SeenThemGiven FM

British and Irish Steel Challenge: Season Two – Part Two

Having chopped and changed tactics more than an Oscars host changes outfit, I had finally settled on a narrow 4-3-3 going into 2020.  We were on an unbeaten run of four games and, sitting in sixth, had every chance of making the top six for the second season in a row. (more…)

British and Irish Steel Challenge: Season Two – Part One

As the 2018/19 season petered out with a whimper, it was clear that more quality needed to be brought in and the playing squad improved. Players were identified to fill positions of weakness – namely right back, centre back and strikers. However, finding top quality was still proving to be an issue.  With the club’s lowly status in the Welsh game, the likes of TNS and Bangor had the pick of the…

British and Irish Steel Challenge: Season One – Part Two

Inconsistency and a lack of options had seen a stuttering start to my time at Llandudno. The January transfer window provided the chance to remedy the latter and, as a result, the former problem would fix itself…hopefully. (more…)

Upon my return from holiday, I applied for a the four available jobs – Newbuildings (NIFL Bluefin Sport Premier Intermediate League) – for which I was odds-on favourite with the bookies to get – Lowestoft (Vanarama National League North), Chesham (Vanarama National League South) and Airbus UK (JD Welsh Premier League).

Interviews were attended while other roles were applied for as they appeared in the interim.  Ideally I wanted to start in top flight in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland or Wales – as well as the trophies on offer, these leagues would allow a quicker route to Europe and more money to fund license courses for yours truly.

The Cork City role became available and although it ticked that box, they were half way through their season and struggling – this could have been six months wasted if they continued to flounder under my tutelage and I got sacked, damaging my already minuscule reputation.

However, the same couldn’t be said of MBi Llandudno in the JD Welsh Premier League, a club very much in the pre-season of their 2018/19 campaign. Following a successful interview, I shook hands on a one year deal with the Welsh outfit.

Having agreed to aim for a mid-table finish in my first season in charge, I packed up my Metro Clubland and headed for North Wales.

With TNS tending to be dominant in the league (Bangor City had won the 2017/18 league title, breaking a six-year streak for TNS), either of the cups represented my best chance at getting this challenge up and running.

The first team squad looked solid enough with Jake Phillips, Zak Evans and Marc Williams making a good spine for this level. 16-year-olds Liam Griffiths and Liam Evans looked ready for first team football even at their tender age.

In regards to the challenge, only Greek back up keeper Giannis Oikonomopoulos was unavailable for selection.

Attracting players that would improve the current squad was proving difficult and signings were sporadic (my signings were from Charlie Harris onwards, the others were at the club when I joined).

Wingers Harris and Woolfe would provide back up to Leigh Smith and Liam Evans.  Experienced centre back Ryan Green was also drafted in as back up to Jake Phillips and Darius Waters.  Wes Baynes came in as first choice right back, replacing youngster Gabriel Kubwalo.

The only permanent departure was a major one, and one that would impact Llandudno’s first half of the 2018/2019 season – the club’s only left back, Mike Williams, left for Airbus UK a week before the season opener.  This not only forced Jake Phillips into an unfamiliar role of left back, but ultimately weakened us at centre back.

Further to this, a month previous to Williams’ departure and blissful in my ignorance as to what was about to unfold, I had let promising young centre-back Salvyn Kisitu go to Carmarthen on loan for the season.  Sigh.

As we struggled to bring in new faces, I was forced to fit a formation round the players we had.  An open 4-2-4 was used in order to try and make the most of our better players – central midfielders Zak Evans (BWM) and Aaron Hassall (CM), and wingers Leigh Smith (LW) and Liam Evans (RW).  Up front saw the raw exuberance of youth in Liam Griffiths  (AF) partnered with the more experienced Marc Williams (DF).

At the back, Waters partnered either Green or Pinch while, as mentioned, Baynes started at right back upon his arrival replacing Kubwalo.  Jake Phillips didn’t necessarily “play” at left back but more turned up and stood in that general area of the pitch – to say he struggled in an unfamiliar role was an understatement.

Player and team instructions took the “keep it simple, stupid” approach that was key to football at this level.  Long balls over the top became an issue so our defensive line dropped deeper to deal with these whilst maintaining our shape was key, hence being more disciplined.

In the midfield two, Zak Evans was asked to hold his position more in order to try and stop the central two from getting overrun.

Results were a mixed bag; frustrating draws and defeats prevented us from stringing together any real form.  Even then, wins were far from comfortable and felt in spite of our system and shape rather than due to them.

Notable wins included a 2-0 defeat of previously-perennial champions TNS and a 4-1 thumping of reigning champions Bangor City – both of which were followed up by two disappointing results, highlighting our inconsistency.

The Nathaniel MG Cup provided some relief (though we didn’t face a Welsh Premier side until the semi final) and will see my first chance at chalking off a trophy as we take on TNS in the final in January 2019.

There was also a routine win over non-league Taffs Wells in the FAW Cup.

My first day at Maesdu Park saw me request the club fund my National C Licence course, which they duly agreed to doing;

Naturally, I nailed this and immediately started my National B;

Overall, a middling start to my managerial stint at Llandudno.  However, the Nathaniel MG Cup represents a chance to get off to a solid start and start the tin-digging in my first season.

New signings have been identified (though these will be cup-tied for the final) as we aim to finish in the top six before the “split”.  At present, it feels that we are overly reliant on penalties from ball-winning midfielder Zak Evans and goals from Marc Williams – if these two do not score, it’s fair to say that we struggle.

The majority of these signings are central midfielders which I will utilise to move away from the 4-2-4 system which will hopefully allow us to be a bit more balanced and start to string some form together.

Up the Seasiders.

STGFM

So after a brief (er…year-long) hiatus SeenThemGivenFM is back and back with an old favourite: the British & Irish Steel Challenge. The rules of the challenge are simple. Starting unemployed, I will work my way through British and Irish football and attempt to win every league (a slight cop-out but promotion from lower leagues is classed as “winning” a league) and cup on offer. These are as…

Atalanta: The Rise of La Dea – 2015/2016 End of Season Awards & Round Up

As the last balls were kicked in anger, final whistles sounded across the continent and the curtain came down on Europe’s club competitions.  The 2015/2016 season drew to a close and the European Championships and awards season drew near. The big questions were on everyone’s lips; who would be top dog in France?  Who would the surprise package be?  Who would SeenThem GivenFM be wearing at the…

Two of our three May fixtures were against sides whose season was certainly not done and dusted.  Genoa were staring relegation to Serie B in the face while Inter were continuing their battle with Fiorentina for the final Champions League spot.  A dead rubber at home to Juve rounded up an incredible debut season for the club and yours truly.

01.05.2016 – Serie A – Genoa (H)

Genoa travelled to Bergamo deep in the brown stuff.  With Pescara already relegated and Crotone looking set to join them, Italy’s oldest club found themselves battling with Bologna to avoid slipping below the dotted line by the time the big boned lady began to sing.

In the interest of fair play, I fielded a strong team.  As well as benefitting former Atalanta man Roberto Donadoni’s Bologna, this could also benefit Alberto Paloschi – the former Swansea man was in with a shot of becoming Capocannoniere, sitting one goal behind Juve’s Gonzalo Higuain.

By the time news filtered through that Higuain had netted in Juve’s 1-1 draw at Bologna, Paloschi was in the changing room watching on as his team mates signed his match ball.  A devastating hat trick had downed Genoa and put him a goal ahead in the race to become Serie A’s top scorer.

The big striker opened the scoring in the 4th minute, racing onto Tino Susic’s through ball and firing past Genoa’s Perin.  Marco D’Alessandro got his obligatory assist ten minutes later, drilling across the six yard box for Paloschi to lift past the keeper at his near post.  Fifteen minutes from the end, Paloschi completed his hat trick, the only one to be scored by a Dea player all season, latching on to de Luca’s ball over the top and, again, beating Perin at his near post.

