October 2011 - The players dig in for another great month

We enter October having shown excellent form so far this season, also with no injuries to the team. This month sees us play 6 matches including a 2 week international break after the first match.

Arsenal (A) Premier League

We travel across London to the Emirates Stadium, with Arsenal as clear favourites for this fixture. Arsenal have been in excellent form so far this season, having won all but one match so far, that being a 0-0 draw in their last league fixture. The most worrying statistic is that they have not conceded any goals in competitive matches, although of some encouragement is that they've only scored more than one goal in 3 out of their 10 matches. I have decided to go into this match with a Counter attacking strategy.

The match started as a fairly even afair with both sides looking strong defensively, but worryingly for me, Arsenal looked to be the sharper team. In the 12th minute this was to show with Lung jr having to make an excellent save to deny the Gunners, and an even better save only a minute later, with yet another save only a minute after that, this one being almost unbelievably good. I was getting rather worried, but given some encouragement when Scocco was denied a clear cut chance only through a last ditch sliding tackle deep in the Gunners area. In the 26th minute Lung jr was called upon again this time to make a save from a free kick. In the 32nd minute we finally had a our first shot of the match, an easy save for the Arsenal keeper though, but at last a little bit more encouraging, but Lung jr had to make another superb save only seconds later. I was worried with how the Arsenal movement was ripping us to shreds with such ease, and 2 minutes later van Persie was again denied by Lung jr after running straight through our defence like they were statues. Even more worrying was how many fouls we'd been commiting with the Gunners so far not having made a single foul. Things got worse for us in the 38th minute with Jimenez sustaining a head injury after a clash with an Arsenal defender, after what looked like a clear foul, but no free kick was even given. I was pleased when the whistle brought the first half to a close, in what apart from an excellent display by our keeper, had not been a particularly good display.

I sent the players back out hoping that they would play with more conviction in the second half. Within a minute of the restart Epraim received the ball on the edge of the 6 yard box in space after a series of swift passes to give us the lead; a better start to the half I could not have imagined. With the Gunners now pushing harder we started to see a lot more of the ball, playing considerably better than we had in the first half. Arsenal's discipline started to look a lot more ragged with their foul count rising steadily. Worryingly the referee started throwing yellow cards around like confetti, with players from both sides being shown them in dubious situtations. Just as I was considering substituting Sunny, already on a yellow card, and still throwing himself into tackles, he was given a second yellow for a tackle which didn't look at all worthy of a booking. This happened in the 71st minute to deny me the opportunity of substituting him, taking us down to 10 men to try and see out the remainder of the match. I decided to leave Fatih Yucel up front on his own and brought on Rafa as a direct replacement. With the game into the last 10 minutes, and still having denied the Gunners a shot on target this half we enjoyed a period of possession and began to wonder if we could hold on to our lead. In the 87th minute disaster struck with Eduardo receiving the ball after some swift passes just outside the area with him hammering the ball goalward with a first time shot, which Lung jr got a hand to, but couldn't deflect it wide of the post. Just two minutes later Lung jr had to make another superb save, this time to stop Arsenal finding a winner, as we suddenly seemed unable to stop them ripping us open, which is odd, given how we'd been much the better team for most of the 2nd half. With the seconds ticking away Buzsaky forced the Arsenal keeper to make a save with a thunderous long shot, which unfortunately was far too near the keeper. If it had been one of his trademark shots aimed at the corner, he'd have produced a stunning winner, but sadly it wasn't to be, and this brought the match to a finish with the scores level one apiece.

Before the match I'd have been very happy to have got this draw, but after getting so near to sneaking the victory, I'm a bit disappointed. However it's still a good result, even if the fans are disappointed with us conceding the lead late on, and we are now the first team to score a goal against Arsenal. Given how comprehensively we were outplayed in the first half, I was delighted with how we were the better team in the second half, even after Sunny was shown a dubious red card. Most annoying thing about that, being I'd just switched to the tactics screen to make the substitution when the incident happened. The head injury that Jimenez picked up will sideline him for 7 to 10 days, although this shouldn't be a problem as we now have a 2 week break for international matches.

Result: 1-1

During the international break Buzsaky has sustained a damaged elbow, putting him out for a couple of weeks.

West Ham (A) Premier League

A second successive away match against another London club, sees us travel across the capital to play West Ham at Upton Park. The Hammers are narrow favourites for this match, with the record last season not giving us the greatest of confidence, having managed to only take a single point from them in the two matches. Due to his attitude problem and poor form of late, Fatih Yucel is sat on the bench at the start of the match.

