DL - Season 3: Game Week 2 – Results

Season 3: Game Week 2 – Div 1 Results

Southend v Basingstoke
Taiwan v Gosport
Fishguard v Fiorentina
Battersea v Pride


Fishguard Sports formation : 4-2-3-1
Starting XI: Ryan; Diks; Engels; Hoedt; Friedrich; Dendoncker; Allen©; Andersen; Klaassen; Praet; Fischer
Subs: Onana; Joachim Andersen; Mackay-Steven; Armstrong; Achahbar

Fiorentina formation : 4-3-3
Starting XI: Gordan; Darmian; Stones; Dede; Pasqual; De Jong; Iniesta; Xhaka; Zaza; Toni; Ibrahimovic
Subs : Meret; Blackett; Besic; Van Der Vaart; Locadia

We kick off this week’s early game in Wales with Welshy’s nestlings taking on The Italian Stallions from Italy. Welshy sticks to his guns that have brought his young side great results, which includes wearing a Dr. Who scarf and matching socks, whilst Tino shows his tactical flexibility trying to out-think his Welsh counterpart and “erase" him from the equation. All in all looking at both set of tactics I thought Fiorentina afforded Fishguard the space in arguably the area of the field they are at their absolute strongest. Fiorentina banked on Vietto playing so tried to nullify the space he can run into by dropping their defensive lines but if they had checked the injuries, they would notice that Vietto actually has EbolAIDS for this week and couldn’t make the game. This allowed Fischer to take the mantle upfront and alter the way the Fishes attack. Fischer would naturally drop into the combination play with Klaassen & Praet and exploit the space that Fiorentina afforded them. Despite all three attackers being youngish their gaming intelligence should not be overlooked, especially from an attacking viewpoint. All 3 are great at exploiting space with movement & passing in and around the opposition. On the flipside Fiorentina played with 3 centre forwards upfront to try and bully their way through Fishguard’s defence. Ideally I could see Zaza & Ibra tormenting the fishes in the channels between the fullbacks and centrebacks (which is what I assume Tino wanted). It wasn’t fluid so to speak but the individually quality of both players shone through. Zaza’s terrier like style of play would get the better of young Friedrich imo and Zlatan can easily hold his own against the defence. Although I could see Ibra and Toni clashing on the field because they both kinda play in the same space but Zaza’s work ethic and teamwork persona made him the key man in attack for Tino’s men. With saying all that I thought the big miscalculation was allowing the Fishguard’s strongest part of their system to play their game will eventually prove to be stronger against an altered system where the individual quality was relied upon. There’s also this small thing of man-marking this Fishguard side….it plays into Welshy’s hands perfectly if you read his tactics. Maybe a hybrid of man & zonal marking may work…just my opinion though. Anyway lets see what the Fruity decides…

Slots:
Fishguard 7+1
Draw 4
Fiorentina 3

Fishguard 0 – 1 Fiorentina

Ibrahimovic (pen)

MOTM – Zaza (Its was Fishguard’s collective that shone today but individually Zaza made the most of an unbalanced system)

s – Joe Allen; Ryan Mathew; Gary Mackay-Steven; Alex Meret; Jurgen Locadia; Craig Gordon; Andres Iniesta












Battersea Ironsides formation : 4-2-3-1
Starting XI: Jonstone; Gabriel; Rami; Otamendi; Gaya; Vidal; Kondogbia; Lucas; Firmino; Insigne; Mitrovic
Subs: Van Der Wiel; Shaqiri; Cartabia; Zivkovic; Tielemans

FC Pride formation : 4-2-3-1
Starting XI: Enyeama; Coke; Kouyate; Koscienly; Blind; Pirlo; Mascherano; Robben; T. Hazard; Pedro; PEA
Subs: Castro; Hojbjerg; Rosicky; Halilovic; Immobile

Second game of the day and arguably my favourite result to have ever been done by your greatness, truly one with the universe but still on his own shining like Betelgeuse. But enough about me and more on the mammoth tie we have here today. 2 newly promoted teams and a massive 6 pointer for relegation. Both teams pressed when they needed to. Both teams dropped back to hit on the counter when they needed to. Both teams defence would get thumped by the opposition’s attack. Pride went for a bit more possession which isn’t surprising though given the fact he has Pirlo in the side but Battersea targeted the Italian when breaking through midfield so I felt this would be the game where the better attacking midfielder would be key to each side’s success. Which then showed me that Battersea had the better midfield suited to their style of play. Insigne was smiling when he saw he was up against Coke and PEA was licking his lips at the sight of Rami & Otamendi as a CB pairing. I thought Battersea edged it tactically because they actually paid attention to the opposition but all in all similar systems lead to an open game but lets see what the fruity had to say after he decided to be a earlier in the day…

