2016
Slow out of the blocks
Levante’s dismal start to the season continued last night, going down 3-1 away to newly promoted AZ in Holland. This result comes on the back of a 2-0 opening day defeat at home to Internacional, and a 3-0 loss in an all Spanish affair away to Celta Vigo.
Markus Henriksen opened the scoring for the Dutch side, scoring from a free kick in the opening minute after a Jean Beausejour foul.
On 19mins, Dame N’Doye scored the host’s second goal with a great strike into the top corner.
On 33 Levante had their first opportunity. Mate Simao slipped in Clinton N’Jie, but the young striker couldnt beat the keeper.
N’Jie had another chance right on the break. Souza creating the opening, but Benoit Costil in the AZ goal pulled off a teriffic stop.
Javi Guerra came on for the home side on the hour, and 10 minutes later Tyrone Mings, making his Levante debut, took the Spaniard down in the area. Guerra himself got back up and tucked away the resultant spot kick. If it wasn’t game over already, it certainly was after that.
Levante’s first goal of the season finally arrived on 75mins though. After missing a couple of chances in the first half, N’Jie played in Gareth Barry, and the experienced midfielder swept the ball into the bottom corner.
It wasnt enough for the travelling support, a section of which demonstrated outside the ground after the game. Parfitt however urged the supporters to stick with the side, and pointed back to last season as the perfect example. The club flirted with the relegation zone for the vast majority of the season, before eventually finding their stride and finishing 14th.
The lack of goals will be a worry however, and the fact that Ibrahima Balde and Jelle Vossen have both been moved on does leave the club a little short on cover, but for now N’Jie and Angel Romero are set to fight for the number 9 shirt.
On Thursday night it’s another Spanish derby, as unbeaten Malaga face Levante. Parfitt know’s his side are in for yet another stern test, and knows that the club need to pick up some points sooner rather than later.
In an effort to turn things around, the squad has been shaken up. Experienced defenders Sylvain Distin and Manuel Friedrich have joined, along with Mexican full back Israel Jiminez, and young midfielders Anthony Caceres and Bart Ramselaar.
The defenders should be challenging for a first team spot immidiately, with at least one expected to start on Thursday, and the two midfielders have been brought in for their potential, with the club particularly excited to welcome young Dutchman Ramselaar.
All of the incomings cost money though, and with the clubs limied funds, something has to give. As a result, young Czech Vaclav Kadlec will be heading to Spurs for an £8m fee.
Division 5 , a view from the rear.
Division 5 the only way is up.
In open gameworlds Division 5 is the hardest to escape from. Only 1 side gets auto promotion and the playoffs are even worse of a lottery than normal. However in the TOP 100 very sensibly there are 4 places up for grabs. The only thing to fear is the sack race at the end of the season.
| Gk | Def | Mid | Att | Top15 | Top21 | Ave | ||
| Hetha Berlin | 89 | 88 | 88 | 90 | 86 | 75 | 88.2 | 1 |
| Sao Paulo | 89 | 88 | 88 | 88 | 87 | 87 | 87.833 | 16 |
| Stuttgart | 89 | 87 | 88 | 88 | 87 | 85 | 87.333 | 13 |
| Villlareal | 88 | 88 | 88 | 87 | 86 | 86 | 87.167 | 5 |
| Dynamo Kiev | 87 | 88 | 89 | 88 | 87 | 84 | 87.167 | 18 |
| Olympiacos | 88 | 87 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 85 | 86.667 | 4 |
| Flamengo | 87 | 87 | 87 | 87 | 85 | 85 | 86.333 | 3 |
| Club Bruge | 87 | 86 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 85 | 86.333 | 11 |
| Anderlecht | 88 | 87 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 83 | 86.333 | 19 |
| Feyenord | 88 | 86 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 83 | 86.167 | 7 |
| Santos | 87 | 87 | 88 | 87 | 86 | 82 | 86.167 | 9 |
| Dinamo Zagreb | 89 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 85 | 82 | 86 | 15 |
