Journeyman - AAB - A new start

Red Card Madness Costs Kobenhavn

Some rotation for the game against the biggest team in Denmark…. Kobenhavn. The rain poured and drenched the pitch. Jorgensen comes back into the fold but starts in striker for this game. Skov and Said also came into the fold. Just before half time Elyounoussi for Koben suffered what can only be described as a head loss and went straight through the back of Skov. A challenge that had no right in the game. This angered our side just before half time after a really poor first half. In the 80th minute we finally had a breakthrough. A rare chance fell to the bad boy (Jorgensen) and we finally broke the deadlock. What a result! A downright terrible game that was ruined by a red card but we won 1-0 and that’s all that really matters. It may be time to start believing…..

Deadline day passed where we didnt recieve a single outgoing offer. 

AAB leave it late

AaB went into the game against Sonderjyske as strong favorties but the game was much harder than that. Sonderjyske were extremely good defensively and didn't let up until we found a breakthrough in the 85 minute. Haas made a run from midfield and buried a shot in the bottom right corner. This saw the three points come our way. After the game we were asked if we believed in the title charge as we sit 3rd but joint top of the table on 29 points from 8.

We stated 'It is early in the season. We are only 8 games in. At the start of the season we did not anticipate where we find ourselves now and I am not going to get carried away. Let's continue doing what we do correctly and see where we come in the end'. 

The fans may be starting to believe but I really think it's important to stay grounded. When you look at the individual stats this season across the league we do not have a true goalscorer with Widell being our highest ranked scorer with 2 in 7 games. Assists however we thrive with John leading the league with 5. That shows our right side bias but also the fact that Ross is ranked in 12 also shows we favour wing play. Defensively is really where we shine though. Muller has 6 clean sheets in 8 games ranking first.

SKOV SCORES HIS FIRST SENIOR GOAL!

We made a few changes in the lineup for this one due to fatigue. Skov got trusted from the start. Adedeji had a rare start. Haas had to stay out due to a knock meaning he couldn't complete a full 90 mins. That did not seem to matter though. We were defensively superb. (admin note changed the difficulty to Ultimate).

1-0 to the AAB is becoming a familiar scoreline for AAB this season. What a time for Skovs first senior goal. Skov scored his first goal against giants Brondby in an early title decider to break the deadlock just before half time. In the 70th Min Widell made a superb tackle from their defender and played Jorgensen through who hit the ball straight at the keeper 1v1. That did not matter though because we won despite only having 32% of the ball.

Consecutive 1-0 wins making it a habit to win with that scoreline. Quite similar to my own career with Viborg. Of 11 home games in the regular season, I won 1-0 six times. Seems you're on a path to something similar, though you're doing it both home and away.

---

@JustinCase0110 wrote:

Consecutive 1-0 wins making it a habit to win with that scoreline. Quite similar to my own career with Viborg. Of 11 home games in the regular season, I won 1-0 six times. Seems you're on a path to something similar, though you're doing it both home and away.

---

Indeed. Recently it seems we are relying on the GK to much though and we may be riding our luck a little too much to keep this up. Will remain to be seen but I am hoping we continue our surprise challenge. 

It's how I always try to play the game - I try to keep it locked at the back, so that I have 0:0 in the bag most of the times. From there, I start looking for ways to find goals easier: when I'm playing Ajax I'm a little restricted (they'll always apply wing play and a single central striker), but with other teams I have more of a free hand.

It's the only thing I don't like about the modern game: in the older FIFA versions you could also do free-form tactics, uneven line-ups (a left back but not on the right; a right attacker but not on the left). This way I once developed a system without defenders at all: my backs were halves and my central defenders were controlling midfielders. But the effect was that you could truly force an opponent onto their own halves, playing with 50 metres of space in your back (did make you vulnerable for speedy counter attacks, though...)

We go in to the next game with three 1-0 wins in the row. So podds for another 1-0 win would be high prior to kick off. Jorgensen starts at striker after his impressive impacts there of late. Two mins into the game he thundered a strike off the bar and in from just inside the box in the top right corner. What a start. And guess what...... four 1-0 wins in a row. Who would have guessed. Randers FC did not threaten a dominant AAB. Ideally I am starting to worry about the constant underperformance of XG. This could really cost us down the line. I have asked all our coaches to work with the attackers on shooting for the next month. Them doing so will hinder the performance of the rest of the side but I believe this is an important area to improve 'in house' now if we want any serious success this season. In Other positive news I have just been announced as the manager of the month! 

