The Board Hates Me!
Part 13 | Yanbian FC | 延边足球俱乐部 | 연변축구 | FM23 Hardcore Mode
Slow Start
We won again. We won 8-0 again, as a matter of fact. But it wasn’t as smooth as it should have been.
I’m not happy with how we played in the first half. It took us 26 minutes to score, which is inexcusable for a match in which we scored 8 times. We also let Jiangsu have far too many shots on goal throughout the match. I was worried for a while that our clean sheet streak was going to be snapped.
Huang Bowen got the start up front again. He scored twice, and came tantalizingly close to a hat trick, but just couldn’t get it over the line.
Tang Xincheng, our attacking right winger, wound up earning the player of the match plaudits. He had a good game and deserved it.
Mr. Kwon, meanwhile, seemed to disappear for most of the match. I’m worried that his inconsistency is acting up again.
I’m probably the only manager in the world who feels frustrated after an 8-0 victory.
I had a surprise press interview not long after the match. Xu Di of the China Daily wanted to know if I thought we could keep the unbeaten run going.
It’s probably not auspicious to respond directly to questions like that, but I let him know what I was thinking. I told him that I thought we had a great squad with great players, but that I was also seeing the beginning signs of complacency. We haven’t gelled together as a cohesive unit quite yet, and I worry that our success might lead to a sudden downward swing if we’re not careful.
I do hope we can keep it up, though.
Month In Review
We’re already up to October 2022. The economy hasn’t recovered, but at least our squad is doing well financially.
Chairman Guo seems happy with the finances. He hasn’t felt the need to throw more transfer budget money at us yet, at least. He still wants us to sign more high profile players, which isn’t going to be possible for a little while. As long as my job is secure, I don’t really care if he feels upset or not.
Oh, by the way — we’ve set a few records already.
Our 66 goals so far in the campaign has set a league record, as well as a club record. Pretty impressive when you consider that we’re not even halfway through the season yet.
We’ve also set a record by going six matches without conceding. Even still, I’m hearing a lot of discontented rumblings about not having strong enough players in goal. Hou Yu had a few good saves in the last match, but he also made me feel a little bit on edge at other times.
Our other attacking statistics at the end of September are somewhat odd. We tend to dribble more than other teams, and yet are fouled more as well. I think this is simply because we wind up with more possession, mostly because we have better players.
I tend to think of Mr. Kwon as our great passing presence in the midfield, but it seems that the Frenchman Paul Wade is just a bit more accurate.
Meanwhile, youngster Borja Calvo is our best creative midfielder, again beating Mr. Kwon out by a large margin.
We score a lot of goals and give up very few goals. Naturally, we are at the top of the league. It’s hard to predict how we’ll measure up once we’re promoted, however.
Now, with all of that, you’d think the board would love me, right? Wrong.
The board are somewhat pleased with our results, but are not over the top. They’ve given me a “C+” for the month. I’m baffled by this, and have no idea what I would need to do to get a better grade.
The supporters have apparently given me a “B” grade, which I also find baffling. Are they upset by the three 8-0 victories? Should we give a few of those goals back?
Finally, the Three Musketeers of Fan Xiang, Ye Jie, and Han Jin continue to maintain order in the squad. As I’ve said before, we’ve got a lot of players from a lot of different countries, and we’re still struggling to work together as a cohesive unit. Those three have done an excellent job at maintaining law and order, and have prevented things from becoming too strange.
The Third Musketeer
I suppose I should introduce you to Ye Jie, the third of our amazing Chinese trio.
Ye Jie is yet another one of our players who really should be playing at a higher level.
He’s 27 years old, a native of Jilin, China, and is Han Chinese, slightly different from our ethnic Korean Chinese contingent. He’s been with the club all his life, and would be the captain if Fan Xiang weren’t also here.
His performance so far has been nothing short of sensational, though I think this is because he simply shouldn’t be playing at such a low level.
I do worry about his dislike of big matches, however — a problem he shares with Han Jin. We can move forward with him for now, but this may become a problem when we start moving up the ladder.
Of course, by that time Ye Jie will probably be a bit too old for my purposes anyway. We’ll see.
The Test
Only three days after that victory, we’ve got to go down to Qingdao for another Chinese FA Cup match.
We’re facing Qingdao Hainiu, who are one tier above us and have been in incredible form so far this season.
The bookmakers think we’re a cinch to win it, but I wouldn’t be so sure. We had a rough time in our last Chinese FA Cup match, and I worry about our fitness levels.
I don’t think Chairman Guo would behead me if we lost this match. I just hope I don’t have to find out.