenier and squeezed just inside the post. I was angry about this, with Defoe allowed too much time on the ball. However this anger lasted less than a minute, with Ephraim being passed the ball on the left hand side from the kick off, and produced a delightful looping cross from the byeline which Balanta was able to run onto and head home from close range. I was delighted, as this brought his goal drought of 5 games to an end, and gave us the lead back.
Spurs then became slightly desperate, pushing even higher up the field. In the 83rd minute after a Spurs corner, Lung jr produced a great throw to find Slory on the right hand side just in the Tottenham half, with space to get to the byeline without any pressure on him. He produced a superb cross to the far post, which Hogan Ephraim was able to get to first with his head, to extend our lead to 2 goals. That was the last goal in an entertaining match, which ended up with the score flattering us slightly, although we'd probably just about done enough to justify taking all 3 points. Ephraim put in the man of the match performance scoring a goal and providing an assist. I am delighted with this result, especially as I'd made some changes to some player settings for defending corners, and we looked much better at the back. Spurs rarely managed to get a head onto any of their corners, which is great as they have a height and heading advantage over us. Unfortunately Varrault twisted his knee during the match, and will be out for about 3 weeks. This is definitely a blow to lose our Vice Captain, who has been doing a great job for us from right back. I am greatly amused that this result is seen as a shock.
Burnley (H) Premier League
Although Burnley have been struggling this season, they arrive at Loftus Road off the back of a good home win against Sunderland. We are clear favourites, but I feel Burnley will try to make it very hard for us to break their defence down. Matthew Connolly makes his first start of the season, at left back as a replacement for Varrault. My only concern is his pace, although he does have good attributes for defending. I've decided to start the match with the Standard strategy, as the pace Burnley has should not be a problem for us to deal with.
The match started with both sides finding it hard to take any attack beyond the defence of the other side. We were were retaining slightly more possession and had the slightly better of the few chances either side created. This pattern went on through to half time, in what was not a very exciting match, as both defences were being very dominant. Neither side was finding it easy to get to the byeline, making it hard to get any decent crosses into the box, and working the ball through the centre was being met with stern resistance.
In the second half, we showed slightly more intent, but it was still a struggle. With the match closing in on a boring no-score draw both sides had only really created one decent chance. Lung jr made one good save to stop Burnley scoring when they managed to get behind our defence. Our best chance had been from a corner with Nasuti thumping a header straight at the Burnley keeper. In the 89th minute there was to finally be a winner when Ephraim found room on the left to reach the byeline and hit a cross into the now crowded box. A Burnley player failed to control the ball due to the speed of the cross. Rafa who had made a run into the box, was happy to find the ball bounce out into his path and buried the ball into an almost wide open net. I was delighted with this late goal to steal the points, in a match I thought was heading for a rather dismal goalless draw. This win has now extended our run of home wins in the league to 9. This was Rafa's first appearance back after his injury, coming on as a sub in the 59th minute, and grabbing his first goal since he signed for the club. This was a match where on the whole neither side really allowed the other to get any kind of rhythm to their play.
West Ham (H) Premier League
For our 3rd home match in a row, we welcome fellow Londoner's, West Ham. They arrive at Loftus Road, like us having won 2 home matches in a row, and just behind us in the league table. We are marginal favourites for this match, which looks as though it will be fairly tricky. One piece of good news for us is that Valon Behrami is suspended for this match, who is one of West Ham's best players, Dean Ashton is also injured, removing another potential danager. The Hammer's have lined up with a diamond formation with the two wide midfielders playing on the wings.
The match started off with West Ham getting more possession, but we always looked more likely to score. Buzsaky tested the goalkeeper several times, with the keeper being lucky that one of his desperate parries went safe. West Ham created a few half chances, but in the first half completely failed to even test the keeper. The first half ended with the neither side able to break the deadlock.
