Jump to content

higgins

Members+
  • Posts

    2,426
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

74 "Houston, we have a problem"

1 Follower

About Me

  • About Me
    @Crujffista

Favourite Team

  • Favourite Team
    Juventus

Recent Profile Visitors

6,116 profile views
  1. They seem to work better with my wingers, then we have more interceptions in more advanced areas of the field, basically our attacking shape becomes a 3-4-3
  2. It was not supposed to be like this. I had other plans for the summer following our promotion to Serie A, there were two-three redundancies to be placed, three-four players to be bought to raise the average level of the team, and then almost all the protagonists of promotion would be confirmed. But things turned out differently, and it was a bloodbath. It all started, as I have already told you, from the request for an adjustment to Patrick Cutrone's contract, an increase that I granted after some hesitation, all in all he was one of the greatest protagonists of our triumph in Serie B, but from that moment on the spiral of wages has been like a switchblade, totally out of control. After him it was Mustapha's turn, here too he was satisfied, in the end he only intended a million a year. But then second-rate figures like Bellemo, Sala and Guirassy came storming in with crazy demands, each of them demanding salaries of more than 1M per season. I know I can't afford to give Christmas bonuses on everyone, so I decided that nonsensical demands would be rejected, even those of Verdi and especially goalkeeper Adrian Semper, one who shortly after swearing eternal loyalty to the club then asked me to double his salary. I kicked out almost all of them, some sold, others, those without a market, on loan, Verdi was sold for 3M to Tenerife, Bellemo for 4.5M to Venezia, finally Semper joined Real Sociedad for 8M. Altogether twelve players left the Sinigaglia for a total of 17.25M, at the same time there were no less than fourteen new arrivals, putting them together and making them a team will be the first challenge of next year. The starting tactic remains the same, the classic W-W formation that worked so well in serie B and this should be my starting lineup. What all the new signings have in common is their young age, Melegoni being the oldest at 25, but many of them are only in their twenties or even younger, Francesco Pio Esposito was snapped for free from Inter, a real bargain for a young Italian striker who could become my best forward in 2-3 years. I hope our average attendance could grow up this season, last year average of 3.000 fans for our home game is not enough for a Serie A club. Forza Como!
  3. That was my first impression, but no, I didn't collect more data pointing in that direction and at the moment I have no answers regarding the drop, later even more pronounced, in performance. Maybe a preseason not so intensive or some problem to handle pressure, more likely there was an initial overperformance that was partially counterbalanced during the season, although at the end, for example, our XG-op was still 17.53, higher than any other team in Serie B.
  4. I'm not sure but I think both should stay as I can't spend for two new strikers, other roles need improvements, first of all central midfieders where three players will leave for free
  5. After winning promotion, the Serie B title also surprisingly arrived, thanks to two wins in the last two matches, we were able to overtake Cremonese thanks to a better goal difference. Here are some statistics concerning the season just ended, in particular regarding assists and goals scored by Como's players. Marlon Mustapha has been my best scorer, he started as Cutrone's reserve and has imposed himself showing a great attitude on the pitch despite it was his debut season in Italian football, Patrick Cutrone also had a good season, the two strikers have proved to be interchangeable throughout the year, despite having similar attributes, in the last two games of the year where I fielded the team with the 4-4-2 they have shown that they can also play together, an idea that intrigues me a bit for the future. Cutrone recently asked for a new contract, he currently earns 614k per year and his current contract expires in 2025, I promised him I would adjust it, I hope his demands are not unreasonable, I think Mustapha will also want a better contract soon. Edit: Cutrone wants 1.5 - 1.8M for a new contract, Mustapha 1M...
  6. The slowdown in the final part of the first half of the season has been confirmed in the second half, we cannot speak of a collapse, but gradually the advantage and also the confidence that the team showed on the field has been dissolving little by little, after 34 matches played, four games from the end, we are no longer at the top of the table but we find ourselves second, two points behind Cremonese, who is marching safely towards promotion, behind us at seven points there is Palermo, seven points seem a lot but if you lose confidence anything can happen. The next game we play a significant part of our chances of success away from home against Cremonese. Certainly a good script. The match against Cremonese was fairly one-sided, the Grigiorossi took the lead with Okereke, and halfway through the first half my right winger, Da Cunha, was rightly sent off for a forceful tackle on Vasquez. A madness, I was fuming. In the second half we took it back with Liam Kerrigan who capitalized on a great assist by Baggesen from the left, too bad that after a few minutes a header by Ravanelli, left alone by my defenders, condemned us to defeat. In the meantime Palermo has, obviously, won, now only four points separate us and on the last day there will be Como-Palermo. Before then, however, we have two easy games, at home against Lecco, last in the table, already relegated, and then away against Feralpi Salò, also at the bottom of the table, also already relegated. The problem is that the match against Lecco immediately becomes a nightmare, at 7' minute Lecco is ahead thanks to a header by Novakovic, at 9' Tenkorang scores their second goal: Como-Lecco 0-2! In the first thirty minutes the team is at the mercy of the opponents, I think of counter-moves but I remain rather passive and see the disaster materializing around the corner. 31' Kerrigan does almost everything on his own and from the left enters the area with the ball on his foot, the shot is a powerful and angled on the far post, 2-1. 40' Kerrigan again, this time blasting a cross from the right into the box, Cutrone breaks in and scores with his header on the edge of offside, 2-2. 43' Cutrone once again on the edge of offside, collects a through ball from Koné, enters the area and beats the keeper, 3-2. Delirium at the Sinigaglia. The match practically ends here, in the second half nothing happens, Lecco is in disarray, we win after having been one step away from the abyss. But the best news comes at the end, Palermo lost 3-0 to Ternana and it's automatic promotion for Como... We are back to Serie A!
