Welcome back to Toulouse! After Ted refused to sabotage us in January, I’ve been left wondering if the other shoe is ever going to drop. Or is it possible that we’re just good?

We’ll get through the remaining four months of the season today, and see whether European football will be on next season’s agenda. Could there even be a trophy? A bit of a shorter post today, and we’ll start with just a soupçon of tactical talk…

Tactics:

Ted’s tactic has hit the ground running, I’d be crazy to change it. So I’m going to change it, just a little bit:

The only team instruction changed is the removal of short kicks for goalkeeper distribution. Maignan can kick, throw, has good passing, technique and decisions. I trust him to do what’s best.

I haven’t messed with the front six, but at the back, some roles have changed. I’ve reduced both the goalkeeper and left back to support mentality, firstly because SKA gives me the fear, and secondly because I’ve changed Amian from WBD to FBA. I’ve liked what he’s done in that role so far and want to persist with it.

I’ve added a Ball Playing Defender, but only when it’s Cardoso (which it usually is). He’s our best CB, and has the skills to play the odd lovely pass out of defence. I like the variety that he can provide.

I’ve also sorted out the defensive set pieces, because Ted “doesn’t do set pieces”. Sakes.

February:

We played two lovely games of football, before Nantes did us again:

My first cup game ends in defeat. A stupid red card for Quina and a last minute goal cooked our goose.

I hit our confit-dence at a bad time, but we scraped a win over Stade Brestois, before a dull, but very respectable 0-0 with Marseille. PSG dribbled through our wide players like they weren’t there, and we were very lucky to only lose by one goal, even though one was a comedy in-off, and the other, one of the many, many penalties they get.

Issiaga Sylla has returned from the African Cup of Nations, just full of beans. Rumour round the old water cooler is that Ted tried to shop him for peanuts in the summer too…

He seems to be loving the new formation, despite his role being essentially unchanged. He’s getting forward plenty, heavily involved in our attacks, and delivering pinpoint crosses that decry his meagre attribute of 10.

March & April:

Bang on form, baby:

This was easily my best spell of this save so far. Lyon and Lille are no mugs, but we comfortably beat them. We were magnificent going forward and solid at the back, apart from against Angers, who deserved their goals in a rip-roaring game.

We played very well to get a measure of revenge against Nantes, in a match that could’ve easily finished 5-1, before thoroughly dismantling a Lorient side that we made look absolutely useless.

Reiss Nelson has been wonderful down the right this season. He’s had a couple of injuries, and quiet spells when recovering from them, but when fully fit, he’s been great. He’s provided assists from wide, but has also got on the end of plenty moves, often our best goals culminate with a simple finish for him:

May:

But alas, these runs can’t last forever:

In May, we only really turned up as a team on the very last day, relegating local rivals Montpellier, which was delightful. In the other three games, we weren’t with it at all, and failed to score a goal from open play in any of them.

Manuel Ugarte was the star of this, slightly less than stellar month. He was very good, while all around him struggled. But our form shouldn’t detract from his accomplishments this season. He just about misses out on getting a mention in the faux stats bit later on, but he provided 5 goals, 4 key contributions, 3 assists and 3 secondary assists, all whilst providing a solid, reliable presence in the centre of midfield. All that at the tender age of 20/21. He was considered a wonderkid until his birthday, and has made his full debut for Uruguay.

I had this save sort of pencilled in with three distinct stages; 1) Promotion, 2) Consolidation, 3) Challenge at the top. Looks like we’ve totally skipped stage two.

PSG are an absolute machine though. An invincible season (ably assisted by French refs giving them 19 penalties in the league), they also went all the way to win the Champions League, with a minimum of fuss. They spent €286m this season, and are being heavily linked with Albert Braut Tjåland’s cousin, Erling Haaland.

Toppling them will take some doing, and may be impossible. I wasn’t expecting that to get anywhere near our focus so early in the save, but there you go. Second place gets us straight into the Champions League group stage, so there should be some money coming Ted’s way…

Most goals: Koulouris (16), Kean (15), Nelson (9), Sarmiento (8)

Most key contributions: Kean (6), Koulouris (6), Quina (6), Nelson (5), Sylla (5)

Most assists: Sylla (10), Quina (8), Nelson (7), Kean (6)

Most secondary assists: Quina (7), Amian (5), Iñíguez (4), Sarmiento (4)

Manuel Ugarte not only won himself an award, but was our sole representative in the Ligue 1 team of the season.

I suppose I should share this with Tedderz really. Go ahead and give yourself 12% of the credit, Ted. An argument could be made for 15…

Behind The Scenes:

Not a great deal to add, though I should say, I’m yet to see any strong evidence that my change in approach to training has made any difference. Something to keep an eye on next year.

A brief mention for rant about corners. We didn’t score from a single one before Ted bagged one with Cardoso in January. Despite being the target of almost all our corner routines, and, on paper at least, a real aerial threat, Sidibé only scored once from a corner, at the end of April.

Corners and Sidibé’s bizarre inability to header the ball anywhere but directly at the ‘keeper, are beginning to boil my piss. Click on his profile and let me know where I’m going wrong, cos to me, he looks almost a perfect target (big, good in the air, and off the ball). Seriously, Sarmiento (all of five foot five ffs) has scored more headers this year, and from far fewer opportunities.

We both forgot to mention last time that Ted also added an affiliate club, with Incheon of South Korea hopefully boosting our coffers in the years ahead.

Speaking of cashy money:

Who knows what trouble our trusty Director of Football will get up to next…?

Next time out, it’s the dreaded 22/23 season, which means a ridiculous schedule due to the World Cup. Given that we’re also going to have some regular midweek football too, it’s going to be quite a change of pace compared to the first couple of years.

Thanks for reading, stay safe x