OH NOvember
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It was shaping up to be a bad month but I managed to pull through, an injury crisis and a board visit were definitely not the highlights of the month but there definitely were some highlights towards the end. Just when I think I have a team, tactic or form going well something doesn't work and I'm back to the drawing board.
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The First game of the month was against a Swansea team that had been surprising everyone with there results this season and were sitting in a respectable 3rd, but I still headed into the game with high hopes...
But we got done, the scoreline was modest. So by now we were sitting at 9th on the league ladder and the board wasn't happy, so via a video conference they inform me that John Henry will be flying over to watch the team in the game against Tottenham, I wasn't to worried Tottenham's manager had just been fired, they were sitting in 13th spot and were in a form slump, so I told the board that he could expect to see a convincing win for us.
We had just thrashed Celtic 6-1,I was pretty confident.
But of course fate being fate meant that I drew with them 1-1 and it was only thanks to a late goal as well that we drew, my job was looking less and less secure by the day.
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I had been informed that John Henry and Chairman Thomas Werner were going to fly over to watch the Man U clash at the end of the month and unless results improved before then and on the day I could expect to see my contract under serious review.
Then things went from bad to worse as Lallana Gets a hip injury in training and is out for up to 2-3 months, then Sterling and Henderson get injured on international duty leaving me with Coutinho as my only fully fit attacking mid since Markovic was only semi fit. Mignolet was in poor form and I didn't want to move Sturridge onto the wing as he was my leading goal scorer. Only one of those problems I could fix so I decided to bring in a new Goalkeeper.
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A 3-1 win over Crystal Palace and a 6-3 thrashing of Basel got everyone back in good morale and Henderson and Sterling had recovered from their injury's by now so hopes were up within the squad but I was still a bit worried Man U were on a 5 match wining streak and members of the board were going to be present so we really needed to put in a good performance.
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WE WON!!!!!
4-3 we beat them and it was only a late penalty and a goal in stoppage time that let them get so close. It was an all-round good display of attacking football and I'm very pleased because I get to keep my job!
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Understandably the board were very pleased with the result and told me after the game that my job was definitely safe and that I had their full support and the were hoping the good run of results could continue. So a good end to otherwise bad month but I'm still here and "all's well that ends well" as they say I guess.
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Goes once again to Sturridge for 9 goals in six games spearheading the attack and being the premier leagues top goal scorer at the moment. So the award definitely goes to him.
So November has come to an end and it was probably the most worrying of the months so far. Good-bye November and Hello December.