Alex Rolfe

Sevilla – Oranges and Lemons

Why Sevilla?

Sevilla provide an interesting opportunity. Whilst not in the first tier of Spanish teams (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Deportivo) they could easily be compared to the clubs that lie just below this (Athletico Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Mallorca, Athletico Madrid and city rivals Betis). The expectations of the club are realistic (respectable league position/top half finish) and there is a healthy transfer budget available. Finally the stadium is a good size and the support is healthy. All in all a good challenge that a manager can really get his teeth into.


About me and my tactics

The big question, build your team around your tactic or adapt your tactics to suit the players you have available. Personally, having spent a lot of time working on a tactic that appears to be successful I go for the former. The tactic is a conventional 4-4-2 with plenty of width. It needs fast creative players down the flanks and up top with strong central defenders and a solid keeper. The centre of midfield is where the game is won or lost. Both players here are primarily defensively minded but should also be able to pass or create. There is no room in the squad for attacking midfielders. Ideally the squad should have 22 players, two for every position. Players on the left side should be left footed and vice versa. This however is the ideal and there is some flexibility around this. The ‘B’ Team should ultimately be made up of players who have at least a chance of breaking into the first team and is also used for first team players recovering from injury. All teams (first, ‘B’ and under 18s) play the same tactic.


Squad assessment

Having taken up the position of manager and enduring the usual (understandable) scepticism from fans and media alike that a new manager has taken the position (the chairman at least is behind me), it is time to look at my squad.

Goalkeepers

Arturo – although still young for a keeper at 22, he does not have what it takes at this level and will be transfer listed. In the meantime he will play in the ‘B’ team.

Esteban – a solid if not top class keeper, he will for the time being be the teams first choice

Antonio Notario – again fairly solid and a good back up to Esteban

Thorices – like Arturo, young but inadequate. Transfer listed and put in the reserves.


Right Full Back

Manuel Blanco – inexperienced young player lacking the quality to make it in the first team so transfer listed and placed in the reserves

Daniel – fairly exciting Brazilian prospect, in the team

Redondo – established first team player who will probably start for us but will be put under pressure by Daniel

Sergio Ramos – 18 year old with some good stats, will be placed in the reserves and made available for loan to see how he develops over the next few years


Left Full Back

Alejandro Ortiz – substandard 18 year old, transfer listed and placed in ‘B’ team

Dani Bautista – 23 year old lacking the required quality. Currently on loan at Celta. Placed on transfer list

David – Average player, will eventually form the back up in this position but will have to be first choice until fresh blood arrives


Centre Back (right footed)

Aitor Ocio – again, average player who will be the back up in this position

Javi Navarro – first choice in this position, fairly strong stats

Jose – poor player currently on loan at Xerez. Transfer listed.

Fernando Cuerda – young but substandard. Transfer listed and in reserves

David Prieto – as above

Fernando Vega – again, as above

Oscar Rodriguez – on loan at Valladollid. Stats are ok but will never challenge Ocio or Navarro so transfer listed

Alavaro – poor player, transfer listed and in reserves


Centre Back (left footed)

Pablo Alfaro – veteran defender and first choice in this position. Will be club captain this season

Pablo – back up to his name sake but I’m a little worried about some of his stats. Could be replaced in January if he fails to deliver


Right Wing

Juan Jose Bezares – ok looking right wing currently on loan at Cadiz. I will see how he does there before making a decision

Bruno – young but no future here. Transfer listed and in reserves

Manuel Redondo – as above

Alex Santana – slightly older but still lacking quality. Transfer listed and in reserves

Francisco Gallardo – on loan at Getafe. Ok stats but never going to get into first team. Transfer listed

Marco Navas – exciting looking prospect. Will be the back up

Jonathan – poor player. Transfer listed. Reserves

Fernando Sales – classy looking player. First choice


Left Wing

Juan Jesus – poor quality youngster. Available for transfer and in ‘B’ team.

