FM2006 - Notts County, '05 Season: The Beginning

[Coffee Warlord]

We now introduce you to your new coach of Notts County...Rob Nielsen!

WHAT?!?!

It's more than a surprise move, it's heralded by many as utterly insane. What on earth does a 26 year old American know about coaching football? Well, guess we'll find out.

So, here I am in England, taking over a team who's fallen on some hard times of late. We're down here rotting in League Two, something I intend to change. But, I'm going to do it my way. At least I hope. We're bringing the American style game across the Atlantic, attempting to implement it and have success in the English leagues.

So what do I refer to when I say the American style game? My team will be built around fast, physical players who work a counter attacking game. Technical skills will come, we want athletes, and we're going to make sure our guys are the most physically talented players in the League.

How detailed I get on this will depend on my mood, honestly. But, I've been waiting to really do this kind of dynasty for awhile. It's been mentioned on the boards more than a few times that the US is developing a bit of a reputation for running physical, fast-paced counterattacking teams. The comments always stuck with me, so I've always wanted to do a "send an American to bring American style soccer to an English club". So...here we are.

More detailed overview to come when I get home and in front of the game. For now,as is obvious, our training will focus HEAVILY on strength & aerobics. I want our players to be fast, strong, and keep the pace for 90 minutes. I'll be bringing in as many fitness-based coaches as I can, and skimp as much as I dare elsewhere.

Needless to say, players with strong work ethics and good natural fitness are my primary targets to mold the team.

This is subject to change, but I plan on setting up a pair of 'standard' tactics, a 3-4-3 as 'standard', and a 4-4-2 for games when I need to drop an extra defender back. Both obviously will be set for counter-attacks and a decent speed, with little to no time wasting. I want the ball and our players moving.

We'll see how things go this evening.

[Coffee Warlord]

First things first. We bring on three new coaches at low salaries (~500/week). Two of the three are fitness based, and the third is focused on tactics. This brings us to a fairly large staff, but as none of them are highly paid, no worries.

Anyway, your Notts County Coaches...

Brian Burns, Asst Manager (Scottish)
Excellent judge of talent, excellent with kids. Not the greatest trainer, but his other abilities make up for it. Trains Ball Control and Shooting.

John Willians, Coach (Welsh)
A disciplinarian who excels at coaching goalkeepers...and that's about it. Trains Strength and Goalkeeping.

Alan Smart, Coach (English)
Adaptable and a good motivator who is our primary defensive trainer. He works well with kids as well, which is a plus. Trains Tactics and Defense.

Sam Rowe, Coach (English)
Pretty much a filler coach. He stresses fitness, which is why we keep him around. Trains Ball Control and Set Pieces.

Colin Richards, Coach (English)
The other quality goalkeeper coach on the team. Also has some fitness coaching ability, which, well, the more the merrier. Trains Aerobic and Goalkeeping.

Ian Marsh, Coach (English)
One of our best coaches, is decent at about everything except working with the kids. Trains Tactics and Attacking.

Jason Graham, Coach (English)
Another new face to the club, and an excellent coach. Is both an excellent fitness instructor and know a thing or two about technique. We'll rely on him heavily. Trains Aerobic and Set Pieces.

Mike Fox, Coach (English)
A quick and final signing of a technique based coach. Decent ability at tactical training. Trains Shooting and Defending.

Jon Davidson, Coach (English)
Also a backup defender, albiet a useless one at his age. He is however, decent at the fitness programs. Trains Strength and Attacking.

When it's all said and done, we have 2 coaches working with every section of training. Aerobics and Attacking are listed at 3 stars, everything else is 2. Not great, but with our limited resources, it'll do.

[Coffee Warlord]

And, after much action, your 2005 Notts County squad...

Starting Strikers
James Nash (21yrs, English)
The weak link in our front three, honest. He outplayed his competition though, which isn't saying much. We're definately looking for improvement here. The good news though, is he seems to have a knack for feeding our other forwards, with 1 goal and 6(!) assists in 6 preseason games.

Darren Palmer (22yrs, English)
The star of the team, and easily the best striker on our squad. He had a monster preseason, with 5 goals in 5 appearances.

Ross Maclean (24yrs, Scottish)
A new signing, Ross is a capable forward who shows some promise. Though he is slower than we would prefer from our team, he is strong, and has a very high work ethic. We hope our training regimine will aid him greatly. He had a goal and an assist in 4 preseason games.


Starting Wingers
Michael Watkins (28yrs, Welsh)
If only he were younger. Lightning fast and naturally fit, he's exactly what we want on our squad. Had a quality preseason, with 2 goals and 2 assists in 6 games.

Jimmy Lee (21yrs, English)
A weak spot we are hoping some of our younger guys can step into down the road. For now, he is alright, though he will share playing time with Michael Warner. 1 assist in 6 games.


