Part 109: Chapter the Sixth: In which I'm reminded that we're not yet considered among the elite.
Chapter the Sixth: In which I'm reminded that we're not yet considered among the elite.January 6, 2021-January 28, 2021
The scouts have been working day and night delivering reports on defenders from around the world, but I've yet to find any gold in the dross. I believe the team is good enough to finish top four even without any additions. Our record against the big four of Arsenal, Chelsea, and the Manchesters stands at a respectable two wins, a draw, and two losses in all competitions. Given that we've beaten Tottenham, Swansea, and Liverpool while drawing against Everton the sum result is 14 points out of 8 games against the clubs with the most talent in the league. We've earned 24 points from our other 11 matches so far, only dropping points on three occasions. That's all a long winded way of saying that we're going to be fine even if I'm not active in this transfer window.
At Liverpool, January 9, 2021
Premier League
Stuart Mair has been in a slump, earning a 6.6 rating over his last five games. I'm giving the start to Morvan, who has impressed in training and is now comfortable playing center midfield as well as defensive midfield. Liverpool are recovering from their early season swoon that saw them fall as far as 17th more than a quarter of the way through the season. That still leaves them well in the bottom half. Their nightmare season, combined with the four-nil hiding we gave them on opening day, gives me good reason to think we can beat them.
Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Attack
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Todd, Mejasic, Morvan, Djurovic, Mujkic, Shirra, Di Martino, Bastable.
Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Aarts.
Liverpool's Icelandic forward, Kolbeinn Þorsteinsson, goes Viking on us in the first half. His rapacity is only sated after scoring a goal in the 38th minute. Our attacking style has paid no dividends through the first half, Anfield has proved deserving of it's reputation as a tough place for the opposition to play. We finally scrape our equalizer thanks to the Marvelous Meteor, but can't walk away with more than a point thanks to uninspired performances from every attacker not named Mujkic.
Liverpool 1-1 Wrexham
Ryan McLeod must be very familiar with Wrexham now, he seems to be at all of our matches to watch Boumsong. I hope they let us keep him another year, he's been reliable for us this season, but I tend to doubt it as my scouts say that he's now as good as their regular centerbacks.
Mejasic has been eating yellow cards like candy this season and it's a problem that I need to resolve. I've ordered him to tackle softer from now on, hopefully that won't hurt his otherwise effective game at left back.
Mujkic must have some hidden stats that make him especially good, or my tactics must be a perfect fit for his talents, because he really shouldn't score this many goals given his mediocre Finishing (9) and Long Shots (11) attributes. I'm going to do my best to not look this gift horse in the mouth, lest I disturb the magic.
Remember this kid from last winter's transfer window? Eliav had no interest in joining us and Barcelona had made an offer for him. Well, Barca didn't get him. He also fired his agent, I'm assuming because of the breakdown in negotiations with the Catalan giants. He popped up when I was looking for left backs, and he's now willing to join us thanks to our league position and improved reputation. Several other clubs want him, the toughest competition for his signature will come from Inter Milan and Olympique Lyonnais. I offered him nearly twice as much as what he was originally requesting in wages, but I also tacked on five years to the length of the deal. Hopefully Inter and OL won't offer as much and we'll land a wonderkid that a year ago I thought was headed to Camp Nou and out of our grasp forever.
At Chelsea, January 13, 2021
Premier League
Our fixture list gets kinder after this, but we need a result here to keep Chelsea from bumping us back to fifth place on the table. Chelski are undoubtedly smarting after their loss to us in the FA Cup, and they're still the more talented team on paper. We've had success attacking them before, so rather than have us come out in a 4-4-1-1 I turn again to the 4-4-2 Diamond.
Starting Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond Attack
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Lewis, Richards, Mair, Petts, Mujkic, Shirra, Di Martino, Bastable.
Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Todd, Morvan, Djurovic, Bailey, Aarts.
