Show Your Authority As Manager

Do players obey you? Do they even respect you? Do they have doubts about your managerial skill?Well, afraid them no more and show them who is the boss around.

It happens to me when I fined a player and he,despite playing badly, said the fine was harsh.

Never in my game, I have my team losing to team fighting to avoid relegation in a big margin of scoreline.

I had one now.My team lose 4-0 against Wolves in League Cup!!!They beat the shit out of us and the worst player on pitch was Matic.


Rating of 4.5 out of 10.Stunning and surprising performance.

Then, he came out saying he is SHOCKED to be handed an official warning despite playing badly.

What's so shocking about the fine when you played badly?

I don't have much patience for him and transfer listed him straightaway.

Good that,NAC Breda actually came in with a bid of 7.5m for him...So, Matic played his last game against Wolves and bid farewell with the supporters.

Thank you very much for the money and bye bye!

So guys, if you have encounter something like this, don't hold back.Sell them out, get someone better in.Show them who's the boss!

My First League Cup Final

The League Cup is up for grab!If you guys follow my blog closely, you would have know that this is my very first League Cup Final with Q.P.R...In previous match, we beat Chelsea in 90th minute to proceed into Final which we will be facing Manchester City.

I fancy beautiful attacking football.In addition, I don't really care about winning or losing the final.To me, league cup is not important.Thus, I decided to play an attractive attacking football to please our fans who travel to Wembley to watch the team playing.A 3-4-3 formation was chosen.


I wouldn't want to tear off the lethal partnership of Baros and Keirrison but simultaneously I want Cristaldo to feature in some part of the game.So, I chose to start with 3 strikers.Aliev and Salvio who did brilliantly on the flanks will continue starting on their usual role.On the central midfield, there will be a little changes made due to the suspension on Jones.

Rodwell will partners the super-sub Gosling in the middle of the park with Kacar dropped back to defense.

For City, they decided to play with a traditional 4-4-2 formation.


Zarate started the game alongside Tevez while Adebayor warms the bench for no reason.I have no idea why they dropped their most dangerous man , Adebayor Obviously,Adebayor's height and aerial ability will be a big problem for us to deal with.So, I should be thanking them because that will give us less problem to deal with in defense.

The game started brightly. Keirrison scored the 1st when it was barely 3minutes into match time.However, the happiness didn't last long.Tevez scored in 36th minute to equalize for City and scored another in 60minutes to push City ahead of the game with 30minutes left. But...But...It's not game over.

Cristaldo scored 2 goals in 2 minutes to give the team the crucial lead after the team was trailing with 1 goal just 8minutes earlier.City tried to change the game by putting on Adebayor but they were trying in vain.

Full Time: Q.P.R 3-2 Manchester City


The team won the cup! This is my 1st ever trophy beside the Coca Cola Championship 2 seasons ago.Although it's just a little , not-so-important cup, I'm still happy with my team's overall performance in this competition.

In the 2nd round of League Cup, we beat Charlton 4-1 at Loftus Road.Then, we continued our brilliant form by beating Villa and Spurs 2-0 despite being the underdogs team.Then, the team, again beat the odds and made a record by coming back from 3-0 down by scoring 4 goals with only 10men on field after Cattermole was sent off on the 12minutes.


In the semi final, it was as dramatic as the previous few matches.The team only managed to steal a last minute win from bitter rival to proceed into the final.

To put it simpler, I'm soooooooooo proud of my team.No words can describe how happy I am being able to build such a team.I expect more glory in future.

League Cup :The Semi Final 2 legs

I almost forget to post this.The league cup actually end quite some times ago.Anyway, worry not cos I'm back to report my team league cup progress.

Following a dramatic win over Newcastle in Quarter Final, the team proceed to Semi Final, only to find out their opponent for this leg of League Cup will be their bitter rival Chelsea.


The 1st leg of League Cup Semi Final was played at Stamford Bridge.The team started brilliantly by leading a goal up by 25th minutes of the game only to be equalized by a John Terry's header 6minutes later.3 minutes before half time, Yuri Zhirkov was sent off.It seems like luck favors us and with one man down, we could probably win the match.


Unfortunately, we didn't win the game.The match ended up a draw.Considering that we were playing away, it's still a bonus for us.

In the second leg at Loftus Road, with the help of luck, we managed to beat Chelsea and proceed to final.


Lampard equalized Trochowski's goal earlier , bringing the game to final minute to decide the winner of the leg.Out of nowhere, a daring Dan Gosling hit a 30 yards long shot and scored a stunner that booked the team a place at Wembley for the League Cup Final.

