[NoSkillz]

Sat. March 30, 2024

Barclays Premier League
Manchester City (18-6-7, 60 points, 5th) vs. Dover (24-6-1, 78 points, 1st)
Man City Stadium, Manchester, UK

Betting Odds: Manchester City: 5-4 (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Dover: 7-4
Past Meetings: 3W 2D 7L

This is the toughest game left on our Premier League schedule, as we near the home stretch with only 7 league games remaining. City have won three straight since the hiring of legendary manager Jose Mourinho. City are out of the Europa League but have reached the FA Cup semi finals after a convincing 3-1 win over rival United. City haven’t been the same team since the sale last year of striker Enrique to Barcelona but young Frenchman Ryan Bonin has been on fire lately and is up to 27 goals on the year. The most talented striker is Jelle Hoegee but he’s battled serious injury all year and only has played 11 games, scoring 8 times. He’s healthy today but lacking match fitness so it will be interesting to see what Mourinho does, as City usually only play one man up front. Mario Brito, a HUGE signing last year (£73 million from Inter), is injured and won’t play today.

We’re going with our full strength side today. Despite being underdogs and on the road versus a great team, I’m sticking with our control mentality.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, Jose, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, S. Nasri, A. Rocca, G. Fanfoni, G. Allan, Z. Bardi, S. Andrea

Alright, indeed it’s the fine young striker Jelle Hoegee getting the start despite not being match fit. I don’t recognize any of their attacking midfielders in their 4-2-3-1 formation, a true sign that City are finally starting to turn over their roster. Antonio is in goal. We beat City in their stadium in our last go-around and I once again tell the team this is a winnable game. Lets do it!

2’ - We have possession in their end and it’s cleared out to Hoegee at midfield. He dribbles into our end and makes it to the byline before crossing over to the right. A City midfielder is there and he sends a quick volley back into the middle to Giorgos Spanoudakis. His shot is at Wilke and deflects off him and it’s IN. For some reason, it’s credited as an own goal but whatever - City is up EARLY. MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 0-1

11’ - It’s all City early and midfielder Miralem Pjanic gets off a hard shot and Wilke makes the stop. City get the ball back and literally pass the ball around a triangle for a full 60 seconds, playing keep-away. Finally, fullback Mercado gets a step on the right sideline and feeds in a cross and there is Jelle Hoegee, sliding at the ball and sending it past Wilke for the brilliant goal. We’re getting SMOKED! MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 0-2

31’ - Salim Loucif takes down a man just outside our area and gets a lecture but no card. City take the free kick and it’s a cross into a COMPLETELY UNMARKED Capitao and he heads it past a startled Wilke and it’s in. Unbelievable - what a MESS this is! MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 0-3

33’ - We have a great chance off the kick off, with Bolis feeding a great cross into Paul Moses but he can’t put his left-footed shot past Antonio. What a weak effort from Moses with no defenders in sight. Sigh.

39’ - We have a throw in down the right side and Bolis sends it into Chiquinho. He passes back to Loucif and he sends in a cross and it’s Renato Gaucho, up from his left fullback position, heading it past Antonio and in. We’re on the board! DOVER GOAL 1-3

HALFTIME - City edge us in possession and outshoot us 9-7 (3-2 on target). We’re simply being outplayed but that late half goal at least has given us some life. We have a LOT of guys with ratings in the fives after 45 minutes and I tell the team I want to see much more from them in the second half.

48’ - Jose with a yellow card.

50’ - Gianluca Bolis with a horrendous giveaway that leads to a City attacker hitting the goal post. Ugh.

62’ - Bolis is out and in comes Graham Allan.

83’ - No chances for either team, as City have pulled back into a 4-5-1 formation. We take out Jose and bring in Andrea Rocca. We also switch to an overload mentality. Lets see if we can get another goal here and make things interesting.

85’ - Chiquinho with a yellow card.

They hold us off the rest of the way. Very disappointing loss but only our second in the league all year.

Manchester City 3 - 1 Dover
Goals - Renato Gaucho (7.3)
Assists - Salim Loucif (6.8)
Man of the Match - Gustavo Mercado (Manchester City DR - 7.8)
Other Dover Notables - Rayane Hamon (5.6), Chiquinho (5.5), Paul Moses (5.8)
Attendance - 62,534

City simply were better today. They held 53% of possession and shots were 15-15 (3-2 on target) for City. No shots on target for either team in the second half as they were content to lock us down. Very poor games from our strike duo of Moses and Chiquinho.

-- Tottenham smoke Birmingham 5-0, Liverpool win 3-0 over Fulham, United win 2-0 over Wolves and Chelsea can only manage a draw against Everton.

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 32 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Dover - 78 points
2. Manchester United - 69 points
3. Tottenham - 68 points
4. Manchester City - 63 points
----------------------------------------------------
5. Chelsea - 62 points
6. Liverpool - 59 points
7. Reading - 54 points
----------------------------------------------------



April Update

-- We have four Premier League games coming up this month: Reading (away), Sunderland (home), Sheffield Wednesday (home) and Middlesbrough (away). We also have our two leg Champions League quarterfinal matchup against Ajax and if we prevail, we could have one more Champions League match near the end of the month. So six games for sure and perhaps seven if we play well.

-- The training report is light for March, with only youth player Anthony Gardiner getting a positive notice.



Premier League Monthly Awards

-- Former Dover loanee Martin Prochazka wins the Premier League player of the month award after scoring four goals in as many games for Reading. Wow.

-- Newcastle’s Mads Pedersen wins Young Player of the Month while our very own Paul Moses and Claudio Contreras finish second and third respectively.

-- A Paul Moses goal against Liverpool on March 13th wins third place in the goal of the month award voting.

-- Manchester United won all four games last month and Jurgen Klinsmann wins Manager of the Month for his efforts.



April Board Confidence Update

-- The board are absolutely delighted with the way I’m leading the team. The main positive is our second consecutive League Cup win while the slight disappointment is our FA Cup performance.

-- We made £3,170,000 last month.



Injury Report

-- We are completely healthy right now. Knock on wood!



Next Up

-- We host Ajax in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal.