FC United - A Youth Project

[rryanwilliams]

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New year, new formation. Think it was time to switch it up and if I wanted to make it anywhere near the play-offs, we couldn't constantly play the same old formation as the opposition have found ways to counter it. The top two playing as Trequartista's where they drop back and work as Advanced Playmakers, while the Shadow Striker supports the pair. The two midfielders (Box to box & Ball winning) do all the damage in the centre of the park so both need high work rates, as do the Wing Backs who are constantly up and down the wings, turning defence into attack. The Deep lying playmaker sits just in front of the two Central Defenders who also have the passing aspect to their game to retain possession, but aren't good enough to play as Ball playing defenders just yet. Same thing applies to the goalkeeper where maybe in the future I can train him to play as a Sweeper Keeper, so he can act as a third centre back and push up out of his box a bit more.

January Results 2018
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A good start to the new year with five goals and none conceded against Guiseley and Accrington Stanley who are tough oppositions. A journey to Maidstone in the FA Trophy 2nd round was next a week later where we went down to 10 men after 40 minutes, and they took advantage of the overload and scored two quick goals. Another defeat happened to Forest Green this time, where I feel we should have won. Agard took the lead but two goals in two minutes secured them the victory undeservedly. We managed to get a win with another clean sheet at the end of January despite one of them being an own goal. We'll take anything as long as it's in our favour.

Player of the Month - January
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The youngster Aaron Robinson gets January's player of the month at just seventeen years old. He definitely needs to improve on his passing but at six foot one, he barely lets a thing past him and an average rating of 7.65 tops off a good month for him.
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So four league games later, FC United manage to climb one spot in the table with a game in hand one point behind Maidstone, and hopefully can get our revenge from the FA Trophy knockout. Level on points with Chester and a large breathing space between us and Wrexham & Tranmere who are both eight points behind. Looking forward to February and March now to try and reach our target and also Youth Intake month to bring new prospects in.
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[rryanwilliams]

January Transfers 2018
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Forgot to mention our ins and outs for this month in the last post, so doing it on a separate one instead. Only two players we brought in and no one left the club, as usually I tend not to do much business mid-season as I'm already satisfied with the squad I have now. But with playing a new formation I needed to sign a couple players that fitted the roles.

Samuel Shashoua was the first of the two who came through Tottenham's youth academy. Naturally an Advanced Playmaker, he's got the potential attributes to fit into the Shadow Striker role. At only nineteen as well, he's got good potential. The second and final signing is Tommy O'Sullivan who's a twenty-three year old Welshman who was released from Cardiff and training to play as a confident Box to box midfielder. I didn't have enough players that were accomplished in the role so had to bring some depth in.​

 

[rryanwilliams]

February Results 2018
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A decent month in terms of results, tough oppositions and only one loss. We just sneaked in a 91st minute equalizer to grab a point at home to Wrexham, and then a comfortable 3-1 win to Maidenhead a week later. Disappointingly the only loss of the month came to Aldershot, but on paper and looking at the stats after the match, we were probably lucky the scoreline wasn't higher. A trip to Ebbsfleet after that to redeem the loss resulted in three goals and three points with an outstanding performance from the team, and lastly another 2-0 win at home to Macclesfield. The front three of Shaquile Agard, Samuel Shashoua and Shayne Laverly seems to be working a treat with this new formation.

Player of the Month - February
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The January signing had a great month playing as a Shadow Striker, in the heart of the attack linking midfield with the strikers in an instant. The eighteen year old scored twice in February and picked up two assists, so an average rating of 7.81 gave him February's player of the month. Hopefully he can keep this form up until the end of the season.
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Another three places climbed with ten points added to the tally brings us to seventh. Only six points from the play off spots but a long way to go yet as Dag & Red, Barrow and Accrington are stuck in between us and that blue zone. Maidstone and Gateshead are also on our tails with the same points, but our record of thirteen losses with the most on that picture doesn't look pretty and are affecting our chances.

Looking forward to next month where we have six league games and youth intake early March to bring in some new faces, lets hope there's players who we can bring into the first team and add depth to the squad.


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