08.05.2016 – Serie A – Inter (A)

Inter headed into this game at the Giuseppe Meazza level on points with La Viola in the race for third place.  They had won six of their last seven at home – including an impressive Europa League win over Bayern Munich – and hoped to face a Dea side, Paloschi aside, who were on the beach.

However, I hate Inter and wanted to ruin their season.  Fringe players Guiseppe de Luca and Remo Freuler came in for the injured Gómez and Timor, attempting to try and play for their places next season.

A game in which literally nothing happened as the barren FM highlight below testifies to.

Paloschi’s failure to score coupled with a Higuain goal in a 3-0 Juve win over Empoli meant that the strikers would face off at Atleti Azzurri d’Italia on the last day.  To the victor, the spoils.

On a side note, another promising youngster made his Atalanta debut in this game -Christian Capone came on as a sub and played half an hour.  Most people in the stadium were so bored at this point, it barely registered – but he does look good.

14.05.2016 – Serie A – Juventus (H)

22,702 squeezed into Atleti Azzurri d’Italia to celebrate what was an incredible, yet trophy-less, season of over-achievement for Atalanta.  A guard of honour was given to champions Juventus but once the formalities were out of the way, it was down to business.

This wasn’t Atalanta vs Juve, this was Paloschi vs Higuain.  Juve wouldn’t be a team for lying down either.  Both Max Allegri and I named our strongest teams, injuries aside.

Juve tried to land plenty of body blows but travelled back to Turin with a bloodied nose courtesy of two sucker punches from 2015/2016 Capocannoniere Alberto Paloschi.  His rival, Higuain, never got a sniff and looked decidedly off colour.

Once again, Marco D’Alessandro looked to provide the bullets for Paloschi.  As the first half drew to a close, the former Roma man burned past Alex Sandro before curling a delightful ball to the striker who powered his header past Buffon.

Fifteen minutes from the end, Paloschi put clear day light between his team and Juve and also himself and Higuain, firing a deep Svensson free kick high into the roof of the net.

A fine end to a fine season.  A meagre three defeats all season was a huge achievement, but there was a sense of what could have been if we had secured more wins from those fourteen draws and put some real pressure on Juve.

However this season has laid a great foundation to build on.  With Champions League on the agenda next season, a lot of the promising youngsters who spent the 2015/16 season out on loan will be in and around the first team squad as I aim to bulk it out with up and coming talent.

Next blog I will detail the end of season awards, then it’s on to pre-season for the 2016/2017 season.  But for now, I will leave you with the awe-inspiring Atalanta club song – “Dea” by Roby Facchinetti.

Final 2015/2016 Serie A Table

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We held a six point lead over Fiorentina and Inter and a maximum points haul from April’s first four fixtures was a must before heading into a difficult end to the Serie A season.

03.04.2016 – Serie A – Udinese (H)

You may remember back to back to November when Stefano Pioli’s side gave us a proper FMing at the Friuli – desperately clinging onto a undeserved point as we bombarded their goal.

This was not a time for us to show them that sort of mercy – like killing a circus, we had to go straight for the juggler jugular.

We went for the jugular, but armed with the safety scissors handed out to pre-school children.

Udinese eventually succumbed to the bludgeoning and a drab game was only settled by an Alberto Palsochi goal mid-way through the second half.  The goal itself was a bizarre one, the away defence seemingly intent on carrying out a Mannequin Challenge, were more than happy to let Paloschi react first after keeper Karnezis had spilled Augustinsson’s shot.

Meanwhile, our closest rivals exchanged places as Inter lost 2-1 at home to Lazio and Fiorentina recorded a win over Napoli by the same scoreline.

10.04.2016 – Serie A – Cagliari (H)

Cagliari travelled north from the island of Sardinia in high spirits having pulled themselves out of the relegation dogfight and were sitting in a respectable 13th position.

This fact relegated this game to the sort of dead rubber for the away side that would allow them to play fearlessly and with freedom, with all the pressure being on us.  Tits.

The stats make this look like we’ve got out of jail here.  In truth it was a terrible game but we came closest to winning it; Paletta heading a Gómez free kick onto the bar.  This provided little comfort in what were two points dropped rather than a point gained.

A further bittersweet feeling followed with the news that both Inter and Fiorentina had surprisingly dropped points in a 1-1 draw with Sampdoria and a 2-0 defeat at Crotone respectively.

Our cushion between automatic Champions League qualification and a play off now stood at seven points and nine between us and dropping into the Europa League.

17.04.2016 – Serie A – Pescara (A)

We travelled east looking to build on said lead.  Pescara had inhabited the bottom spot in the table from match day 12 and were already relegated at this point.  Another dead rubber, another team playing with freedom.  Gordon Bennett.

Thankfully we made lighter work of this than we had with Cagliari.

Marco D’Alessandro was nigh on unplayable,  firstly setting up Mo Besic for the opener.  Rey Manaj equalised for Pescara after our defenders, clearly swept up in the craze,  decided to carry out their own Mannequin Challenge following Sportiello’s save from a Memushaj shot.

D’Alessandro then hit La Dea’s second of the afternoon before turning provider again and crossing for Paloschi to nod in.  D’Alessandro got his second of the game, firing in from a Svensson free kick.

The game ebbed and flowed towards completion before Memushaj got on the scoresheet with a penalty in the 88th minute to reduce the arrears.

Inter and Fiorentina both kept the pressure on us; Inter recording a 1-0 win in the Derby della Madonnina against Milan and La Viola securing a 2-1 home win over Palermo.

20.04.2016 – Serie A – Sassuolo (H)

After struggling at the start of the season to balance their Europa League and Serie A commitments, Sassuolo had benefitted from having a less hectic schedule once the group stage had finished and had once again started to push for Europe, sitting in 8th position.

In team news, Stendardo came in for the suspended Paletta, Susic for the defensively minded Besic.

Two headline makers at either end of the pitch ensured another narrow win for La Dea.  Alberto Paloschi‘s 18th league goal of the season was a screamer – from a narrow-ish angle, he swivelled and cracked a first time effort off the underside of the cross bar following Karim Laribi’s poor back-pass.

However, Marco Sportiello’s performance was a thing of true beauty.  He single handedly (p-unintended) kept out Alfred Duncan, Alessandro Matri and Domenico Berardi – including one magnificent double save from the latter duo.  In the dressing room, I laid down the law and forced Jonas Svensson to give Sportiello his man-of-the-match award.

This result all but confirmed Champions League qualification – whether it be automatic or play off was yet to be decided.  While Fiorentina beat Lazio 1-0 at the Olimpico in Rome, Inter were suffering a 2-0 reverse at Torino’s own Olimpico, thus creating a twelve point gap between us with four left to play – including Inter v Atalanta.

23.04.2016 – Serie A – Roma (A)

This was it.  This is what it all boils down to.  A win at Roma and we had guaranteed Champions League football at Atleti Azzurri d’Italia for next season…providing Fiorentina lost at home to Sampdoria.

We were dealt a blow with the news that Jasmin Kurtic would miss the run in with a strained stomach.  Diego Poyet replaced him as we went on the attack in the Olimpico.

Roma had suffered a huge dip mid season – not winning in six games – and although they had started to pick up again, I smelt blood.  (This later turned out to be a nose bleed caused by me continually picking my hooter).

WE ONLY WENT AND RUDDY DID IT.  News had filtered through of Fiorentina’s 1-0 defeat and a wave of emotions washed over me as I stood on the touchline as the referee’s whistle blew, weighing up what we had achieved.

A series of monumental highs – crushing wins over Lazio and Napoli, tactical mastery against Juve, Inter and Roma – and what turned out to be insignificant lows – a five game goalless streak and threatening to piss in the corners of the ground to break it, a fall out with my assistant using a booby pen after being sabotaged by him on the eve of the new season.