Starting Midfield
Matthew Dixon (20yrs, English)
We hope to have this guy for a long, long time. Excellent physical attributes, and utterly amazing technical skills, he is the mainstay of our midfield, as well as our primary set pieces taker.

David Payne (21yrs, English)
Picked up on Loan from Brighton, Payne immediatly added quality to our deep midfield. He's lightning fast, and can play solid defense, something we absolutely require in our midfielders.



Starting Defense
Andrew Gallagher (18yrs, English)
The starter on the left side by default, Gallagher is servicable, though not great. We'll see about upgrading him later on. 1 assist in 6 games.

Michael Stevens (22 yrs, English)
Solid, tall defender who can jump with anyone. He has shown he can hold down the center back line fairly well.

Nicky Dunn (19yrs, English)
Another nothing special player on our questionable defensive line. Unfortunately, the pickings are quite slim right now on defenders.


Starting Keeper
Steven Thys (30yrs, Belgian)
Had an excellent preseason, conceding only 6 goals (just 2 if you discount one horrid match) in the preseason.

---


Backups
Michael Warner (17yrs, English)
A very young, promising winger who can play either side of the field. Will rotate in as necessary during the season. 1 goal and 1 assist during the preseason.

David Howard (23yrs, English)
Was slated as our starting midfielder until we got Payne on loan. As it stands, is our #3 midfielder, and can play a passable back line in a pinch. 1 assist in the preason.

Ian Poole (24yrs, English)
Strong, physically fit midfielder, signed on the cheap. Excellent technical ability, though he did not show all that much during the preseason.

Ian Garner (20yrs, English)
Yet another midfielder, this one loaned out from Burnley. More of an offensive minded midfielder, which, while he doesn't totally fit into our system, he is pretty damned skilled. We are working on getting him experience on the left wing, for depth there.

Stephen Davis (26yrs, English)
Yep. More midfielders. Another cheap new arrival, Stephen is mentally and technically fit, with the work ethic and natural physique we are looking for. Couldn't pass him up, though we are gonna be pressed to find playing time for him. Unfortunately for him, he opens the season with a torn groin muscle, and will be out for a month.

Jon Davidson (35yrs, English)
A player/coach defender who will never see a minute on the pitch if I have anything to say about it.

Lee Roberts (27yrs, Welsh)
A decent, albiet overpriced striker. Some teams have shown interest in him, and he may be on his way out the door. 3 goals in 6 appearances in the preseason, though.

Jinoh Choe (22yrs, Korean)
On loan from Sheff United, Jinoh is our top backup defender, who may very well rotate in if our questionable defensive line falters.

Joshua Storey (19yrs, Australian)
Another guy I don't know what to do with. He's a major prospect in the...midfield. ARGH! We'll be seeing if we can loan him out for the time being.

Michel Monteyene (23yrs, Belgian)
Reserve project defender who is easily our best pure athlete, but has almost no technical ability whatsoever. He's very very VERY raw. We're hoping he can grow into a force, however. Another cheap signing on the transfer list.

Derek O'Rourke (21yrs, Irish)
Backup left winger, who isn't all that great. He's mostly fortunate we need another winger on the roster.

Carl Vaughan (20yrs, English)
Average backup striker, who nonetheless could develop into something special. We'll see how he turns out 1 assist and 1 goal in the preseason.

---

So there you go. As you can see, we have a metric fuckload of midfielders, and I don't REALLY wanna part with any of them. Any one of them could develop into something special. We're weighing our options, and will see what can be seen. Despite our questionable (and young) defense, we conceded very few goals during the preseason. Our 3-4-3 seems to be doing pretty well.

ON TO THE SEASON!

[daedalus]

Counter-attack is overrated. You'll need too much passing skill from Gallagher, Stevens and Dunn too make it worth your while.

[st.cronin]

You should invent a 2-7-1 formation.

[daedalus]

True. It's all about midfield.

[Coffee Warlord]

Two games down...

Notts County vs Chester

We open the season with a thud, though I still maintain we got screwed. Chester takes home the win 2-1, thanks to a freakin' PK. I was seriously worried, as we went down 1-0 in the first 5 minutes of the match, and 18 minutes in, a penalty kick is awarded. BAH!

We pull one back in the 2nd half, off a lovely move by Nash, but it's too little, too late. No luck.

What's worse...two starters report in as injured after the match. Darren Palmer is lost for a couple weeks, Jimmy Lee went down early, and one of our subs, Ian Poole, also decides to get hurt. Yeesh.

We also agree to terms with Brighton for the sale of Lee Roberts, and his expensive contract goes away. The bad news, however, is with Ross Maclean tired from the last match, and Darren Palmer hurt, we're all of a sudden VERY short on forwards. We call up a scrub from our Reserve team, and it looks like Carl Vaughan will be starting our next match.

