Sunday, March 15, 2009

A Bad Day for Crystal Palace's Nick Karlovic

We embarassed 5th in the league Palace 3-0. Nothing quite so sweet as thrashing your rival at home. An own goal from the headline-grabbing Nick Karlovic on 13 minutes which I thought had been hammered into the net by Alexandre Marques (who could certainly use the confidence). Kone was the architect, firing a quick, low ball across the penalty area that Karlovic was so kind to latch onto. McEwan then got into the action in the 30th minute scoring his first of the season on a perfectly placed near post cross from Sullivan Charlet (I think Charlet and Kone could be quite a formidable pair). Oduro completed the rout on 79 minutes with a screaming free kick from 30 yards that left the keeper frozen. Well done you Addicks.

Oh, and to top it all off, Nick Karlovic got himself sent off for a 2nd yellow card (I almost typed 3rd yellow which would mean Graham Poll was refereeing the match). It was sweet. Up the Addicks!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

I'll Be Damned if Charlton Will Get Relegated on My Watch

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2008-09 Charlton Athletic Starting XI:



Featuring:

Eric Traore (GK): a 22 year old Ivorian who has absolutely come alive under my stewardship
Sullivan Charlet (LB): 23 year old Frenchman. Pacey, good defender.
Brian Irish (RB): a 16 year old Irishman who is still on a youth contract (and has signed a pre-contract agreement for 90 per week) and is already worth 1m. He's been excellent down the right for us. He's mirrored on the left by Steve Perkins, a 16 year old Englishman on 55 p/w (already worth 1.4m). Perkins is currently out of the squad due to a couple sub-par performances, the emergence of Charlet and the ever harsh Stowe-tation policy.
Shane Moody (CB): 22 years old, athletic but poor in the air. Was the subject of a bidding war late in the summer transfer window (highest bid of 750k). I might have let him go were it not my first window.
Miguel Ferreira (CB): 26 years old, Portuguese, Captain. Described as a decent player for most Premier League sides and a rock at the back for us.
Yacouba Kone (LM): 18 year old Ivorian winger who is extremely explosive. On his debut this season (after a fine preseason and a trip to the Olympics), he set up a tap in for Matt Clare and scored a goal of his own. Performances have tailed off since but can be a game changer.
Allan McEwan (RM): 26 year old Scotsman playing in what is, without a doubt, our most problematic position. McEwan started the year as a starting striker, was displaced by the arrival of Clare and has since landed on the wing. The job started in the hands of our arguably our best CM Alex Foster who, unfortunately, has a bad attitude and is slower than fuck. Foster's been booted from the starting XI and this place bounces between McEwan, 17 year old Mick Austin and 20 year old John Oduro. I'd love for Austin or Oduro to stake their claim so McEwan can be our explosive super-sub.
Dragan Denisyuk (CM): 19 years old, from Belarus. Already in the senior national team setup. Mentally solid and our vice captain. Currently out for a few weeks with a hamstring tweak--Foster's been subbing in.
Zhang Hu (CM): 17 year old from China. Can play as a defensive mid or central defender. Coaches already rate him as a leading star in the Championship and believe he can be a leading Premier League DM in the future.
Matt Clare (ST): 19 year old on loan from Chelsea. Our only loan player which is a huge positive. Unfortunately, at the moment, our only attacker who looks like scoring (more on that later). Probably not the type of player we'll be able to sign permanently but taking him from a year cost us no up front fee and we're only paying half his wages (750/week). Too good to pass up.
Alexandre Marques (ST): 24 year old, Portuguese. Marques was the star of our preseason with 7 goals and 2 assists in 6 games. He's since gone cold with 0 goals in 45o minutes of competitive football and an average rating of 6.07. He's been nothing short of disappointing and I hope he can pull out of his funk soon.

Other Key Figures:
James Forrest (19 year old English CB with solid Championship potential)
Mohammed Nasir (23 year old Nigerian DM--part of our over-abundance of competent DMs)
Craig Williams (the old man of the team at 34, CM)
Joe Malone (17 year old Irish winger in the mold of Oduro and Austin)
and the aforementioned: Oduro, Austin and Foster

So that's who we are. Here's what we've been up to so far.

