Shrewsbury v Barnet

Shrewsbury 2 : Barnet 1
Goals: Brugniad (28) Madjo (55)

After our disappointing game against Bury I was looking for a result. Luckily our next game was at home to Barnet who the media had tipped at finishing 14th this season. Unfortunately Almerares was still out due to injury along with Simpson so I had to rely on Madjo to start up front with Holt. The game started pretty evenly and we took the lead from Brugniad heading in another Davies corner. Barnet equalised on a breakaway only for Madjo to save all 3 points with a great volley from outside the Box.

I’m starting to think that corners may be our secret weapon, just like Stoke have their Delap long throws. Here’s my instructions:

Davies – Taker (Corners 16, Crossing 13 & Technique 10) – Aim for 6 yard box
Brugniad (Height 6′1”, Jumping 13, Heading 10 & Strength 15) and Langmead (Height 6′2”, Jumping 13, Heading 14 & Strength 13) Challenge the opposition Keeper
Candsell-Sherriff – Attack Far Post (Height 6′0”, Jumping 13, Heading 15) in case the ball goes too far
Charlie-D – Offer Short Option (Height 5′7”) as he isn’t very tall making him come short will pull one of the defenders out of the box to mark him
Hadji, Holt and Almerares – Attack Ball from Deep – hopefully if the oppostion get the ball out of the box then one of them can pick it up and either take a pop or put it back in the mixer
Robert & Tierney – Stay Back – using the Pace of the Full Backs to cover any break aways by the other team

It seems to be working quite well at the moment. The only tweak I’m considering at the moment is to set Charlie-D to Attack Ball from Deep where he can use his Long Shot of 16. I’m reluctant because he’s pulling one of the opposition defenders out of the action and secondly he may not be tall enough to latch onto balls that have been cleared out of the box.

Wycombe v Shrewsbury

Wycombe 1 : Shrewsbury 1
Goal: Simpson (32)

Simpson was back from injury and despite Madjo’s goal giving us all of the points I still doubt his consistency so he started on the bench. Wycombe are tipped to finish 4th this season but we took control of the match and probably put in our best performance as a team to date.

Shrewsbury v Brentford

Shrewsbury 2 : Brentford 1
Goals: Tierney (51) Hadji (57)

Another win at home despite not the greatest of performances. Grant Holt is starting to worry me a little, as I’ve mentioned previously his salary is massive (£3,000 p/w) when compared to the rest of the squad (the average wage is £482 p/w and my total budget is £25,900). I’m almost certain I should be able to bring in a decent starter for around £1,000 p/w so I’m keeping my eyes out. For now he’s going to have to start bucking his ideas up.

The highlight of the match was a 30 yarder from Tierney. I’m currently looking into putting video’s into my posts so stay tuned.

The low point of the match was Almerares was coming back from injury for the last 20 minutes….. only to hobble off due to a stubbed toe. This time he’ll only be out for a week or two but nonetheless its not encouraging for his future.

Exeter v Shrewsbury

Exeter 1 : Shrewsbury 2
Goals: Herd (90+2) (90+4)

That’s right two goals deep into stoppage time by subsitute Herd brought us all three points. Herd has been coming on for Hadji on the right side after an hour or so.

He doesn’t have the greatest of stats but right now he has every right to have that childish grin on his face.

So six games in we’ve won four, drawn one and lost one and we’re currently sitting in 2nd place.

Previously I was looking at consolidating this season, a mid table finish and a chance to rebuild the squad. I’d dismissed the three teams that have been docked points but I’m starting to realise that was a mistake. Whilst Luton have more than a mountain to climb and are predicted to finish bottom of the league the story isn’t the same for Bournemouth and Rotherham. In fact they are both tipped to finish midtable (Bournemouth 9th, Rotherham 11th). If both teams do stay up then chances are they will be pushing for promotion or playoff places next season when I was planning to. I’m starting to think that I may have a better chance at promotion this season.

And so our season begins, the friendlies are over, the new faces have arrived and now the real work begins in trying to take this club somewhere. By the wonders of the alphabetic ordering system and that Bournemouth, Rotherham and Luton are all starting on negative points this season we’re currently lying in 20th.

I’ve never been in the situation where my club has entered administration but I’ve read that whenever an offer is made on one of your players, you have no option but to accept it. I’m presuming that these must be decent offers and I’m not going to be able to loot these three squads for less that the price of a couple of beers. Has anyone been in that situation before?