In the second half we started off brightly, and in the 48th minute, Ephraim ran to the byeline on the left. Seeing his route to cross on his left foot was cut off, he turned back and whipped in a cross on his right foot. Fatih Yucel got in front of his marker to deflect the ball into the net with his head. This was a fantastic way to start the second half. I was pleased that we did not lose concentration to allow the Hammer's a quick equaliser, as this has happened far too often to us. West Ham were still getting more of the possession but looking less likely to score even though they were now pushing. In the 73rd minute we allowed a Carlton Cole to meet a whipped in cross with his head, leaving our keeper no chance of making a save. I was annoyed but still felt were looking more likely to get a winner. The winner came through a huge slice of good fortune, as a poor attempt at a cross hit our crossbar, and ballooned up allowing Carlton Cole to head home the winner in the 88th minute. I guess we got lucky to find the winner in our previous match, now luck has bitten us back to give West Ham an undeserved victory. The draw would have been a fair result, with us always looking to have been the more likely to sneak a winner. This loss feels very painful and brings our impressive run of home victories to an end in a most frustrating and unlucky fashion, especially as the goals from Cole were the only time he managed to even create a shot. It is slightly amusing though, that after the match Carlton Cole criticised Gianfranco Zola for his team talks, saying they were not helping the side. Quite amazing given that West Ham have now risen to 3rd in the league, and are the current form team.
Birmingham (A) Premier League
Our visit to St. Andrews sees us visit a team that last secured a win in the League back at the start of October. We are slight favourites for this encounter, with Birmingham managing to only win one home match so far this season. This has to be a considered a match we should be able to come away with a good result from, as we look to bounce back from the disappointment caused by the bad luck in the previous match. Birmingham are firm relegation candidates, sitting in 19th place, and currently looking doomed unless they can turn around their poor form in the second half of the season.
During the run up to the match Martin Stranzl has bruised a rib, and will be unavailable for a week. Annoyingly on Christmas Day I get a report that Hogan Ephraim has got flu, so will be staying at home for a few a days to recover. There is however good news, as Varrault has recovered from this injury and will be available for this match. My backroom staff have told me that playing a high line against Birmingham would be a good idea. However my scout tells me we should either play deep or use fast defenders. My scout seems to be from experience a better judge, so it looks like we'll be playing slightly deep. Once the teamsheet was revealed though I decided to stay with the Standard strategy.
At the start of the match we moved the ball around with great control, and in the 3rd minute after an attacking corner, the ball was moved to Routledge in the box, who held the ball until Buzsaky had made a run into the middle of the box, providing him with a pass which he hammered home to give us an early lead. Birmingham's response was to attack, but we stood firm at the back, and although we didn't have many shots, we were consistently getting the ball wide and worrying their defence with crosses into the box. Birmingham had more shots, but we actually looked more likely to create real scoring chances.
The first half hadn't been particularly exciting but I was happy enough that we looked more likely to score again, despite having less shots than Birmingham, so told the players I was pleased. Whether this had any effect I don't know, but the first piece of action in the second half worthy of note, happened in the 54th minute when Balanta was provided with a beautiful throughball at the edge of the box, and proceeded to advance and slotted the ball home beating the keeper at the near post. This lovely finish was however ruled out by a very contentious offside decision. I've reviewed it a few times, and sometimes I think the decision is correct, but other times it looks like a bad decision. That was frustrating, but soon that was forgotten, because 2 minutes later a series of quick passes saw Slory provide an early cross to Balanta at the edge of the box, and he slammed a first time shot past the despairing keeper.
Shortly afterwards Fatih Yucel was unlucky not to score when he struck a long shot from 30 yards out, which hit the crossbar, and bounced harmlessly to a Birmingham defender. A minute later he went to ground with a potential thigh injury, which prompted me to take him off, in the hope that it wasn't too bad, as he is so vital to us. During the next 10 minutes, although Birmingham tried to push forward, we had a couple more excellent chances to add to our lead, one being from a Buzsaky free kick from 35 yards out. It was a cracking strike, and produced a brilliant save from the Birmingham keeper. Even in the last few minutes, we had a couple more opportunities, one with Rowan Vine collecting the ball at the edge of the box, and only a perfectly timed challenge denied him from taking a shot. In the 89th minute, Balanta got free of his marker and into the box, only to be denied by a great save. One minute into added time, a lapse of concentration allowed Barry Ferguson to find some clear space at the edge of the box to drill home a consolation goal.