Lolo – as above

Fredi – good experienced player on loan at Cadiz. Will see how he does

Antonio Lopez – exciting looking player (if a little slow). Back up

Antonio Puerta – young player with some good stats. In the reserves for now and available for loan. Could be a future star.

Jesuli – exciting player returning after 4 years at Celta. First choice.


Central Midfield (right foot)

Renato – ok looking player but lacking the necessary defensive skills. Transfer listed and in reserves. Worth nearly £4 million so hopefully someone will snap him up and boost my transfer budget.

Gerardo Torrado – solid looking Mexican with Spanish dual nationality. Will be the back up in this position.

Julio Baptista – classy Brazilian international. First choice.

Jordi Lopez – lacking necessary qualities. Transfer listed and in reserves.

Jose Manuel – young player without a future here. Transfer listed and in reserves.

Javi Perez – as above

Josep Lluis Marti – plenty of experience but no real quality. Transfer listed and in reserves.


Central Midfield (left foot)

Francisco Javier Casquero – ok looking player. Will be the back up once a quality signing comes in.


Forward/Striker (right foot)

Jesus Navas – exciting 18 year old prospect. In the reserves and available for loan for now.

Dario Silva – strong looking player. In the team.

Carlos – lacks necessary finishing skills. Transfer listed and in reserves.

Helio Pinto – another prospect. In reserves and up for loan.

German Hornos – on loan at Valladolid. Will see how he performs there

Mariza Makukula – ok looking player but lacking pace. Transfer listed and in reserves.

Aranda – not quite up to scratch. Transfer listed and in reserves.

Antonito – finishing not good enough. Transfer listed and in reserves.

Pablo – poor quality. In reserves and transfer listed.

Antonio Moreno – as above

Guille – as above

Kepa – possible prospect. In reserves and up for loan

Diego Capel – 16 year old placed in under 18 team to see how he develops


Summary

All in all I am quite pleased. Most positions are covered often with quality replacements. I need to get hold of three forwards/strikers (two with a left foot), a left sided full back and a left footed central midfielder. I also have a lot of work to do in building up a youth team (looks like my scouts will be busy). Pressingly I have my first friendly today (away to Grenada) so I will have to use some of the prospects at the front. Once that is out of the way I’ll start looking for the players I need. I’ll be back shortly to let you know how I get on.

Alex Rolfe

Grenada 0 – Sevilla 2

So the first friendly of the season and a positive result. I started with pretty much a full strength team. I opted for Jesus Navas partnering Dario Silva in attack. The game started well with Sevilla dominating possession and plenty of shots (18 in the first half, 7 on target). Granada in comparison only had one shot, the regen player Fran picking up on a mistake from Pablo Alfaro to force a good save from the keeper Esteban. Unfortunately the quality of the shooting was for the most part pretty poor and despite the dominance we never looked like actually getting the goal. That was until the stroke of half time, 47 minutes on the clock and the youngster Jesus Navas picked up a pass from Julio Baptista to slot the ball into the bottom left of the net. Half time 1-0.

The second half continued the theme, Sevilla dominating possession and getting most of the chances. Apart from a short spell engineered by the lively Fran, Granada never looked like equalising. However it was not until the 83rd minute that Kepa, (another prospect on for the disappointing Dario Silva) ran onto a defence splitting pass from Casquero to score, this time on the right side of the goal. Full time 2-0.


Summary

So what can I learn from this. The team performed well overall and whilst Grenada will be one of the weaker teams we face, a 2-0 win, away from home, with an unfit squad is a solid start. The only real worry was the performance of Dario Silva. On the plus side, the young players that I felt were not ready for the first team yet performed well scoring both goals. Overall a good start.

Alex Rolfe

Searching for Players

Bearing in mind that I have a lot of players on the transfer list and can therefore expect at least a minor boost to my £12 million transfer kitty I have made enquiries about some top players. I have also tried to get a couple of free transfers and my scouts have been sent out to look for quality young players.