I’ve decided to stick to your everyday 4-4-2, in part because in League 2 you can end up getting a bit too fancy. I’m not into squad rotation every week so, barring any injury and fatigue, here’s how our starting line up should be looking.

One piece of final news before I get onto the match reports is that I’d previously requested a parent club from my board. Parent club’s are useful for two reasons, first they give you a sum of money every year and play a friendly in the pre-season which can give your bank balance a hefty boost, and secondly they are more open to loaning out players to you and if you do get one on loan, the parent will pay 100% of the wages. My board finally came back to me the eve before my first competitive match with the following offers:

Manchester United
Aston Villa
Stoke

I was very tempted with signing Manchester United as a sugar daddy and one look at their reserves will tell you why, they have a great list of budding young talent that would be willing to get some experience in the lower leagues. In the end though I chose Aston Villa as Birmingham is the local big city to Shrewsbury and I thought it was a bit more in keeping with what might happen in real life. Straight away I was regretting this decision as the Villa just don’t have the depth or quality in their squad. At least I can feel like I’ve not sold out a little, that should keep me going when we’re battling against relegation in March right?

First up Shrewsbury v Bradford

Shrewsbury 3 : Bradford 0
Goals: Almerares (15, 55) Charlie D (58)

The first game of the season so there was a bit of tension going into the match and the scoreline perhaps doesn’t reflect how the game played out. If Bradford had been a bit more accurate in front of goal it could have been a lot tighter.

Almerares bagged two on his debut which is very encouraging, the first a real pouchers effort getting a foot to a Davies shot that looked like it might just beat the Keeper anyway. The second getting his head to a Holt cross. Finally Charlie D pinged one in off the post from outside the area, I’m definitely telling him to attempt Long Shots often. I’m very pleased with our opener and its nice to get all 3 points.

Next up we’d drawn Derby in the League cup at home. Derby have just come down from the Premier League and so I was looking to try and keep the ass wupping to a minimum as I was desperate to build on the momentum from our game against Bradford. Almerares managed to twist his knee in training and will be out between three and four weeks so I decided to give Madjo a start hoping that he’d be in a good mood today. Almerares’ fitness has always been a concern to me and at the moment out of my plethora of Stikers I can’t see one that has the ability to make a good plan B. It was at this point I remembered how I hoped terminating the Walker loan deal wasn’t going to come back to haunt me along with not picking Manchester United as a parent club.

I set about looking for another decent Striker that could stand in if Almerares kept hurting himself. I put in a cheeky season long loan bid for Arsenal’s Jay Simpson with a wage contribution of 0%. I thought it would be a good starting point for negotiation only for Arsenal to go and accept it. As long as Jay fancies a bit of lower league football I might have got my stand in.

He’s got great Pace and for this level his Finishing is good so I’m hoping that he should be just what the Doctor ordered. Almerares’ Doctor that is, as he may soon become a regular around the training ground.

Shrewsbury v Derby

Shrewsbury 1 : Derby 2
Goal: Langmead (40)

Derby took the lead after half an hour when Daniels parried the ball into Emanuel Villa’s feet instead of catching a cross. Up until then the game was quite even and I was hoping head’s weren’t going to drop as I could still feel that wupping coming round the corner. Speaking of corners, we equalised through one 10 minutes later when one of our CB headed in from the six yard box. It ended 1:1 at half time and I started to think we might just get a chance to bag a lucky one when Daniels again parried a ball out to the feet of a Derby player instead of catching it first time. In the end I’m pleased with the result, I didn’t want the confidence drain of a high score loss but now we can concentrate on the League without having the distraction of the League Cup.

Another silver lining was that Jay Simpson had agreed to the loan deal and would be here in time for our next League Match to stand in for the still injured Almerares.

We’d lost out on a Cup run at the first hurdle but it didn’t matter as long as we got back down to business in the League.

Bury v Shrewsbury

Bury 1 : Shrewsbury 0

Words cannot describe how annoying this match was. Bury scored in the 2nd minute of the game and for the next 90 I slowly increased our Attacking Mentality but it got us nowhere. Also my stand in Striker, Jay Simpson ended up picking up an injury as well.

Its not all bad though I suppose, we’ve got 3 points from our first two games and Bury and Bradford in particular are two of the better teams in the League so I guess we’ve just got to concentrate on step two.