  7. Usually, in the last few years, the winter football market in Italy is quite sluggish, the lack of money and sometimes of ideas characterises this market window where at best there are equal exchanges between players and loans, nothing more. I was therefore preparing for another sleepy market, too bad others had other plans in mind. It seemed, in fact, that several European teams were keeping a close eye on some Como players, with the belligerent intent of snatching them away from me. So within ten days I found myself without my best wingback, Nikolas Iannou, (already 5 goals and 4 assists in the first half of the season) and without my best central defender, Dutchman Cas Odenthal. The former moved to Braga, 5M euro for him, accepted by the new scrooge Mr. Hartono, who, heedless of depriving the team of one of its best players, decided to impose his will. The second leaves us for AZ, despite having just signed a new three-year contract with us, 4.1M comes into our pockets, not a lot considering the value and age of the player. Suddenly I had to take action and like a good manager I asked my staff what players we had on the shortlist to replace our two players, the point is that the alternatives to Odenthal that could be bought were not convincing, we are in the middle of a race for promotion and especially in the centre of defence I need certainty, but I can't spend on crazy signings without knowing where we will play next year. In the end I opted for the loan of Jamil Siebert a powerful centre back from Fortuna Dusseldorf, he is strong, aggressive and courageous, plus I will be able to buy him in the event of promotion to Serie A. For the left wing, on the other hand, the young Dane Marcus Baggesen, 19 years old, with a lot of potential according to my scouts, arrived for 1.4M from Norrkoping. Finally for the midfield comes another young promise, the 19-year-old Slovenian Beno Selan from Bravo for 800k. Let's see how the new guys will fit into a team that had found a certain balance, I foresee some shake ups. Forza Como!!
  8. Nice tactical work here, I agree with you about the half back role, I'm using it coupled with a back four line and it really allow a lot of freedom for the wingbacks, enabling the central defenders to spread out naturally.
  9. I thought the same, it’s early to react to my overachievement, as far as I know, let’s see what happens in the second part of the season.
  10. It's a bit difficult to review these first four months at the helm of Como, we started out scoring five goals per game and finished the first half struggling to score one. Difficult because if on the one hand being in the lead with five points ahead of Cremonese is undoubtedly positive, on the other hand our performances in the last month have left a lot to be desired, even though we are still unbeaten since fifteen games, I consider the three recent 0-0 home games as a wake-up call. To solve the problem we have to identify the causes, and the simplest explanation I can give is that the too many injuries over the last few months have broken the team's rhythm, preventing turnover and tiring out some players who seem exhausted at the moment. Does this explanation hold up? Only in part, because after all we came out of the Coppa Italia straight away and since then we have almost always played one game a week, nothing so impossible to manage on a physical level. Let's see if the three-week winter break will be enough to recover the lost form, also because we cannot think of managing such a slim lead with still 19 games to play, but I don't want to moan too much, we have lost only one game in the league and we are "I campioni d'inverno" (the winter champions) so something good is definitely being done. The injuries to which I referred earlier have forced me to sign three released players as emergency backups, two wingbacks and a central midfielder, cheap options who have so far proved quite average in their performance. The transfer market will soon reopen and I still have 3.7M available, although at the moment my balance sheet says we're 3.8M in the red and our wealthy owner doesn't seem at all interested in sorting things out at the moment. I could certainly do with a creative midfielder in the middle of the pitch, as Baselli is great at setting up play but has difficulty staying fit and can hardly manage two games in a row, plus he is 31 years old and his contract expires this year in June. Key team stats: 52 goals scored (1st in Serie B) 12 clean sheets (1st) 16 goals conceded (1st) 15.3 expected goals overperformance - 52 goals - XG 36.9 (1st) 2403 High intensity sprints (1st) The large amount of high intensity sprints could explain why I have lots of players in need of a rest, the flankers run a lot, the figure regarding XG overperformance is rather curious, think that after the first two months it was even higher, around 25 if I remember correctly, I wonder if this figure will consolidate, in the remaining matches or, as the recent trend suggests, it will get even closer to the number of XG. The tactic used so far has proven to be ambivalent, able to produce free flowing football in the first few months and then becoming rock solid in defence but rather sterile in attack, all this without any change in its settings, it is possible that the other teams, very quickly, have realised that it is better to be more defensively astute when facing Como.
  11. Thanks guys! Cesc is still here as my u-20 manager, I hope he can stay for years to come
  12. Ah well, I recently thought about going numberless but I am not ready and probably never will be
×
×
  • Create New...