The Young Americans [Leyton Orient]

Get to the 40 point mark and you'll probably finish in a 11th position! Best of luck, liking this story a lot!

Pauker : Get to the 40 point mark and you'll probably finish in a 11th position! Best of luck, liking this story a lot!

Thanks a lot Pauker,

Nice observation. It is pretty tight down in the bottom. Must admit that I am looking more down than up at this point.

Unfortunately some of the teams around me will play each other so some of them will pick up some points in the final six weeks, but as long as I finish 17th (or better) I will be happy.

UPDATE!

Pauker : UPDATE!

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/TYA_zpsd9c34ca5.jpg

Down to the wire

We now had an international break in games and that gave us the chance to prepare for the first game of April. That was a home game against an Everton FC team that had struggled all season and now found themself in a disappointing 11th place. After picking up seven points in the last four games, both Leyton Orient fans and players suddenly saw a chance to pick up a few more much needed points.

We came away from the Everton game with a draw when a thunder strike by Romain Vincelot saved us in the 83rd minute. But after the match it felt like we had missed out on an opportunity to get all 3 points. We had not been dominant but we had controlled the game and it was a long time since we had managed to do that.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Chapter28_zpsca37e99a.jpg


We were now two points clear of the line and had Wigan between us and the last relegation spot.

And then something strange happened.

For some unknown reason we suddenly started to play football again.

The team that had hardly been able to string together more than two passes without turning the ball over to the other team or losing it over the sideline suddenly found something that could be called a passing game.

The team that could not hit the goal if they were standing on the goal-line suddenly started to score goals.

The team that had not wasted an opportunity to allow the opponents to take advantage of us on every kind of set piece could even defend a corner again.

In the two games against Sunderland and West Ham we actually looked like a half decent Premier League football team.

Against Sunderland we scored three goals in a single game for the first time all season and we got away with a huge road win.

A week later at home against West Ham we played another solid game. He held West Ham to just two shots on goal all game. We got the first goal in the last minute of the first half when the games big player George Baldock scored on a repost from his own shot.
The second half was less than one minute old when we added a second when Baldock, this time as the creator, made it easy for Andrea Russotto to score his sixth goal since he arrived in january.
It was just the 3rd time all season we won back to back league games.

We lost the last ever home game at Brisbane Road against Wolverhampton the week after but with the other results that weekend all going our way both fans and players could celebrate that we had secured another season in the Barclays Premier League.
The players celebrated while i tried to figure out who had put “ARE YOU READY?” stickers on all the champagne bottles.

Luckily for us the last two games of the season against Manchester City and Tottenham were now of no consequence as we had now already picked up the points we needed to stay in top division.
We lost both games narrowly but still came away from the games on a positive note as we managed to play some nice football without being humiliated against two teams heading for the Champions League next season.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Chapter28results_zps11c14fd9.jpg


In the other end of the league Chelsea took home their 7th league title overall and 3rd in a row with the Eden Hazard being the mastermind behind it all with a 7.75 Avr for the season. Manchester City would miss Champions League play next season with England only have three spots in the tournament next season and Liverpool would miss out on playing in Europe altogether.

In the other big leagues around Europe it was Real Madrid, Inter, PSG and Bayern Münich taking home the league titles.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Chapter28Finalstanding_zps8767c1b2.jpg

And as usual dont forget to check out this weeks Men in Blazers podcast

Congratulations on achieving safety!

Justice : Congratulations on achieving safety!

Thanks Justice,
Norwich was the worst team all season long but the other two relegations spots were a tossup between seven or eight teams. I am just happy that we live to fight another season.

Too close! I expect a major change up for this upcoming season!

Pauker : Too close! I expect a major change up for this upcoming season!

It was close but that was very much expected.
There will be new players coming in for the upcoming season but it will not be a complete overhaul this season (more about that in the next update).
Last season was about quantity but this year is about quality on the transfer market.

We have a very young team (there is some place to check all the team’s average age but I cannot find it) and they are still developing and with one year of EPL football under their belts I have high hopes for the upcoming season.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/TYA_zpsd9c34ca5.jpg

Evaluation

We had survived our first year in the Barclays Premier League but I had without a doubt had my worst year of my career as Leyton Orient manager. And looking the sophomore slump straight in the eyes I was afraid that it would get worse before it got better.

In hindsight it was clear that I had made just about every mistake in the book in my first season in the Barclays Premier League.


Transfers
What a disaster.....
I had to admit that many of the players I had brought inn were simply not good enough to play in the Barclays Premier League. The problem was that the squad I took inn to the Barclays Premier League, due to the two quick promotions, were way too thin to compete on the highest level. So instead of spending my money on filling in a few empty holes and upgrading the weakest links I had been forced to go for quantity over quality.
With a solid base of players now under contract and with a sound salary structure I hoped that would change for next season.

I also have to realize that I had not been good enough to identify our problem arrears before the season started and fix it. I should have focused a lot more on the defensive back line. It didn't help us what we were doing forward on the field if we kept allowing cheap goals against us. The 70 goals allowed in 38 games were second worst in the league only in front of the Wolves (72 GA) .