We also take a look at the transfer lists, and try and loan another emergency striker.


Notts County vs Carlisle

Well, Carl Vaughan makes the most of his start, scoring 1 of our 2 goals in route to a 2-1 victory that should have been 2-0. Yet Another PK late in the game brought Carlisle to within 1, but we held, moving to our 4-4-2 in about the 70th minute. James Nash rattles off his second goal of the season in this one.

Two PK's in two games concerns me, but we get our first 3 points of the season!

--


Quick rundown of our tactics package.

3-4-3 CA

We play a fairly fast, offensive minded game. Time wasting is set low, and we focus on keeping a wide field. Passes for our front 7 are set short/mixed, and of course, counterattacking is on. Tackles are set to moderate.

Forwards: Left and right strikers are told to pull back a bit on defense, and not hang around. Our center striker is our only guy not expected to *really* play defense.

Wingers: Both wingers make forward runs, and are set to man marking. They absolutely need stamina, because with man marking, I insist they get back on defense.

Midfielders: Both midfield are defensive minded with instructions to pull back to support the defensive line. One of them (usually Payne) is instructed to hold up the ball when necessary. They both are tagged for tight marking. I want them to be my first real line of defense in the center.

Defenders: My defensive line is set a little bit back from the normal. All three defenders are instructed basically the same, and it amounts to: Stay back, defend, and dump it forward to the midfield/strikers as quickly as possible.

Our 4-4-2 is very similar, with the obvious exception being the extra defender. We give a little more latitude to our fullbacks in this formation to join in on the attack, but not much. Basically, this is our formation to protect leads, and when we're against a brutal attacking team and need that extra defender.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by daedalus

True. It's all about midfield.

This isn't hattrick.

[Coffee Warlord]

In a short press conference after the Carlisle match, I praised my opponent's efforts, and informed their coach they should be alright.

He responded rapidly, informing the press that if his side had to lose, he'd rather lose to a classy guy like myself. How thoughtful!

[Coffee Warlord]

Grr.

A heartbreaker at Meadow Lane today, as we drew with Northampton 2-2. Ross Maclean had a field day, scoring both of our 2 goals. We took the lead in the 80th minute, only to blow it in the 90th, with a late equalizer. DAMN!

Equally frustrating was the two goals by Nash that were called back, as he was offsides. We need to work on that badly, as it's giving me ulcers.

In other news, we pick up German striker Nico Meyer on loan. He is strictly an emergency forward.

And in yet More News...

Ross Maclean makes the League Two Team of the Week, and 16 year old defender Johnny Cooley got his first U21 cap for Northern Ireland.

[Coffee Warlord]

We cruise to a 2-0 victory in our match vs Cheltenham.

James Nash picked up his 3rd goal of the season, and Matthew Dixon scored his 1st ever goal on a penalty kick. It would be all we needed, as we thoroughly dominated the other side, on an away match even.

Kudos to Steven Thys, who notched his first clean sheet of the season (though it was really the play of our position players who gave it to him - Cheltenham honestly had nothing going all day.)

[Coffee Warlord]

A heartbreaking 3-2 loss to League One Bristol City in the 1st round of the League Cup is followed by a cruising 3-1 win vs Wycombe. Suits me just fine, as I always prefer success in league over success in cup.

Data is available now at:
http://www.hark.org/notts/

I'll update it at various points through the season. After 5 games, I certainly can't complain. We are cruising along, easily surpassing the mid-table finish our management expects, and surprising the oddsmakers, who booked us at 40-1 to open the season.

Ross Maclean has been a monster, especially with Darren Palmer still recovering from injury.

[Coffee Warlord]

Wanna continue updating this, just trying to figure out the best way to present stuff in an interesting/unique and non pain-in-the-ass manner. That, and I continually find I keep playing and not wanting to write.

As a quick update, however...'bout 10 games left in our opening season, we're doing far better than expected, sitting in 7th place in the league. Some brutal 1st round draws (A championship club away, a league 1 club away, and a league 2 club away w/ most of our starters exhausted) killed our cup runs, but league is looking good. Our forwards have been decimated by injuries throughout the season, but we've got a core group back and rocking.

[daedalus]

You could always go with doing monthly updates and highlights whenever something special comes up.

[Coffee Warlord]

Notts County Finish Strong in Nielsen's Debut Season

Meadow Lane (AP) - The American manager, expected by many to be nothing more than a joke, won the hearts of the fans and the respect of many in the football community. His Notts County club managed an impressive 7th place finish in the league, with an incredible 16 game unbeaten streak in the final months of the season.

