The retirement of Alex Taylor

Walkinshaw Very tight so far. You play 30 games against all 15 other teams and then it splits into three groups one championship group and two Europa League groups. You get your points halved and for the Championship Group there are six teams and face them home and away, however wins that wins the league. Simples

Justice Very tight especially with the halving of points but, hopefully we can come out on top

As Inter and AC Milan shared the San Siro and no one at Uefa decided to flip the games so they could both be played at the usual times instead for some reason Inter had gotten preference for the game. Instead of playing the day before or after AC Milan where playing six days in after every other game had been played so they would know who they would play if they won. Although he had to say he still had no idea why they were playing on the next Wednesday and not the next Thursday.



Almost all of the ties were tight with Sevilla having an unusually done poorly in the Europa League so far this season and would have to come back from three goals down in the first leg. Roma and OHL were at 0-0 with OHL being the only other Belgian team in Europe. There were also some upsets possible as Zenit wwere behind to Koln and Dnipro lead Valencia PSV also had a small lead over Everton.

Alex settled in to watch the Liverpool against Sampdoria to see who he hoped they would take on in the next round instead of watching them play AC Milan. The first half was pretty dull as Sampdoria sat back and defended the one goal lead they had from the first game, although with Liverpool having the away goal and only needing a goal to go through it was a risky plan.

Adam Lallana tapped in from close range midway through the second half to give Liverpool a narrow lead on away goals. Shortly after Emre Can got sent off and ruled himself out of the first leg of the next round tie, if Liverpool could make it.



They did with Sampdoria looking poor and not creating a lot to give Liverpool an easy end to what could have been a nervy match. Alex quickly decided to use a possible tie with Liverpool to help encourage his team before the match against AC Milan. He also realised that if Brugge won the tie then he would be going to England as a manager for the first time which was something that he wanted to do as soon as he could.

Alex also quickly went to a number of Liverpool fan sites and went through all the interviews of the players and staff that he could find and kept any comments that people made about preferring to play Club Brugge over AC Mian. Alex found some stuff that he could use if Brugge beat AC Milan to motivate his side to try and hammer Liverpool if they got to play them.

Alex also knew that whoever won the tie would have the advantage as they would have more time to plan for Liverpool that Liverpool would to scout as they wouldn’t know who they were facing.

He went into training the next day and made sure that none of his players were looking ahead of the match against KV Mechelen who had some difficult strikers in Kelechi Ihenacho and Enes Unal both on loan from Man City, although despite the big names and wages neither had given the fans much to shout about with some poor showings so far in the league.

A good result was important as the next league game Brugge had was against Standard Liege and Alex wanted to be in as good a position as possible for it.

Going to Liverpool would no doubt be tough but you're more than capable of beating them!

mgriffin Yeah hopefully, still the small matter of AC Milan to deal with first though

Mechelen were playing with a narrow formation and Alex guessed that it would be a chore to break them down as they would set out for a 0-0. Schonheim came in at left back for Emerson and Mechele played as Alex wanted to give them a chance to show what they could do, although they would have to be excellent to get in for AC Milan away.

After 6 minutes Mechelen got the ball up to Unal. He took the ball in and he was forced to drop the ball back to Hanni who played a great pass up to Ihenacho who made a great run into the box. He took a good touch and was in on goal. His strike was right at Butelle who pushed the ball away and Fejsa smashed the ball totally away.

Soon after Brugge got the ball forward and Fejsa got it wide to Cools he took a touch to get past a poor slide tackle and was into the box and fired the ball low across the face of goal. Izquierdo pushed the ball goalwards and it was blocked it bounced between two players and the ball bounced back into Izquierdo’s path and he smashed a low shot that was annoyingly right at the keeper.

De Witte picked out Hanni with a good pass after 25 minutes. He turned and played the ball up to Unal. Unal played it out wide to Pereira who was in acres of space and got the ball under control, He took a couple of touches and played in a perfect cross to Ihenacho who had space and powered a header off the bar and Mechele reacted quickly to hit the ball behind for a corner that was cleared.

Just after the half hour mark Schonheim got the ball wide to Izquierdo at the halfway line. He dropped the ball back to Martins who took a couple of touches inside and then hit a long pass over the top to Luciano the centre back got a small touch on the ball which helped Luciano as it slowed it down. Luciano took a touch to get the ball under control and then perfectly curled the ball into the corner to get Brugge ahead.

Brugge got into half time ahead and Alex made sure that everyone was still focused on the match at hand and not looking ahead to AC Milan.

After 53 minutes Mechelen had a corner. They pinged it to Ihenacho 25 yards out and in acres of space he took a touch and fired a long shot that was moving well and Butelle reacted well to push the ball away and it fell right to Unal who easily tapped in the rebound and was promptly flagged offside to Alex’s relief.

Soon after Centurion was running down the wing with the ball when Pereira pulled his short to haul him back and give away a foul. He also picked up his second booking and was sent off for what was a pretty stupid foul but, Alex was more than happy with it though.