Putting the result and what it subsequently meant aside, the game was fantastic – real end to end stuff.  Ludwig Augustinsson rammed in his first for Atalanta in the 15th minute, firing low across the Roma keeper.  Diego Poyet also found an ideal time to come up with his first goal for the club, firing in five minutes later following a scramble at a corner.

From then on it was like a game of five-a-side before the leisure centre staff flick the lights on and off – real end to end stuff, desperate defending, inspired goalkeeping and wayward finishing.  It could have easily finished 6-3 to La Dea.

And so, we head into May, an initially treacherous looking month, with everything sewed up.  The inevitable had happened and Juve had tied up the league title, we were confirmed in second with Fiorentina and Inter fighting out for third.

One surprising title was left within our grasp – Alberto Paloschi (18) was a single goal behind Gol-zalo Higuain (19) in the race for the illustrious Capocannoniere title.

A home game against struggling Genoa (with all the pressure on them now, for once) gave the former Swansea man a good chance to nudge in front before we finished the season at the Giuseppe Meazza to face Inter and a home game against champions elect Juve.  Surely it wouldn’t come down to a direct shoot-out in that final game…..

Serie A Position: 2nd

Fixtures/Results:

I am now appearing on The Higher Tempo Press – check it out for fantastic FM-related blogs contributed by some of the community’s top writers.

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The remaining eleven fixtures were very much divided; I felt we had to restart our momentum and take maximum points from the first six games before hoping for bonus points in our last five against teams with spoils to fight over at both ends of the table.

First up was a trip to Turin to face Joe Hart’s Torino for the third time this season.  We then welcomed a struggling Bologna side to Atleti Azzurri d’Italia in front of the TV cameras before ending the month at an Empoli side who were also punching well above their weight in 7th.

06.03.2016 – Serie A – Torino (H)

After a slow start, Joe Hart’s Torino had dragged themselves up the table and were sitting in 9th as we made the two hour journey west to Turin in early March.

With Tino Susic unavailable due to injury, we dropped Besic in beside Kurtic to give more protection to the defence.

Now would be a bad time to get the wobbles.  The last time we played this badly, we managed to win (a 2-0 win over Palermo) but we failed to replicate this.  Joe Hart’s Torino could and should have had more after a nervous, stuttering performance by their opposition.

Paloschi looked to have stopped the rot by striking in the 3rd minute, but Joe Hart’s Torino could have levelled up after five minutes had Dani Avelar not seen his penalty turned away by Sportiello.

This didn’t deter Il Toro as they slipped through gears, creating chance after chance.  We held onto our lead until the break but two quick fire goals from Parigini – his first being a curling beauty from outside the box – gave Joe Hart’s Torino the lead, and ultimately win, they deserved.

While Fiorentina faltered, losing at home to Juve, Inter seized the opportunity to cut into our lead by squeaking past Napoli at the San Paolo.

12.03.2016 – Serie A –  Bologna (H)

While no wins in three caused concern, the pathetic performance at Joe Hart’s Torino’s Olimpico was a greater worry.  The fight seemed to be sucked out of the players as Adem Ljajić, Andrea Belotti and Daniele Baselli played their triangles and toyed with the Dea players.

Bologna at home was the opportunity to rectify this.  To avoid the languid Timor getting overran in midfield, I pushed Besic further up, but still in a ball-winning role.

Boom.  Back on it.  Donadoni’s Bologna had no answers as we hit them for three without reply.

Gómez got us off and running in the 37th minute, ghosting between two defenders to knock in Marco D’Alessandro’s low cross.  Ten minutes into the second half and we were two clear – D’Alessandro scoring a carbon copy of Gómez’ goal, this time knocking in an Augustinsson cross.  D’Alessandro turned provider once again with ten minutes to go, swinging in a cross that Pierre-Michel Lasogga headed in, despite Bologna’s Mirante getting a good hand to the ball.

Wins for Inter and Fiorentina against Crotone and Chievo respectively meant there was no change in the European places.

20.03.2016 – Serie A – Empoli (A)

If any fixture could derail any positivity from the Bologna result, this would be it.  Empoli were flying in 7th and confounding their pre-season prediction of 18th, swapping a relegation battle for a fight to get into Europe.

Despite this, I felt we had to go for it considering the fixtures at the end of the season so string puller Susic came in for the more defensive minded Besic.

A game that failed to ignite.  Ricky Saponara came closest for Empoli, hitting the inside of Sportiello’s post in the first half.  Gómez came closest for Atalanta, striking the only clear cut chance of the game directly at Douchez from a tight angle.

A good result but had Gómez’ converted his chance we would have been a lot more comfortable heading into April – Inter suffered a surprising 3-0 defeat at Palermo while Fiorentina dropped two points in a 1-1 draw at Udinese.

The first three games of April represented a huge chance to seal Champions League football.  After that we faced Roma, Inter and Juve and a Genoa side battling to stay in the league.

We were well and truly entering Fergie’s much vaunted squeaky bum time – and we couldn’t blame the parmesan and our lactose-intolerance.

Serie A Position: 2nd

Results/Fixtures:

Youth Intake

March saw my first youth intake at Atleti Azzurri d’Italia and it threw up a few interesting prospects.

One in particular was Felix Iuzzolino – a player that immediately attracted interest from the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.  His natural position is a CAM but I will be retraining him as an advanced forward and he will spend the 2016/17 out on loan.

Another decent prospect is Gabriele Pasiani – more eye catching than his stats though is the impressive beard he has at the age of 16.  Again, he will be re-trained, this time as a poacher, and will spend 2016/17 out on loan.

The best of the rest is Ghanian winger David Yakubu.  He looks quite rough round the edges but with the right training and exposure to first team football when the time is right, I am hoping he can make an impression in the first team.

The final prospect on show has little to no chance of ever kicking a ball in anger for the first team but deserves a mention for being a Liverpool-born, Northern Ireland under-20 international plying his trade in northern Italy.  Say “what about ye, la” to Richard Downey.

I am now appearing on The Higher Tempo Press – check it out for fantastic FM-related blogs contributed by some of the community’s top writers.

STGFM

This month represented a chance to take a huge stride towards the Champions League; 2nd to qualify automatically for the group stages or 3rd and having to negotiate a play off.

Let’s do this.

03.02.2016 – Serie A – Crotone (H)

Crotone had proven to be a tough nut to crack in the corresponding away leg on the sole of Italy’s boot back in September.  They ventured north with the sole (p-unintended) intention of frustrating the players, the fans, the management, any anyone within a 5-mile radius of their heavily defended goal.

I’d also made a huge boob in allowing number 17, Mattia Caldara, to play against us – his parent side from which he was on loan to Crotone for the season.  Surely he wouldn’t score…

I lined the team up in a sort of anchor shape, wanting to control the huge no-man’s land that Crotone would leave between the abomination above and their three forwards.

This will be filed under the “Big Opportunity Missed” category.  We looked far more comfortable than we did against Crotone first time round and took a deserved lead when David Timor fired in a 25th minute opener.

However, a second goal to kill the game remained aggravatingly elusive and in a rare Crotone attack, Tolói helpfully pushed de Giorgio’s cross into his own net.  1-1.  Belter.

Oh and of course, Caldara had a great game (7.3 rating) – thanks Mattia, you Judas.  More pertinently, Fiorentina did not make a similar mess of things at Pescara and won 3-0, cutting our lead down to two points.

07.02.2016 – Serie A – Palermo (A)

We visited Sicily with Palermo, disappointingly, only on their second manager of the season – it is normally the case with the Rosanero that they end each season with more managers than wins.

Having dropped two points against Crotone, it was imperative we bounced back with a win.  As a result, I stopped trying to be clever and returned to the old faithful formation.

We did bounce back with a win but we were bloody awful.  Any hangover from the Crotone result looked to be banished when Paloschi headed in off the bar after nice build up between Svensson and Susic with just 34 seconds gone.

