Home form analysed
So we have played 15 home league games this season and to be truthful we have seen some really poor football, which is the main cause for our average gates remaining in the mid 3,000's.
We have now played 15 home games in the league and our record is; won 5, drawn 4 and lost 6. We have taken just 19 points from a possible 45 points. We have scored just 19 goals in those 15 games with 20 goals against.
I for one am fed up with our style of football and the naive / negative tactics we adopt. We have narrowed the pitch to play long/hoof ball, narrow football and abandoned wing play / width and passing football.
The statistics prove that our home form is akin to that of struggling side. Not a good advert for trying to encourage new supporters.
In my humble opinion. Things need a good shake up.
Even the most loyal (rose coloured glasses) supporters cannot surely be enjoying the rubbish we are being served up week after week.
Thoughts?
Comments
I don't enjoy the rubbish served up at home week after week, and it's probably not true to say we play attractive expansive football away. I've seen a great deal of away games, and we grind out results, and are a class act at time wasting and slowing the game down, and I understand why we get so much stick from away opposition fans. Is it enjoyable away...well yes I suppose it is, particularly being amongst supporters who rarely get on players backs, which makes so much difference to their performance.
So what to do about it...get more quality into the side, a couple of playmaking midfielders, and a quality striker. Our strike force tbh is nowhere near good enough. Our defence is excellent. The trouble is all this costs money we don't have and that is the conundrum.
Our best hope of a decent striker is to unearth a non league gem, and they are out there, it's just finding them.
Whilst our home form continues as it is, our crowds are not going to increase. We have managed to get some extras along recently, and it wasn't an enjoyable experience for them, so they won't be back.
I believe it's time for a radical rethink at home. We have arguably the best three centre backs in the division. Why not use them and take a chance. All three have pace in abundance. Pierre in the centre, McCarthy right and Stewart on the left. Play four in the middle, Harriman on the right, PCH on the left and three up front. Widen the pitch again and go Gormanesque. Entertain, score a few and get the feel good factor back at home?
Things need to change from the top down , give the old ones a long rest & let us see what the young ones can do without interference from management ect.
I posted very similar thoughts to Blue1990 at exactly the same time on the opposition view thread.
To me the answer lies with the manager. Ainsworth simply doesn't look like he's prepared to change his style now. Maybe he will reassess at close season following a mediocre run-in; maybe Mr Howard will gently point out that to meet his 5yr plan we need to be growing the crowds, which we won't do through anti-football.
I must be honest though. Seeing the Barnsley interest in Ainsworth today a big part of me can't help hoping they make him an offer he can't refuse and this style of play becomes someone else's problem.
well put aloysius, it has to start with GA someone from above has to speak up otherwise there will be no change & the youngsters will not get a look in , start now
Tbh I'm bored of the same old every week it's to predictable. Think Hayes needs a break maybe a bit of coaching with our players and coming in when needed would be good for him. We need a creative midfielder that can provide better service up front. Changes should be made when they need to be made, not the last 10,15 min when we are loosing.
What youngsters have we got now, certainly none with great potential excluding McCarthy who isn't ours anyway? It is debateable whether Pierre can be classed a "youngster" now.
Get the ones on the bench fit & maybe they will surprise all of you
If we were winning with some regularity at home, I'd say if it ain't broke don't fix it, even if it is ugly.
But we are not winning with any kind of regularity at home. So rather than play conservative hoof ball at AP and lose most of the time, let's play entertaining football and maybe lose most of the time.
Won't know unless we try Play Proper f/ball Not h/ball " COME ON WYCOMBE"
The need for a striker and creative midfielder is paramount ,combined with playing the ball on the ground,if we are to encourage a new fan base. The repeated,predictable performances at home with no plan B leave even the most loyal supporter frustrated and it either needs a change of emphasis or indeed manager for this to occur.Is it the manager or the players or both who are creating this boring mindset ?