The match started off as a fairly scrappy affair, but soon settled down to each side showing good passing skills, but struggling to make any great impression, although Michael Owen, now playing for West Ham, was causing lots of trouble, but hitting long shots high or wide. Our main problem going forward, seemed to be searching for the perfect pass, in a crowded area. The first really good chance fell to the Hammers with Behrami blasting the ball high over the crossbar from the edge of the 6 yard box in the 17th minute. One minute later I thought we'd opened the scoring when Scocco was slipped an excellent pass by Balanta in the box and poked the ball home. Unfortuntely he was offside, so this goal was not given. In the 21st minute Lung jr was called upon to make an excellent reflex save to deny West Ham. The match was really coming alive, but rather worrying how easy it seemed to be for West Ham to slice our defence apart. However in the 23rd minute Balanta played an excellent 1-2 with Jinenez receiving the ball back in space in the box, and made no mistake about stroking it home to give us the lead. West Ham started to push higher up the pitch, which was giving us more chance to find space on the counter, and our defence was looking more assured after taking the lead. In the 31st minute Jimenez had an excellent chance to increase our lead, but the Hammers keeper somehow managed to deflect the ball just wide of the post.

With the match nearing half time the players seemed determined to extend our lead in the 42nd minute after a series of corners, Jimenez delivered a curling ball into the six yard box, which Green the Hammers keeper came for, but in the wet conditions he failed control it, with the ball landing at the feet of Balanta, who smashed it home to increase our lead to 2 goals. West Ham went on the attack immediately from the kick off with Owen heading from close range into the arms of Lung jr, and I breathed a sigh of relief. In the 45th minute Jimenez turned provider again, slipping an excellent pass through to Ephraim at the edge of the area, and he hammered the ball into the net past the despairing keeper, to give us a wonderful 3 goal lead. Within 2 minutes my delight turned to annoyance, with West Ham's Matejovsky hitting the ball into the net from the middle of the penalty area.

There is a point I want to bring up after seeing this goal. Besides me being annoyed with us losing a bit of concentration right at the end of the half, what I find really strange is that Matejovsky has the Preferred Move, "Looks For Pass Rather Than Attempting To Score." His shot was threaded between 3 defenders, which probably unsighted Lung jr, when he had an easy pass available to a teammate clear in the box. I can kind of understand this shot, given it was a clear opportunity, but I saw earlier in the match him hitting some long shots when he had much better options available. Leaves me wondering exactly what use that preferred move is, as it's either largely ignored, or Matejovsky lacks vision, which I doubt. The only other explanation is that he's set for taking long shots often in the tactics, which seems to override the preferred move. This is something I like to do, particularly when a player scores against us, to try and understand what his preferred moves and skills are, but this stood out as a bit unusual, largely given what I'd seen earlier from him hitting long shots.

Anyhow, we arrived at half time leading 3-1, which despite conceding the goal late on, I was pleased with. Once we'd settled into the match, we looked a lot more dangerous going forward.

I sent the players back out, hoping they could keep this performance up and not allow West Ham a way back into the match. We started the half looking very much up for it, looking good on the ball. I wouldn't normally comment on a poor offside decision, unless it stopped a goal being scored, or allowed the opposition to score, but I spotted the most baffling one, with Scocco clearly in an offside position, being given offside in a situation where we'd played a few short passes in the centre of the pitch, with West Ham managing to tackle a player to give them an excellent opportunity to go on the attack. After viewing it a few times, it appears that Rafa was trying to make a pass forward, which rather than being a tackle by the West Ham player, bounced off him. There is definitely more work needed on the offiside calls, but this was one of the more bizarre ones I've seen. This match was getting stranger by the minute, with us kicking the ball out for a player being injured, and then West Ham tried to mount an attack from the throw-in. I was beginning to wonder what was going to happen next, maybe a streaker, or Father Christmas flying over the pitch. West Ham then seemed to be trying to take lumps out of us, with Balanta and then Scocco taking knocks from heavy tackles in quick succession, fortunately not bad enough to cause an injury, but still badly affecting their condition. The second of these resulted in a free kick just outside the West Ham area, which Jimenez hit well, but was just deflected over the crossbar. In the 62nd minute Slory really should have extended the lead but his close range shot was saved by the Hammers keeper. So far the West Ham discipline was letting them down badly, with their foul count increasing rapidly bringing several attacks to an end. After having looked so assured at the back, it was disappointing to see Owen slipped a pass in space, and as you'd expect with someone of his class, he slipped the ball into the net in the 64th minute. This was frustrating, as it may now give them real hope of getting back in the match, and hoping we weren't going to regret having missed out on extending our lead. The rest of the match was played out with West Ham looking the more dangerous side as they chased the game, and we seemed unable to capitalise on this at all when we did get the ball. Some fine defending made sure that Lung jr had very little to do in the last minutes, and the score remained at 3-2.