Then we sat back and allowed Palermo to dictate.  They had more of the ball, more shots and more clear cut chances.  With a fear that Palermo would get themselves level and kick on, it was a huge relief when Palsochi got his second of the game from man-of-the-match Svensson’s cross.

Also, with this win our five point lead over Fiorentina had been restored with la Viola being held to a 0-0 draw at home by Sassuolo.

14.02.2016 – Serie A – Lazio (H)

A week later we faced Lazio for the third time this season, having drawn 0-0 at the Olimpico in the league and beaten them 4-2 at the same ground in the Coppa Italia.  As stated above, they were sitting in 6th in Serie A having climbed the table after a slow start – this would be no Bergamese spring walk in the park.

No shocks in the team selected bar Bruno coming in for his first start ahead of an injured D’Alessandro.

What a performance.  I mean, just look at those ratings (below).

We were unfortunate to go behind to a Caceido goal on the stroke of half time but put our foot to the floor early in the second.  Paloschi pulled the game back to all square, firing in Augustinsson’s low centre, before Gómez put La Dea ahead just four minutes after the break following a lovely close control build up involving Timor, Kurtic, Susic and Paloschi.

In the closing stages Lasogga put the icing on the whole thing, holding off two defenders to fire past Marchetti for his first goal for the club.

21.02.2016 – Serie A – Sampdoria (A)

Having comfortably saw off the highest ranked team we faced this month, we travelled to the port of Genoa in high spirits to face a struggling Samp.

For once, I named an unchanged team.  The team talk was simple: Same again, lads.

Editor’s singer Tom Smith once mused that “the saddest thing that I’d ever seen, was smokers outside the hospital door”.

I dread to think what mournful, melancholic, indie prose he would pen having seen Marco Sportiello’s face as our unbeaten league run finally come to an end.

That run, spanning 18 games and nearly six months, was ended when Sampdoria’s Sala volleyed Cigarini’s cross against a post only to see the ball hit Sportiello on the back and roll into the unguarded net, with a mere three minutes left on the clock following a drab, goalless 87 minutes.

“Heartbreak Hotel?  Yes, I’ll have a room for one please.”

My mood was somewhat lifted by Fiorentina’s surprised 3-1 home defeat to struggling Genoa, though our defeats allowed Inter back into the Champions League race.  We could ill afford any further slip ups.

27.02.2016 – Serie A – Milan (H)

Still shellshocked after how we had lost at Sampdoria, I led us into a home tie against a Milan side resurgent under new boss Rudi Garcia.

If you can remember back to mid October, we clung on by our fingernails for a 0-0 draw at the San Siro as Milan laid siege to our goal.  I expected similar today and with Sportiello’s confidence surely shot to pieces, I was worried.

Despite this, and for the third game in a row, I named an unchanged team.

Another Milan siege survived.  Abate and de Sciglio battered us down the flanks, firing in cross after cross.  However, it was a penalty from Bacca – after a foul by Svensson on Montilivo following a Milan breakaway from a rare corner for us – that gave Milan the lead.

Just under twenty minutes later, Alberto Paloschi popped up with another goal, wriggling away from the attentions of Romagnoli and Zapata to fire Atalanta level.

While we picked up a valuable, yet undeserved, point – Fiorentina travelled to San Siro to face Inter in another Champions League qualification six pointer.  The Nerazzurri gubbed La Viola 4-0 and the two sides swapped places as the race with ourselves for the remaining two Champions League places intensified.

So, like a fat man who has done no training for a marathon, the run is over.  A hit and miss month; a superb performance against Lazio being a highlight and Sportiello’s moment of misfortune being an obvious low.

However, there is still plenty to be positive about – we’re still second and Fiorentina and Inter look capable of dropping points.  Plus – next month is Youth Intake month and I’m expecting big things from a club notorious for developing talent like Atalanta are.

Serie A Position: 2nd

Results/Fixtures:

After the weekend win at Chievo Verona, a midweek home tie in the Coppa Italia vs Ternana followed.  Three days later we faced the only side yet to beat us this season, Paulo Sousa’s Fiorentina, before a long trip to Naples the following Saturday.

Having let the likes of Pinilla leave, I suddenly got cold feet about the youngsters.  Petagna, Tulissi et al had shown what they could do in a 30 minute blast against a tiring Lazio, but could they do it when the pressure was on, could they do it when the club needed them to get a result and – the most accurate litmus test of all players – could they do it on a cold, Tuesday night in Stoke Sassuolo?

Even forgetting the above complete 180, we were light in the striking department with only Palsochi and Petagna as recognised, out and out strikers.  I decided to bring in a man who seemed to come alive in the last few months of the season to drag his club out of their perennial relegation fight in the Bundesliga; Hamburg’s Pierre-Michel Lasogga.

This brute would sit on the bench and give us the battering ram option if Paloschi’s attempts to either score himself or bring Gómez, D’Alessandro, Susic etc into play wasn’t working.  I’ll freely admit it would restrict young Petagna, but I was keen not to have to rely on him if Paloschi started misfiring.

20.01.2016 – Coppa Italia – Ternana (H)

Considering the intensity of this month’s fixtures, I decided to rotate for this game.  The front three remained unchanged (Lasogga had a minor knock and wouldn’t make the bench), Valzania came into the midfield for his full debut and there were three changes at the back; old timer Bellini replaced Svensson, Brivio came in for Augustinsson and Uvini, having scored in the previous round, replaced Paletta.

Disaster.  Having beaten Inter and Napoli, drawn with Milan and Juventus, we surrender our only realistic chance of silverware against a side who were treading water in the division below us.

The changes at the back didn’t help – only 14 minutes in, Brivio failed to close down man-of-the-match Ceravolo whose pinpoint cross was gratefully nodded in by Avenatti, who had gotten the wrong side of Uvini.

Five minutes later Gómez pulled us level from the spot.  Time to kick on, right?  Wrong.  Another cross from the right evaded everyone, Sportiello made a mess of it and Felicioli tapped into an open goal.

A rollicking at half time, the first I’d dished out in my time at the club, led to an improvement in the second half.  Within ten minutes we were level through Paloschi‘s fine solo effort and fifteen minutes later Ternana were down to ten with Vitale picking up his second yellow card.

It was now absolutely, undeniably the time to kick on, right?  Wrong.  In the 90th minute, Ceravolo seized on some weak defending by Tolói to send us crashing out of the cup.

Having given the players a second bollocking within an hour, I returned to the rain-soaked dugout at the Azzurri d’Italia alone to contemplate one burning question – is this where it all goes tits up?

23.01.2016 – Serie A – Fiorentina (H)

Even though la Viola were now not the only team to have beaten us this season, the desire to get one over them was still great.

In August, they had cruelly taken advantage of a team in its infancy and acted the playground bully as they sent us back to Bergamo with a rather large, uncomfortable wedgie.  But no more.  We can stand up for ourselves and no longer have to run to teacher….Ternana result aside.

Having tried, and failed, to smother Fiorentina to death at the Artemio Franchi we opted for a slightly more offensive version – but with the security of regista Kurtic and ball-winner Besic in front of a fully restored defence, minus the tired Svensson.

Aaaand we’re back.  The Ternana result had been well and truly banished from the memory and, more importantly, we went back above Fiorentina after winning this Champions League qualification (yes, screw it, we’re going for the big ‘un) six-pointer.

The game was a horrible one.  Tense and tetchy with both sides not wanting to make express themselves too much for fear of making an error.  As with most of those types of matches, it was settled by a set piece.

Ludwig Augustinsson continued his fine form by floating in a free kick from the right that the much travelled youngster Gaetano Monachello guided into the far corner with a deft header for his first Atalanta goal.

Before the Napoli game I completed our last signing of the season – Massimo Bruno on a season long loan from RB Leipzig (boo!).  He would provide right wing cover for the tireless Marco D’Alessandro.

