Finally on July, 6 2010 the LFC board hire me as Reds manager, a 38 years old Indonesian male known as an international footballer who has a good knowledge in both Indonesia & England football. “Surprising” told the press, an unknown man was hired by high reputable English Football Club.
TACTIC
In deciding a tactic I always concern about the squad depth, since in LFC lot of good & potential midfield players, limited defenders and lack of forwards so I decided to use a 4-2-3-1 with my starting line-up as below
Pepe Reina as my trusted Goalie, (GK)
Glen Johnson as my attacking right full-back, (DR)
Aurelio as my attacking left full-back, (DL) – primary throw-in taker
Agger & Skrtel as my central defender, (DC)
Meireles as my tireless box to box midfielder, (MC) – primary corner taker
Lucas as my ball wining midfielder, (MC)
Milan as my attacking left winger, (AML) – primary penalty taker
Kuyt as my attacking right winger, (AMR)
Gerrard as my captain and my Terraquista, (AMC) – primary free-kick taker
Torres as my superb & Advanced forward, (STC)
SQUAD
My LFC squad is mix of old and young players (such as Jonjo Shelvey, Pacheco, Wilson, Spearing and N`Gog) this is good to tutor them and to develop them to became a good players. Other reason is because of we didn’t have any transfer budget so I fill my squad with mixed players.
As I mentioned on the last post the board didn’t gave me any budget for acquire new player (this is because the huge debt of the club), so I search players what Sammy Lee (my assistant) suggested to me. He consider with our right defence area (since only Glen Johnson our good DR / right full-back player), and he came up with free and good player (in my opinion), he was Abubakari Yakubu, a 29 yrs old Ghanaian, very strong full-back with high determination, bravery and body balance.
STAFF
After pleased with my current squad depth, I move on to see my coaches depth and decided to add 3 others coach. At this time I am very happy because the board allowed me to add a new coach, I choose Gianpiero Ventore (an Italian who have a good GK coaching) Franco Baldini (an Italian who have a good attacking attribute), Robert Prosinecki (a Crotarian and good in Technique stuff). And I set up my training heavy to speed up my youngers into potential players.
PRE-SEASON
Shocking pre-season in my opinion, we only win one game against Scotland Hibernian FC 2-0, and we defeated by Swansea with 1-2, draw against Genk 2-2 and heavy loss 1-3 against Denmark club Aberdeen. Fortunately these results not affected much in our EURO cup 3rd qualification against Suduva FC; we crash them with 4-1 (in home) and 1-0 (away) win. The march continue as we win in EURO cup 4th qualification against Karpaty FC 3-0 (in away) although we only play draw 0-0 in Anfield.
SEASON
2010 Premier Divison kick-off on August, 16 2010. We meet Birmingham, you can say this is “David-Goliath” situation, well you right then, we crash them 4-0 win with Jovanovic two goals lead him to have a sweet debut.
What makes my day bright is we won on next game in Merseyside derby against Everton 2-0 in Goodison Park (away) with El Nino as Man of the Match, grabbing all Reds goals. Very intense game, as you can see card is cheaply coming out.
Next fixture after long international friendly “holiday” we have to battle against the mighty Man Utd, Tough game indeed, but the youngster Jonjo Shelvey makes me smile with magnificent goal and lead Reds wins against their rivals. I know we play with 10 men in 62min after Vidic sent off, but I am very pleased with Jonjo performance, that’s the bottom line.
Shocking result in Mid August, first we lost (heavy lost) against AEK 0-3 in away game on EURO cup group I, after that we lost against West Ham 0-1 in premier league which in my opinion we should and have to grab 3 points home on this match. The frustration continues with lost in penalty shoot-out against Burnley in League cup 3rd round.
Next game will be in home against Wigan, meireles put his name in the scoresheet with only 1-0 win. Honestly I am not happy with the performance that my squad showing in this game, narrow win against Wigan is disappointing.
The disappointment back, we lost against Braga in home 0-1, this is closed September with lack of my squad performance with others lost. None of players are 7.0 rating, I know Braga is not a smaller reputation team but in Anfield (THIS IS ANFIELD) we supposed win against Braga. Well this is football….
To wrap story from first week up to September, LFC current position is on 4th premier division table (5 win & 1 lost) and last place on EURO cup group I with never win matches.
Next story will determine the consistency LFC on premier league and surviving the EURO cup Group phase.
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