Only Andrea Russotto who only played fifteen games for us managed to finish the season with an AvR over 7.00 and we didn't have a single player to score double digit goals.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Chapter29avgrating_zps2927b10e.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Chapter29a_zpse3f4ee60.jpg


Scouting
We had now been allowed to scout the world and had sent scouts out in all directions. But the feedback we got was not good.
Most of the players the scouts reported back with was either too old or had too high salary demands. Instead we would have to do a lot better job finding the new young prospects when they showed up around the world.
We had picked up two finish youngsters that could hopefully add something to the team in the future, but they were the only young prospects currently playing in the youth team that possible had a future in the starting XI.


Game preparation
We had never managed to settle on a tactics that worked in the Barclays Premier League.
With the constant switching of formations the preparation had not been good.
The 4-1-1-2-2 asymmetric formation that had earned us two promotions had not worked in the Barclays Premier League. Or to be more precise, we didn't have the players to make it work in the Barclays Premier League this season. I still believe that the tactic can work also in the Barclays Premier League but until we have the talent to match the other teams in the division I would have to adapt and find a tactic that would optimize the little talent we had available.


Owner/management
Maybe I had not done the best of jobs this year but the same could also be said about the board.
We were making truckloads of money all season but still I had to fight the board for every little improvement we needed to become a “real” Barclays Premier League competitor.
Everything from the number of scouts and trainers allowed to improvements of the youth and general training facilities were a problem for the board.
Yes, we were spending a lot of money on building a new stadium but that was desperately needed. We sold out every single Barclays Premier League home game we played the entire season but with only 9300 tickets available we left a lot of money on the table.


Despite all these mistakes we still we had managed to stay alive and secure another season in the Barclays Premier League.

The positive was that both I and a lot of the players had learned a lot and many of the players had actually managed to develop as footballers despite the difficult times in the league.


We finished the season with a huge profit and with the TV deal bringing inn £51M in revenue alone. With the money earned this season we could almost pay out the entire new stadium loan. I also hope that we didn't pay any money to the advertising bureau that came up with the name for the new stadium.
The new 16.051 all-seater stadium would be called, yes you probably guessed it, Leyton Orient Stadium.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Chapter29stadium_zps9ba15770.jpg

Ooo, hopefully you'll win your first match in charge in the new stadium!

Good luck for your fourth season, I think you'll stay up. As pauker said hope you get a win in your first match at the new stadium!

Walter : Good luck for your fourth season, I think you'll stay up. As pauker said hope you get a win in your first match at the new stadium!

Thanks Walter.

Now we got a good foundation so hopefully we can build on last year’s performance.

Pauker : Ooo, hopefully you'll win your first match in charge in the new stadium!

Thanks Pauker.

The first game in the new stadium will be a meaningless friendly against Monterrey from Mexico. The first EPL game will be against Wigan so that should be a possible win

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/TYA_zpsd9c34ca5.jpg

Championship summer

Two big tournaments were to be played during the summer of 2016. France was hosting the European Championship and in Chile all the teams from the American continents were gathered to decided the Copa America.

The European championship was held in France with 24 competing countries. 16 of them would make the first qualifying round and Holland was the only major team to fail qualifying for the next round. The Dutch finished last in a group with Turkey, Ireland and Wales.

In the first knockout stage it was goodbye to both Belgium, Spain and host nation France from the top half of the draw. That gave Germany a relatively easy way to toward the final.

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It was no surprise that Germany made the finals even if they had more problems with Switzerland than expected.
England went down by two goals to after just 30 minutes to a Portugal team that had just knocked Italy out of the tournament after extra time. England managed to turn the game around and take it to extra time where Wilshere and Welbeck scored the game winners.

That made for a classic final between Germany and England.

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The final was played in Stade de France in front of 79.000 people who were treated to a borrowing 0-0 game. The surprise hero in the end was Everton player Leighton Baines. He not only won the tournament's “Best player” award but also scored the final penalty that secured England their first major tournament win since 1966.

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16 teams were competing for the Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América. The biggest surprise from the group stage was the USMNT. They once again failed to make it out of the group stage in a major tournament after draws against Bolivia and Ecuador and a heavy loss to Chile. The USMNT had now dropped to 38th in the FIFA World Ranking and after failure to make it out of the group stage in both the World Cup and the Copa America, Jürgen Klinsmann decided to step down from his post as manager for the team.

The quarter finals saw no surprises and the teams in the semi finals was the usual suspects in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Chile (who beat Uruguay).
The surprises came in the next round when both of the two big favorites were knocked out. For Argentina and Brazil the semis was just a transport stage before meeting up in the final. But the 0-4 loss for Argentina against Chile was the biggest loss for Argentina in over 5 years and in the other game Brazil lost to home team Chile after penalties.

Falcao and his Colombia then went on to beat the home team Chile 3-0 in the final and take home their first Copa America title since 2001. The result propelled Colombia all the way to 11th in the FIFA World ranking.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/Leyton%20O/Chapter30d_zpsc6570df9.jpg

Nice update mate, enjoying the depth; surprise packing in Colombia in the Copa America tho!