[NoSkillz]

Wed. December 27, 2023

Barclays Premier League
Blackpool (1-5-11, 8 points, 19th) vs. Dover (11-4-1, 37 points, 3rd)
Bloomfield Road, Blackpool, UK

Betting Odds: Blackpool: 13-2 Draw: 11-4 Dover: 2-5 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 2W 0D 0L

Blackpool finished second in the Championship last year to earn automatic promotion to the Premier League, returning for the first time since 2017/18. They’ve spent only three years in the top flight of English football in the last 50 years and all three of those trips saw them drop back right away the next season. It’s looking like it’s going to happen again, as they have only a single win from their first 17 games. Their top two scorers, strikers Lazaros Sentementes (5 goals) and Vladimir Balaz (4 goals) are both injured for today’s match. These guys are completely outclassed in this division and even with us being on the road, we should win by at least three or four goals in my estimation.

We’ve got an ABSURD stretch of games coming up and I’m stunned to see that we have games coming up in SUCCESSIVE DAYS and three days out of four! Is that even POSSIBLE?? We play Aston Villa on Saturday, Everton on Monday and Fulham on Tuesday. That’s ludicrous! That said, we’re going with pretty much a full strength side today. Neil Cairney and Salim Loucif are both back in as is Rayane Hamon, who just returned from injury. I will sit Jose for one of the few times this year and give Andrea Rocca another start. Graham Allan is still in at right midfield but Gianluca Bolis will play at least 30 minutes today in an attempt to get back to full fitness. Manuel Perez starts in goal. We are MONSTER favourites on the road today. Control mentality, as usual.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Allan
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, S. Nasri, G. Fanfoni, E. Harvey, G. Bolis, H. Cruz, S. Andrea

Blackpool are setting up the barricades, playing a 3-5-2 that will almost certainly turn into a 5-3-2 at some point. The only player I recognize on this roster is wide midfielder Stuart Cousins, who is a loanee from Chelsea and part of England’s U21 squad. Liam Smith and Greig Spence are the forwards today and Ian Burr is in goal. We should annihilate these guys and I tell the players I expect a win.

5’ - Moses uses his speed to burst through the defence but his low shot is saved by Burr.

21’ - We aren’t generating much in the rain here in Blackpool. Arsene Bamba with a cross and Chiquinho with a rare header but it’s at Burr and safely held.

43’ - I’m thinking of ways to tear into the team at half but Chiquinho shows his incredible skill by running the length of the field with the ball, cutting into the area and chipping the ball over Burr into the far corner of the net. A sensational individual effort by Chiquinho and we finally break through the Blackpool fortress. DOVER GOAL 1-0

HALFTIME - That goal saved the lads from a windstorm in the dressing room. We have 57% of possession and a 13-2 (3-0 on target) shot advantage. I encourage the players to keep pressing in the second half and pull aside a struggling Neil Cairney and tell him to go out there and prove a point. He’s not the same player so far this year and I want to see more from him.

46’ - A long ball up field by Blackpool is mis-played by Salim Loucif and Liam Smith pounces on it. His shot is off the crossbar! Geez.

As expected, Blackpool have dropped back into a 5-3-2 formation. Yawn.

50’ - Bamba wins a tackle up to Moses and he’s off to the races. He’s in on goal but Burr makes another great save and Blackpool clear the rebound to safety.

58’ - Off a cleared corner, Cairney curls a shot from distance off the top of the crossbar.

60’ - We keep getting chances but just can’t score. Bamba with a clever feed to Moses but he’s forced to shoot with his weaker left foot and it’s easily stopped by Burr.

63’ - Cairney with another shot from distance and it’s punched over the bar by Burr. We make a change as we prepare for the corner, with Rocca coming off and Gian Marco Fanfoni coming in.

66’ - Burr has been sensational for Blackpool and he makes another ridiculous save, as Moses feeds a ball through to Bamba and his rocket launcher is punched aside by the diving keeper.

71’ - Gianluca Bolis makes his return from injury, coming in for Graham Allan.

78’ - We win a corner and Bamba sends a cross to the near post. Rayane Hamon, in his first game coming back from injury, heads it off two Blackpool defenders and the ball just crosses the goal line! DOVER GOAL 2-0

Blackpool must only want to lose by two, as they switch to a 4-1-4-1 formation. Crazy.

81’ - Arsene Bamba is out and Helder Cruz is in.

86’ - Moses has been quiet today and I regret starting him, as the opposing coach “called him out” in his press conference, stating that he was our key man and the guy they needed to stop to get a result today. It seems 100% of the time that it results in my player playing poorly and he’s currently got a 6.2 rating today. That said, he shows his wicked skill by turning on a defender and blasting a ball off the crossbar.

87’ - Burr with a goal kick and Contreras heads it back up the pitch and over the Blackpool defence. Who gets there first? Of course, it’s PAUL MOSES and he curls a ball past Burr and it’s BARELY inside the post but it’s IN! Haha! There goes that 6.2 rating for Moses! DOVER GOAL 3-0

The scoreline doesn’t show it but that was a dominating performance.

Blackpool 0 - 3 Dover
Goals - Chiquinho (8.3), Rayane Hamon (8.3), Paul Moses (8.1)
Assists - Claudio Contreras 2 (9.0), Arsene Bamba (8.1)
Man of the Match - Claudio Contreras
Other Dover Notables - Manuel Perez (7.0), Salim Loucif (7.8), Renato Gaucho (7.6), Neil Cairney (7.1)
Attendance - 13,107

The stats tell the story, as we held 61% of overall possession and a ridiculous 38-5 (16-0 on target) shot advantage. Holy smokes - their keeper was spectacular but the game only gives him a 6.4 rating. Nuts.

-- In other Premier League action, Tottenham continue to roll with a 2-0 win over Sunderland, Aston Villa surprise Middlesbrough 2-0 and Liverpool can only manage a 1-1 draw against Huddersfield. We move ahead of Liverpool and back into first place.


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 17 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Dover - 40 points
2. Liverpool - 40 points (after 18 games)
3. Manchester United - 38 points
4. Tottenham - 38 points (after 18 games)
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5. Manchester City - 35 points
6. Middlesbrough - 35 points (after 18 games)
7. Aston Villa - 29 points (after 18 games)
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Transfer Talk

-- The January window is about to open and the media is swarming me about Chiquinho and whether I can keep him from leaving. He has a minimum release clause of £31,500,000, a significant amount of money but not enough to hold off teams like Arsenal, Man City, Man United or Barcelona, all of whom are interested. I have a chat with his agent and I can’t afford the salary they are looking for despite being way under budget. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that the vultures find other prey…



Next Up

-- We continue our hectic road schedule with an away date against Aston Villa, a team that always give us trouble.