Dan Gear European Journeyman – First Month in the job

Welcome back if you haven’t read my first update click here

First Month in the job

We have arrived at FA2000, and with no knowledge of the Danish 4th tier we need the help of the staff. We have two games before the World Cup break and we’re bottom of the league. The plan is simple we’re focusing on just these two games we will analyse the squad and then our opponents to see how we can approach these games and set the building blocks going forward. 

Playing style

The assistant manager thinks we are strong enough defensively and have players to adopt a counter attacking style, which fits my defensive approach. After looking through the squad, analysing their coach reports and results so far I’ve decided to go with a defensive 442. We have a lack of left footed players but we have quick players. Simonsen seems to be the star player so a lot of the tactic is built around getting him the ball and then getting options for him to aim for. Ynedheim hasn’t started this season but has made two sub appearances for injury prone Thomsen and has a high shots parried stat so I’m leaning towards him starting in goal. In regards to the defence at right back Hassan is quick with good decisions, Hogh a left footed centre back with good aerial ability but not very mobiles so I will partner him with Bache who’s quick and likes big matches. Defensive midfield was an easy choice as we only have two players who can play there it was just about choosing which roles. Jonssen is quick, strong and has great stamina but doesn’t like big matches. Kaiser is quick and has good technique but poor at heading and marking so Jonssen will be the DM with Kaiser given the license to push on.  Jorgensen stands out statically as an underutilised player. restricted to bench appearances but the highest xG and yet to score makes me think he’s getting in the right areas so a poacher role for him add that with his high strength and aerial abiity he is the man I’ve chosen to lead the line for me. Rimmen is a right footed quick technical player so Inverted winger from the left cutting in makes sense for him with star man Simonsen on the right. That leaves one position and role and came down to a coin toss between quick and technical Holemund who is inconsistent and selfish or Toftdahl who works hard and is quick. I went with the hard worker. So this is how we will line up for the first game in charge.

The game plan is simple to start with, sit deep, win the ball back and get the ball wide to Simonsen. Rosfeldt our only player who’s fit that can play left back but is right-footed and quick will play IWB and on defend in the hope of keeping him tight with Hogh and not progressing too far forward leaving the left flank exposed or exposing Hogh’s lack of pace.

Training
We have one days training before the first match, we will work on defensive shape and attacking movement. Getting the players to understand the shape and then what to do in transition. A simple idea on paper.

First game of the save

The opposition report shows that Middelfart could be playing right into our hands, their left side cuts in and the Wing back pushes on potentially leaving space for Simonsen to exploit on the break. 

A great start to the save we beat top of the table 2-1. Jonssen scored a free kick right on half time, Rimmen got on to a loose ball from a Simonsen cross to give us a 2 goal lead with 30 left. Middelfart pulled one back to leave us with a tense finale. Jonssen grabbed the POTM award and stood out with his 11 progressive passes and a goal from a free kick. Not a bad start for a DM on support. What impressed me the most (middle image) is the amount of interceptions (57) we made, there is a lot in the wide areas where we would have been stopping crosses and passes in the final third.

 

The average positions map highlighted that the IWB on defending decision needs looking at as the other 9 outfield players are quite compact but he’s far away from the play and deeper than the rest of the defensive line. This is something I will look to address going forward. Could be that they played with a winger there which could have stretched the defender out toward him.

Second game

 

The opposition report suggests they’re vulnerable to a 4231 so I’ve switched the CF-s to a F9-s to try and mirror that formation without changing too much of mine. The false 9 dropping in to create the AM positioning on the pitch in which they seem to have issues with.

Well it started so well and just like the last game after an hour we were leading 2-0. We gave away a penalty against the run of play before conceding a late equaliser from a corner in injury time. 2 points dropped. Looking back on this I take the blame, a lack of understanding of the squad I made a few changes which didn’t work but it’s a learning curve. Late on they had two open play attempts in the box whereas before that you can see from the image on the right we restricted them to shots outside the box only. The penalty turnt the game on its head.

Overall after 2 games I’d have taken 4 points if offered it beforehand but having played the games it’s a shame we didn’t take 6.

We are off the bottom of the table so it’s decent progress, the 2 points dropped hurt when it would have put us 4 points off the playoffs.

First coaching badge 

We are up and running with 4 months of learning to gain my first badge, well timed with the World Cup our next game isn’t for 91 days it gives me 3 months to focus on the course.

When we come back the World Cup and transfer window will have been completed we can see if the DOF brings in any players and we can focus on the run in.