The first half sees us match Chelsea stride for stride, and we look to take the lead 20 minutes into the game when Di Martino surges past his markers on a breakway for his first goal of the season, but the whistle had already blown play dead. I switch to a counter attacking mentality at the half but keep the 4-4-2 formation in an effort to get our opponents to venture forward and make a mistake. This has some success, but doesn't result in a goal.
Di Martino has done nothing since that first half run, and thus I take him out when we switch over to a 4-4-1-1 at the hour mark. Scott Shirra makes my tactical tinkering look brilliant when he scores the go-ahead goal five minutes later, but we fumble the lead six minutes later. Hearts leap like lemmings into the throats of the spectators for the rest of the game, first with a Mujkic free kick clipping the crossbar and then with a Kovacevic save where he comes off his line to make a vital challenge in a one on one situation. The game ends in a draw, and after a stretch of games that saw us play Arsenal, Manchester City, and Chelsea twice we're not only still in line for Champion's League qualification but also still alive in the FA Cup.
Man of the Match: Scott Shirra
Chelsea 1-1 Wrexham
Richards has no place with us. Not surprisingly no one was interested in buying him, so I shipped him off on loan to Reading. They'll at least pay his salary and give us an additional 12k a month on top of that. I'll try to move him again at the summer window, and one of these days I'll recognize that panicked late window moves are always a bad idea no matter how big the hole you think the team has.
vs. Norwich City, January 16, 2021
Premier League
Norridge are winless in their last eight, but we're hardly playing like a house on fire ourselves. A home game gives us the chance to play my preferred tactic, but fatigue from fixture congestion means that some players are getting the day off. At least it's a chance for the fans to cheer on Justin Bailey again, he plays in place of Scott Shirra.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Boumsong (c), Todd, Feruga, Morvan, Djurovic, Nieddu, Bailey, Mujkic, Bastable.
Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Lewis, Mair, Petts, Di Martino, Aarts.
The Canaries catch us out on the counter early, but don't capitalize on it. After we spend the rest of the half passing the ball around to little effect, they catch us out again as the half ends. Vid Kovacevic makes saves in both cases. I make a flurry of changes as the game progresses, trying to find a way past the bus they drove onto the pitch, but nothing I do can get us moving. If Kovacevic hadn't been on point today we would have dropped all three points instead of just two. We remain in fourth place thanks only to Chelsea also bottling their match against Bristol City.
Man of the Match: Vid Kovacevic
Wrexham 0-0 Norwich
Tarnation. He took an offer for £4,000 a week less to go to Internazionale. Eliav has a great deal of ambition, and his decision was driven almost entirely by the fact that we have a much worse reputation than Inter, who just over a decade ago finished a run atop Serie A where they won five straight Scudettos and a Champion's League title, and who more recently won the Europa League a few years back. The good news is that Inter these days is a shell of it's former self. In three or four years when Eliav wants to win trophies he'll be very interested in joining us.
I also find the gigantic centerback I want so badly in Wigan's Ed Hammatt. He's a 6'6” (197 cm), 200 lbs (90 kg) giant who's still growing. He's very interested in moving up to the Premier League, but they want nothing less than a king's ransom for him.
That's nice, but we're not well known enough for Liad Eliav, apparently!
This might keep our captain out past the Tottenham match in late February. That would be six games from now. Feruga and Lewis will get a chance to prove their worth in his absence, but given that Boumsong was the rock at the heart of our weakest area this could hurt.
At Bolton Wanderers, January 23, 2021
FA Cup, Fourth Round
Bolton have won their last four in a row, but they're a division below us and it shows when you compare their lineup to ours:
We really should be winning this game.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Todd, Lewis, Mejasic, Morvan, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Bastable.
Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Mair, Djurovic, Di Martino, Aarts.
We take hold of Bolton and proceed to shake them about by the scruff of their neck for ninety minutes. There's some tension before we score our first goal, I'm concerned that Bolton might find a second gear and after a quarter hour we'd created 3 clear cut chances, 2 half chances, and earned five corners without scoring. No worries, the Bastard of Wrexham finally puts us on top after a half hour that saw us compile sixteen shots, nine of which were on target and one of which bounced off the crossbar, five clear cut chances, four half chances, eleven corners, and 72% possession. I can relax some from there, and after Nieddu scores to give us the two goal advantage I sit back and enjoy the show. Mujkic caps the rout with a free kick goal from just outside the area and we're moving on to the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in my tenure at Wrexham.
