I quite like Hector (but only for the time being)

By: Tom B | March 26th, 2009

Our first match, my first ever match as manager of the mighty Santa Eulalia, was against CF Reus Deportiu. The reason I have any idea where Reus is is that it is one of the Ryanair airports that service Barcelona and where Gaudi was born. Editors note: If you go to Barcelona, check out all the Gaudi stuff you can, the man was a genius. The football team doesn’t have any noteworthy football pedigree other than winning Spanish 3rd Division B5 in 2007, which isn’t much given they’ve been around since 1909.

I went into the game with what I thought was my strongest squad in strongest formation, with a 3 man centre midfield with one being a holder, another a pivot and the other pushing forward.

The odds wre pretty even and didn’t predict how dominant we’d be, 26 shots to 1 (7 on target to 0), note, reduce long shots. 61% possession, 28% of which was in their third.

This match was all Hector, who was playing in the holding role of the 3 midfielders, with Nieto the pivot and Vasquez Garcia pushing up. With Hector setting up the first, scoring the second, perhaps we have in our making a defensive midfield playmaker. I had him on no forward runs, but the sheer dominance of us (due to the sheer weakness of them) had him causing havoc around the top of the penalty area.

After 49 minutes I decided to give all my subs a run on, so I made 10 changes and given the number of ordinary strikers in my squad who will need some match fitness, I changed to a 4-3-3. This ended up with Alfonso (probably my 3rd choice striker in this formation) winning a penalty. I hadn’t set up my set piece takers yet, so I left it up to the lads. Who was made to take it? Antonio, my 15 year old Centre Back. Let a fifteen year old kid take a penalty? Madness, until he slotted in the corner and the 3-0 rout was complete, in front of the home faithful of nearly 100.

Final result

Player Profile
Hector Bautista

I don’t know if Hector really has the makings of a quality DM, he can’t mark and his positioning is only 7. His tackling is only OK, but if he gets the ball back, his passing is only ok. His real strength is in his mind, he won’t make many sloppy mistakes.He’s a team man, but if and when the squad quality improves, he’ll be amongst the first pushed aside. Well played today though, well played Mr Hector.