The next game we had Lyngby away. In true AAB fashion we broke the deadlock early when we utalised our high press and took the ball from their hesitant CB Gregor. Opoku ran 1v1 and smashed the ball home near post. The trend continued. We were impressive defensively only limiting the opposition to one shot but we failed to be actively clinical to reflect the domination. We really cant afford to play down a 1-0 victory and three points though. That result sees us climb 8 points clear with one game played more. We also have only conceded and impressive 4 goals. I want to give a massive shoutout to not only the defense but Jimenez. He rarely gets spoken about but the 21 year old Dutch midfiielder really has locked down the structure of the team.

It's fun to see how one game can reflect itself in such opposite directions, whether you focus on possession or shots/xG. Possession-wise it looks like Lyngby dominated that game with 65%. But with 10-1 in shots and 2.0 xG against 0.2 this was truly your game. Your 1-0 preference continues, and I get this Juventus vibe from a Champions League season 20 years ago or something. I believe they won every group stage game with 1-0. Or was it just the first five? I don't recall, but one may suspect that AaB have got an Italian head coach...

In real life at Ajax, we refer to Davy Klaassen as Mr. 1-0, as he's often our player to open the score for us (no matter if he plays well or not, he's often there to pick that opening goal).

Maybe we should start calling your Aab Team 1-0...

Haha yes. Usually I try to play a more attacking style which enables us to have more possession. With the 433 we are currently working with it seems like efficiancy is key. We just seemingly keep plodding along and teams are really struggling to get past our midfield to create any proper chances which is fun. The players do not necessarily reflect my usual setup but it is a refreshing change. 

---

@Danimal5981 wrote:

In real life at Ajax, we refer to Davy Klaassen as Mr. 1-0, as he's often our player to open the score for us (no matter if he plays well or not, he's often there to pick that opening goal).

Maybe we should start calling your Aab Team 1-0...

---

As this is the start of a Journeyman that is not necessarily a tag I want to be associated with lol. Larger sides may not wish to hire a manager known for 1-0 wins and low entertainment. That said if its just for the season and gets us to overachive it is a great style short term 🙂.

We lack the clinical edge. That was shown in the game against AGF where we failed to score. That said if you can’t score don’t concede and once again our defense was impenetrable. That result keeps us 6 points top.

Leicester city have contacted us to warn us regarding Opoku apperances. We replied with a swift response infoming them we would love to play him but he doesn’t ever stay fit. They have sent us a training plan to which we have stated we will try.

THAT WAS COMING!

The next game we take on Silkeborg at home in an attempt to get back to winning ways. Disastee struck as in the 70th minute we went behind 1-0 with a great strike from adamsen. This was totally against the run of play. And that’s how it ended. We lost finally.

I went to the media seething and reiterated that our performance was no where near what was expected from the team. Captain Jorgensen lead by example reiterating his disappointment in the dressing room to the players.

MASSIVE SHOCK RESULT!

Next game we can’t let the defeat affect us. We have midtjylland away. One of our hardest fixtures of the season.  I want more from the attack but I felt it was important to give a striker a run in the team. Therefore Opoku starts again. He repaid my faith with style. Scoring a rocket from just outside the area to open the scoring 5 mins into the match. Iredale doubled are lead in the 75th. Coming off the bench to slot home in the bottom left and reel away in celebration. That was the proudest I’ve been as AAB manager. Phenomenal from the lads. Widell was MOTM. He got an assist and was excellent keeping the press going from midfield. I’m so glad the boys rallied together after a poor result. Is it time to start believing we can win the league? We have the guys the next day off from training as a reward.

KEY PLAYER TRANSFER REQUEST!

To ruin the positive atmosphere Idris Said has submitted a transfer request as he feels homesick. That’s unfortunate as he is a key defender for us and at 16 has bags of potential, but he clearly doesn’t feel he has settled to life in Denmark properly. We will address that in the summer. Luckily he signed a 5 year deal so the ball is in our court. 