| Celtic | 87 | 87 | 86 | 86 | 85 | 83 | 85.667 | 8 |
| Bremen | 85 | 86 | 87 | 87 | 85 | 82 | 85.333 | 12 |
| Standard Liege | 87 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 84 | 82 | 84.667 | 2 |
| Rubin Kazan | 87 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 82 | 81 | 84.667 | 14 |
| Augsburg | 88 | 85 | 86 | 84 | 83 | 80 | 84.333 | 6 |
| Partizan | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 83 | 75 | 84 | 10 |
| Independiente | 85 | 85 | 85 | 86 | 83 | 80 | 84 | 17 |
| FC Twente | 85 | 84 | 85 | 85 | 82 | 80 | 83.5 | 20 |
The average for this league is 85.9 compared to 86.4 for D4. Quite a gap consdiering D4 is close to D3 in ability terms. Anything above 85.5 should be enough to survive in the league above , so any team down to Dinamo Zagreb should have promotion ambitions. The current leaders Hertha Berlin are a cut above their opponents. Strong in all positions, and a lethal strike force. True depth has been sacrificed and a real injury crisis is their only fear. Sao Paulo who got off to a poor start are on paper the firm second favourites, no real weakness in strength or depth , one can only see them move up,
Villareal and Dynamo Kiev should see out the remaining automatic spots between them , similar sides, Kiev will look to maintain possession. Then there is a huge clutch of almost identikit teams mid to high 86 rated , down to Celtic on the table above. Stand out sides could be Dinamo Zagreb if the keeper is on form and Santos if they keep more possesion to deny others chances.
There is then some what of a decrease in quality , all the sides have some major weak point which will hamper their progress. Breman, Partizan, Indepndiente , FC Twente, is a 86 keeper that hard to find ? Augburg not potent up top but may well finish top half on the strength of the keeper.
FC Twente are the worse team by far and hold up the league.
Good luck to all..
Sky Sports Interview David Senior (and wish they hadn't)
Ahead of their Division 5 fixture against Celtic, Sky Sports Greek football correspondent Fotis Voinikas gets an exclusive interview with Olympiacos manager David Senior for the Top100 Blogspot.
FV Afternoon David and thanks for taking the time out of your schedule.
DS No problem Foetus, just finished putting the squad through a hard session so happy to take time out.
FV Down at the Rendis?
DS No, at the Blue Zorba, great little bar down by the harbour.
FV Sounds a little unconventional
DS Not really, it’s a traditional bar other than they serve those plates of snacks.
FV Tapas?
DS No, I never touched her and if anyone says otherwise I’ll deny it.
FV Yes, well, moving on. Tell me about your route to Piraeus and Olympicaos.
DS Well Fergus as I recall I caught a flight from Yeadon airport down to Heathrow then one to Athens, I was going to catch a cab but the club had sent a car, which saved me a bob or two.
FV I meant along the lines of, how did you come to become Olympiacos manager?
DS Oh that, well I’d met the Chairman Evan whilst doing business in London.
FV What sort of business?
DS Business business, we were both having a piss in the Fluffy Kitten massage parlour, we got talking and he asked me what I was doing in London, I said I’d just taken Stanley to Wembley.
FV Accrington? I didn’t realise you’d managed them.
DS I haven’t, my nephew Stanley, I’d given him a lift to see his girlfriend in the smoke.
Anyway, Evan said he was possibly going to be in the market for a new manager as they were on the verge of relegation so I gave him my agent Frank Hirst’s card and the rest is history.
FV Frank Hirst? Is he with Prosport, Full Contact, Key Sport?
DS No, Thomas Cook, he’s my travel agent.
FV Should have guessed, then what happened?
DS Well Frank got in touch and said the club had called and the job was mine if I wanted it. Frank said he’d throw in an upgrade from economy on the flights in return for his 75% commission so I booked the tickets there and then.
FV Wow, so you didn’t have to through an interview process?
DS Only at Heathrow, strip searched me the works.