I was pleased with this victory, and in particular performances put in by Jimenez and the man of the match, Balanta. In typical fashion, because we had less shots, the mail message says we were lucky to get this victory, however the stats when looked at properly say that isn't so, with both teams having the same number of shots on target, blocked, and us having 2 more clear cut chances. This is our first victory over West Ham which is great news.

Result: 3-2

Fiorentina (H) Champions Cup Group D

Fiorentina arrive at Loftus as marginal favourites for this match. They are the top seeded club in the group, so I'm expecting this to be a tough match.

The match started in astonishing fashion, with us going on the attack from the start, and winning a couple of corners in the first two minutes. From the 2nd corner Sunny managed to get in front of his marker and headed the ball home to give us the lead. In the 10th minute Fatih Yucel headed the ball in the net, but unfortunately he was offside. Fiorentina then started to push us hard, with Lung jr producing a stunning save from close range in the 30th minute. We managed to hold on until half time still leading, despite Fiorentina pushing us hard. I was pleased to survive to the half time whistle still leading by the single goal.

I sent the players back out giving them encouragement after a decent first half display, which saw us somehow come through with the lead. 5 minutes into the second half we gave away a free kick just outside our area, which required a top class save by Lung jr to keep the ball from going in the net. A minute later we went forward on the counter with some excellent passing between Balanta and Fatih Yucel, resulting in the latter having a good strike saved by the keeper. Fortunately for us Fiorentina were being wasteful with them striking the crossbar just minutes later. They seemed to be getting more desperate and making many wild long shots that weren't even close to worrying our keeper. In the 64th minute Lung jr made another sensational reflex save after a corner. With the match heading into the last 20 minutes I asked the players to retain possession, and pass to feet in order to try and frustrate Fiorentina as much as possible and wind the clock down. In the 77th minute after a series of passes, Ephraim was unlucky not to score, when he looped a ball over a Fiorentina defender, which hit the post and bounced to the feet of Andrea Dossena, whose composure totally left him, as he tapped the ball over the line attempting a back pass to the keeper, for an awfully embarrassing own goal. It's a shame Ephraim's shot didn't go in, as it was such an exquisitely delicate shot. Our defence rode its luck over the next few minutes, with a header going just over our crossbar. In the 88th minute a throughball saw a Fiorentina striker get free and hammer the ball into the net. This now gives me a very nervous end to the match. Just a minute later another throughball nearly undid us again, but Nasuti produced an excellent tackle to the stop that attack, and what seemed like seconds later Lung jr had to produce another superb save. After those scares we managed to hold the ball for most of the 3 minutes of injury time to claim an astonishing win, with Sunny named the man of the match.

I'm really pleased to come out with a win, in a match where we were definitely outplayed for the majority of the time. This goes down as an ugly win, and makes the aim of progressing from this group a real possibility, although we still need to play well to achieve it.

Result: 2-1

Manchester City (H) Premier League

Man City travel to Loftus Road as marginal favourites, largely because they are defending champions. We actually have a good record against them, having won 3 of the last 4 fixtures between the two sides, which is quite encouraging.

We started the match looking the more dangerous, with Jimenez hitting the crossbar in the 14th minute. The match turned to a pretty even affair with chances for both teams, with Balanta going the closest in the 32nd minute, denied by a reflex save. There wasn't much else to report with the match reaching half time goalless.

