[NoSkillz]

Sat. August 20, 2022

Barclays Premier League
Dover (1-0-0, 3 points, 4th) vs. Tottenham (1-0-0, 3 points, 6th)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK

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

Tottenham struck gold in the offseason when Kuwaiti oil baron Hamad Al-Shammari bought the team and inserted considerable money into the club. They spent money with abandon in June and July, with the largest pickup being former Dover striker Gerardo Escobar, who they purchased for an astronomical £15.75 million. They spent £14.25 million for both Mihal Vladescu, a right midfielder from OM and right fullback Milan Mojsky from Everton. In all, Spurs spent £64 million and only sold off £6.75 million in players. They obviously expect to win NOW. Other dangerous Tottenham players include Italian midfielder Anderson and veteran Gareth Bale, who still is contributing at 33 years of age and scored in their opening day victory.

The only change I'm making from the Everton game is to insert young central defender Claudio Contreras into the lineup. I like the idea of giving the youngster some home games while giving our veteran backup Paulus Tjiuoro some of the road games where we are underdogs, just to add some additional influence to our lineup. Since we're at home, I'm going with a control mentality.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, , N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho
Bench - D. Traore, P. Tjiuoro, S. Spall, Mancini, G. Allan, W. Rooney, P. Moses

Tottenham are in the same formation as we are and Escobar is up front with Danny Pacheco. Matthieu Dreyer is in goal. I tell the team to perform well for the home supporters and tell Shanon Andrea to pick up where he left off in the last game.

9' - Tottenham win a corner and we head it away to safety. Andrea gets the ball and sends a pass to Chiquinho at midfield. It's a two on two situation and Chiquinho bolts down the right side. He dribbles all the way to the byline and crosses into the area to a completely unmarked Andrea and our striker easily slots the ball into the back of the net for the early lead! Great play! DOVER GOAL 1-0

12' - Wilke with a nice diving save off a Gareth Bale blast.

20' - Andea is sent in toward goal by Chiquinho and is tackled down from behind by Milan Mojsky. Yellow card for Mojsky and Andrea Rocca lines up a free kick from just outside the area. He sends a trademark curling blast around the wall and into the net for the GLORIOUS goal! GET IN! DOVER GOAL 2-0

41' - We're controlling play and off a failed corner, Rocca feeds a ball into Bamba inside the area. His shot is saved but it comes right out to Shanon Andrea and he puts it home for his second of the game! But wait…Andrea is called offsides? The replay confirms it and there's NO GOAL.

HALFTIME - Very solid in all aspects. We hold 53% of possession and outshoot them 9-5 (4-2 on target). I tell the team I'm pleased and I don't change tactics.

Tottenham come out in an ugly 5-2-1-2 formation with an AMC to start the half.

53' - Rocca is having a fine game and he gets off a low blast from 5 yards out that Dreyer is able to scoop up for the save.

64' - Escobar shows some good speed in racing past Hamon and his blast is saved brilliantly by Wilke and we clear to safety.

67' - I bring in Graham Allan for Arsene Bamba.

75' - Spurs continue to sit back in this 5 defender formation and we have the ball in their end. Renato Gaucho has it on the sideline and feeds Neil Cairney. He turns to his stronger side and cuts toward the middle and from 25 yards out, sends a blast that curls past Dreyer, off the goalpost and into the far corner of the net. SPECTACULAR shot! DOVER GOAL 3-0

Tottenham moves back to a 4-4-2.

80' - With the game well in hand, I take out Andrea Rocca and Shanon Andrea and bring in Shaun Spall and Wayne Rooney.

82' - Graham Allan shows incredible skill and vision as he dribbles up field from our end and dekes around at least three defenders on his way toward goal but his shot is saved by a diving Dreyer. Great chance Allan!

89' - Chiquinho gets loose on a counter attack and gets in on goal but his shot is stopped by Dreyer.

90'+2 - Oh Chiquinho!!! He dribbles around two Spurs defenders and eludes one more tackle at the edge of the area to go in all alone on Dreyer but shoots JUST wide. He hasn't scored in two games but is SO dangerous!

Domination against a top club. Excellent!

Dover 3 - 0 Tottenham
Goals - Shanon Andrea (8.2), Andrea Rocca (8.3), Neil Cairney (8.2)
Assists - Renato Gaucho (8.5), Chiquinho (7.3), Shanon Andrea
Man of the Match - Renato Gaucho
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.5), Salim Loucif (7.6), Rayane Hamon (7.6), Claudio Contreras (7.3), Gianluca Bolis (7.0), Arsene Bamba (7.3)
Attendance - 18,771

We win 54% of possession and outshoot them 21-11 (11-5 on target) - it wasn't even close! Every single player in our starting eleven gets a rating over 7.0 in a thoroughly dominating performance. Superb!

-- No real shockers this week, as Liverpool bounce Reading 3-1, United destroy Aston Villa 5-0 and City beat Wolves 2-1. We provisionally move to the top of the table, tied on goal differential with Manchester City.



Dover U18 Update

-- Once again, the kids win by a 4-0 scoreline, with Pete Smith, David Smith, Sean Woolley and Eddie Robinson scoring the goals.



Transfer Stuff

-- Man United bid about £9.75 million for Arsene Bamba. No chance, of course and I reject the offer - Bamba's agent wants a new deal for about the tenth time in the last month or so and I reject that request again. I imagine there could be some fallout here but he's under contract for four more years so unless he gets to be a problem in the room, I will continue to reject requests that are less than his minimum release clause.



