[NoSkillz]

Sat. September 30, 2023

Barclays Premier League
Norwich (1-0-4, 3 points, 15th vs. Dover (2-2-0, 8 points, 5th)
Carrow Road, Norwich, UK

Betting Odds: Norwich: 3-1 Draw: 2-1 Dover: 4-5 (Favourites)
Past Meetings: 6W 1D 1L

We are big favourites on the road against newly promoted Norwich, a team we’ve had great success against in the past. Norwich dropped to the Championship in 2021 and finished 8th that year but came back strong last year, winning the league with 97 points. They have one current Dover player on the team in midfielder Shaun Spall, who is there on loan all season. They also have our former striker Carlo Cerbone, who played sparingly last year for them but scored 5 goals in 9 league games and 8 goals overall in 13 games. Pretty good for Cerbone! Norwich likely lacks cash and they spent very little in the July window, with the £575,000 spent on Spall’s loan fee the largest chunk. They also bought our former reserves goalkeeper Louis Read from us for £300,000 but he hasn’t suited up in a senior game as of yet.

We have a huge midweek Champions League game against FC Bayern Munich so we’ll be careful today. Quite a few backups are in today: Helder Cruz and Graham Allan are on the wings, Gian Marco Fanfoni gets his first start of the year at midfield and Rafinha is at left fullback today for Renato Gaucho. Shanon Andrea and Chiquinho are back in the starting lineup today and Paul Moses is watching from the press box today as he recovers from his dead leg. Manuel Perez in goal as well. I want to see better games from Andrea and Chiquinho today.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - Rafinha, C. Contreras, S. Nasri, S. Loucif
M - H. Cruz, N. Cairney, G. Fanfoni, G. Allan
S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho
Bench - C. Guzman, M. Yilmaz, E. Harvey, Jose, A. Bamba, G. Bolis, Z. Bardi

Norwich come out in a narrow 4-4-2 diamond formation with two MCs. The dangerous Paul Bryce is at forward along with Thomas Eriksen and Tommy Devlin is in goal. No Carlo Cerbone, even on the bench. Lets play well for our travelling fans and I pull aside Saber Nasri to tell him to pick up where he left off.

6’ - Andrea gets a bit of space and fires a rocket but Devlin is in position for the fine save. Andrea is still looking for his first goal of the year.

37’ - Norwich is essentially playing keep away from us and look to be dominating possession. That said, we win a corner and Graham Allan’s cross is headed by Saber Nasri and it’s IN! Nasri scores for the second game in a row and we finally break the deadlock! DOVER GOAL 1-0

HALFTIME - Yikes. We have the lead but we’re DEFINITELY playing down to the level of our opposition. We only hold 41% of the possession (!!!) but outshoot them 6-5 (2-0 on target). Not good enough boys! I encourage the players to do better in the second half.

53’ - This is ridiculous, as Norwich continue to take the play to us and it’s their danger man, Danny Clapham, taking a pass at the outer edge of our area and firing a missile that’s past Perez and into the far corner for the shocking equalizer. NORWICH GOAL 1-1

55’ - Off the ensuing kick off, Graham Allan dances down the field and gets a great pass into the box to Chiquinho. He’s in tight and he’s usually money from this spot but his weak effort is right at Devlin and he makes the save. Chiquinho has his hands to the heavens but he continues to struggle along with Shanon Andrea.

63’ - Boy oh boy. We are starting to finally pressure them and it’s Cairney with a curling shot from distance beating Devlin…but not the goal post. Ugh.

68’ - I’m frustrated and I schedule a double substitution, including taking out the completely ineffective Shanon Andrea but as we wait for a break in play, Saber Nasri sends a long ball up field and Andrea chases it down. He looks way offsides but there’s no call, as Andrea wins a battle with the keeper Tommy Devlin, takes the ball and shoots it into the open net. Crazy sequence ends with Andrea finally getting his first of the year! DOVER GOAL 2-1

Andrea is off and in comes Zoltan Bardi. I also take out Fanfoni and bring in Jose.

73’ - We move to a counter attacking mentality.

90’ - Norwich have a couple dangerous looking rushes but nothing come of them and we work a counter with Chiquinho blazing down the right. He crosses into the area and Bardi gets a piece of it before it goes past him right to the foot of Helder Cruz and he rips a shot off Devlin and it’s IN! That is Cruz’s first goal for our club! DOVER GOAL 3-1

90’+2 - We use our last sub to waste time, bringing in young Carlos Guzman for Rafinha.

Not pretty but it’s three points on the road and we’ll take it.

Norwich 1 - 3 Dover
Goals - Saber Nasri (8.4), Shanon Andrea (7.2), Helder Cruz (7.7)
Assists - Saber Nasri, Graham Allan (7.7), Chiquinho (6.9)
Man of the Match - Saber Nasri
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.1), Claudio Contreras (7.2)
Attendance - 22,985

Norwich win the possession battle with 53% to our 47% but we outshoot them 17-9 (5-1 on target). I tell the team it’s a good result but a poor performance. Nasri is doing great for us so far and deservedly wins man of the match honours.

-- A couple of our players, specifically Helder Cruz and Saber Nasri come out against me in the press, saying my “criticism” of the team after the game was unwarranted and the press say Nasri thinks I’m trying to force him out of the club. Holy over-reaction Batman! We’ll keep an eye on this to see if anything develops.

-- Man City knock off the struggling defending champs Chelsea 2-1 and Huddersfield shock first placed Middlesbrough 2-0 to drop them from that perch. United also win and City take over first place for now.


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 6 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Manchester City - 16 points
2. Middlesbrough - 15 points
3. Liverpool - 13 points
4. Reading - 13 points
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5. Dover - 11 points (after five games)
6. Manchester United - 10 points (after five games)
7. Sunderland - 9 points
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Dover U18 Update

-- We get two more goals from Norberto Vazquez and a single from Adam Hyde as the kids beat up on Hampton & Richmond 3-0.



October Update

-- October sees four Premier League games, with matches against Huddersfield (home), Newcastle (home), Wolves (away) and Birmingham (home). We also have two Champions League games, with Bayern Munich visiting Crabble Athletic Ground and then we head out to Italy later in the month to face Palermo. We’ll also face Derby in the 4th round of the League Cup. So seven matches in October.

-- We get positive training notices for Claudio Contreras, Helder Cruz and Andy Broomes and also get positive notices for U18 players Felix Hernandez, Matthew Neil and Steven Potter. A negative notice comes in for striker Shanon Andrea. I have a chat with Andrea to tell him I’m not happy with his training and he isn’t happy about it. He’d better shape up quick, as he’s losing his starting job to Paul Moses.



Premier League - Monthly Awards

-- Yaya Sanogo from Man United wins Player of the Month honours for September after scoring 4 goals in as many games.

-- Man City’s Kris Coton wins Young Player of the Month and Claudio Contreras finishes in second.

-- Man City’s manager Dunga wins Manager of the Month and I finish in third.



October Board Confidence Update

-- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership, which is underlined by our convincing 4-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv in Champions League play. No negatives again!

-- We lost £279,000 last month.



Transfer Clause Money IN

-- We are offered a chance to buyout a couple of clauses negotiated in our sale of GK Louis Read to Norwich. I end up getting over £240,000 to buy out a games played clause and a sell on clause. Easy money.



Barclays Premier League Team of the Week

-- Saber Nasri and Helder Cruz are both named to the Premier League team of the week. Neither are holding a grudge against me anymore, thankfully.



Next Up

-- It’s back to Champions League action, as we host the super powerful Bayern Munich in Group Stage play.