On the other side of Semi Final, Manchester City managed to beat Bolton and proceed to the final with an outstanding 6-2 aggregate.Thus, City will be playing my team for the League Cup Final.


Next post, League Cup Final!

Do The Impossible-Superb Comeback!!!

In the League Cup quarter final,the team was drawn against Newcastle.I never get serious with League Cup.Thus, I only fielded 2 1st team player.

Only Cattermole and Otamendi remained in the lineup.

E.Johnsen replaced Joe Hart in front of goal.Santa Cruz get chance to prove me wrong that he is not a flop.Santos, a regen wonderkid get another start.

The team started the game horribly.Cattermole was sent off on 12minutes and opponents managed to score 1minute later.When Half times arrived, the team is already trailed by 2 goals.

When the 2nd half started, I thought the team would play better after my scolding but it turned out that they played worse.Andy Carroll scored the 3rd goal to ensure that we couldn't win the match.

On 56minutes, I decided to change things up, putting all 3 subs on the pitch, hoping that it would change the game.

Santos came off for the in form Baros.Jones came on for Buzsaky.And Kerrison replaced Borrowdale to make the formation now, 3-4-3.

I removed one of the wingback and put Jermaine Jones as Anchor Man to act as an additional defensive cover to allow the rest of the team to go all out for the match with the mentality of the team set to Overload.

Miracle did happen. Baros was the hero.Just 2minutes on the pitch, he already start scoring.His 1st came on 58minute.

On 61minutes of the game, Jones scored a stunner from 30yards out to give the team a glimspe of hope.

On 76minute of the game, Baros scored his second and completed his hat trick 3 minutes later and single-handedly won us the game.

We came back from 3 behind to score 4 and won the game.Greatest game my team ever produced!

3 super subs ultimately changed the game.

I learned one thing.

Never afraid to try and take the risks.Anything is possible.Impossible is nothing.

The Early Season

August:

The 1st game of the season was against away, playing Pompey.Unsurprisingly, we won the game 2-1.Keirrison scored a brace and that was only his 1st game.

However, the next game was a disgrace. We lost 2-0 at home,against Middlesbrough who just get promoted this season.The fans were furious with the defeat...



But the next 2 games pleased them..We won the next 2 games at home with big margin.Something positive.August ended with us sitting on 12th with 6pts in hand.

September:

September is the perfect month for both the team and I.Not only we managed to beat big spender Manchester City at their own turf, we also kicked Aston Villa's ass once again with the same scoreline we had last month.


September ends with a victory over another strong team - Everton. 9 points from possible 9.The team sat comfortably at top 3.

Because of these positive results, I managed to get the Manager of the Month award.


October- November:

Keirrison scored again in the 1st game of October.By now, he already scored more than anyone else in league and league cup.

8 league goals in 7 league games and 4 goals in 2 appearances in league cup matches.

Joe Hart doesn't want to lose to Keirrison in scoring.So, he decided to score few himself too.



His penalty taking isn't that bad huh for a GK?

After 11 league games, the team now sit 2nd on the table, trailing 2 points behind Tottenham.


All thanks to the great Baros-Keirrison partnership.Because they gel well, we managed to steal a lot of points from those big teams.

Baros already scored 6 league goals, assisted another 5 in his 9 appearances in league.What a signing.He came on Free and did a splendid job for us. Bravo!

Santa Cruz, on the other hand, is another flop like Saha.

In 11 matches, he only managed to score 2.He assisted 5 goals though which is pretty decent...But he has to start scoring goals now or else he will be losing his place to Baros.


After 12 matches,the scoring chart is now led by Fernando Torres from Liverpool.


Keirrison get himself injured after scoring the 8th.If only he is fit, he will be able to top the scoring chart.


The provider chart is led by Luka Modric from Spurs.

Baros and Santa Cruz both have 5 and easily make into the top10 of highest assists.

December next and I think I need few reinforcement in January.

The Season Of Death or Survival

Previous post, I showed all the transfer made before the season kick off.Today, I'm going to share how those signings affects my Q.P.R run in Premier League.

Early Run:
The team had a mixed start.Drawn 2-2 against Bolton, followed by a defeat against Man Utd and a narrow win against Wolves.However, there is something worth happy about.


Salvio claimed the young player of the month award yet again but this time in Premier League.He's worth every penny of the 3.7m I paid for him.Easily the best signing I have ever made beside Otamendi.

The following months were decent as we made everyone know they shouldn't take us easy just because we are the newly promoted team.

