View Single Post
Old 02-23-2014, 10:01 PM   #239
NoSkillz
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
Sat. March 5, 2022

Barclays Premier League
Everton (12-6-11, 42 points, 9th) vs. Dover (16-8-5, 56 points, 4th)
Goodison Park, Liverpool, UK

Betting Odds: Everton: 6-4 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Dover: 13-8
Past Meetings: 4W 1D 3L

We are the slightest of underdogs on the road versus Everton. They continue to move on in Continental play, as they've just gotten past Florentina in the Europa League 1st Knockout Round and will next face Napoli. They are an excellent home team but struggle to score on the road so we'll have to be careful going into their home today. They haven't lost a home Premier League game since November 10th against Middlesbrough. Chris Wood and veteran Daniel Sturridge are their leading scorers with 16 and 14 goals respectively.

With a big Champions League game coming up in four days there are a couple of guys I decide to rest for this match: Arsene Bamba and Salim Loucif. Bamba will be on the bench but I'm giving Loucif the night off. In their places come Cameron Murray and Jozef Kuciak. I see no reason to change the successful striker partnership developing between Paul Moses and Wayne Rooney and they are up front again today. We'll go with a control mentality to start but I may need to move to a counter attack at some point.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, J. Kuciak
M - C. Murray, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, W. Rooney
Bench - R. McLaughlin, J. Varga, Mancini, A. Bamba, K. Kalfas, Z. Bardi, G. Gesios

Wow - Everton are going with a 4-4-2 diamond formation and both of their top scorers Sturridge and Wood are on the bench! They are obviously saving them for their Europa League game next week. Good news for us!!! They have Erik Uhrik (8 goals) and John Guidetti (5 goals) up front today. I tell the team they can win this and pull aside Cameron Murray to tell him I have faith in his abilities.

10' - Everton with the first good chance as Uhrik gets away from Rayane Hamon and speeds toward goal but Wilke makes the great save.

15' - Everton have a corner and it's new signing Henri Atangana taking it. Claudio Contreras looks like he's going to head it out but mistimes his jump and that allows Ryan Shawcross to head it past Wilke and into the net. EVERTON GOAL 0-1

24' - Rough start and we have no shots on goal. Paul Moses pulls a guy down and gets a yellow card.

30' - Cameron Murray gives away possession easily and forces Claudio Contreras to take someone down, getting a yellow in the process.

HALFTIME - We have 61% of possession but NO SHOTS ON GOAL. We have 7 versus their 6 but they have two on net. We can't break them down yet. We are going to attack in the second half and I tell the team I want to see more from them.

47' - We work a counter attack and Moses sends the ball up field for Rooney. He's got a man chasing him so he shoots from distance and it's right at Franco Di Capua, the Everton keeper. At least we got a shot on net!

63' - We're generating nothing and I think I need to coerce them into coming forward so I switch to a counter mentality. I also take out Rooney and bring in Zoltan Bardi.

70' - Yellow for Neil Cairney. Nothing going on offensively. We bring in the cavalry, with Arsene Bamba and Giorgos Gesios coming in for Murray and Moses.

77' - Ok, time to Overload. Right afterwards, Rayane Hamon gets a yellow. This ref is calling everything...

90'+2 - We're putting pressure on but no shots on goal until we win a corner and Rocca's cross is headed by Gesios. Di Capua makes the game saving stop.

Poor effort.

Everton 1 - 0 Dover
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Ryan Shawcross (Everton DC - 8.7)
Other Dover Notables - J. Kuciak (7.1), Rayane Hamon (7.0), Andrea Rocca (7.0), Neil Cairney (7.3), Wayne Rooney (5.9)
Attendance - 34,335

We held 57% of possession and outshot them 14-9 (2-3 on target). We just couldn't break them down. I tell the players I'm disappointed in the effort. Rooney puts up a dud in his first game with an extended contract but that's how he's been this year - either he scores and plays great or he does nothing.

-- Aston Villa shocked Man City 2-1 and Wolves were able to battle Liverpool to a draw but everything else went according to script, with Arsenal topping Fulham, United beating Derby and Chelsea tied with Tottenham. We fall to fifth with the loss.

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE 8 GAMES REMAINING UNLESS NOTED)

1. Manchester City - 67 points
2. Manchester United - 62 points
3. Liverpool - 58 points
4. Arsenal - 57 points (9 games remaining)
----------------------------------------------------
5. Dover - 56 points
6. Chelsea - 50 points
7. Reading - 49 points
----------------------------------------------------


Dover U18 Update

--We win the U18 Cup Finals in convincing fashion, destroying Sheffield Unied 5-0. Gregoire Lambert and Johnny Mardenborough each scored twice and Eddie Robinson notched a single in the win.



Injury Update

-- Shanon Andrea is getting close to a return from his hamstring tear and should be back in full training soon. Shaun Spall will miss the rest of this season with his broken leg.



Champions League

-- FC Bayern win 2-0 over Galatasaray and 4-0 on aggregate to move on to the next round. Chelsea are done, losing 4-1 (7-3 on aggregate) to Olympique Lyonnais. After the game, Chelsea sack their manager Ioan Andone - pretty harsh for the sixth placed team in the Premier League but that's Abramovich for you! I'm named as a possible successor…don't think so!



Next Up

-- The second leg of the Champions League First Knockout Round takes place in Belgium as we face Anderlecht and hold a slim one goal lead.

Last edited by NoSkillz : 02-23-2014 at 10:04 PM.
NoSkillz is offline   Reply With Quote