The players I have expressed an interest in are:

Dagoberto – quality right footed Brazilian striker who would walk into the first team ahead of Dario Silva. Also has French nationality. Currently with Athletico Paranaense

Dede – top class Brazilain left back currently with Dortmund. Also has German nationality

Niclas Jensen – Danish left back also with Dortmund

Patrick Mboma – very experienced left footed striker, coming to the end of his career but should be able to do a job as back up for one year

Emmanuel Petit – vastly experienced left footed defensive midfielder. Has played with Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea so should be able to a job for me even, if like Mboma, it is only for one year.

Robinho – a real gem. Young left footed Brazilian striker who could be the next Ronaldo

Mike Zonneveld – young Dutch left full back with a big future


So there we are – hopefully some of these could be gracing my team some time soon. I’ll keep you updated with how things go and will be back shortly with news of my next friendly (away to Cultural).

Alex Rolfe

Cultural 1 – Sevilla 2

Firstly some news on the transfer front. I had offers accepted for Zonneveld (£2 million), Robinho (£7.25 million) and Dagoberto (£6.5 million). I therefore snapped up both Zonneveld and Robinho and have put a delay on the transfer of Dagoberto (hopefully some of my transfer listed players will be picked up). I have already sold Arturo to Racing for £325k and I have had some offers for Renato.

So, onto the match. Cultural look like a slightly better team than Granada although are still some way short of the quality I can expect to meet on a week to week basis in the league. Both Zonneveld and Robinho walk straight into the first team and Robinho in particular looks top quality. He creates problems for the Cultural defence from the first and scores from a lovely Dario Silva pass on 41 minutes. Half time 1-0

Despite this lead, Cultural give a good account of themselves throughout the first half and into the second. Their hard work is rewarded on 52 minutes when Pepe Domingo beats two defenders and scores. The rest of the match carries on the same way, Robinho a constant threat, Cultural having sporadic attacks. The winner is an absolute fluke, a cross from Antonio Lopez on 87 minutes going straight in. Final score 2-1

Summary

A mixed bag really. Robinho looks fantastic and Dario Silva certainly improved on his previous performance before being replaced by Jesus Navas (who again threatened and could win a place as back up to Dario Silva in the first team). I do feel however that we should be scoring far more in this type of fixture and worry that once we come up against quality sides could be made to pay. Next up are Barakaldo.

Terk

welcome to the forum nice start to the story. one thing i would say is that using bold and italics can make it both easier to read and look better

Alex Rolfe

Barakaldo 2 – Sevilla

Once again, transfer news. Petit accepted a 2 year contract and joins us on a free. Mboma on the other hand has joined French club Troyes. I’m not too disappointed as of all the players I looked at, he was the biggest gamble. In any case my scouts have identified (yet another) Brazilian called Adrianinho as a possible left footed forward. He is available from Corinthians for £2 million on an unprotected contract. He could well be the answer particular as he also holds Austrian nationality.

As for the match, it couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start. 2 minutes into the match first choice central defender Javi Navarro gets into a dispute with the referee over his decision to award a free kick against Petit, is warned then issued a yellow card and finally, a red. He will of course receive a warning for this and could possibly face a fine particularly as he is liable to be banned for competitive matches at the start of the season. Back on the pitch the team have to last 88 minutes with ten men.

Despite the numerical advantage of the opposition, the match itself is fairly even. The excellent Robinho causing all sorts of problems again. However, on 30 minutes Beltran scores a well taken goal for Barakaldo, coming between two defenders and slotting home. 10 minutes later Robinho (working alone up front) picks up the ball on the halfway line from the goalkeeper’s pass, sets out on a run beating two opposition players before delightfully chipping their keeper. 1-1.

Things remain fairly tight until the 85th minute when Robinho exchanges positions with Antonio Lopez (on for the largely disappointing Jesuli) crosses from the left wing. Antonio Lopez in the centre forward position steals a yard on his marker and slots home. 2-1 to Seville.