30.01.2016 – Serie A – Napoli (A)

In a reverse of the feelings felt by both sides before the Fiorentina game, Napoli were very much out for revenge over us having been on the wrong end of a 4-1 thumping in Bergamo at the start of the season.

Like with the Fiorentina game, we set up to restrict their attacking midfielders – namely the mohican-sporting Marek Hamsik.  However, as we so delightfully exploited at home, Napoli tend to play very narrow so we welcomed back flying right back Jonas Svensson and would aim once again to attack down the wide areas.

To paraphrase Justin Bieber, is it too late now to say Sarri?  He learnt absolutely diddly squat from the hammering at Azzurri d’Italia and once again lined up in a narrow style.

Fearing a backlash due to Napoli’s struggles (they sat 9th heading into this game) I set the team out in a pretty standard frame of mind in regards to attacking, playing wide etc to test the water.  As in the home game, we went a goal down.  This time Calléjon fired home for the Partenopei after getting between Paletta and Tolói.  And also like the first game, a first half equaliser appeared – Paloschi sweeping in Timor’s delicately measured pass.

At half time I stepped things up – Napoli were offering little so we went more attacking, exploited the wings with Svensson and Augustinsson overlapping.  Within five minutes we hit what ended up being the winner – D’Alessandro ghosting in ahead of Ghoulam to tap in Gómez’ cross.

A huge double over Napoli had just been completed and our joy was compounded as Fiorentina were held to a 1-1 draw by Cagliari opening up a gap of five points between us in 2nd and the chasing pack.

So after much panic and many prayers uttered, we left our winter of discontent pretty content.  The Ternana cup loss was a real kick to the stones but we bounced back with two superb wins to build on the three positive league results we’d secured against Inter, Juve and Chievo.

February, on paper, looked a lot less testing than January and would hopefully allow us to continue to push towards Europe for next season.

And we’re STILL unbeaten!

Serie A Position: 2nd

Results/Fixtures:

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In a single month we faced four of Italy’s biggest sides; champions elect Juventus, European competition chasing Inter Milan and Fiorentina, and a Napoli side seeking revenge for their 4-1 defeat at the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia earlier in the season.

A trip to Verona to face the Flying Donkeys of Chievo was anything but straightforward while the very winnable cup quarter final against Serie B side Ternana completed a busy month (hence January being a two parter!).

With January came the opening of the transfer window.  I felt that the new found prominence of some of the younger players (see previous post for profiles) meant that some squad players were now surplus to requirements and I sought to move them on to pastures new.

Tony Pulis liked what he got from Carlos Carmona in the summer window so much that he returned to Bergamo for a second time, this time to seal a £575k deal for Mauricio Pinilla.  While Pinilla was a more than able rotation option for Paloschi, his contract was up in the summer and was wanting ridiculous wages for a 32 year old back up.

Defender Andrea Masiello was also shipped out – to Serie B Cesena – for a very welcome £450k having not kicked a ball in anger since the opening day.

06.01.2016 – Serie A – Inter Milan (H)

This game, along with the Fiorentina game later in the month, would allow either team to put a serious dent in the other’s European charge.  I hoped to make the most of home advantage and put the skids on the Nerazzurri.

Their club policy flew in the face of ours – Atalanta develop players, sell high and reinvest.  Inter pump money in, throw enough shit and hope it sticks.  Further to this, I’ve always found them ridiculously overpowered in previous FMs (compared to the circus they normally run IRL).  A victory would be sweeter than the sweetest gelato.

My my, that gelato tastes good.  Admittedly we made the most of the bizarre decision by Frank de Boer to play keeper Samir Handanovic, who was struggling pre-game with a wrist injury.

FdB then trumped that decision by using one of his available changes to replace his keeper with two minutes to go when Inter were pushing for an equaliser.  Perhaps the real life Inter circus has been applied to the FM version after all.

I became aware that something was up with Handanovic when Gómez fired a weak shot past the Slovenian keeper on 34 minutes.  Five minutes later, naturalised Italian Éder had equalised before Tino Susic capped a brilliant performance with a goal, firing in the winner after Handanovic had pushed out Paloschi’s effort to the Bosnian’s feet.

A huge win that saw us leapfrog Inter into second.  Would we cement that position with a win  at the Juventus stadium?  Probably not.

Also, after the game, another squad player bid arrivederci to La Dea – target man Matteo Ardemagni (no, I wasn’t sure who he was either) left for Frosinone in Serie B for £225k.  No one batted an eyelid.

10.01.16 – Serie A – Juventus (A)

Our unbeaten run stood at 16 games.  The Old Lady’s run beat that by two games – they had only dropped six points all season, drawing three games.

Positive: two of those games were against relative minnows in Palermo and Empoli (Napoli were the third).  Negative: all three games were away from the Juventus Stadium.  Double Negative: they’d won every game at home to date and were yet to concede a goal.  Merda.

With the 5-3-2 consigned to the history books, we lined up in our more defensive 4-2-1-3 formation, hoping to crowd Juve out.

Juventus’ run of not conceding at home carried on.  However, Max Allegri’s side’s 100% home record did not.

We held them to a 0-0 draw with a backs to the wall performance – despite losing Jonas Svensson after eight minutes (back up left back David Brivio had to fill in at right back) and Gabriel Paletta’s stupid dismissal for a shirt pull on Gonzalo Higuain just after the hour mark.  Judging by Higuain’s more, ahem, portly build these days, Paletta must surely be commended for being able to pull enough shirt material away from the Argentine’s gut to warrant a booking.

Juve’s inability to break us down saw the red mist descend on the Old Lady and they picked up a flurry of bookings in the later stages – left back Alex Sandro made it 10-a-side by picking up a straight red for a two footed lunge at D’Alessandro, just five minutes after Paletta was hitting the showers.

Let’s not kid ourselves, Juve will still run away with the league, but this result not only gives us belief that we can mix it with the best but is also a bonus point that I wasn’t counting when forecasting the rest of the season.

17.01.16 – Serie A – Cheivo Verona (A)

With an unexpected four points from the previous two games, we could now ill afford to drop points against Chievo Verona.  They were hovering around lower mid table in 14th and represented the sort of horrible West Brom-esque banana skin that could easily be slipped up on.

The previous game between the two sides, the first game of our Serie A season, descended into a booting match with referee Irrati dishing out 11 bookings – with 7 going to Chievo.

With first choice defenders Svensson (injured) and Paletta (suspended) out, I played two covering midfielders to shore up the gap in front of a defence that was low on both cohesion and match fitness.

Any pre match nerves were immediately allayed as Paloschi volleyed us in front from a D’Alessandro cross after 41 seconds.  Chievo then tried to boot us off the field once again until they came a cropper with their physical ways and conceded a penalty.  Jasmin Kurtic put clear daylight between the sides with five minutes left.

I was later thanking the good dude for that penalty as Riccardo Meggiorini seized on a hopeless Bellini back pass to reduce the arrears for Chievo minutes later.

Half way through the month from hell and we sat clutching our 7 points from a possible 9 in amazement – though we were back down in 3rd on goal difference behind Fiorentina.

By this point, I’d signed a new deal with the club and extended my stay at La Dea’s heaving bosom to June 2018.

On a side note, I wasn’t the only one with golden balls in Bergamo – outstanding left back Lustwig Augustinsson had only gone and picked up the European Golden Boy Award for his series of stonking performances in 2016.

I knew scouting players properly would pay off.

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Following that we returned to league action; travelling to Sassuolo (12th), a hit and miss side struggling to combine the rigours of Serie A and European football for the first time, facing a Roma side (6th) that was so far failing to kick into gear before ending the month at a struggling Genoa (17th).

03/12/2015 – Coppa Italia – Torino (H)

With there only being one cup competition in Italy, I played my strongest team – with Juve streaking away with the league, this clearly represented my best chance of a trophy.  This XI, with the possible exception of Gómez, were turning in high quality performances and I was looking to this form and home advantage to give us the edge.