As mentioned in my last post I have come up with a dastardly devious plan to bring in some better staff to Shrewsbury without having to pay huge termination costs. If I want to be taking the team to new heights I can’t underestimate just how important having good backroom staff is. Unfortunately I can’t afford the crippling costs of paying out compensation to my current bunch and so it looked like I was stuck with them until either a) I had a lot more money in the bank, or b) their contracts expire.

Then I had a bright idea.

I’ve offered each of my staff members an extra £50 a week wages which they have all gratefully accepted. They didn’t notice however, that I have reduced the length of their contracts to last until the end of the season. Hopefully that means that come April/May when I decide to bring in better Staff I should be able to get shot of the old ones without paying as much because they’ll only have a couple of months left on their contracts. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

I currently only have one Scout and so I’ve brought in two more to take me to my Board maximum of three. Neither will rock the world with their stats but they have 11/12 for Judging Ability and Potential and they were the best I could bring in so they will do for now.

Next a quick run through my pre season friendlies. We had a couple of matches against Premier League teams and whilst the guaranteed sell outs would boost my bank balance I wanted to get a run of good games to boost our confidence for my first season in charge.

Bognor Regis v Shrewsbury

Bognor Regis 2 : Shrewsbury 7
Goals: Walker (15) Holt (43,45+2) Barlow (OG 51) Madjo (pen 54) Hibbert (66) Cansdell-Sherriff (81)

I honesty don’t know where my strengths lie and so I asked John McMahon, my assistant manager, to pick the best eleven and set them out in a standard 4-4-2.

I’m pleased with the resut. Bognor Regis are obviously a small fish and I expected us to win but the margin is greater than I thought. Grant Holt scored two and I’m expecting big things from the guy as he is currenty earning £3,000 a week. That’s the sort of money very good players earn in League 1 never mind League 2! If he’s going to earn his money each week I’m expecting big things.

Montrose v Shrewsbury

Montrose 0 : Shrewsbury 0

I started tinkering around with the tactics for this match and ended up with a 0-0 draw. Arranging friendlies against lower opposition can be a double edged sword. On the one hand demolishing a team and letting a few of your attacking players get some goals on the board can do wonder for confidence and morale, but on the other hand the fans and the board are expecting you to win by a big margin so not getting a good result can cause you a lot of hurt.

Another sore point is Almerares getting injured during the first half. The hidden gem I thought I’d found last post may not be that shiny after all. (I’m not too sure what that metaphor means either).

Shrewsbury v Oxford

Shrewsbury 2 : Oxford 0
Goals: Davies (14) Hadji (54)

I wanted a win against Oxford to claw back a bit of confidence. I’d asked for some quick short passing against Montrose and, in short, it didn’t work. It seems my players don’t have the skill to play a quick game and so I’ve slowed the tempo and moved to a more direct style of play. It seems to be working but I’d like my Strikers to bag a couple before the close of the pre-season.

Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic

Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic 0 : Shrewsbury 4
Goals: Devineau (4) Holt (9,19) Syrnes (63)

Yeah I don’t know who they are either. The tactics seem to be working a bit better and I’m pleased that Charlie D scored his first screamer. I’ve been rotating the team at half time to try and get everyone match fit. Syrnes bagged a goal which hopefully will raise his profile enough so that I can offload him in the near future.

Donegal Celtic

Dongeal 0 : Shrewsbury 5
Goals: Almerares (13,38) Holt (55) Davies (58) Madjo (68)

Another strong performance the pick of the goals being a 40 yarder from Madjo. The jury is still out on him, he seems to be very inconsistent and I don’t know if I’ve got room for a player who may put in a stellar performance on a good day but will be taking up a vital position on a bad day.

Shrewsbury v Peterborough

Shrewsbury 0 : Peterborough 0

Peterborough have just been promoted into League 1 and so were a good final test for my pre-season. They’ve got a couple of high value dangermen and so to keep them to a 0-0 I’m quite pleased.

We’ve had a decent set of results and confidence and morale seems to be where I’d hoped. I’ve also decided on a set formation (with a couple of more defensive and offensive tweaks when times dictate) along with a starting line up so all in all a decent first pre-season.

Up next I’ll give an overview of my starting eleven and the tactics and then onto the start of the season!

As mentioned in my last post I’ll have to do some wheeler dealing before the season kicks off. Top of the list is a Goalkeeper as my current no. 1 is only on loan until January. A back up left sided Midfieder to cover for Davies is necessary along with a decent right sided Midfielder. With 6 Strikers in the squad that’s one position I don’t need to look into, which brings me nicely to my first signing Federico Almerares. A Striker.