That is not the end however, in the 90th minute Barakaldo right winger Jose Maria tries his luck from the halfway line and amazingly beats the backtracking Esteban. 2-2 and the final whistle goes in scenes reminiscent of the famous Nayim goal in the Cup Winner Cup Final. Thank goodness this was just a friendly


Summary

What can I say? An early stupid red card, two wonder goals including a last minute equalizer. Best to put this one down to experience and move on. I will however be giving Antonio Lopez a chance in the next fixture ahead of Jesuli. Finally, thanks to Simon F for his advice however I can't seem to work out how to use bold or italics

Toothless Gibbon

Interesting, as I have also started to manage Sevilla.

Btw, Renato is CLASS. I would say he is one the top players at the club with great potential and a great long rage shot.

KUTGW!

Alex Rolfe

Murcia 1 – Sevilla 2

First up, transfers. Adrianinho has accepted a contract and will join in January. Until then Kepa and Jesus Navas will share the duties of back up striker and whoever does best will get a permanent place in the first team. Renato has gone to Zaragoza for £3.6 million but this will be paid in instalments so I can’t spend it yet. (Sorry Toothless Gibbon – got your message a bit late!).

The match was a lot less exciting than the one against Barakaldo. From the start both teams suffered from some fussy refereeing and the came never really got into it’s stride due to all the stoppages. Robinho (excellent again) scored on 17 with a well taken shot. On 54 minutes Dario Silva latched onto a poor clearance from their goalkeeper and shot into an open net. It wasn’t until the 89th minute that Murcia even looked like scoring. However a mistake by Javi Navarro left Murcia striker Tato with a tap in. Final score 2-1.

Summary

Given the fact that Murcia are the best quality opposition we have faced so far I am fairly pleased with the result. I am a little worried about Javi Navarro (a pointless red card last match and a stupid mistake this time). He will be replaced so that Aitor Ocio can have a chance next time. The next match is against Cacereno and will present an opportunity for some of my lesser players to boost their fitness.

Alex Rolfe

Cacereno 2 – Sevilla 1

Not much to report on the transfer front other than defender Alvaro moving to Rayo for £220k.

The match itself once again started badly, Aitor Ocio making a bad mistake and letting their striker Marcos beat him and score past the helpless Antonio Notario. On 15 minutes we equalised, Kepa shaking off his defender and moving onto a poorly weighted cross from Jesus Nava. 5 minutes later Gerardo Torrado went off with an injured neck. He will be out for a week and is our first injury of note. Then the clincher, on 30 minutes bad marking at a corner allowed Cacereno striker Fernando a free header from which he scored. Then nothing, possibly the most boring hour of football ever.

Summary

I’m a little worried about our defence with both Javi Navarro and Aitor Ocio making stupid mistakes recently. Otherwise, I wasn’t really expecting much from this game. The team was almost completely made up ofplayers who will only come in when the first choice is injured or exhausted and , other than for cup games, a team looking like this is unlikely to feature in a competitive match. That said, it’s never nice to lose especially to as weak a team as Cacereno. Next up, the final friendly against Ourense and a final chance for some of the lesser players to prove their worth and get into the starting line up for the competitive fixtures.

Alex Rolfe

Ourense 1 – Sevilla 4

So then, the final friendly game. I gave chances to Aitor Ocio (who will start the first league game regardless due to the suspension to Javi Navarro), Antonio Lopez and Jesus Navas. Jesuli and Dario Silva (both of whom are performing well below par) stepped down. The match looked fairly even and on 21 minutes we went behind to a horrible deflection on a free kick. That proved the trigger for Robinho to run the show scoring 4 goals including what is becoming a trademark “beat the defender, chip the keeper” classic and a less spectacular poachers goal after their keeper spilled Jesus Navas’ shot. The guy hasn’t played a competitive match for us yet and is already on the way to legend status.

Summary

A pleasing result and a terrific performance from Robinho, just hope we are not going to be too much of a one man team. Given the performance, barring unforeseen circumstances, this will be the team that starts the season next month against Athletic Club Bibao.