The first half had been fairly even, with us putting in a reasonable performance, but not totally happy. I sent the players back out telling them they could win this, and in the 50th minute Balanta received the ball in the penalty area, and hit the ball home to open the scoring in style. In the 55th minute I was annoyed by Gareth Barry making a vicious tackle on Jimenez, causing a shin injury, which was not even given as a foul. A minute later Slory was then injured in the City penalty area, causing an upper body injury, again not given as a foul, which looked even worse than the first. The game had remained a fairly open affair, but as the match entered the last 20 minutes we started to get the ball forward on more occassions, which coincided with the enforced substitution of City's Nigel De Jong. This little period of dominance paid off in the 79th minute with Scocco chipping the ball into the area for Balanta to run onto, and he made no mistake in placing the ball into the corner of the net to extend our lead, and 5 minutes later Scocco really should have put the game beyond doubt, but for a superb save by the City keeper. In the 4th minute of added on time, Lung jr produced an excellent diving save to deflect the ball around the post to concede a corner from which he claimed the ball as the last action of the game, to bring the match to an end with us claiming a 2-0 victory.

I was delighted with our 2nd half display, with us not only looking dangerous going forward, but also looking very solid at the back. Balanta quite rightly claimed the man of the match award for a performance in which he constantly caused the opposition defence problems. The real turning appears to have been the injury to City's Nigel De Jong, which saw us largely dominate the remainder of the match. The match saw Jimenez suffer a gashed leg, sidelining him for a couple of weeks, and Slory suffered a bruised rib, putting him out for about a week. It is interesting to note that the mail message about Slory's injury puts it down to a late tackle, rather indicating that I was probably correct in judging that he'd been fouled and we should have had a penalty. Fortunately that poor refereeing decision was not to be a problem for us. It was particularly pleasing that we managed to keep a clean sheet for the first time in 6 matches.

In a really bizarre quirk of fate, I was playing this match while listening to the Man United v Leeds United match in the FA Cup on the radio. It turned out that in game this was the league fixture being played out as well, with Leeds recording a 1-0 victory in this match too. I may not like Leeds, due to having lived in Sheffield for a few years, but I'm geniunely delighted for them gaining this victory, and not just in game, where it has helped me.

Result: 2-0

Newcastle (H) League Cup Fourth Round

The Magpies arrive at Loftus Road with us clear favourites to win this match. I am hoping the weight of expectation does not cause the players any problems. Due to being just 3 days after our previous match, and the injuries picked up, I will need to make some changes to the squad, but we should still put out a very strong team. The teamsheets show that Newcastle are playing a 4-1-4-1, so definitely have the emphasis on defending.

I wasn't best pleased with our start, with Lung jr called into action after just 4 minutes coming up with a fine save to stop Newcastle going ahead, with us also commiting far too many fouls. Although we'd been looking poor we took the lead in the 19th minute with Buzsaky curling in a superb free kick from just outside the area, giving the keeper no chance. I was hoping we would now settle, but two minutes later our keeper had to produce another stunning save to parry the ball out for a corner. From this Newcastle equalised, but I'm not happy at all with this, because in the replay it shows my keeper never watched the ball at all. It's hard to believe a good keeper would just stand apparently looking somewhere up the pitch at a corner like that, especially given his spectacular save only moments earlier. I know it's not certain he'd have made the save if he'd watched the ball, but I feel this is a clear error in the match engine. Newcastle almost completely dominated the first half, with us giving one of worst displays I've ever seen, although Newcastle rarely looked like finding a second goal to take the lead.

I told the team it was a disappointing performance so far, and in real life I'd have probably been turning the air very blue. On this performance you'd have been hard pressed to believe we were not only a Premiership team, but currently sitting in first place. In the first 15 minutes of the second half we showed much better control than we had in the first half, with Sunny hitting a long shot just wide of the post, and Fatih Yucel striking a free kick just over the crossbar, showing greater confidence and continued this as the match progressed. In the 66th minute Sunny produced an excellent throughball over the top, which Fatih Yucel ran onto and sidestepped the keeper to plant the ball in the back of the net, for the first time over 600 minutes of football. In the 74th minute there was a mad panic in our area, with the keeper producing a desperate save to keep the ball out of the net, and some more defending to finally clear the ball. Not the most encouraging of signs, and Lung jr had to produce another excellent diving save to steer a long shot around the post, and thought we were about to see a repeat of the abysmal corner we conceded from the first time, but this time, we managed to scramble it for another corner. I have to say the refereeing was distinctly poor with no consistency in showing yellow cards, leading me to substitute Sunny to make sure he didn't gain a red card, and astonished that Newcastle's Moses, did not get a yellow card for a tackle from behind, without even getting near the ball, which sliced Nasuti down in our area; this apparently didn't even warrant a talking to from the ref. Nasuti also now has a potential thigh injury from this tackle. We managed to get to the end of the match with our lead intact to take a 2-1 victory.