During the 0-0 draw between the previous meeting of the two sides, in the midst of that dirge-fest across September and October, Joe Hart’s Torino’s Joe Hart looked nigh-on unbeatable.  The first ninety minutes of this cup tie played out the same way as Hart and our own Sportiello took it in turns to deny the outfield players opposing them.

Then, in the 89th minute, we were on the receiving end of some fortune.  Having used all their subs, Torino’s Dani Avelar went off with a game ending injury.  For extra time, we would be facing ten exhausted players.

In order to compensate for the loss of their left back, Torino went narrow and tried to crowd out Pinilla, who had replaced the misfiring Paloschi, and our midfielders breaking into the box.  However, we continued to exploit the wings and, as Torino tired, it was no surprise when Pinilla guided in a Marco D’Alessandro cross on the stroke of half time before nabbing his second from another wicked Augustinsson delivery.

Following the win, the Italian footballing dignitaries drew us to face another side we had previously drawn 0-0 with – Lazio at the Olimpico.  And as this game is scheduled to take place in December, we now have an extra game to report on on this blog entry – you lucky, lucky people.

06/12/2015 – Serie A – Sassuolo (A)

We approached the upcoming fixture at Sassuolo with mixed feelings.  They are a small club with limited resources but a genius manager in Eusebio di Francesco and top players in Domenico Berardi, Francesco Acerbi and Andrea Consiglia, a former Atalanta shot-stopper.

They vastly overachieved in reaching the Europa League but were now struggling to stretch their small squad to deal with the demands of the competition plus Serie A duties.  This was starting to become evident in their performances – they had lost their last four and squeaked past Lega Pro side Foggia 1-0 in the mid week cup game.

Despite being taken to extra time by Joe Hart’s Torino just three days previously, I was hoping to take advantage of Sassuolo’s fragile confidence.  I made some changes, mostly due to tiredness, and, on the back of my scout’s report on Sassuolo, moved the regista forward to a central Advanced Playmaker.

A goalless first half was followed by a four minute blitz in the second as our onslaught on Serie A’s full backs continued with two more goals scored after crosses from wide areas.

First Alberto Paloschi headed in after Gómez’ cross on 47 minutes before D’Alessandro volleyed in Augustinsson’s deep cross with 51 minutes played.

Biondini looped in a header from Berardi’s free kick to reduce the arrears on Sassuolo’s part before Pinilla came off the bench, to continue his form from the Torino game, and slotted in from another Augustinsson pass.

This now stretched our unbeaten run to an incredible thirteen games and we sat in a season high of 2nd.

13/12/2015 – Serie A – Roma (H)

While the unbeaten run was was a huge confidence boost, I was aware we hadn’t played any of the big teams since walloping Napoli at the start of September.  This would change as we prepared to face the Giallorossi at the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia.

Roma had suffered from a slow start, picked up and then stuttered again, drawing three winnable games in a row against Torino, Bologna and Empoli and sat in 6th position.

They played a similar formation to how we lined up against Sassuolo and in order to combat the threat of Stephan El Shaarawy, Leandro Paredes and Mo Salah pulling the strings behind Edin Dzeko, I pulled a second midfielder back to sit along side the regista – Mo Besic came in as a ball-winning midfielder.

Like in the Milan game in October, Roma battered us but, unlike Milan, found a way through.  They deservedly took the lead on the stroke of half time through El Shaarawy – our cause was not helped due to the amount of bodies we had in our own box.

This is the scene when the shot left SES’ foot after penalty box pinball as our army of defenders/holding midfielders failed to clear their lines;

I gave the tactic another ten minutes in the second half to try and continue to try and tempt Roma to go for the kill before replacing Besic with Susic and pushing him up along side David Timor.  Five minutes later, Dzeko made it two.  Tits.

The great military strategist Sun Tzu once said, “if you know your enemy better than you know yourself, you will never suffer defeat“.  It took me an hour to realise the ageing Thomas Vermaelen was playing left back for Roma.  I had flying machine Marco D’Alessandro (Acceleration 16, Pace 15) on the right wing.

Changes were made and the right wing was exploited.  While I was busy making the tactical tweaks, Tino Susic had headed us back into the game, guiding in yet another Augustinsson ball.

Then it happened.  The warm fuzzy feeling when you change something and it actually pays off.  We won the ball straight off Roma’s kick off, D’Alessandro got the ball on the right, burned past Vermaelen and whipped in a delightful ball for substitute Pinilla to knock in – a mere 60 seconds after Susic’s goal.

This was the first time this season we’ve had to properly “fight back” and I was bloody delighted with the response.  That night, I raised a toast to my good mate Sun Tzu.  To think what might have happened if I’d realised Vermaelen was at left back sooner…

16.12.15 – Coppa Italia – Lazio (A)

Despite my previous assertions that I was taking this competition seriously, the monumental effort to claw back a two goal deficit at home to Roma just three days previously left the players bloody knackered.

As a result, a few squad players were brought in and some promising youngsters (see end of the post for more details) made the bench for the first time this season.  Lazio named a relatively strong side; one that contained Felipe Anderson, Lucas Biglia and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic in their midfield alone.  As a result, I didn’t feel too confident.

What a game.  What a bloody game.  If this had been a real game, I’d have shown this to people who say Serie A is still boring and full of crushingly negative tactics.

Firstly Alejandro Gómez seized on a defensive mistake to smash us into the lead early doors.  Gonzalez pulled Lazio level after 12 minutes, with Sportiello disappointed to be beaten at his near post.

The lesser spotted Bruno Uvini headed La Dea back into the lead with 24 minutes played and it was a lead we held until late into the second half. With legs tiring, I made three changes in the second half – on came youngsters Petagna, Tulissi and Valzania for their Atalanta debuts.

Before Valzania took to the pitch, Tankara had equalised for the Biancocelesti and it looked like we were heading towards another unwanted period of extra time.

But with time ticking down, Gómez swung in a cross, Marchetti parried and Tulissi capitalised.  Three minutes later another youngster, Petagna, made sure of our progression into the next round with a double-deflected shot after Lazio failed to clear a corner.

Petagna was lucky to be awarded the goal – until recently, the Italian equivalent of the Dubious Goals Panel would have taken goals off strikers and put them down as own goals if the unfortunate defender was in the same post code when the ball was struck.

But it mattered not, we had won again, were through to the next round and managed to blood some youngsters.  Further to this, we’d been drawn to face Serie B side Ternana in an entirely winnable home quarter final.

20.12.2015 – Serie A – Genoa (A)

After the highs of the results against the two sides from the Eternal City, we travelled to Genoa in a confident mood.  The big hitters also returned to the starting XI, though Petagna and Tulissi kept their places on the bench.

An opportunity missed – literally in the case of Paloschi’s spurned penalty – as we faltered to another 0-0 draw.  The game had a bit of an “after the Lord Mayor’s show” feel after two wonderful performances, but, as I keep banging on about, the unbeaten run amazingly remains intact.

We headed into the winter break in an entirely deserved but an entirely unbelievable 3rd place with only one loss to our name all season.

We were neck and neck with a similarly consistent Fiorentina side but, even at this early stage, Juve had one hand on the title and were too far ahead for either of us to have realistic hopes of catching.

Below us came a chasing pack containing Inter, Roma and Lazio (Milan sat one from bottom in 19th having lost 7 games in a row) and with only two points between us in 3rd and Inter in 4th, I knew this promising six months or so did not guarantee European football next year.

I will take the winter break to redefine our goals with the board and try and push the squad as far as I can without panic buying (or selling, for that matter).

As it turns out, the following month could define our season.  January looks to be easily our toughest month of the season with games against Juve, Inter, Fiorentina and Napoli plus a tricky trip to Chievo Verona.  I feel this month could decide whether we slip to mid table mediocrity or nail our colours to the mast and continue our march to Europe.