Strangely, despite his success a club most expected to finish in the lower half, Nielsen's name was never even considered for a Manager of the Month award. Rumor has it some of the Notts County players were highly irritated that their manager was never properly recognized by the league.

Nielsen was rewarded with a 3-year contract from the Magpies brain trust, a move which was applauded by players and fans alike.

[Coffee Warlord]

Notts County Season in Review, Part 1

Can't post heavy stats and such till tonight, but the big overview...

The Good

Our tactics are solid, our training program is proving every effective, with strong increases in conditioning/speed/strength, and, well, we took what we had and won. Darren Palmer, as was hoped, is a freakin' monster. Despite being injured a BUNCH this season, he finished 2nd in the league with 35 goals. A mid-season signing, Danish striker Per Hoj, played very well, with 10 goals in 12 games, and a buttload of assists. Our 3rd striker is still a work in progress, and was by committee this year. We'll be looking for a permanent addition there in the offseason.

Our midfielders were quite effective. Unfortunately we were unable to sign loanee Payne, but Dixon has been locked up long-term, and is a monster in the middle. David Howard and Stephen Davis performed adequately, and we'll either give the starting job to Howard next season, or possibly look for a replacement. Low priority there though.

The Bad

I was worried in the beginning, but honestly, our defense did not play bad at all. However, we did allow FAR too many comebacks. It's to be expected we're gonna give up a few with the 3 man back, but we need more speed in the back, plain and simple. A stronger keeper would be appreciated, but I doubt it'll happen. On the plus side, Michel Monteyene broke into the starting lineup after Andrew Gallagher's injury...and excelled. I expect he'll be wearing #2 next year.

Our wingers...feh. Crapshoot. This is an area we need to improve. We were mauled by injuries to our wings, and nobody really put together a string of impressive matches. This is a spot we'll be upgrading in the offseason.

The Ugly

Really, nothing is exceptionally horrid on this team. We drew way too many times in matches we should have won (most of them by comebacks), but that can be worked on.

It was really the injuries that were vicious to us this year. It was everything I could do to keep 3 healthy and mostly rested strikers on the pitch, and as for our wingers...we were seriously considering adding hazard pay if you played on the wing for us.

Going into next season, what concerns me is depth. We had to pay some serious cash to keep Darrren Palmer, and while I'm purging a couple salaries, we're not going to have a LOT of money to play with, especially if we can get a couple key signings like I'm hoping for.

2006 Priority List

3rd Striker
Right Winger (or left, honestly)
Speed Defender
Keeper
2nd Midfielder

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

A mid-season signing, Danish striker Per Hoj, played very well, with 10 goals in 12 games, and a buttload of assists.

Is that metric or standard buttload?

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Our wingers...feh. Crapshoot. This is an area we need to improve. We were mauled by injuries to our wings, and nobody really put together a string of impressive matches. This is a spot we'll be upgrading in the offseason.

Wingers are overrated. You just play a glorified inner midfielder out there and go with possession.

Unless said winger's name is Miguel Alcalde. Then wingers rule.

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

It was really the injuries that were vicious to us this year. It was everything I could do to keep 3 healthy and mostly rested strikers on the pitch, and as for our wingers...we were seriously considering adding hazard pay if you played on the wing for us.

Could it be the heavy training due to the heavy emphasis your program places on physical activities? When I was tinkering with the '05 Demo, I seem to almost always have to start games by hiring extra Physios otherwise I run into insane amount of injuries. Have you consider upgrading and adding to the amount of Physios your team carries?

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Is that metric or standard buttload?

Only a standard buttload. He was only with us for about 15 matches.

Originally Posted by daedalus

Wingers are overrated.

You just play a glorified inner midfielder out there and go with possession.

Unless said winger's name is Miguel Alcalde. Then wingers rule.

I repeat. Not hattrick!

Originally Posted by daedalus

Could it be the heavy training due to the heavy emphasis your program places on physical activities? When I was tinkering with the '05 Demo, I seem to almost always have to start games by hiring extra Physios otherwise I run into insane amount of injuries. Have you consider upgrading and adding to the amount of Physios your team carries?

I actually am wondering that same thing. I did add a 3rd physio in the later half of the season, but I'm not sure if it helped much. We're unfortunately hampered by the fact we can't offer much money for staff members. Mostly limited to pretty sucky physios.

The main training 'slider' is a few notches below heavy, for what it's worth. From one season's worth of experience, it's low enough to where my players are pretty well rested if they have the 5-7 days between matches. Most are between 96-100% condition after that time. (The saturday matches that are followed by a tuesday are killers, but that's par for the course.)

We'll see. I've now created a second set of regimines for more technical training, once people have advanced to a point in the physical schedule. Only a couple players are on it right now, but we'll see if that alters the injury rate as more people move to it.