Premier League Team of the Week

-- Renato Gaucho is selected to the team of the week for his fine performance against Spurs.



Injury Update

-- Zoltan Bardi returns to full training after missing some time with a twisted ankle.

-- A day later, we get striker/midfielder Said Henni back to full training. Henni missed three weeks with a pulled hamstring.

-- Kostas Zagos (Broken Arm) is close to returning to full training. Reserve goalkeeper Louis Read dislocated his shoulder in training and will miss a few months. Giorgos Gesios, on loan at Sevilla, suffered fractured ribs and will miss a bunch of time while on loan.



Transfer News

-- DAMNIT. Napoli make a bid of £6.75 million for defender Paulus Tjiuoro and it's auto-accepted, as it meets his minimum release clause. If he comes to terms on a deal, I'll definitely have to find another defender but at least it's a pretty decent fee coming our way.



Champions League Update

-- In Best Placed Playoff action, Liverpool beat Wolfsburg 1-0 to win 4-1 on aggregate to move onto the Group Stage. Joining them are Fiorentina, who won 5-1 over Ajax on aggregate, Barcelona, who won 5-2 on aggregate over Metalist, Porto, who defeated Olympiakos 5-2 on aggregate and Le Mans FC, who won on away goals after tying Club Brugge 2-2 on aggregate. In the Champions Playoff round, Dinamo moves on after winning 4-1 on aggregate over Zrinjski and Slovan Bratislava edge Sheriff 2-0 on aggregate to get to the Group Stages. Also moving on to the Group Stages from the Champions Playoff round are Partizan, AaB and Grasshoppers.

-- We are given £6,174,000 for qualifying for the Champions League Group Stages! Lovely!




Dover Reserve Team Update

-- Paul Moses bags a brace and adds an assist in our 3-0 win over Wolves in Reserves league play. Mancini notches our other goal.

-- Said Henni, in his first action since being out with a pulled hamstring, comes out of the game early with a stubbed toe. The injury-prone Henni will miss another week. Sheesh.



Champions League - Group Draw

-- Alright here we are! Our improved coefficients mean we are 3rd seeds this year. Here are the seeds:

1st Seeds:
Manchester United (ENG)
Manchester City (ENG)
FC Bayern Munich (GER)
Real Madrid (ESP)
Atletico Madrid (ESP)
Olympique Lyonnais (FRA)
Barcelona (ESP)
Sevilla (ESP)

2nd Seeds
OM (FRA)
Sampdoria (ITA)
Palermo (ITA)
Liverpool (ENG)
Galatasaray (TUR)
Dortmund (GER)
Benfica (POR)
Porto (POR)

3rd Seeds
CSKA Moscow (RUS)
Shakhtar (UKR)
Anderlecht (BEL)
Fiorentina (ITA)
Le Mans FC (FRA)
AZ (NED)
Dover (ENG)
Panathinaikos (GRE)

4th Seeds
Hoffenheim (GER)
Celtic (SCO)
Fenerbahce (TUR)
Partizan (SRB)
Dinamo (CRO)
AaB (DEN)
Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
Grasshoppers (SUI)

Actually, it's a pretty dangerous looking group of 3rd seeded teams. I'd prefer to avoid OM, Sampdoria and Liverpool in the 2nd seeded group. Lets see how we did...

We're drawn into Group B and on the surface I'm happy:

GROUP A
Olympique Lyonnais
Dortmund
Anderlecht
AaB

GROUP B
Sevilla
Porto
Dover
Slovan Bratislava

GROUP C
Manchester United
Galatasaray
Panathinaikos
Celtic

GROUP D
Barcelona
Palermo
AZ
Dinamo

GROUP E
Real Madrid
OM
CSKA Moscow
Grasshoppers

GROUP F
Manchester City
Benfica
Le Mans FC
Hoffenheim

GROUP G
FC Bayern
Sampdoria
Shakhtar
Fenerbahce

GROUP H
Atletico Madrid
Liverpool
Fiorentina
Partizan

By coefficient, Sevilla was the third worst #1 seed, Porto was WORST #2 and Slovan Bratislava was the WORST #4. I don't think it was possible to do any better than that! Sevilla is worth £146 million, Porto is worth £107 million (tied with us right now) and Bratislava is worth £22 million. Group H looks daunting, as does Group E. Poor Grasshoppers will get smoked in that group! Group A looks to be the weakest.



Transfer OUT

-- And just like that, Paulus Tjiuoro is gone. He accepts a contract with Napoli to complete a £6.75 million transfer deal that met his minimum release clause. I bought the Namibia international for £3.2 million in 2020 and he played in 52 league games for us over two seasons, scoring five goals and adding 3 assists. He was going to likely start close to 20 games for us this year and now I have to decide whether to go out on the market and find another defender or stick with what I have for now. I do have Daniel Traore and Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz but have little depth beyond them.



Injury Update

-- Kostas Zagos returns to full training and none too soon! We need his versatility, especially with Tjiuoro now gone.



League Cup - 3rd Round Draw

-- We never seem to get great draws in this competition and it continues, as we face fellow Premier League club Reading. At least it's a home match and it will be played on Tuesday September 22nd.



Next Up

-- Our tough early season schedule continues with a match against 4th placed Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.