An unbeaten Month!
Overview
We played 4 games this month, drawing 2 and winning 2, an alright month for sure. Our defense continues to be stellar, but it’s our goal scoring that’s really causing the issue. We let up just 2 goals in 4 games, an outstanding record, but our offense couldn’t do much better, scoring 4 goals in 2 games. It’s frustrating, but at least we escaped with 3 points on 2 occasions in the month of September.
In Depth
Our first game this month was a boring fixture against Nice. Yep, you guessed the score. 0-0. We had 18 shots, and 6 on target, yet not one of them went into the goal. Again, Stellar defense, poor finishing.
At least this game had a goal. Although we didn’t have as much possession as I had hoped, we absolutely destroyed Sochaux, hitting the bar 3 times. Our one goal came in the 43rd minute. Vedad Ibsevic tucked home a left-footed shot from outside the area to equalize. This was yet another game where we lost out on three points due to our horrible finishing.
Our second win of the season came against Evian TCG, the team owned by the water company Evian. An unlucky deflection in the box led to an Evian goal in just the 21st minute, but Ryan Mendes de Graca equalized 30 minutes late on a free header near the 6 yard box. It was looking like another draw, but Vedad Ibesivic stepped up to take a free kick in the 93rd minute, and scored, much to the delight of the home crowd. This really was a crucial win for the side. Another draw would bring down morale, but we managed to pull through in the end.
We managed to win an outstanding game against Lyon in our last game of the month. Away from Lille, we were huge underdogs, especially considering our shaky form coming into the game. Throughout the whole game, the home side was in control, but in the 78th minute, a cross from Marvin Martin met Solomon Kalou at the back post, and the veteran tucked it past the keeper for what would be the first and only goal of the game. It was a fantastic result for the club, and It kept us within striking distance of Champions League spots, which was my personal goal for the season.
Positives
Incredible defense
Clutch goals in last 2 games
Negatives
Horrendous finishing
Poor possession
Tactics
One reason we managed to pick up our form at the end of the month was a new tactic. The 4-5-1 I employed wasn’t working for us, perhaps our passing wasn’t adequate for the possession based football I was aiming to play. I switched to a 4-2-3-1 counter based tactic that meant to soak up pressure and then play threatening through balls up the pitch to find our faster players, Soloman Kalou and Ryan Mendes de Graca, in what would hopefully be a dangerous attack. It payed off, as we managed to score 3 goals in 2 games at the end of the month. Still not enough for a title contender, but we’re getting there.
Table
I forgot to take a screenshot of the table this month, but we were sitting 7th in the table , 3 spots away from the Champions League spots that I told the board I would achieve.
Our player of the month is……………
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Kara! The new signing immediately fit into the team and won Man of the Match against Lyon. He formed a perfect bond at the back with Simon Kjaer, and they performed excellently this month.