Alain Pavard - Dear Diary

So many draws in there, which can be particularly frustrating if the team is playing better than the opposition, but hey at least you're not losing! I feel you on the indecisiveness on moving on or staying at the club, good luck with that decision!

On the learning Dutch, I can really imagine the struggle, learning it as a kid was alright because you grow up with it, but learning it when you're used to seemingly more logical rules would seem really hard yeah.
Good effort for trying though, I used to be able to speak quite good French (mainly thanks to school), but ever since I started working I just didn't use it anymore and my knowledge of the language just slipped away a bit.
English is easy enough though, since we have no choice but to learn it at school and with all the movies and books/stories i read in English I easily keep it up!

If you'd like to catch up with the story from a particular point, there is a contents list of all the updates so far on page 1 of this thread.

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@NTBgaming, drawing can be a frustrating event so often, but I've been quite relaxed about it here. We were predicted for relegation, so any result that furthers a safe finish is okay by me. I'm taking notes about what we're doing wrong to try to change things up, but it's likely I won't try it until next season, when we have new players, the freedom of pre-season to experiment, and then (hopefully) something to challenge for as the season progresses.

Its nice to be able to be on the lookout for other jobs while having the certainty of another year at Racing.
Looking at the signings its mainly defensive minded players being brought in. Is there no worry of a repeat of last year with the defense being strong but relatively few goals being scored?
Let's what the (pre)season brings and whether Alain can find the right move during/after the season!

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@NTBgaming: That's a fascinating observation and, honestly, not something I even noticed myself. As you can see, the failure to properly assess and improve the strike force has affected the start to our season here, but my thinking was essentially that there weren't many holes in the attack, that I was satisfied I could tinker my way to success with the players I have there, and get some depth in other areas. Obviously that was wrong, but, as addressed in this update, there's not a tremendous amount I can do about it now. So, I'll have to look closely at our tactics to find the goals the players don't have in them.

Sure, the start isn't great, pretty abysmal to be fair, but the last 4 games being unbeaten with 3 wins as well is a good sign. Also the losses are small margins so nothing to be worried greatly about and the bad start might just be a blip. The only way is up!

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@NTBgaming: No major improvement this time round, but it's not relegation territory stuff. Small margins, as you say, and I'm hoping we can turn it around.

It was a tough first stint but it looks as though Alan has found himself in a better place now and getting some good results. Just a handful of losses and with the finances starting to turn around, its looking like a club Alan can grow!

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@LFCFan, indeed. I think at the first club, Alain took a bottom-half side to a upper-mid table finish, which is positive, but clearly felt that the side he'd assembled ought to have performed better in that second season. Now he has a top-half side and has led them to be title challengers. In both cases, he's outperforming the club's expectations, but this time he is satisfied too.