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Old 11-18-2013, 12:09 AM   #46
NoSkillz
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
2019/20 Barclays Premier League - First Half Results

Simply put - we struggled immensely in the first half of our season.

We opened the year at home as favourites against Fulham. We had enjoyed historical success against them, winning 3 of our 4 matches against them in the past. We also had a fully healthy roster going into the season.

Unfortunately, we'd lose 1-0 despite carrying play (56-44 possession) for the majority of the game. Thankfully, we'd bounce back one week later with our first win, an away victory at Everton 2-1. Our 14 million pound man Giorgos Gesios scored his first Dover goal to salt away the victory.

As expected, we'd lose heavily to powerhouse Manchester United 4-0 at Crabble Athletic Ground but our next contest, a winnable game against newly promoted West Bromwich was a killer: a 3-2 loss that sent us into the relegation zone.

We'd come back with an impressive home win against Derby, another club that was just promoted from the Championship. Just when we thought we were turning the corner, we went on another bad run of form, winning only 1 of our next 8 contests. The win was a good one: a 2-1 home victory against Arsenal and you could justify the losing somewhat, considering how difficult a stretch it was for us, with games against many of the top teams in the league: Huddersfield (L3-1), Chelsea (L3-0), Liverpool (L3-1) and Man City (L1-0).

Perhaps the ugliest game of the season was a home match against Blackburn, who were mired in last place in the league and had only scored 7 goals in their first 14 games. We had no luck breaking them down and in fact, they'd even control play for the most part in a bore scoreless draw, a game that infuriated our fans and me as well.

By that point, we were missing a number of key players, including Gesios, who missed four weeks in December due to a sprained ankle.

We'd battle to a spirited 1-1 away draw at Tottenham on December 29th and reach the opening of the January transfer window with a record of 5 wins 2 draws and 12 defeats. Our 17 points in 19 games was only good for 18th in the league.

We had reached the halfway point of the year and we were in the relegation zone. We weren't scoring and our defending was only marginally better - 21 goals for and 35 goals against in 19 games just wasn't going to get it done.

A lot of our poor play could be traced to my management - there was no consistency with my tactics and we were coming up with different formations each game, many of which we hadn't properly trained for. I needed to simplify things greatly in the second half if we were to stay in the Premier League.

Last edited by NoSkillz : 11-18-2013 at 12:11 AM.
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