TRANSFER DEALINGS:

IN:
Matt Clare (see above, loan)
Fares Douillard (26 yr. old, RB from FC Sete 34, Free)
Paul Mizzi (26 yr. old, CM from Herfolge, 150K)
Abdelkrim Ben Younes (26 yr. old, CB from Cote d'Or, Free)
Chris Hutton (26 yr. old, CM from Hamilton, 110K)
Oscar Arens (16 yr. old, ST from Germinal Beershot, 180k)

OUT:
Paul Scott (28 yr. old, CM to Cardiff, 900k)

So here's how it went down. First and foremost, the Charlton board gave me no budget. 0k. Zero pounds. Any money I wanted to spend was going to have to be raised from player sales (I got back 60%) so we started scrounging around for free players. Clare was our first deal of the summer--essentially I sent one of my scouts sniffing around Stamford Bridge and he came back with Matt. Douillard was brought in on a free to fill what was thought to be our biggest gap by my Asst. Manager (RB). He's been solid but because Irish has been a rock and Charlet can play both on the left and right, we haven't seen much of him yet.

Then came Ben Younnes. We really only have once backup center back (Forrest) and he's 19. After that, it's pulling Hu back into defense from midfield and, well, no one wants that. Ben Younnes was an attempt to bring in a good, solid backup that wouldn't cause trouble and wouldn't be upset at being fourth choice. An attempt to find my very own Alex, if you will. However, what I didn't take into consideration is that he was Moroccan and would need a work permit. Which he didn't get. It was my mistake and fortunately it didn't cost any money. He's been loaned out to Germinal Beerschot and, even if he never gains a work permit, we can still sell him off for some profit.

And, finally, the Paul Scott saga. Basically, we milked a couple of offers for Scott because, while he was a strong midfielder, he didn't play very well as a winger and he was never going to displace Denisyuk in the center of midfield. I was very pleased with the 900k and got about 600k back to re-invest. I made bids on both Hutton and Mizzi as a replacement and didn't really expect to get both. I did. Mizzi is playing for the reserves while Hutton has been on the fringes of the first team. He scored on his debut.

Arens is one for the future. He's already been tearing it up for the U18s--two goals and a MOM in his first game. He looks to be a good talent.

RESULTS:

Preseason:
Essentially, the game scheduled a bunch of scrubs to which I added two decent friendlies against FSV Frankfurt and Dundee United (both at home). Scores:

@ Bournemouth 4-1 (Storyline: Marques runs riot, Charlton concede one in the 90+3)
Goals: Kone 1, Marques 5, 48, 63

@ Welling 2-1 (Storyline: We give one up from a corner, then show some character)
Goals: Marques 61, Kelly 84

@ Oxford 4-1 (Storyline: What's the deal with us giving up the first goal? We win anyway.)
Goals: Clare 49, 51, Marques 60, Oduro 90

@ Glentoran 2-1 (Storyline: Another early goal. Another Marques masterpiece)
Goals: Marques 45+1, 56

FSV Frankfurt: 1-1 (Storyline: Clare shows flashes of brilliance, smashing against bar from 28. Oduro cleans up. We give up a scrappy goal from a corner to blemish our perfect preseason)
Goals: Oduro 47

Dundee Utd.: 1-3 (Storyline: 15 minutes of shambles at the top. Then we pepper them unsuccessfully)
Goals: Own Goal 29

So, not brilliant but not bad either. For putting together a squad for the first time, I was pleased. The young players were starting to emerge, despite the fact that I was not coddling them. Marques looked like he had the chops to be the division's top scorer. Clare looked great value. Oduro and Kone had showed flashes of brilliance. It looked to be a good year.

Season:

Carling Cup:
@ Barnet 1-0 (Perkins 89)
Nott. Forest 2-0 (Clare 46, Kone 51)
Next Up: Chelsea (damn)

League:
@ Coventry 0-0 (currently 21st in the league)
@ Southampton 1-3 (11th, Goal: P. Scott 16)
Burnley 1-0 (16th, Goal: Austin 10)
Doncaster 1-1 (17th , Goal: Moody 90+1)
@ Watford 4-1 (7th, Goal: Hutton 35)

I think you can see our problem. 4 goals in 5 games won't win us many points. We currently sit 18th in the league with 5 points from 5 games. It's not terrible and we've obviously yet to hit our stride. I'm upbeat about our possibilities--we're young and we're only going to get better as the year goes on. A couple of guys have picked up short term injuries--including Denisyuk--which may make the coming weeks tough. Up next: a derby against Crystal Palace.

