Two games today, starting with a home league fixture this morning, and followed up with the first leg of our Cup semi-final later this afternoon.
Match one – League (home)
Our league game today is against Aventador FC, who we beat 5-0 away from home earlier in the season.they’re 8th in the league with 7 wins, 7 defeats and 1 draw from 15 games, and are rated at 92%.
Opposition analysis & Tactics
They’re playing a 4-4-2 with their wide attacking players slightly advanced, so I’m going to play a 4-3-3 (narrow) utilising the extra man i will have through the middle to control possession, starting with a normal approach, focusing on playing through the middle, and using our possession bonus to start, counter, high press, and man to ma all on too.
Result
Unfortunately I was called away on a work related matter which meant I didn’t get to watch my game, which always makes me nervous when it comes to logging back on and seeing what happened, but the boys came through with a 5-0 win, despite having a player sent off after just 14 minutes!
Match two – Cup (away)
This is the big one today, a chance to try and get a foot into the Cup final. Our Semi-final opponents are Mberna FC, who are rated at 85%, they’re also not in great form having lost 3 of their last 5 games, they’re also 4th in their league having lost 7 games this season, which gives me some encouragement about our chances. On paper we’re clearly the stronger team, but that can’t be taken for granted.
Opposition analysis & Tactics
Mberna are playing a very attacking formation, using two strikers, an AMC and two attacking wide players, there is one MC playing left of centre, and then he has a DMC ahead of three central defenders. so straight away i’m goign with four at the back and a DMC to cover the attacking threat he has, from their I’m going with two CM’s to control the midfield, and then as his defence is very narrow I’m going to utilise the space down the flanks with wide attacking players with one striker through the middle, so it’s a 4-3-3 wide effectively (some would say 4-5-1 (V) but that’s just a preferences thing I guess)
We’re going to start this game with a normal approach, and focus passing down both flanks which is where i think i’ll get most joy, we’ll also start by utilising the possession training boost, other tactics will be counter, high press and man to man as usual.
Result
Again I ended up missing to game due to unforeseen circumstances, but again the boys did their job, bringing home a nice 3-0 win to carry over to the second leg, helped a lot I suspect by the fact that their manager didn’t show and the fact I had support from two friends (thanks guys, you know who you are 😊)
Summary
So the League win keeps us top of the table, but what is even better is that results elsewhere mean we’ve extended our lead back to 7 points over second place, which is a very nice cushion to have. Francesco FC who were 2nd only 4 points behind us have drawn and lost their last two games, putting them 9 points behind us in 3rd now. We also have a foot in the cup final, all in all that’s now 32 wins and 1 draw from 33 games.