After 58 minutes Volkov took a throw in out wide deep in the Brugge half. He threw the ball in to Hanni who took a couple of steps away from goal before turning and firing in a wonderful cross. It got the finish it deserved when Van Damme rose high and he headed powerfully past Butelle who had no chance of keeping the ball out.

From kickoff Brugge got the ball wide to Centurion who cut inside and passed to Martins who sprayed it wide to Gedoz. He headed the ball on into his path and then whipped in a low cross that Luciano pushed on target but, it was just to close to the keeper and he was able to push the ball away and the rebound was cleared.

It was a disappointing draw for Alex especially as they were down to ten men when they got the equaliser and Alex did wonder if that had played a part in his team letting in the equaliser.



The only thing that improved the mood of Alex was that Standard also drew and so they were able to maintain a three point lead at the top of the table with two games left before the split. One of them against Standard which meant that Brugge would be playing them 3 times in 11 games that would have a huge impact on how the season ended.

Alex had just finished up the last training session before the team headed to Milan and had Vormer in his office soon after wondering about first team football. Alex liked him and he was a good player who Alex wanted to keep if he could. However, Alex couldn’t pick a team based on who he liked and Vormer was a rotation option at best.



Fortunately when Alex explained it Vormer was happy enough that he was behind Vanaken on merit and Alex would give him a chance in the first team if he could and Alex meant it.



The next day the side were heading to Milan, it was a shorter flight than Alex would have thought it was although the drive into the city to the hotel made up the difference by taking almost as long as the trip to the airport. Alex wasn’t religious but the drivers in Milan and the bus drivers ability to think there was a gap in traffic where there wasn’t if they hadn’t been in a bus Alex would have opted to walk to the hotel as it would have been safer.

He turned to talk to Philippe when the bus driver suddenly slammed on the brakes on a quiet cobbled road and Alex’s face slammed into the seat in front of him, and judging from the groans Alex wasn’t the only one who had that happen to him. Looking out the front Alex saw no reason for the bus to have stopped and then saw the driver staring at a pretty women who we had stopped to let cross the road. When she was off the road the bus was about to start moving again when a less pretty women tried to cross the road and the driver sat on the horn as she got to the other side.

Having survived getting to hotel the team got everything away and were soon back on the bus heading to the stadium, fortunately with a different bus driver who made the journey far less exciting.

The players were enjoying the occasion of being at one of the best known stadiums in world football and it was clear in the early part of practice that the players were enjoying playing on such a well known stadium and Alex had to admit that he felt a bit jealous as he had never gotten to play in any big stadiums in Europe in his career and when he had been a player the San Siro had been home to two of the best teams, AC and Inter Milan and while they had both fallen they were still good teams and would be a major scalp for Brugge.

Practice went well and everyone was looking fit and ready for the match against AC Milan, although he knew that if any of them did have a minor injury they were unlikely to tell him about it just before the big match. None of them looked to be carrying anything though so Alex was facing a tough choice for who to pick for the match.

Alex decided to make it as simple as possible and just go for his best team who had got the best results for him and hope that they would be able to do the job against AC Milan.

If any underdog can do it, you can dude! Expecting a solid job on the Italians

Good luck pal!

BeanyUnited Thanks, hopefully we can give them a doing over in Milan

Mgriffin Cheers, may need it

The only change from his usual teams Alex made was Santamaria in for Vanaken as Alex hoped that his more defensive play would help them in a match where he expected his side to be doing a lot of defending in. Bringing in Embolo was the only change that AC Milan made for the second leg.

Brugge down an away goal got the game underway pretty full San Siro. After After three minutes Emerson on the halfway line tried a Delap style throw to Engels. It didn’t have the power and El Shaarawy got onto the ball and raced away from the halfway line with only Butelle in his way. However, his slow and indirect route to goal allowed Denswil and Engels to recover and El Shaarawy fired well wide from outside the box and Alex knew that Brugge had got away with one.

After six minutes Cools had a throw in deep in the AC Milan half. He watched Luciano make a run wide in the box and found him with a good throw. Luciano returned the ball to Cools and peeled off into a more central area of the box. Cools took a touch forward and then whipped a cross in along the six yard box line. Martins stretched to try and reach the ball but couldn’t quite reach it. Donnarumma came out to claim the ball but, just before he could Papastathopoulous slid in and put the ball in his own net. Alex punched the air as his side got off to the perfect start thanks to a large amount of luck and got ahead on aggregate with the same number of away goals.

With ten minutes to go until half time Poli received a throw in in the Brugge box and crossed the ball in, it was headed back to him and he passed to Embolo inside the box. Emerson closed him down and Embolo returned the ball to Poli who had run around him to get into a shooting position. From ten yards out he fired a powerful shot to the top corner but, Butelle was alert and pushed the strike over at his near post with a good reflex save.