In one of the match at home, against Spurs, Salvio again, to the savior but...

only to be denied by a Jermain Defoe's late goal that stole a point from us.


In the match against Chelsea, the team managed to steal a surprise win .


New signing, Jones scored the only goal in the match...Surprisingly, the team managed to kept a clean sheet .

Our Formation and Line up:



Chelsea's Formation and Line up:


Judging from the lineup, it's clear that they have a far better and stronger lineup than us.We got lucky to get that 3 points.

Carlo Ancelotti was angry I guess... Few weeks later, his Chelsea side knocked us out from Carling cup.Cattermole scored 1st but Terry and Cavani scored 2 goals to come back from behind and knocked us out of Carling cup. Sigh...

Against Top Four:
Against the top Four,we had an excellent results.We managed to have a 1 defeat, 1 victory 2 draws against them.

Man Utd beat us in their own turf and we beat Chelsea at home.

Against Arsenal and Liverpool, we managed to hold a 0-0 result and given that we were playing away, those 2 matches are considered to be fantastic results.


Bad discipline:
The main problem of the team now is the bad discipline on pitch.Cards are flying around from match to match.

As early as 15 league matches,we already had 5 red cards.


We actually have 3 players in top 10 of the red card table.Dossena and Otamendi loves red I guess.

League Standing:
By January, the team already played 20 league matches.

In those 20 matches, we managed to win only 7! Only 7! Drawn 9 and lost 4.

On the top of table we have Chelsea who had 50 points, 20 points more than us.
Sitting on 7th isn't exactly that bad, huh? Especially with one of the top four behind me.




Next post, Wonderkid on left back.Stay tuned.

Best Game? Worst Game of the season?

The season ended and now the team is in Premier League but I would like to share the best/worst game of the season in my previous season.

Our run in League cup was nothing but incredible.Let us refresh the memories.


We started the unbelievable run in League Cup by beating Villa at their own turf before beating Birmingham and met one of the Big Four, Arsenal.

Another surprising victory ensured the team to proceed to Semi Final of League Cup which the team had to play against another big four, Man United.


In the 1st leg , at Loftus Road, the team managed to lead 2-0 up at HT before conceding 2 goals in 2nd half and Camara scored a crucial penalty to beat Man Utd 3-2.

The Best Game?Nah..Nope.

In the 2nd Leg, the team had to play away at Old Trafford with a one-goal-lead advantage.

At Half Time, Man Utd had a healthy 3-0 lead which means the total aggregate was already 3-5.

Entering 2nd half, by 64minutes, Berbatov scored another goal to make it 4-0.The team will have to score at least 3 goals to enter extra time.Mission Impossible.

But 16minutes of magical football put the team into extra time.

Rowlands scored a penalty before Camara slotted in a goal.Salvio, desperately show how well he is, scored the vital goal in stoppage time to push the team into extra time.

But good time are usually short and we had a humilating result after that.


They scored another 5 in extra time.
Full Time
Manchester United 9-3 Queens Park Rangers.

Agg: 11-6

United proceed to League Cup final.


So, tell me, is this the Best Game of the season or the Worst Game of the season? I can't really tell. *winks*

Early Christmas Present

October didn't start as well as I thought it would be.The bad run continue with a draw away from home against Swansea, a team we should be able to beat.Bored draw it was, with no goals, injury or cards.Everyone seems to be passing the ball around, waiting for the 90minutes to come and the signal of referee blowing the whistle for the game to end.

The next game was a home game against Preston.


In the last post, I did mention about the bad home form the squad was in.Because of that, I had an uneasy feeling going into the match and decided to make a twist in formation by playing 3 forwards with Jay Simpson, Salvio and Helguson all starting upfront.



It was a bold move, a successful one nonetheless as two of the strikers scored and Salvio set up one of the goal.Cerny could have won the team another clean sheet before Chris Sedgwick scored a rebound goal.

The bad news for the next few games were the team failed to keep clean sheet yet again. 4 games in a row, the team had conceded a goal.

The good news , however, was we managed to get 9 points out of the next 3 games.



Call it coincidence, it's 4 league games in a row(including the game against Preston), we are winning with the same scoreline - 2 -1. A win is a win, I will take it any day.

Before the match of Leicester was a game in League cup against the Premier League team, Birmingham City.I have no high hope in winning this but I tried my best by putting in the best team I had and removed those with bad form, replacing them with those in form players.




We won the game.But the truth is, we were a bit lucky in that match.