Slots:
Battersea 6+1
Draw 8
FC Pride 4

Battersea 3 – 3 FC Pride

Battersea: Vidal (Firmino); Lucas (Mitrovic); Firmino (Gaya)
FC Pride: PEA (Pedro); Robben X2 (PEA & Hazard)

MOTM – Firmino (He’s class in midfield shone today in what was a very exciting game)

s – Arturo Vidal; Geoffrey Kondogbia; Jonny Castro; Tomas Rosicky; Ciro Immobile; PEA









Taiwan formation : 3-4-1-2
Starting XI: Cech; Barzagli; Bonucci; Chiellini; Coleman; Alonso; Matic; Alaba; Coutinho; Tevez; Dost
Subs: Navas; Barry; Ward-Prowse; Bellarabi; Son


Gosport formation : 4-4-1-1
Starting XI: Joel; Ivanovic; Alderweireld; Natasic; Mings; Wanyama; Raboit; Mane; Sinclair; Barkley; Kane
Subs: Passlack; Wijnaldum; Byrne; Bishop; Simon

The cheaters of last season against Mr. Worldwide for the last televised game of today. The thing that sticks out the most for me from Taiwan’s setup is that they mentioned wanting to play like Netherlands did at the 2014 WC but a couple of things don’t quite fit imo. Barzargli & Chiellini aren’t as mobile as De Vrij & BMI. Then you don’t exactly have the pace upfront to play the quick transitions you mention in your tactics. Strange as you got players like Son & Bellarabi on the bench which would better suit the tactics…maybe either side of Tevez. Nontheless its still a cracking side if it does lack pace almost everywhere apart from the wingbacks. But then Lubo not wanting to feel left out followed suit with some strange tactical decisions himself. He anticipated a lot of wing play from Taiwan and tried to make sure he wasn’t hurt out wide by having both the CBs & CMs alternating on who was gonna help their fullbacks. On the attack though they had the pace to hurt Taiwan, defensively they got it wrong though. I thought out wide Lubo would get a lot of joy but Taiwan’s class will see them dominate the midfield. Maybe Kane or Tevez would prove to be the decider?
It wasn’t great tactically like the first game or open with great entertainment like the previous game so it was a bit of a letdown in my eyes.

Slots:
Taiwan 6+1
Draw 6
Gosport 4-1

Taiwan 0 – 0 Gosport

MOTM – Matic (in what was a rather drab game, he did his job the best and was rightfully the best player on the pitch)

s - Giorgio Chiellini; Philippe Coutinho; Xabi Alonso; Joel Robles; Harry Kane; Teddy Bishop









Southend formation : 4-3-3
Starting XI: Buffon; Trippier; Mustafi; Terry; Ward; Geis; Pjanic; Strootman; Walcott; Sturridge; Ox
Subs: Thorne; Assombalonga; Bijker; Berahino; Onazi

Basingstoke formation : 4-2-3-1
Starting XI: Fabianski; Carvajal; Van Dijk; Coloccini; Gibbs; Rode; Carvalho; Carrillo; Teixeira; Griezmann; Rossi
Subs: Cesar; Marquez; Iturraspe; Milik; Deulofeu

Well we have a very very very late kick-off with this game. Word out of Basingstoke was that manager TBAG was a plane to the next beerfest but then realized he had a game to attend and quickly rallied up the troops outside the stadium to take on Tippy’s own Southend United. Its another clash of similar-ish styles today (whatever happened to individuality?). Both teams have a hard working midfield with a touch of class. Both teams have terrible defences…only joking but other than one or two players its bad…anyway both teams have that blistering pace out wide and with someone upfront who can put the ball in the back of the net. Although Rossi is a decent player I don’t think we can actually rate him when he can hardly get on the pitch in real life. How do we do with stuff like this…do we rate him on the ability he has when fit?...even though it looks like he’ll never be fit…I mean he is effectively is doing a Falcao better than Falcao…ok maybe im wrong because Falcao actually gets onto the pitch to show everyone how shít he has gone. Regardless back to the game…again it was similar systems so it came down to which personnel could do it better on a cold wet windy night in an empty stadium because fans were told that the game was a no show until the last minute. I thought Southend edged it in midfield with Geis, Pjanic & Strootman. Just my opinion but I rank that better than Baggy’s midfield, which isn’t to say Baggy’s midifield is shít cos it isn’t. I hate doing results. Anyway quick attacks, lots of running and quick releases from midfield, lots of dribbles, Terry being racist to someone and Gibbs trying to impersonate a footballer, we had it all.

Slots:
Southend 6+1
Draw 5
Basingstoke 4-1

Southend 2 – 1 Basingstoke

Southend – Sturridge X2 (Pjanic & Ox)
Basingstoke – Griezmann (Rode)

MOTM – Studgemeister (Goals win games bruh)

s – Berahino; Buffon; Van Dijk; Teixeria; Rode; Griezmann

Thank you for joining us today and see you again soon