Subtle Fun

Life Support, Please Pull the Plug

Four matches: one draw, three losses. The draw is a thrilling comeback from 3 goals down, so there is a brief moment of excitement in yet another month of pain. We end the month stuck in 21st place, a full 12 points away from safety with 10 matches to go.

In all the agony of the last three months, I lost track of many things. One of these is that our offense has gotten respectable, but our defense is the worst in the league. We’ve given up 64 goals in 32 matches. By shifting our formation and tactics, we compromised our defense more than we helped our offense.

There is one individual bright spot in all this. I signed a young free agent striker at the beginning of the month, and he’s starting to look like a very nice signing for us. If we were able to continue managing this team past this year, it’d be fun to see how he develops.

Although we have two months left, I’ve already gone into analysis mode, trying to figure out what I did wrong here. I’ve taken some notes for my future self. I can see a lot of places where I made mistakes, some my fault and some due to not being familiar with this year’s version yet.

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Nails in the Coffin

Motivational posters teach us that things are darkest before the dawn, but things are also darkest right before you die, and I know which of the two outcomes we’re heading for. I’ve started to drink heavily and take pain killers so I can sleep.

We lose 2-0 at home to start the month, then storm back for a 3-2 win on the road against a top-10 team to inject some hope into our season. Our next three matches are against the 17th place team, the 20th place team, and the 22nd place team. It’s our golden opportunity to pick up points and get ourselves back into this thing, and we’re primed to go with our unexpected victory right before the stretch.

We lose all three matches, getting outscored 7-2 in the process.

It’s over. We end the month in 21st place, 9 points back of the 19th place team, with 14 matches to go. I’m not sure why they haven’t fired me yet, and for whatever reason the team still respects my leadership.

But I’ve totally failed here. We can’t even get people to have a trial with us now, as they are “concerned about our place in the table.” No one will sign, we haven’t got any money, the fans are yelling for my head, and no matter what I do, we lose and lose and lose.

So yeah, bring on the drugs and alcohol. And the open jobs listing. I can’t have much longer here.

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Dark, Darker, Darkest

Well, that went south quickly.

We start the month off with a hugely positive result, beating first-place Stockport 3-1 on the road in the FA Trophy Cup. It’s a marvelous win. We follow that with a 1-1 draw against a mid-table team, and things are definitely turning in the right direction.

The next five matches, however, bring us thundering back to earth in a series of increasingly depressing performances. We only manage one draw against four losses and are beaten by a combined 10-2 tally over our last two matches.

The mood in the locker room has fallen apart, resulting in two team meetings to help patch things up. The fans are calling for me to change tactics, which we’ll be doing anyway. So many things are going wrong in our matches, and it doesn’t matter what I try. Defensive, positive, different players, different tweaks, it just doesn’t matter. Opponents are pummeling us on defense and snuffing out our attacks on offense. It’s awful. We end the month in 21st place, a full four points from safety.

Going forward, I’m at a loss as to what to try, and I can’t imagine the board will be patient with me. I’ve switched up our formation for January, but I honestly feel like the 3-1-4-2 we’d been using suited our personnel well, and we don’t have a lot of depth to work with.

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Attack!

Things can’t get worse than they are, so on a whim I decide to switch our tactics away from our predominantly defensive stance to playing on the front foot. In our first match with these tactics, we find ourselves as usual down 1-0 at 90 minutes. But then… we score in the 91st minute and again in the 92nd minute to miraculously get our first win in 7 games! The win pulls us out of the relegation zone!

Our next match is similar. Down 1-0 after 90 minutes, we thunder back to score in extra time again to salvage the draw. In both of these matches we’re starting to look competitive, as we’re generating more shots and getting the ball on target.

Our third and final match of the month turns against us in the last 20 minutes. We were tied 2-2, but one of our central midfielders goes down with strained ankle ligaments. We have to jury rig a formation, but it doesn’t work. We lose 4-2, largely due to the following painful lower league goal. We are in blue…

That goal aside, three matches and four points this month is progress. We may be onto something with our emphasis on offense, as our midfielders in particular are horrible defenders. Maybe our best defense is an offense?

We do end November in 20th place, two points away from safety, but the mood in the clubhouse has taken a turn for the positive with our results this month. As things head towards December, we hope to build on our newfound confidence.

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We are In the Zone

Uff. What an aggravating adventure this is turning out to be. We start out the month by losing an intended confidence-building friendly against a weaker team. That sets the tone for the month, where we manage to lose to the two top-table teams and pick up 0-0 draws to the last place team and a mid-table team. The two points for the month drops our season record to 2 wins, 4 draws, and 9 losses. Our 10 points isn’t enough to keep us clear of the relegation zone, as we drop to 21st place, two points away from safety.

The frustrating part of it all is that we’re right in most games. We’re generating shots now, and getting balls on frame. In our 2-1 loss to the 6th place team, we skimmed a shot over the bar right at the last minute, and were even with them on shots. We just can’t find the net yet. Defensively we’re not all that horrible. We’ve given up 21 goals on the year, enough to stand 15th out of 22 teams. But offensively, we’re abysmal. Our 10 goals on the year put us second worst in the league.

Part of the fault lies with me, as our two loaned-in strikers have one goal between them now in two months of play. And I haven’t had success in bringing in anything through free agency to help us out. We’ve been without a left mid for so long that our right mid playing on the left has now converted to a left mid and appears to be fine there. Having said that, I’ve found a half dozen solid players who ask for more money than our board will allow me to pay, and we end up losing them.

As the weather turns to fall, we have to stay positive. The season is only one-third done. There is much football to be played. If we keep scouting, hunting, and working, we might yet bring in one or two players who could swing our fortunes. I feel like we’re one effective striker and a better midfielder away from tilting these close matches in our favor. If I can just find these people and get them in…

Onward!

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