Outmatched
Can We Stay Up?
RSL in the WSL Part 33
We’re really up against it today. We’re taking on Tigres, who are in the midst of a promotion hunt. We’ve been in poor form, we’re short on players due to an injury crisis, nobody is match fit, and our one good defender is about to retire.
And yet, with all of that, our match has sold out. I love the loyalty of these fans.
Nobody gives us a chance, of course. The media thinks we have no real selection problems; in reality, we’ve got 4 or 5 small injuries, plus a player on holiday. But I guess we can’t expect them to actually research all of our low-reputation players.
We’ve got the “A” team up front, with Birus and Tonin playing together. We certainly have the “B” team on the wings, though. Neither Pinter nor Okafor have done much so far this season, and I’m afraid that they’re not likely to do much in this match.
Dirkner seems doomed to have poor performances no matter what we do. Not quite sure what I can do to help him.
Match
I mean, it wasn’t pretty, but it certainly could have been worse.
We lost, 4-2 – but we gave up all 4 of those goals in the first half. Tonin scored both in the second, as we showed that we can still fight back even when the going gets tough.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. This team shows some real signs of life. It’s rough when we keep losing, but there are very positive signs for the future here. I don’t think we will be relegated, though I am worried that we’re about to have a really rough December.
Analysis
I mean, on paper it looks pretty good. We almost equaled them in shots and shots on target. We did foul them frequently, but that’s kind of what we have to do to compete defensively. They dominated the possession and the passing – but we really didn’t play all that poorly.
Kyle Semple had another bad game. The truth, though, is that he’s simply outclassed and doesn’t really belong in this league. We do have defensive help coming, but we need to get to January 1st before those reinforcements arrive.
Bad games from Semple, Dirkner, and Fonseca are kind of what we’ve expected at this point. Schubert didn’t play well, I suppose, though I don’t see how he could have stopped any of those goals. The real goats in defense were Semple and Sabangeanu, who seemed more than happy to allow Tigres’ offensive players to run right past them.
This offense depends heavily on the wingers. None of our wingers played well – and yet we were still able to score twice. If we can get some of these youngsters to start reaching their potential, we’ll be able to turn this ship around.
This is more what I want to see from us in xG terms. Instead of working hard in the first half and then falling asleep, we kept pushing and ended the game on a flourish.
Onuoha
I told you this was coming, and now it’s come.
Onuoha was the real leader of the squad. He had a few good performances here and there, though he wasn’t exactly spectacular overall. I normally would immediately sell a player of his age, but decided that I might as well play him since he was retiring anyway.
I wanted to keep him on as a coach, but his salary requirements were simply too high. If we are able to avoid relegation I’ll see if I can pick him up during the offseason.
Monthly Review
We’re technically in the red, sure, but our finances are still stable. The game factors in a lot of the prize money that we haven’t come across quite yet. We’ll be fine – don’t worry too much about the current balance. In fact, if we keep selling out games like this, we’ll do more than fine.
I guess I should feel safe after seeing this, though I really don’t know. We’ve got one big win to our credit, and that’s really about it. The board are mostly disappointed because we’re not winning, even though, as I’ve said before, they came into the season expecting us to be relegated. But we’ll see what happens. It would help if we could stop playing the best teams in the league for a change.
The media never give you a break, do they? Yes, we haven’t seen a victory in our last five matches. Yes, it’s looking kind of bleak. But I think we’ve got what it takes. It would be nice if they would tell their statistics to shut up once in a while.
Our defense still looks awful – in fact, it looks worse than it did before.
The offense, however, is picking things up. We’re creating opportunities; we’re just not able to push them through quite yet. The players are young; they’ll learn.
Influential players? Who needs influential players?
This is actually a problem. If somebody becomes upset for any stupid reason, we really run the risk of letting the team get out of hand. A word to the wise: when doing a total rebuild, don’t get rid of your team leaders right off the bat.
Standings
Relegation watch is still in full force. We’ve got the worst goal differential in the league, and we’re just an inch above that red zone.
However, we have a lot of season left. This isn’t over yet. In fact, we’ve got a pretty busy December facing us:
The goal is to get to January 1 without being fired. I think we can make it. This includes matches at home against Puebla and Houston, both of whom we beat at the beginning of the season. We’ve also got matches against some of the poorer teams in the league for a change.
When January 1st comes around and the new signings come in, we should see a change. I just hope we can make it that far.
Football Manager News
Lljodo10 has created a full Denmark League system.
Similarly, peanjomsar has created a full Thai league system. This one looks quite interesting.
LucyLu has created an all amateur league for those interested in that sort of thing. I personally can’t stand playing with non-professional teams.
Finally, JohnWarrington has created a completely empty database for those of you who want to create your own retro setup.
Blog Roundup
Come relive the good old days of Championship Manager 97/98 with Zakbrockman.
Guido provides a throw-in setup guide – something I could really use.
Football Manager Addict brings us another chapter in Wonderkid Factory.
Channel Watch
FM Scout reviews wonderkid Zeno Debast.
Bood FM gives us the second episode of his journeyman save.
Sadly, CaptainGoodspeed got the sack at Fulham – and now it’s time for the job hunt.
Time for the new Weymouth season with FM DNA.
CraigsFM is hunting for a job in his journeyman save.
FM GNG is ending his university challenge season on a high note.
Clayts brings us the top 10 center backs to sign in FM23.
Jay Edworthy just can’t stop winning with Forest Green Rovers.
Loki Doki is managing in Ghana.
Omega Luke is rebuilding Eintract Frankfurt. By the way, my favorite German team is Ingolstadt…
More of that lovely lower league FA trophy action with FM Russ.
WorkTheSpace is losing a club legend due to work permit issues.
Finally, Lollujo proudly announces that he’s not getting relegated this season.