Up the Addicks!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Lessons from a Half Season with the Villa

So, while waiting for my full version to arrive from Amazon, I've been spending a season in Birmingham at Aston Villa. Or, rather, a half-season as that is all the demo will allow. Some highlights and low-lights so far:

Highlights:

1. Signing Jozy Altidore on loan for no fee and half of his salary a week (something like 2k/week)
2. Winning our two UEFA Cup qualifiers 4-0 and 5-0 on aggregate
3. Carrying a 1-0 back to home from Stetua in the first knockout round of the selfsame second-rate European Cup

Lowlights:
1. Losing 5-2 to Newcastle
2. Having to play Zat Knight--a lot. And realizing I kind of like him as a player.
3. Being bottom of the table after 5 games, having only gleaned 1 point (a draw at home to Hull)

Needless to say, it's been up and down. Mostly down. I've learned some things, not a lot of things and I'm definitely far away from being the best manager in the world. But Jose Mourinho wasn't born a genius. And Alex Ferguson wasn't built in a day. Or something like that. Lessons:

--I will be playing my full career with fake players. When I signed Altidore, I kind of sealed my fate on this one. I have a soft spot in my heart for Jozy and, as a business deal, it made a fair amount of sense. But it always felt kind of dirty. Like I probably could've found a better player out there if I had just tried a little harder. Like I was giving him a shot only because I knew who he was. It just felt lazy and, while fake players will be harder, at least it will feel more real.

--Gareth Barry is a twat. No doubt about it. He undermined me from the day I arrived (despite the fact that I gave him the captain's armband), put in dour performance after dour performance and, worst of all, I couldn't leave him out because he was far and away my best player. The Nige was sadly disappointing as well.

--It is incredibly easy to give up goals right after you score. We had a glimmer of hope when we won a penalty against Chelsea to bring it to 2-1 but gave back a goal to Michael Essien six minutes later (we did end up scoring another which could've lead to us splitting the points). Against Newcastle, we fought back from two down through Marlon Harewood (goals: 45+1', 63') and then got hit by an avalanche started by a Geremi goal (65'). We lost that one 5-2. How do you guard against this? I'm starting to believe that I might be better laying off tight marking and/or man marking and going to a zonal system. We all know how well that worked out for Big Phil Scolari, right?

--It's easy to give up goals late. After leveling the score against Rovers late on (73'), we gave back a goal to Matt Derbyshire (88'). And after struggling all game against Hull we grabbed what looked like a sure winner through Stillian Petrov in the 89th only to concede to Caleb Folan in the 91st. Heartbreaking. Partially this has to do with changes in tactics and not getting greedy (as we certainly the case in the Blackburn game).

--Injuries are a killer. I suppose that's intuitive. But I'd never really had to cross that bridge in a video game. I mean, in Fifa, I could compensate for the loss of a star with my wealth of skill. Perhaps I will develop strategies to combat losing players to injury. But, as of now, lengthy injuries to John Carew and Marlon Harewood (the former for five months) as well as niggling injuries for James Milner, Gabby Agbonglahor, Ashley Young and Craig Gardner crippled us. When I started Jozy Altidore and John Fleck (a sixteen year old prospect I signed from Rangers who could be good but not yet) in a league cup game against West Ham, I knew we were in trouble.

--International duty sucks too. I had to deal with losing Gabby and Ash while Altidore was away at the Olympics. Pavel Pardo made his merry way to Mexico for a while as well.

--Scheduling friendlies seems like it could be very key. Being new to the game, there's a lot tactic-wise to figure out. And it's hard to trot out a brand new tactic in a game that actually means something. But it's hard to continue losing games because you're too scared to change (and you're hoping that soon something magical will click). Whoever I choose next time around, I hope to have a system in place by the top of the season that I can be reasonably happy with. This may mean scheduling like 8 friendlies which I'm kind of okay with.

--I'm starting to believe I should read this: Tactical Theorems and Frameworks. Brian at the Run of Play recommended it and I'm not sure when to do what, why and when. Right now, sitting at the bottom of the table with one point from five games, this thing has got me beat. Beat to the point that I'm completely obsessed with it and the idea of reading fifty pages about it seems not only reasonable but enjoyable. More on that (if it happens) soon.

I'm off to try and battle my way off the foot of the table. Up the Villa!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Let the Great Experiment Begin

The rejuvenation of this blog is thanks to Brian Phillips at The Run of Play. Thanks to his excellent series on being the greatest football manager in the history of the world (his words not mine, which can be seen here), we at The Frustrated Strikers have been inspired to forgo the world of real football for a more excellent virtual world. We too are ready to test ourselves to see if we might become the world's greatest football manager. It won't be easy and it won't always be fun but, if I know anything, I know that we will succeed. League titles, domestic cups, European glory--here we come. Watch out world; you've been warned.

**It should be noted that despite the fact that we live in North America, we will not be referring to the game as "Worldwide Soccer Manager." Because, fuck that.**