There is so much to say about yesterday but the over riding emotion I left the game with was anger. Anger that we have a collection of outfield players assembled over 2 years that could not hit a barn door with a banjo. I am sure Ugwu is a terrific guy and a hard worker but we hardly needed another impotent striker in the squad. AAH is a waste of time, by his own choice. Hayes is a winger in a make shift striking position. Hayes will get you goals but he needs a regular partner, he plays with 3 different ones in most games.
We can't rely on the defence to make a push for the play offs we need to score some goals. Some of the misses yesterday were pitiful and the stats don't lie about our attempts on target this year. I would fancy my chances of playing in goal for an opposition team.
I think there's too much negativity here. If we had been given the penalty for handball, Bloomfield had taken his chance, Jombati hadn't headed straight at the keeper and the disallowed goal had been allowed to stand we'd have come away happy yesterday. Get behind the team we've got, because that's essentially what we have for the rest of the season.
Aloysius if it's GAS style of play how come the crowds weren't queueing around the block to see GWs side. Isn't it closer to the truth that there is a large proportion of people in Wycombe and the surrounding area that aren't interested in watching league 2 football .
As for this anti football bollards would Luton have played any differently in the latter stages against any other team. I remember when we played Norwich being outraged at their gamesmanship what I failed to recognise was they were better at that and every other aspect of the game than we were.
Remember for the first 37 minutes we were all over them and I heard no one complaining. Our problem is converting chances so back to problem number 1 .
Seems to me a fair few fans are fed up with the crap style of football we play,i also sense the tide of support for Ainsworth is changing which is worrying but also understandable. For myself i want him to stay but to change our style of play which at times is embarrassing but he comes across as stubborn and set in his ways so i can't see a change anytime soon. As i thought he would after the game he moaned about missed chances,the fans know we desperately need at least one striker as ours are dire so why doesn't he and Howard do something about it?
I fear for us when Ainsworth leaves.
Chris, you disagreed with my opinion after the Hartlepool game that we didn't come close to scoring. I felt yesterday's game was pretty similar, WW on top but not really threatening a goal, in fact we came closer to scoring yesterday with the disallowed goal and Sido's close range header right at the keeper.
Why then is there so much apathy after this game when most of the comments were relatively positive after the Hartlepool game? It's just more of the same, lots of huffing and puffing but no clear cut chances created.
@bill_stickers - "...not winning at home with any kind of regularity....." has to be the understatement of the year. We have won 2 home games since 29 September, an astonishing and disturbing statistic.
There has to be radical change. Gareth Ainsworth is a great guy and he has clearly been respected by the players. He has also been extremely successful, for the most part, in identifying young players with the right character/poential and encouraging them to join the club. I cannot accept that hoofball is a pre-requisite for success at League 2 level and I reject also the notion that the players we can afford are not good enough to play proper football. The first 35 minutes were incontrovertible proof of that.
insert "yesterday" after ".....35 minutes..." of course.
You know I went to the players and management Q&A at the start of the season where the subject of the pitch was brought up and GA assured us that with the new surface we had laid, we would be able to play a more fluid style of football at home which the pitch prevented us from doing last season. Yet every game I have watched at home this season aside from the Plymouth game, we have played hoof ball and it is appalling to watch. As I have said before on here, due to my work commitments this is the first season ticket I have bought since the 1997/98 season and I really regret buying it now.
Some people on here will say that you should support your team no matter what but I disagree, I don't mind if Wycombe lose matches as we are a small club with many restraints but I do want to be entertained. The best attacking performance I have seen this season was our defeat to Plymouth, every other game I have watched at home this season has been uninspiring ( I wasn't at the Oxford game due to work ).
I for one am very hopeful that Barnsley come in for Ainsworth because as much as last season was exciting, this season has been tedious at best. Other teams fans whinge and complain about our style of football and whilst most people think it is just sour grapes on their part, I have to agree with them. We play boring ugly football
The players we have are good enough to play Proper Football let them try.