FV Quite, so how do you find Piraeus?
DS Well to be honest Findus my advice would be to Google it, unless you’re shit hot on geography it’s a bitch to find.
FV I see, so any problems adjusting to the language?
DS No, your English is good Frodo, a bit of an accent there but I can understand most of what you’re saying.
FV Hmmm ok, moving on, tell me something about your philosophy.
DS Live and let live would sum it up.
FV I meant your footballing philosophy.
DS Oh sorry Fungus, I just send the lads out and tell em to do their thing, after all that’s what they’re paid for.
FV So you don’t give them any tactics?
DS Nah, not into all that modern fancy stuff, can’t see how giving them small sugar covered mints would help them play any better.
FV Urm, yes, well. You’ve transferred out a lot of the older members of the squad, notably Michu.
DS Bless you.
FV Perez Michu !!
DS Well Fargo I’m looking to put a more youthful, vibrant squad together, the older lads don’t have the stamina for it.
FV Is that because you’re planning to play a more high tempo game?
DS No, I mean on club nights out, the oldies want to be in bed for 11 with a cup of cocoa.
FV Ah, of course. But you’ve brought in a few new faces, I’m looking at Balde up top.
DS Fuck off big nose, my lack of hair isn’t a license to insult me.
FV No David, I was talking about Ibrahima Balde.
DS Ibrahima has a full head of hair, think you need to get your facts straight there Fructose.
FV Lets move on shall we. You must have been ecstatic to get Pavolettis signature?
DS Just thought his autograph may be worth a few bob in the future, I like that song he did for Italia 90 but I’m not really a big opera fan to be honest.
FV Nessun Dorma?
DS No I drive a Peugot.
FV Anyway, looking at tonights game, any injury concerns?
DS Angel picked up a knock falling off a table at the Zorba and the Doc has had a look.
FV Prognosis?
DS Not sure about him, anyway I think he must be out on loan cos his name doesn’t ring a bell.
FV Ok David, thank you very much for your time, it’s been interesting to say the least.
DS No worries Footrot, anytime.
Shaky defences
Summary of the first week in the 2nd season:
Round 1
vs PSV (H, 0-3): Hitz (5); Lora (6), Richards, 58' (6), Clark (6), Park (6); Sanchez (6), Gueye (6); Djuricic (6), Veretout, 11', 73' (6), Garcia (6), Ayew (6)
Goals: Jurgen Locadia (14'), Luuk de Jong (pen, 37'), Adam Maher (free-kick, 63') -> ALL PSV
Assists: Erhun Oztumer (14') (PSV)
MOTM: Luuk de Jong (1 goal) (PSV)
Round 2
We travelled to Italy next, where we faced the tricky Sampdoria, containing Niklas Moisander who we failed to bring to the club. Shame for him. This was more like the team I knew, and the game was gone by the hour mark. Okore got a first start for the season, while new signing Ignacio Scocco made his debut as well, with the rest of the team remaining the same. A first goal for Park too. Great win away from home, and one that was needed.
vs Sampdoria (A, 3-0): Hitz (7); Lora (6), Richards (6), Okore, 8' (6), Park (7); Sanchez (8), Gueye (7); Sinclair (6), Djuricic (8), Garcia (7); Scocco (7)
Goals: Filip Djuricic (15') , Idrissa Gueye (59'), Park Joo-Ho (63')
Assists: Carlos Sanchez (15'), Ruben Garcia (59'), Filip Djuricic (63')
MOTM: Filip Djuricic (1 goal and 1 assist)
TOTW 2: Park Joo-Ho (1), Carlos Sanchez (1), Filip Djuricic (1)
We currently sit 10th, with our next opponents a place above. They however have the in-form Jamie Vardy, who will be a test to our rotated XI. We then face Swansea whom we should beat. Looking forward to it.