So you lost to Silkeborg, pretty much against the run of play. You must still be in the good end of the table though. Will you post a league table at some point? That would certainly make it easier to see how well you do.

Silkeborg had more of the ball. Two shots on goal against your four: fairly equal, small defeat.

What I sense is that in this game it's more about the possession that you do have. And the number that expresses that the best (at least with me) is passing accuracy. Whomever has the better passing accuracy usually wins (bad weather circumstances excepted).

4 OF THE BEST WE MADE THEM PAY

Our next game faced us off against Vejle Boldklub at home. Iredale scored after 27 mins to put us ahead with a sweet finish into the bottom left corner. Iredale would double are lead in the 51st minute after a cute turn rounded the defender so he could hammer it at the near post. Opoku slotted home in the 82 minute after stealing the ball from a defender to make it three. Finally Skov made it four after Opoku squared him the ball on a fast counter attack. A devastating attacking display for the fans to be proud of. Surprising to see AAB only had 35% of the ball. MOTM was Iredale. 

The next game I had to miss due to illness. My assistant manager Jack Cassidy took charge and managed a 1-0 away win vs Sonderjyske. The bad boy Jorgensen scored the only goal. 

RIVALRIES SPARK BY CONTROVERSY

We the hosted giants København who will be seeking revenge. Haas was forced off with injury in the 30th minute. Hopefully it won’t be long term. AAB have been very lucky this season with injuries. 8 mins later we got awarded an extremely suspect penalty when the keeper caught the ball at Ross feet. Opoku slotted home. The København team were incensed. Our fans started chanting louder and louder. The rivalry really started heating up. We were the new kids on the block and they were not happy. A really tight game ended 1-0 but fires were lit in this context. MOTM was easily Diakhite who stopped a sweaty goal late on. After the game it was confirmed Haas is out for 4 weeks with a pulled quad. 

MULLER MAY BE BREAKING RECORDS

The next game was away to Nordsjaelland. It took until the 78th minute to break them down when widell shot cannoned off the crossbar into John’s path who diving headed it home. The game finished 1-0. 

When looking I couldn’t find the record for a single season clean sheets in Denmark. But Mullers 15 in 18 games has to be some form of record surely? 

Now we’re up to January and also the winter break. Daniel Ask has returned from is loan at Vasteras. This adds much needed depth in central midfield. Lb caballo has agreed to join Alanyaspor at the end of the season on the Bosman ruling. No other buisness was done for us in January. The biggest worldwide deal was Bernardo Silva joining spurs from man city for £65m.  

THE BEST DEFENCE IN THE WORLD?

Opoku finished with aplomb in the 28th to make it one  nil against Viborg. He has really come into his own for the second half of the season and it will be interesting to see if we can retain him for next season. That once again would be how the match would end. The fans chanted the familiar 1-0 to the AaB. 30% of the ball only but if they aren’t going to use their possession I guess whats the point in them having the ball. It is rumoured some FC Koln scouts were at the game watching Muller….

The next game we host 11th place Lyngby. The first start since returning from loan for Ask. Lets see if he ‘Ask’s’ any questions regarding the usual starting lineup. John had to unfortunately go off injured to be replaced by Skov in the second half. John will be out for 4 weeks with a knee sprain. Iredale scored a dramatic late winner in the last kick of the game to secure the three points and get us another 1-0 victory! MOTM was Said. I forgot to get the match stats (sorry).

Prior to the next game my assistant manager advised me he believes Skov should be made club captain. Whilst this isn’t something I will act on it is good to see the academy graduate is gaining praise from the staff that work with him every day!

We then travel away to Randers. They opened the scoring through Odey in the 14th minute. That’s how it would stay. We lose the game unfortunately. Campbell JR was by far their best player on the day.

Our final league game of the season sees us against 2nd place Brondby. We go into the game 9 points clear. We started really well. Skov slotted home in the 7th minute after Iredale squared the ball. Skov then assists Iredale returning the favour just after half time. Late on in the 88th minute Wass scored to put the pressure of a come back on but it was too late! We win the game and secured top spot for the league stage. We now enter the playoffs.

In news away from the playoffs youngster Beck has started training with the first team. An 18 year old who is known to ‘have that something special’ he seems like a quick dribbling left winger.