Man of the Match: Dimitri Nieddu
Bolton 0-3 Wrexham
Uh-huh, sure. By the time they had a goal scoring opportunity we were already up 3-0. We spent 21% of the game with possession in their third of the pitch, they spent 6% of the game with possession in our third. If anything, the final score flatters them.
There were only three lower league squads left in the draw, so getting a relegation threatened West Ham at the Racecourse Ground qualifies as good news for us and makes us favorites to reach the quarterfinals for the first time in over twenty years and only the fourth time in the 106 years that Wrexham have contested for the cup.
vs. Cardiff City, January 26, 2021
Premier League
A win here all but secures a second straight Cwp for the Dragons. It will also get us off our mediocre run of form that has seen us win just one of the last six Premier League matches we've played. We couldn't ask for a better opponent, the Bluebirds are already twelve points from safety and January isn't over.
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control
Starting 11: Kovacevic, Cirjak, Lewis, Todd, Mejasic, Mair, Petts, Nieddu, Shirra, Mujkic (c), Bastable.
Subs: Novotny, Dos Santos, Feruga, Morvan, Djurovic, Di Martino, Aarts.
I tell the players to pick up right where we left off, and they follow my instructions to the letter. Once again we batter our opponent about, this time earning five corners in 15 minutes play, but score none. Once again Bastable scores after the half hour mark. We don't have to wait long for a second, as Petts secures the lead three minutes later. Then things diverge from the script. Shirra gets himself an early shower after an idiotic two footed challenge right at the ensuing kickoff and suddenly an easy march towards victory is thrown into doubt.
That doubt is allayed when Cardiff can't get anything through our defense. Kovacevic makes several brilliant saves while Todd and Lewis combine to disrupt Cardiff's attack and steal away possession. Bastable hits them on the break to make it 3-0, then gets his hat trick by simply outworking the shambolic Cardiff defense. Three goals aren't enough for the reigning Golden Boot, with five minutes left he beats the offside trap with an exquisitely timed run and finishes with aplomb for his fourth goal of the game. We score three even after going a man down, and with nine points through three matches we are a single point from clinching the Cwp. Our massive goal differential makes us favorites to keep the prize even if we fall to Swansea in a weeks time.
Man of the Match: That Magnificent Bastard, Rocky Bastable.
Wrexham 5-0 Cardiff
It was the dumbest foul I can ever recall from one of my players, and I've seen them do some truly gormless stuff. Cardiff had literally just kicked off after Petts' goal and there went Shirra diving in with both feet studs up and getting nothing but the opposing player. It's out of character for a guy who had just one yellow card on the season to this point.
He's lucky I can't fine him more than two weeks pay, and we'll be lucky if he doesn't get multiple games added to his suspension. I disavow his actions in the post match press conference, hopefully my firm condemnation will have the added effect of keeping the other players from similarly losing their heads.
One of my scouts points out that the Africa Cup of Nations is underway, and that scouting the competition would be one of the more efficient ways of improving our knowledge of African talent. Since he came to me with the idea, he gets to enjoy the pleasures of crisscrossing a gigantic continent. I'm surprised at the lack of African talent we've found thus far, few of the nations there have national teams as deep as the European and South American powers but they regularly produce world class players in real life.
We're through the toughest stretch of our schedule, and we're still in fourth place despite a disappointing run of results that saw us take only six points from four league matches. We've been fortunate that Chelsea has been worse. Our form seems to have recovered, the annihilation of Cardiff and the decimation of Bolton both speak to our continuing offensive virility. I haven't been able to find any players worth spending money on, but with five days left in the transfer window we might still add to the squad. Losing out on Liad Eliav for a second time in two years is frustrating, especially given how hard it is to find great fullbacks, but both he and Hammatt are still teens who I'll be keeping a close eye on in the future.