Other business (friendlies)
We also had a friendly yesterday against Olympiakos. Apparently a fax sent late (I'm looking at you Mr. Perez) meant that David Senior sent his best team to Villa while we played the youth kids. Tough game for them, 0-4 loss, but can't expect better. We go back to Olympiakos on Tuesday in order to play a proper YT friendly. Haha.
Man City manager happy with things so far.
After an encouraging opening day, Man cuty were unlucky not to win midweek. Manager Will Trafford had this to say “don’t get me wrong, they are a decent outfit. But we need to be winning those games, need to be picking up 3 points a week. Only Real won both games, shows how competitive this is. But we need to get points on the board."
Asked about the transfer situation he added “tough isn’t it. We have done well to get Rambo and Stranzl in. One for quality and one for depth. I do get annoyed by these buggers trying to give me cash though. Got a pile of it at the mo and so no matter how many times they offer cash for Khedira, it ain’t working."
Division 4 first amongst equals
Division 4 the key stats.
When we look at this division we can see immediately that there is much less difference from the division above. The average rating is 86.4 compared to 86.7 in D3. If we use a rule of thumb that you would need a rating of just above 86 to survive in D3 you can see that the vast majority of clubs down to SC Internacional have the potential to gain promotion.
This makes this the most open division so far.
| GK | Def | Mid | Att | Top15 | Top21 | Average | ||
| Southamoton | 89 | 87 | 89 | 89 | 87 | 83 | 88.2 | 2 |
| West Ham | 87 | 88 | 88 | 88 | 87 | 86 | 87.333 | 12 |
| Dynamo Moscow | 88 | 87 | 89 | 87 | 86 | 85 | 87 | 3 |
| Genoa | 89 | 88 | 88 | 89 | 86 | 82 | 87 | 7 |
| Malaga | 87 | 87 | 89 | 88 | 87 | 83 | 86.833 | 4 |
| Torino | 89 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 86 | 82 | 86.833 | 5 |
| Udinese | 87 | 87 | 87 | 88 | 87 | 85 | 86.833 | 11 |
| Montpellier | 88 | 87 | 87 | 88 | 86 | 85 | 86.833 | 14 |
| Celta Vigo | 87 | 87 | 88 | 86 | 85 | 82 | 86.6 | 1 |
| West Brom | 87 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 86 | 85 | 86.5 | 8 |
| AZ | 88 | 87 | 87 | 88 | 85 | 84 | 86.5 | 17 |
| Dnipro | 88 | 87 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 83 | 86.333 | 13 |
| Atalanta | 87 | 87 | 87 | 88 | 85 | 83 | 86.167 | 10 |
| River Plate | 87 | 87 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 83 | 86.167 | 15 |
| Sc Internacional | 87 | 87 | 87 | 87 | 86 | 82 | 86 | 6 |
| Cologne | 88 | 87 | 87 | 89 | 85 | 80 | 86 | 9 |
| Espanyol | 87 | 87 | 87 | 88 | 86 | 78 | 85.5 | 18 |
| Chievo | 85 | 87 | 87 | 87 | 84 | 82 | 85.333 | 19 |
| Levante | 87 | 86 | 88 | 87 | 84 | 80 | 85.333 | 20 |
| Hellas Verona | 85 | 85 | 87 | 86 | 83 | 82 | 84.667 | 16 |
The current position is shown to the right of the table. It is probably no surprise that 6/7 of the highest rated teams occupy the automatic promotion and play off spots , even early doors.
They have to a large extent chosen to sacrifice quantity for quality, probably a good idea in this division. West Ham and Dynamo Moscow are an exception to that and if they can keep up early in the season they will be in a position to challenge the out and out favourites Southamton.
It is no surprise to find teams of a similar build Udinese and Montpellier also begining the season well . There is such a similarity from then on down to even Levante that it is hard to say how a particular team will do statistically , which means that manager skill and the vagueness of injuries will have more effect.
It has to be a concern for Espanyol, Chievo , Levante that they are already struggling and have little in the wasy of back up to push into the front line.
