We started the season with 2 tough fixtures, away at league champions Arsenal and at home to Man
Utd. Against Arsenal I tried to be clever. Thinking the only way I might beat
them is to utterly throw them by surprising them, I went with the least used of
my 3 formations, the 4-3-1-2
We took the lead on two minutes through Straqualursi and
were still in front on 34 minutes when Bernardello got a straight red. What is
it about playing Arsenal and red cards? Needless to say things changed very
quickly after that. They equalized 2 minutes later , and by the 65 minute mark
they were 5-1 up. At which point Traore lost his cool completely and got
himself sent off too. Final score 6-1.
Against Man Utd I stuck with the 4-3-1-2 and we played well
against them, looking the better team for much of the match. Against a team of Utd’s quality, however, you have to play brilliantly for 90 minutes, and they
broke our hearts by scoring the game’s only goal in the 87th minute.
Two losses from two games, and our next match, away to West Ham left us still searching for a win. Jacob Butterfield came back to haunt me,
as the man I had sold scored the Hammers equalizer after Nasri had give us an
early lead.
Samir Nasri made his mark on loan
I wasn’t sure if it was the formation, missing Carroll and
Perisic or just low morale after a tough start, but I needed to sort things out
quickly.
At home to newly promoted and struggling Leeds
I reverted to our wonderful winged formation with Tadic and Boudebouz on the
flanks. We recorded our first win. Doumbia and Kakuta got the goals as we came
away with a not altogether convincing 2-0.
This year we were seeded in the 3rd (rather than
4th) pot for the Europa league, which meant a slightly easier group.
Our first tie was away to lowly Thon and sticking with the same formation, we
triumphed 2-0 (Aboubakar and Traore).
We were picking up confidence now and back in the league we
vanquished Liverpool 3-1. Straqualursi bagged a brace
and Kakuta got the 3rd before getting the serious injury that would
put him out for months.
Next up were Burnley in the Carling cup and they were
dispatched 5-1. Iwan Somei got two, as did Traore, with Jenssen getting the 5th.
The excellent run continued with us beating Southampton
by the odd goal in 5. 3-2 the final
score with Straquarlursi, Nasri and Aboubakar getting our goals. Straqualursi was really seizing his moment to
fill Carroll’s shoes and I did feel having a target man as one of our two
strikers made a big difference. I had come close to signing a back-up for
Straq in the summer, but no-one quite fitted the bill. This meant that
sometimes I had to rest Straq, and to me we looked less convincing without a
target man, so I resolved to bring one in in January.
After 5 wins and a draw from our last 6 we finally
tasted defeat, and it was in the Europa league against group favourites CSKA
Moscow. They triumphed 2-1 on our patch, with Daniel Ayala providing the
consolation goal.
About this time Giorgio Chiellini, a centre and left back, who had been available on a free but had been injured, regained full fitness, and needless to say I signed him to add to my already large crop of defenders.
I did decide to offset this by returning Somai from his loan. We weren’t playing with any central midfielders currently, so it made no sense to have a loan cm, in addition to those I already had.
Away to Cardiff
we managed a 1-1 draw via Traore’s late penalty.
Perhaps overreacting to the last 2 results, I switched to a
4-1-3-2 and we returned to winning ways, beating Birmingham
2-1 at home (Howson and an og when a Strqualursi rocket bounced off the bar, hit
butland on the backside and rolled in!)
(video)
Against Metalist I went to old favourite 4-1-2-1-2 and we crushed
them 5-0 (Doumbia x2, Nasri, Aboubakar and Ayala).
I definitely had too many strikers but other than Adelmilson
and Straq I couldn’t decide who should stay and who should go. So they were
rotating which probably didn’t help any of them get a real run of form
going. Aboubakar had been agitating for
more playing time but he’d just have to take his turn like everyone else.
In the forth round of the Capital One Cup we drew Arsenal
away. Twice we came from a goal behind and forced extra time (Aboubakar and an
og), and then when Bernardello gave us the lead in the first half of extra time
I thought a shock was on the cards. Our bogey team came back with a goal in the
109th minute, however, and it came down to the lottery of a penalty
shootout . It was Arsenal whose balls were lucky, if you’ll excuse the
expression, and they left us heartbroken when Aboubakar and Jennsen missed
their penalties.
Seydou Doumbia: Rotating in a group of quality strikers
Sticking with 4-1-2-1-2 we couldn’t shake off the Arsenal
result and lost 2-1 at home to West Brom, a highly unexpected and disappointing
result. Doumbia got our only goal.
There was also the ‘one that got away’. Ex Man City right
back Maicon was playing in Brazil .
His contract was expiring in December, so I offered him a contract from
January. We agreed terms on a £21,000 a week contract but at the last second I
baulked. I really admired his crossing and dribbling which were great for a
right back, but having agonized and agonized, in the end I decided I should
curb my enthusiasm for bargains and I cancelled the deal. I regret it as I feel
he could have brought something extra to the squad and his wages would have
been a bargain for a player of his quality, albeit one who was ageing. I did
change my mind shortly afterwards, but he chose to sign a new deal with his
current club and the opportunity was lost.
As we entered November our next European tie saw us face
Metalist at home and we got back to winning ways with a 4-0 victory. Doumbia,
Boudebouz, Nasri and Aboubakar got the
goals.
However our league form remained decidedly patchy and we
were poor away to Tottenham losing 3-1 with Nasri getting the only goal.
A 2-1 home victory over Sunderland
(Nasri and Traore) was undermined by a 2-0 loss to Stoke. We were resolutely
mid table at this point, with virtually no chance of qualifying for Europe
if we didn’t buck our ideas up.
After trying a radical formation change which yielded a
nervy 2-0 win over Europa whipping boys Thon, I made more subtle changes and
went with a 3-4-3 against Wigan which yielded a 3-0 win (Kelly, Adelmilson and
Johnson), followed by a 2-0 win at QPR,
(Straqualursi and Doumbia). I then reverted to 4-1-2-1-2 and secured our
3rd successive win, 2-1 over Swansea
(Adelmilson x2).
Frank Lampard: providing solid back-up at 37
This was more like it and December continued to be a triumph
when we secured top spot in our Europa League group by winning 2-0 away at CSKA
Moscow (Ryan Bennett and Aboubakar).
More good news came when the board announced we were doing
so well financially with the income from the Europa league, and my frugal
spending, that they could increase my transfer budget by a further 10 million.
As Christmas approached we went away to Chelsea
and a superb Straqualursi hat-trick gave us a 3-1 win.
However our season for bad injuries continued when Jonny
Howson suffered a broken leg, and looked likely to be out for the season.
This now left me with only 3 natural CMs, and now we had
reverted to 4-1-2-1-2 this was a problem, especially as if Frank Lampard made
another 5 league appearances, he’d trigger a one year contract extension which, given he was meant to be a back-up and was rapidly declining at 37 years old, was a big problem.
Our seventh successive victory was secured over Aston Villa
with a Straquaursi goal, and we were now up to 6th.
Sadly, that was to be the end of the great run, however, as
Wolves shocked us 1-0. This was followed by a more expected 2-0 loss to Man
Utd, and with the year reaching an end, we were in 7th.
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