Serie A Position: 3rd

Results/Fixtures:

NB: As promised, here are the profiles of the youngsters that made the bench for our cup game against Lazio.  IRL, Kessié and Petagna are starting for Atalanta and both making a big impact in a season that sees La Dea sit 6th in Serie A (as of 26.10.16).

As the season progresses I hope to give them more time, but they will certainly be in and around the match day 22 (yes, 22 in Italy!) next season.

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November provided fixtures that, on paper, would allow us to build on these positives.  Home games against an Empoli side, punching above their weight in 7th place, and rock-bottom Pescara sandwiched a tricky looking game at high flying Udinese (2nd) and a trip to face promoted Cagliari (15th).

01.11.2015 – Serie A – Empoli (H)

Two changes of personnel from the Bologna win saw Paletta replace Bruno Uvini and Susic come in for Remo Freuler, but the system remained the same.

  Eighty minutes in and I thought the curse had returned.  At this point, I was gulping down water and eyeing up the corner flags.  We battered Empoli but couldn’t force a breakthrough.

Then, with seven minutes left, D’Alessandro got round his full back, whipped in a cross and Paloschi fired in via a deflection.  The relief was palpable – the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia had seen its first goal since Paloschi hit the fourth against Napoli  – covering nearly 300 minutes of football.

The unbeaten/clean sheet streak also stretched to another game – dare we set our sights higher than mid table mediocrity?

07.11.2015 – Serie A – Udinese (A)

Like ourselves, Udinese were flying.  The Bianconeri sat in second and had done so from the third game of the season.  They were also yet to concede a goal at the Friuli in the league.

Despite Udinese’s impressive start to the season (including beating the Milan clubs in successive fixtures), our last two wins had left me giddy with confidence and I played the more open wide formation.  I hadn’t lost a complete grasp of reality and, as a result, Besic was reintroduced to provide more steel in front of the defence.

For the first time this season, we were on the end of an FMing.  We faced 10 men for over a half, had 27 shots on goal, 19 of which were on target yet we left Udine with a solitary point.  Duvan Zapata selfishly ruined our clean sheet run and fired them ahead from the spot.  The hosts went down to ten when they lost Guilherme before half time due to two bookings.

I cranked things up at half time, increasing the speed at which we played and went more attacking.  Keeper Orestis Karnezis had kept them in it at this point and it was surely a matter of time before we got an equaliser and could push for the win.

Stefano Pioli’s side then had the temerity to soak up our pressure and hit us on the break.  Rodrigo de Paul.  2-0.  Merda.

Five minutes later the superb Augustinsson (check out his average ratings over the past few games) slung one to the back post and D’Alessandro headed us back into the game.

Tactically there was nothing I could do, we were more than on top.  So I played two wild cards – on came the hardworking Guido Marilungo and de Luca to try and unsettle the Udinese back four and it paid off with the latter getting a deserved equaliser after Augustinsson’s neat inside pass.

The clean sheet record had gone (and all the repetitive questions from the media regarding it, thank God) but we were still unbeaten and had started to nicely dominate games.

22.11.2015 – Serie A – Cagliari (A)

An international break intervened before we were back on the road (well, in the air on a flight to Sardinia) to face Cagliari.  IRL, I’ve been impressed with the squad that Massimo Rastelli has put together – Bruno Alves, Mauricio Isla and Simone Padoin are all excellent additions and I have major man-love for Davide di Gennaro and the dreamy Marco Borriello.  This wouldn’t be an easy trip.

Once I’d stopped nervously looking over at Borriello, hoping to catch his eye, I submitted a team containing two changes from the draw with Udinese – Flavio Ferreira in for Tolói and Susic for Kurtic.

With just over half an hour played, we’d made a mockery of my prediction that this game would be a tricky one.  Marco D’Alessandro drove in his second in as many games and Paloschi put us in control with a delightful near post finish after a D’Alessandro cross.

Borriello got the Sardinians back into the game and I let out a nervous whimper as he ran towards the benches, only for him to run past me and into the arms of Rastelli.  It’s always the handsome ones that break our hearts.

Despite my public rejection, we held on and secured a vital 2-1 win, and with that jumped up a place to third.

28.11.2015 – Serie A – Pescara (H)

We were now starting to really kick on – keeping the ball, creating chances and scoring goals.  Next up, the Delfini of Pescara headed to the shark tank of Atleti Azzurri d’Italia.  I fully expected a comfortable win.

I felt so comfortable that I left the so-far excellent Augustinsson out (he was knackered having already completed a fair part of the Danish season with FC København before joining us in August) – Davide Brivo replaced him.  Jasmin Kurtic also came in for the more defensive minded Besic.

Massimo Oddo set Pescara up in a pretty narrow formation (quite similar to Napoli’s) and I fancied our chances of racking a few goals up considering most of our goals came from the wide areas.

As it turned out, my side set out to make me look ridiculous by scoring from two central passes – firstly Alberto Paloschi fired in from David Timor’s lovely lofted ball over the top, before Paloschi repeated the trick in the second half, this time from Gómez’ through pass.

I expected more but Pescara comfortably controlled our few attacks; I can’t grumble too much about three points and another clean sheet for Sportiello and the gang.

Another month done and 10 more points in an incredible start to this topsy turvy Serie A season.

Juve already sat pretty at the top, ruining any chance of a Leicester-esque title challenge, but with Inter (5th), Roma (6th), Lazio (9th), Napoli (10th) and Milan (an incredible 18th) all struggling, it was perhaps a chance for the likes of ourselves, Udinese and Empoli to maintain our bids for European football.

Paloschi had displaced Pinilla as our starting striker and hit four goals in November to take him to a promising seven for the season.  Our full backs, Augustinsson and Svensson, ate, breathed and farted out assists and D’Alessandro was chipping in with both assists and goals.  If we could get the little wizard and captain, Alejandro Gómez, providing like his wing partner, I would be even more confident that European football was a formality for next season.

Serie A Position: 3rd

Results/Next Month’s Fixtures

STGFM

November provided fixtures that, on paper, would allow us to build on these positives.  Home games against an Empoli side, punching above their weight in 7th place, and rock-bottom Pescara sandwiched a tricky looking game at high flying Udinese (2nd) and a trip to face promoted Cagliari (15th).

01.11.2015 – Serie A – Empoli (H)

Two changes of personnel from the Bologna win saw Paletta replace Bruno Uvini and Susic come in for Remo Freuler, but the system remained the same.

  Eighty minutes in and I thought the curse had returned.  At this point, I was gulping down water and eyeing up the corner flags.  We battered Empoli but couldn’t force a breakthrough.

Then, with seven minutes left, D’Alessandro got round his full back, whipped in a cross and Paloschi fired in via a deflection.  The relief was palpable – the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia had seen its first goal since Paloschi hit the fourth against Napoli  – covering nearly 300 minutes of football.

The unbeaten/clean sheet streak also stretched to another game – dare we set our sights higher than mid table mediocrity?

07.11.2015 – Serie A – Udinese (A)

Like ourselves, Udinese were flying.  The Bianconeri sat in second and had done so from the third game of the season.  They were also yet to concede a goal at the Friuli in the league.

Despite Udinese’s impressive start to the season (including beating the Milan clubs in successive fixtures), our last two wins had left me giddy with confidence and I played the more open wide formation.  I hadn’t lost a complete grasp of reality and, as a result, Besic was reintroduced to provide more steel in front of the defence.

For the first time this season, we were on the end of an FMing.  We faced 10 men for over a half, had 27 shots on goal, 19 of which were on target yet we left Udine with a solitary point.  Duvan Zapata selfishly ruined our clean sheet run and fired them ahead from the spot.  The hosts went down to ten when they lost Guilherme before half time due to two bookings.

I cranked things up at half time, increasing the speed at which we played and went more attacking.  Keeper Orestis Karnezis had kept them in it at this point and it was surely a matter of time before we got an equaliser and could push for the win.