Hellas Verona though are rather a sad sight and I can't see them surviving ,
Noisy starts new role with a positive result
Manchester City 0-0 Bayer Leverkusen
So life in Germany has started ok for new boss Noisy as we returned from England with a positive point and our second consecutive clean sheet in the league.
After being appointed earlier on this week Noisy knew he would be under pressure to deliver results from the start but considered this solidarity point to be a large success.
Infact Leverkusen played rather well that the City keeper Akinfeev was named as the games MOTM.
The squad will train today before travelling to the rather hostile Istanbul for Sundays huge game against Fenerbahce.
One former face will not be facing us as RVP has moved to Napoli and we've already been on the phone to him to try and get some inside info on Little's new tactics.
Many are predicting fireworks and a explosive affair and Leverkusen will try there best to deliver.
Lyon 1 Real Madrid 4...
Lyon 1 Real Madrid 4…
Real Madrid eat, chewed, swallowed, and spat out Olympique Lyonnais as they demolished and beat them 4 - 1 in their Division 1 fixture. " Theres only 1 Keano " bellowed out from the travelling Madrid army.
Madrid dominated possession with 66%, and had 17 shots at goal and with 9 on target. Giovanni Cabrioli bored the hell out of the lyon fans with the defensive long ball tactics, and only managed 3 shots at goal. The Lyon fans were signing " are you LVG in disguise" to the Lyon manager.
Lewandowski was impressive and scored a hat-trick, later being voted Man of the Match for his performance.
Bale was also on the scoresheet for his side.
Madrid fans celebrate
Lewandowski complete's his hat trick.
Bale scores to make it 4-1
After the game Roy Keane said " Real Madrid have more green squares one there result schedule list , than the wembley stadium pitch itself. I regret trying to sell Lewandowski, and i told him to go and prove to them managers who bidded a mars bar and a packet of crisps for him, just how good you really are. Lewandowski is world class, and i am telling you now, he will be the top goal scorer in top 100 this season. "
Up next is Seville at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on sunday...
Dear Diary - ROY KEANE EXCLUSIVE
Please click READ MORE as TOP 100 Real Madrid Manager, Roy Keane, releases extracts from his daily diary which will make up a future publication about his life.
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch
Thursday 14th January 2016 - The Beginning
Dear Darlin (Diary),
Hi diary, may I call you Alex, yes Alex I like that name… well this is where I intend to write down my inner-most thoughts about SM Top 100 - today eh… well it has been eventful in Top 100 - Nuno seems like his days are numbered after he picked up another kid, Fran Villabla (one I sold, even I am not a genius), Little’s Youth team demolished Tottenham 3-0 in the youth cup and my old pal from EC2, Linder has come along to join the party, I hear he is a decent writer himself and we are looking forward to hearing about his adventures in Germany, speaking of which Alex I have decided to cut and stick this picture of The Linder that he did for the Hoffenheim Times this morning…
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| The Linder |
Anyway let me tell you all about how I, Keano came to be at the Bernabeu in Top 100... it all began in August, Franco called me into his office in Shitpool, I took my helicopter, reluctant to leave my Vauxhall Corsa anywhere in that place and he told about this great idea for a gameworld and how he wanted me to be a part of it... Natrually I was keen, but then he told me of how he wanted me to be Sunderland manager...
"Sunderland, are you having a laugh... Sunderland is so flipping dead as a team and a place than there is more life left in Jimmy Saville?" I almost stormed out and flew back to Orient in Gold 1 there and then... Frank must have realised as such and had already arranged for his Scouse mates to nick the helicopter which left me at a loss so we discussed terms of how I would get Real Madrid in return for Frank's failure to keep my helicopter safe and he would have to have Genoa instead of Real... deal done the rest was history so to speak.
I naturally won the Top 100 Shield in my first season but due to some 'shit' refereeing came 2nd in the league and lost in the SMFA Champions Cup final... buy you know what you can't win everything every season, this season I intend to win it all!
That's all from my diary this week if you like it then I will be back every time there are 5x separate contributors to the blog...