There is reason for this. Out of those 6 Strikers only 2 of them have the ability to play in League 1 and one of them, Richard Walker, is a loan signing from Bristol Rovers. He’s 30 years old so his best years are probably behind him so he’s not a player I will be looking to bring in on a permanent move. My Scout salviated over Almerares and despite him being worth £40,000 FC Basel have only slapped a £3,000 asking price for him.

I’m hoping that if I can build a team of League 1 players our promotion should take care of itself and once we’re in League 1 we’ll have a great chance of staying up. Whilst loan players are important at this level I don’t want to be relying on them each week. Once Almerares signed on the dotted line I terminated Walker’s loan deal. This is a bit of a bold move, especially looking at the Fitness level of Almerares I’m fearing he may pick up injuries quite easiy. It may come back to bite me but Almerares is only costing me £500 per week whereas Walker was on £1,400 so I’ve freed up almost a grand a week for other new faces.

Robert So good he only needs one name.

At 35 he’s coming to end of his playing days but if I can get a decent season and a half out of him I’ll pleased for the £3,000 I paid for him. He has a Crossing ability of 13 so hopefully he’ll be able to overlap my RM and whip some balls into the box.

Mustapha Hadji

When looking for players I tend to filter by certain attributes depending on the position such as Pace, Flair and Crossing for Side Midfielders, Height, Jumping and Heading for CBs. I initialy dismissed Hadji because of his age of 36 when looking for a RM as I didn’t think he’d have the legs to run down the flanks anymore but when he appeared in my filtered results for an attackingly minded MC I took another look and signed him on a free.

He’ll probably only play for 60 minutes or so if he starts, or come on as a sub but he has the stats to change the game and make things happen.

Charles Devineau

A backup for Davies on the left side but also another attackingly minded MC with a Long Shot attribute of 16 and Crossing of 15. I’ve pictured him as a Gerrard-esque player, feeding the Strikers with beautful long balls as well as scoring some absolute screamers from outside the box. I’m so pleased with this signing I’ve already started calling him Charlie D in tribute to Stevie G himself.

Aurelien Brugniaud

A 21 year old CB/defensively minded MC. Picked up on a free, I don’t know whether he’ll be starting straight away but he’s got the potential to be a great signing.

Finally I managed to sell one of my many Strikers, Dave Hibbert, to Torquay for £18,000. I’m still looking to offload a few players to reduce the wage bill but to try and avoid morale issues I’m only going to offer players to clubs which other teams have shown an interest in.

Next up an overview of my pre-season friendies and my masterplan to bring in better Staff without paying massive termination costs. Is there anything else I need to mention…..? Oh yes, I haven’t signed a Keeper yet.

Welcome to the foot of the Football League. Below us lies the wastelands of the Conference and above us sit the best footballing teams of England and Wales.

Shrewsbury’s greatest acheivement to date is winning League 1 (two leagues below what is now the Premier League) back in 1979 and coming runner up in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy back in 1996.

The media have predicted that we will finish 17th out of 24 this season so it looks like if we want success we’ve got a sizeable mountain to climb. Our predicted league position is somewhat even less encouraging when you factor in that three clubs this season are starting on negative points due to entering administration. Bournemouth and Rotherham are starting on -17 points whereas Luton are starting on -30.

With this in mind the board are looking for a midde table finish and I’m happy to agree to that. Suprisingly I’ve been given a transfer budget of £150k which is very good indeed and a wage budget of £25.5k.

Looking at the squad I’m starting to understand why I have such a good chunk of change to get started with, we don’t have a full squad. Our first Keeper is a loan signing along with one of our starting Strikers. As well as not being at full strength the squad also seems a little… lopsided. We have six Stikers, three Right Wingers but only one Left Midfield player. If I’m going to achieve any sort of depth I’m going to have to spend some of that money straight away.

First of all let me introduce to a couple of players that I think will be key to our sucess this season.

Ben Davies

Our current Captain and only left sided Midfielder and our set piece taker. Set Piece’s will be important for us as I have a feeling we will need all the goals we can get.

Shane Cansdell-Sheriff

A defensively minded Central Midfielder. I’m hoping that he will be the anchor in our team who can use this high heading and tackling attributes to win the ball and distribute back up field to feed the attack.

I’ve been looking at players to fill the gaps I’ll update soon to fill you all in on my transfer deaings.