Stefano Pioli’s side then had the temerity to soak up our pressure and hit us on the break.  Rodrigo de Paul.  2-0.  Merda.

Five minutes later the superb Augustinsson (check out his average ratings over the past few games) slung one to the back post and D’Alessandro headed us back into the game.

Tactically there was nothing I could do, we were more than on top.  So I played two wild cards – on came the hardworking Guido Marilungo and de Luca to try and unsettle the Udinese back four and it paid off with the latter getting a deserved equaliser after Augustinsson’s neat inside pass.

The clean sheet record had gone (and all the repetitive questions from the media regarding it, thank God) but we were still unbeaten and had started to nicely dominate games.

22.11.2015 – Serie A – Cagliari (A)

An international break intervened before we were back on the road (well, in the air on a flight to Sardinia) to face Cagliari.  IRL, I’ve been impressed with the squad that Massimo Rastelli has put together – Bruno Alves, Mauricio Isla and Simone Padoin are all excellent additions and I have major man-love for Davide di Gennaro and the dreamy Marco Borriello.  This wouldn’t be an easy trip.

Once I’d stopped nervously looking over at Borriello, hoping to catch his eye, I submitted a team containing two changes from the draw with Udinese – Flavio Ferreira in for Tolói and Susic for Kurtic.

With just over half an hour played, we’d made a mockery of my prediction that this game would be a tricky one.  Marco D’Alessandro drove in his second in as many games and Paloschi put us in control with a delightful near post finish after a D’Alessandro cross.

Borriello got the Sardinians back into the game and I let out a nervous whimper as he ran towards the benches, only for him to run past me and into the arms of Rastelli.  It’s always the handsome ones that break our hearts.

Despite my public rejection, we held on and secured a vital 2-1 win, and with that jumped up a place to third.

28.11.2015 – Serie A – Pescara (H)

We were now starting to really kick on – keeping the ball, creating chances and scoring goals.  Next up, the Delfini of Pescara headed to the shark tank of Atleti Azzurri d’Italia.  I fully expected a comfortable win.

I felt so comfortable that I left the so-far excellent Augustinsson out (he was knackered having already completed a fair part of the Danish season with FC København before joining us in August) – Davide Brivo replaced him.  Jasmin Kurtic also came in for the more defensive minded Besic.

Massimo Oddo set Pescara up in a pretty narrow formation (quite similar to Napoli’s) and I fancied our chances of racking a few goals up considering most of our goals came from the wide areas.

As it turned out, my side set out to make me look ridiculous by scoring from two central passes – firstly Alberto Paloschi fired in from David Timor’s lovely lofted ball over the top, before Paloschi repeated the trick in the second half, this time from Gómez’ through pass.

I expected more but Pescara comfortably controlled our few attacks; I can’t grumble too much about three points and another clean sheet for Sportiello and the gang.

Another month done and 10 more points in an incredible start to this topsy turvy Serie A season.

Juve already sat pretty at the top, ruining any chance of a Leicester-esque title challenge, but with Inter (5th), Roma (6th), Lazio (9th), Napoli (10th) and Milan (an incredible 18th) all struggling, it was perhaps a chance for the likes of ourselves, Udinese and Empoli to maintain our bids for European football.

Paloschi had displaced Pinilla as our starting striker and hit four goals in November to take him to a promising seven for the season.  Our full backs, Augustinsson and Svensson, ate, breathed and farted out assists and D’Alessandro was chipping in with both assists and goals.  If we could get the little wizard and captain, Alejandro Gómez, providing like his wing partner, I would be even more confident that European football was a formality for next season.

Serie A Position: 3rd

Results/Next Month’s Fixtures

STGFM

SeenThemGivenFM: FM2017 Challenges and Play-Throughs

So, we have the new features, we have the data updates and, most importantly, we have a release date.  Now it’s time to think about the challenges and play-throughs I’ll set myself for the upcoming instalment of the FM series.  I’ve started with three, though this may change heading into 2017. For what it’s worth, I will continue on with Atalanta save until the end of this real-life calendar year…

During our last two games of October, goals and chances created had become an issue.  I was hoping the return of Susic and Gómez would rectify this as we headed into a winnable home game against a mid table Sampdoria side.  There was then a break for internationals before tricky games against Europa League chasing Milan (A), the officially renamed Joe Hart’s Torino (H) and a hit and miss Bologna (A), now managed by former Atalanta legend, Roberto Donadoni.

04.10.2015 – Serie A – Sampdoria (H)

In between the Lazio and Sampdoria game I made a change to the midfield.  I liked the deep lying midfielder but felt they were currently too passive.  I decided to bring in Jasmin Kurtic as a regista.  This would continue to give us the protection in front of the back four but also encourage us to win the ball back a bit more aggressively and push forward when the moment was right.

A third 0-0 was not what the doctor ordered.  For what it’s worth, I’d have serious doubts over any medical practitioner offering football score lines as remedies for any ailment.

It was a drab affair – both sides huffed and puffed, we decided to try and kick Samp off the pitch and D’Alessandro got sent off.  Who’s up next?  Milan at the San Siro you say?  Oh, wonderful.

  18.10.2016 – Serie A – AC Milan (A)

Heading into this Lombardy Derby we had dropped down to 6th and Milan sat threateningly behind us in 7th.  They had failed to win away from the San Siro all season but had racked up three successive home wins,

We had also been struck by an injury/suspension crisis (Gómez and Susic injured, Kurtic lacking match fitness and D’Alessandro suspended), forcing me to play the below phallic monstrosity.  Essentially this was getting as many players as possibly between Milan and our goal before lumping it long to Pinilla and Paloschi and hoping to nick something.  Oh, and lots of lots of prayers.

Well there you go, prayers do get answered sometimes.  Milan pulverised us 0-0 but we stood firm.  It was another 0-0 but unlike Palermo and Samp, I was delighted with this one.  We defended resolutely and actually had two clear cut chances compared to their one.

Our fourth draw in a row also meant we were now unbeaten since the second game of the season (also winless in four but shut up).

24.10.2016 – Serie A – Torino (H)

Joe Hart’s Torino visited the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia in relatively poor form but had won their last game at home to Empoli.  Worryingly, from our misfiring team’s point of view, Hart had also kept a clean sheet for Il Toro in the 2-0 win.

On the other hand, we were back to something representing full strength and could even play both wingers.  Wonders never cease.

PLEASE. SOMEONE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE JUST SCORE A GOAL.

28.10.2016 – Serie A – Bologna (A)

After a very public breakdown at the final whistle of the Torino game,  involving running into both goals to ensure there was no perspex covering them and then being talked out of phoning Barry Fry for advice by my assistant Bollini, we headed to Bologna.

My tear stained, snivelling team talk contained one simple request.  Just score a bloody goal.

The grey skies cleared.  Birds sang.  Warring factions across the globe united for one brief beautiful moment.  And I knelt on the technical area at Renato Dall’Ara, my face twisted into a perverse scream, both thanking and cursing the gods – think of Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption once he escapes jail, though I didn’t stink of shit like he did.

Atalanta had only gone and scored a goal.  Jasmin Kurtic you beautiful, beautiful man.  He unleashed a vintage Bobby Charlton-esque howitzer right into the top corner on 34 minutes and the curse was broken.

It’s so good it’s deserving of the first, and possibly even only, video of the blog.

After the three hour parade and ensuing victory speeches had finished, we resumed the game and Paloschi only went and got another.  London buses and all that.

In the midst of the adulation over finally scoring it can easily be overlooked we’d now gone and incredible seven games without conceding and were propelled back up to 4th in the table.  The top half finish promised to the board is surely all but confirmed.  I’m so glad I didn’t resort to pissing in the corners of the ground.  What were you thinking Barry?!

Serie A Position: 4th

Results/Next Month’s Fixtures