We're making assumptions that 'hoofball' is Ainsworth's tactics. I don't think it is, I think he wants us to be able to mix it up, by having the option keep the ball on the deck and be able to go long, depending on the opposition, state of the game etc. This is something we achieved very well last season, but are struggling with this season. Lets be honest, for 30 mins yesterday we played some great stuff, passing to feet, good movement and we created some decent chances, but we didn't score and they did. Our confidence then seemed to take a hit, Luton improved and we just weren't the same after that.
Also it should be noted that last season, we always had an outstanding player in centre midfield, whether it was Scowen in the 1st half of the season or Saunders in the 2nd half, who were always looking to both receive and play passes to feet. Whilst Bean & Bloomfield are both decent players, they don't quite have the regular quality and consistency of Scowen & Saunders and I know some see Onien as the perfect Scowen replacement and hopefully one day he will be, but at present he's a long way short in terms of quality if not in attitude and desire.
I do agree it's difficult to attract new fans when our home form is so poor, probably the solution could be found in 1 really good central midfield player, who could get his foot on the ball and give good service to our wide players and strikers, but in our situation that's much, much easier said than done
Last sentence post above should have read "...proof that they are."
Hi All, I'm still here, have read and digested most of the threads, same complaints and issues.
Those who contribute weekly to this forum have said it, screamed about it out, till our fingers tips have become sore. We have enough points to starve off relegation.
Please, please Ainsworth do something different and expand on our usually delivery of hoof and lets see how the opposition cope, it's boring and predictable. Teams have sussed us out and sit back and watch us and their defender's play dolphin tennis.
@EwanHoosaami interesting idea, but I think it'd be a little on the insane side to ditch what we actually have the best in the division at - aka fullbacks. Imagine leaving quality like Jacobsen out?!
Yesterday showed just lumping numbers forward won't do much without a better plan.
And who is arguing Stewart is up amongst the top centre backs in the division? I'd respectfully argue that's just you. He's very very much a downgrade on last year's Mawson, and despite one thread where everyone was hyping up McCarthy, I'd certainly say he's a downgrade on Mawson's form last year too. He might go on to have a better career from his Southampton roots, but he's definitely not on a par with Mawson last year.
Last year was such a sensation, it was always going to be very hard to live up to.
If we'd had this season last year instead, I think people would have been a lot more tolerant
@Malone I wouldn't be against Sido and JJ bombing forward from full back positions if they are considered too important. Stewart is extremely quick which we would need if we are to play gung ho as @ this level it will be countered by the opposition lumping it over the top into the corners.
I think Stewart is a decent league 2 centre back, and if hit previous spell form, better than that. But he's not the type of player you facilitate a wacky system around.
"wacky"! I'd call it ambitious, maybe"avant-garde". At least it's changing the current tedious approach which is evidently not working.
The pitch was narrowed last year and our home form was a bit better. Imo, I think ifwe are to stick with the narrow pitch we should play 3 up front playing off a big man. 2 sitting midfielders 1 going on.
Whilst not disagreeing about the fact that our home form and quality is depressing and woeful (and our away performances only better because we sometimes actually win) a couple of observations:
The near-relegation is still fresh enough for the end to justify the means. It isn't that long ago we were top and although not playing that well we were scoring a good number of goals.
I do actually think that GA probably wasn't expecting to be playing like we are now - I just think it's not worked out as well as he would have liked. I think McGinn was brought in to be a playmaking midfielder with Holloway building on last season and terrorising defences with Banton as a speedy, high-impact alternative. Think for a minute if that had worked supported by our main strength - our defence. I do think we'd have seen a different type of football.
However, for whatever reasons none of that worked (maybe it is down to GA, maybe just one of those things) and we've resorted to type with players getting tired and starting to lose a bit of confidence on the ball.
I don't really see anything changing soon. Maybe if we reach 50 points in a few games times he will feel confident enough to look at alternatives. In the meantime I think we'll just have to suffer the performances and be glad that we are at least playing football league clubs every week