Brugge were ahead at half time and Alex told his side to keep it up and play without fear in the second half, all they had to do was keep the game the way it was.

Five minutes after half time and Gedoz went on a run that was haled outside the penalty box by a cynical trip from Bonaventura that got him a booking. Gedoz picked the ball up and placed it where he wanted it as Donnarumma organised his wall. Gedoz took a small run up and curled the ball over the wall and left Donnarumma rooted to the spot and was desperately unlucky to see his wonderful free kick bounce off the bar. Poli just got to the rebound first and fired the ball out for a throw in.

The crowd were getting more and more on edge as the match entered its final fifteen minutes and Donnarumma fired a free kick long up the pitch. It went to Suso out wide and he instantly played in Antonelli on the overlap who had acres of space to run into, which he did. He whipped in a good cross that Fejsa did well to hook away to the edge of the box. Poli got to the ball first and played it wide to Papastathopoulous he took a couple of steps then returned the ball to Poli who spotted Brugge hadn’t pushed totally out and passed to a wide open Jairo six yards out and onside. He turned and fired a low finish past Butelle to make the tie totally level and on course for extra time. As Philippe yelled at his defence for not pushing out quick enough.

With three minutes left a Poli long ball up to Embolo was only just cut out by Denswil who passed the ball up to Santamaria, he chipped a pass up to Luciano who with a defender on his back and facing away from goal dropped the ball back to Emerson he turned and made a run but, Emerson played the ball to Centurion who overlapped him and ran to the edge of the box attracting a defender. He then slipped in Luciano who from just in front of the penalty spot absolutely blasted a first time finish past Donnarumma with a shot to the keepers left. Luciano sprinted over to the fans and was tackled to the bottom of a dog pile by the other players as Alex and the staff celebrated on the sidelines and all but a small area of the stadium turned silent.

As Brugge had an extra away goal AC Milan would have to score twice and never seemed like they thought they could do it and the final whistle brought about more celebrations from the Brugge players and staff as they knocked out a European giant and would face another one.



All the players and staff went over to thank the fans and then celebrated some more in the locker room, bus to the airport and flight back to Brussels and Alex guessed that some of the players might have celebrated deep into the night despite his warnings.



Alex guessed that Liverpool would be a much tougher nut to crack with their €44.5 million acquisition of Isco showing the sort of players they would be up against.

ouch mate, a tough draw against Ac Milan and then to get through and have to face Liverpool.... you got no luck lol.

Terrific result against Milan, hopefully you can take this momentum on in to the Liverpool game!

Great that you got through, hopefully you can use it as inspiration to take you through against Liverpool!

Walkinshaw Yeah not an easy draw but, oh well worse comes to worse we get some experience in big games.

Justice Cheers man, going to have they have a very good squad

mgriffin2012 yeah going to need everything that we can get to get past Liverpool

The day after the AC Milan Alex was pleased to note that none of his players seemed to be hung over and when he shouted randomly none of the players seemed to react with head pain which was always a good sign for a team after a big game.

With a clash against top of the table rivals Standard up next Alex was very happy with that as it wasn’t a game that they could write off if they wanted to become champions which was his intention. After what had happened when they played AA Gent in the last big match and lost party owing to the odd formation Alex planned an entire session for the team working on how to attack against and defend against Standard’s odd formation.

Standard played a formation with three centre backs, two defensive midfielders, a winger on either side, a central midfielder and two strikers. Alex couldn’t think of any other time that they had faced it so would spend time working on how to attack it and defend it. The obvious plan and the one the one they would use would be to attack down the wings with the wingers either forcing theirs back or pulling the centre backs out of position with the full backs coming in to add to the chaos. If they could pull the centre backs wide then Luciano could get some space in the box and he was always lethal in those situations .

In theory working on how to defend the formation was simple as it matched up well with the Brugge formation. The two centre backs would take on the two strikers the full backs would take the wingers, the DM would take the CM and the CM’s would cover the defensive midfielders od just sit back a bit.

However, with Santini preferring to drop deep generally Alex decided that he would put a defensive midfielder on him so that he could have both centre backs on Yattara who was the top scorer in the league and had great off the ball movement in space Santini made. He would then have a midfielder mark their midfielder and one would have to cover both defensive midfielders, although as one always stayed deep it wasn’t risking to much.

With the plans on how to deal with the game worked on the team looked like they were getting to grips with it with rotation options playing as Standard. Alex decided if it worked for the game against Standard then he would use it for the games against them and AA Gent in the Championship group.



After training Thiago Ribeiro came into Alex’s office to talk about his lack of first team opportunities and Alex wanted to do all he could to keep him at the club as he was a very good back up striker for the league.



In the end Alex gave into his demands and decided to give Ribeiro a chance in the first team as they had a string of games in a short time coming up so Alex felt like he would be able to keep a promise which was important as he knew if a manager got a reputation for not keeping his word it was hard to shake.