According to the match stats, they had more possession than my team did.However, due to the fact that their strikers were not in form, they only had 2 shots on target.Lucky us. Haha.


Not only more possession, they also had more shots than my team did but what makes difference here was the fact that all our shots are on target with only 3 getting blocked out by their defenders.

At the end of the day, QUALITY of possession and shots beats QUANTITY.


Summary Of October

In October, the team managed to snatch 4 wins and had only one game draw.

The most impressive player in this month was the long shot specialist of the team, Buzsaky.



He scored an impressive 3 goals and 1 assist in 4 matches.He made a huge impact.

On a side note, did Christmas come earlier this season?


I won the Coca-Cola Championship Manager of the Month award despite not winning all of the matches.Feeling curious, I went on to check only to find out that Middlesbrough, West Brom and Newcastle United all slipped up and lose 1 match out of the five matches played.Thanks to that I got the award.

I can't wait for the next transfer window to come because I need more strike force!

League Cup Run

11-08-09 , the start of League Cup.I'm not really concern about League Cup simply because getting promotion will be the priority for the club.To move forward and improve the statue of the club, we have to get promotion.No point winning the league cup and sticking at second tier of English Football, right?


For the 1st round of League Cup, Q.P.R were drawn against Northampton, having a slight advantage because the match gonna be played at Home.


Surprisingly, the team managed to win the match with a big score margin.Something unexpected given the bad league run the team had before playing the match.

Salvio scored his 1st goal in English Football but Martin Rowlands beat him for the MOTM award.The captain scored one and provide 2 assists and capped a 9.0 rating performance.

I was expecting the team to score more after Chris McCready was sent off but they only managed to score one more.

In the 2nd round, we were drawn against Bury.Another should-win match.


In this match, however,Salvio failed to score but capped his performance with a 7.5 rating after 90minutes.I was expecting him to score after all Bury are weaker team in League 2(no offence to Bury fans.Sorry) and Salvio should have no problem scoring against them.He lets me down a little but still, his overall performance is good enough.

Few positives to take from the match:
1.Otamendi scored his 1st goal in English Football
2.Another big win for the team.
3.Ben Watson scored 3/3 penalties now, 100% record.


The bad news after the match is, we are going to play against Aston Villa from Premier League.Gosh.

Remember the friendly match against Stoke? The team couldn't even deal with them and how can they beat a team who possibly can break into Top Four? To beat them at Villa Park? Mission Impossible!!!

End of League Cup run maybe? :(

I tried to convince myself that they might be fielding a weaker team and go easy on us.Unfortunately, NO!!!

I almost fainted when I saw their lineup. The whole team were 1st team regulars.There's no way the team can break their defense and score goal. *sigh*

To make things worse, their attacking force was too strong for my poor defense to handle.No way I can win this match.Period.

I made a little change to the team because De Laet is illegible to play in League Cup.Buzsaky is played on the right, replacing the off form Jay Simpson.

For tactics, I set the team mentality to Counter. Instructions given include:
1.Retain Procession
2. Shoot on sight
3.Play Narrower.

The game starts and 8minutes+ into the game, Young already scored the 1st goal past Cerny.Horrible start and I'm not hoping too much.Will be extremely happy if the team lose by a small margin.

But Rowlands scored to level up before Helguson scored another to give us a lead at Half Time.

HT 1-2, we lead.

I was so happy. The captain and vice captain inspired the team to play better football.

But, will this last long?


Like dream,Another surprising result appeared in front of my eyes.We actually managed to score 3 more past Aston Villa at their own ground!

I have no idea what happens to Villa but we won and only that matters! Counter attacking football at its very best.Hah!

However the MOTM award went to Ashley Young.Actually,it matters not as long as we win.

Now, we are progressing to 4th round. It's beyond the board's expectation because they only want the team to proceed to 3rd round.

A day later, a draw was made and I prayed hard so that we can get someone from the same league-Derby, Watford,Middlesbrough and West Brom.Anyone of them will do.

Yet, we get another Premier League club- Birmingham.

I tried to stay positive because looking at the draw, at least 2 of the big clubs will be eliminated.

Tottenham against Man Utd, Arsenal against Man City.This will mean less competition and more chances of progressing because two of these strong teams will be eliminated.

So, what matters now to us is to progress to the next round. Having the match at home is an advantage because we are doing great at home for League Cup matches.


Looking at the scoring chart, Rowlands, Salvio and Helguson have all scored 2 goals in League Cup.Hopefully, their rich vein of form in league cup can carry us forward to the next round.