Given how poor we were in the first half, I'm pleased with how much better we were in the second, and pleased that what feels like an error in the match engine did not cost us the match, or cause extra time to be required. Fatih Yucel also managing to get back on the scoresheet is pleasing, because his recent form had been so poor. Whether I can manage to get him to change his mind about wanting to leave the club I don't know, but if we can keep progressing in tournaments, it can only help to persuade him. Newcastle would probably feel hard done by, but Lung jr's man of the match performance was what kept us in this match, producing a series of excellent saves. There was good news with regard to Nasuti, as he did not pick up an injury as a result of the poor tackle that saw him hacked to the ground.

Result: 2-1

Fulham (A) Premier League

This is our third away derby match of the month. Our trip to Craven Cottage sees us arrive as marginal favourites, but I know this is a match that Fulham will be up for. The teamsheets reveal Fulham have lined up with a 3-5-2 formation, which could cause a lot of congestion in midfield, but might open things up for us to get crosses in from the flanks.

The first half was not a particularly exciting affair, and fairly even, although we had more possession. Even though both sides had a few shots, there were no really good chances created. When we did make a break, Fulham tended to commit a foul which broke the play up, allowing them to get players back behind the ball, which was frustrating. Half time was reached with no goals scored. We'd played fairly well, but struggled to find the right passes.

I sent the players back out telling them to do this for the fans, and the players looked a bit more up for the contest, dominating possession early on, although it was Fulham who got the first really good chance of the match, which required a good save from Lung jr. As the half progressed Fulham started to gain the upper hand, which was disappointing, with Lung jr having to make another great save in the 72nd minute. Fulham thought they'd taken the lead in the 77th minute, but this was correctly disallowed as it was offside. Things were getting awfully desperate, and after our bright start to this half, we were looking really quite poor now, with our goal seemingly under seige. The last opportunity of the match fell to us though, from a Buzsaky free kick, which the keeper parried into the path of Routledge, who ballooned the ball over the goal, to miss the best chance of the whole match. The match came to an end goalless for us to pick up a point.

I was disappointed with how we were so comprehensively outplayed for a large part of the second half, but pleased to come away with the draw, given how many clear cut chances Fulham created. Lung jr's man of the match performance was definitely the key to us managing to claim the draw. This is the first time we've failed to score this season, but I'm pleased we've kept a second clean sheet in a row, and remain unbeaten.

Sometimes the mail message summarising the match is comical. For this match it says: "Q.P.R. covered a lot of ground but also conceded far too many fouls, meaning their effort was often for nothing." Given we commited 8 fouls to Fulham's 20, I find that a crazy comment. It's unusual to commit less than 8 fouls, especially against a side which has several players that have good pace.

Result: 0-0

Monthly Roundup

This has been a fantastic month for us, where we have remained unbeaten, several times having to rely on outstanding performances by Lung jr, who is really looking outstanding. To gain the draw against Arsenal and wins over Man City and Fiorentina are the standout results.

Our good form has seen us climb to 1st place in the Premier League, largely due to other teams around us dropping a lot of points, such as Man United only gaining 4 points from the 12 available to them. Along with Arsenal, we are the only teams to remain unbeaten so far, with the Gunners having played 3 games less than us. Those 3 games if won would potentially put them above us, but we can only hope they start to slip up as the matches start to mount, as they have 8 fixtures next month to our 6. Balanta's performances have earned him the Premiership Player of the Month award, which I'm delighted with. Daeseleire has been named Premiership Young Player of the Month, having shown some excellent form over the last month.

Our win over Fiorentina sees have consolidate our 1st place in our Champions Cup Group. We are in a excellent position, but certainly can't take anything for granted, as it could all slip away from us if we don't maintain our form.

My player of month is a tough choice between Lung jr and Balanta, both having produced some excellent performances, but I think I'd have to go with Lung jr just about edging it, having put in sevearl outstanding performances that have kept us in games. We end the month with just the one injury in the first team, that being to Jimenez, who is close to being able to make a return to the side. It should be noted that the fans think Sunny has been a good signing now, which is pleasing for me, given how vocal they'd been in showing their disappointment when he was first signed.

Something I have noticed since the latest patch, is that if the ball is put out to allow an injury to be dealt with, the side taking the resulting throw-in, no longer seem to be giving back to the other team as they should be. I'm not sure if that happens everytime, but I've seen several examples of both teams trying to mount an attack from these situations.