I'm very pleased with this win, even though the match stats seem to suggest this was a lucky win, with Birmingham having 19 shots to our 9. It wasn't that simple though, as they only had one more shot on target than us with 5. Also we'd hit the woodwork, and 2 clear cut chances, which Birmingham having none at all. The possession was almost equal with although our passing percentage was a bit down, largely due to the number of clearances we'd made. This shows that the stats don't always tell the full story. Good news at the end of the match is that Fatih Yucel did not sustain an injury and will available to take the pitch in 2 days time for the final match of 2010.
Manchester City (H) Premier League
The Citizens arrive at Loftus Road sitting in 1st place in the league, though come off the back of a defeat to Liverpool, and a draw before that. Man City are favourites for the match, and I'm sure won't make things as easy for as they did back in Manchester. I decided to go with a Counter attacking strategy, as they have Adebeyour up front and their wingers also have lots of pace that would just destroy us if we push up too much.
From the off it was obvious that Man City had come to avenge the defeat we inflicted upon them at the start of the season. However in the 6th minute Fatih Yucel hit a speculative cross into the box from a throw in. In the confusion in the box, Rafa managed to somehow get the ball from the 3 City players that had surrounded him, and sent a pass for Routledge to run onto and score with a powerful shot. I was stunned, but knew that City would come at us even harder, and sure enough they did. In the 13th minute the equaliser came after Tevez ran down the right and then played a diagonal cross back into the path of the on-rushing De Jong placed placed a shot just inside the near post. I knew we were up against it, and City pressed hard, but for the rest of the first half we managed to hold firm, despite the pressure. We did however manage to create a few opportunities, but they were few and far between.
At half time I was fairly happy, but knew there would be a lot more pressure to withstand. The second half started in much the same way with City pressing hard, giving us little respite, although the first clear chance to extend the scoring fell to us, but Balanta failed to find a way past the keeper. I was hopeful that we might be able to hold on, when Lung jr made a superb save to deny Tevez in a one on one. However in the 79th minute Tevez got clear of our defence and our keeper was unable to deny him this time. This was a bit disappointing, but given how City were playing, to keep the scoreline to a 1-2 defeat meant our defence had largely done a great job. It was a good effort, but Man City showed their superior quality and fitness levels, as playing a game just 2 days after the previous match was a bit too much for us. Even if we'd been fully match though, this would have still been the most likely outcome.
Monthly Summary
I think the month was still quite good for us, and although we've slipped another place down to 7th, we are still above both Man Utd and Liverpool. If we can keep up our current form we should be able to stay in the top half of the table with ease, which i well beyond my expectations at the start of the year.
Next month looks to be even tougher than this one, with 7 fixtures scheduled for us, which will severely test us, with some very tricky away fixtures and some tough home matches. If we win our FA Cup match then the number of fixtures will increase to 8. Hopefully we'll pick up enough points to maintain our position in the top half of the league.
5 comments:
It is not a bad month even with those 2 losses, in premier league sometimes the results are unpredictable. Is your players start to show some fatigue near the end of the match? I notice both losses is that goals were conceded late in the match.
Well done, you should be in for an Europa League place!
Given this is the first year in the top flight, I'm delighted with the form we've shown. I was fully expecting a tough fight in the bottom half of the table.
Our defenders don't seem to get showing any particular fatigue. They always have the hightest condition, apart from the keeper at the end of the match. I think it's how the match engine has the opposition push really hard at the end of the match. Sometimes it has worked in my favour, as it did against Spurs.
It'll be interesting to see if SI think there are slightly too many late goals flying in or not. It's hard to say, because it does happen in real life sometimes. I'm still undecided if it's too often or not.
I'm undecided if getting a Europa League place would be good or not, as it gives you a lot of extra games to play. I guess though I'd have enough money to bring in the depth of squad required to cope with the extra matches. I'd be delighted either way, as long as we stay in the top half.
A great win over Spurs, your team seems to play better vs. technically skilled sides.
Reaching an Europa League place would be great for your team, some good money could arrive, of course you'll have to add some depth to your squad.
Yeah. I've been very impressed with how good we are at disrupting the technically skilled sides.
As January has a lot of matches, it'll be a few more days before I've played them all, but can reveal we've made an outstanding start which I'm sure will surprise everyone else as much as it did me.
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