Interesting quote from Gareth in the BFP
"I think there needs to be a mini revolution in the way we play, and the players we bring in"
He says further
"Rob,Pete and Missy Couhig are right behind this revolution "
Maybe there has been an acceptance that direct/longball/hoofball has taken us as far as it can ?
I think after 'The miracle of Torquay' most fans just wanted to accumulate as many points as quickly as possible regardless of the entertainment on offer.
Now with our finances appearing more stable, and Bobby C being the major driver behind a greater match day experience, that a more expensive and entertaining style of play may be introduced ?
Widen that pitch, hold onto your hats the Bucks entertainers are on there way !!
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Most likely coinciding with Bayo's surely imminent retirement as well.
Uche can't play anything like Bayo can, but suits a different style very well.
With McCleary, Horgan, Fred and Mehmeti, there's certainly plenty of players who suit playing a more appealing brand of football. Especially against lesser teams in league 1.
We’ll know when we see where the touch lines are set for when we get back in in August (hopefully)
Whatever style we decide to play (please not tippy tappy), you need to have a plan B when plan A is not working.
For all the moans about style, which are clearly heightened this season as we're losing almost every game (way less moans last season funnily enough), we're definitely not as industrial as we were a few years ago, when Pierre and Stewart had very clearly been told to take one touch at most, then boot it.
I think we'll always play a direct style under GA, but we have seen some tentative attempts this season at being more comfortable in possession. We'll clearly need to be able to adapt to life without Bayo and we do now have players who should be very capable at League 1 standard.
Would be great to see the pitch widened, as I think that would help the likes of Horgan, Fred and McCleary no end.
Surely the most appealing brand of football @Malone is one where you gain more wins than defeats?
That has been the case for the last few seasons, this being an exception. So I'm expecting more of an evolution than a revolution - whatever the quote in the BFP. Anything else would require more squad changes than I'd like to see in one go.
As someone remarked to me several years ago, "If you get in 5 new players then expect 1 to do well, 3 to do ok and 1 to flop". I think that's about right, so even a squad revolution of changing 7 or 8 players isn't necessarily going to change the style of play dramatically nor is it guaranteed to not upset the squad dynamic which we know is a vital part of the WWFC ethos.
I'd much rather be in the Championship with our 'style,' than in L2 watching two centre backs passing back and forth across the penalty area.
From that quote (taken in isolation), GA certainly does not sound like a man expecting to leave.
I agree that winning is greater entertainment than unsuccessful "style". It's all part of my "three levels of cathersis"
Level 1 - Score a goal. Great catharsis, but you can still lose the game.
Level 2 - Win a game. Greater catharsis than Level 1, but partially because you can only get to Level 2 if you first hit Level 1 at least once!
Level 3 - Go up/Stay up/win something at the end of the season. The greatest catharsis of all, and of course you need plenty of Level 1 and 2 to get there.
This season we have known for a while there will be no Level 3, and part of the drabness has come from times where we can't even achieve Level 1, let alone Level 2. This is on the back of last season, where we hit all levels of catharsis.
Last season we had some massively entertaining games, all while never playing a possession style. Not only the goal fests (Peterborough 3-3, Southend 4-3, MK 3-2 etc.) but some of those plucky 1-0s.
Back in L1, we could come up again doing what we did before, but I understand the desire to be prepared for if we ever do come up again, by playing a style which could survive the rigours of the second tier.
‘ Gormania’ was my favourite period. Some really exciting entertaining matches and you never quite knew what the game would hold. Not our most successful period but great football.
Gormania was absolutely joyous, though possibly pipped for me by the last season in the conference when almost every game looked like we were nine divisions above our opponents.
Looking back at the results for that season, it's absolutely insane to see that we played 11 games in April, with 5 games in 8 days and a ludicrous 3 in 4 days at one stage.
1986-87 with Noel Ashford in his pomp. The best Wycombe player I've ever seen (relative to the standard we were playing in at the time).
For me Martin O'Neills Conference promotion side was the best ever. We seemed to win by 3 or 4 every week. Guppy and Carroll were playing at a completely different level. Oh for the days of 442 with wide men hugging the touchline
@FlyingPostman That was certainly the case in the first half of the season, but after Creaser's injury we stumbled a bit, with quite a few draws slowing down the juggernaut to an extent.
We still won the league by 15 points though!
That week we played 5 matches was quite stupendous.
Sat, Tue, Thu, Sat and Sun wasn’t it?
The matches on consecutive days at the end included a home match on the Saturday and away to Gateshead on the Sunday. I think we even went and won the Gateshead game didn’t we or at least got a point.
That's right, we won 1-0, and after that run of games we had Tue, Sat, Tue, Thu, Sat, then a week and a day before the Trophy final on Sun May 9th.
Happy days!
We won. A Steve Thompson flying header.
Probably my favourite season ever. Missed one game all season. Just a shame it was Bognor away...
I went to every game that season, after nearly 10 years of little investment in the team, we signed Barrett and Ashford and as a club, we seemed to be rejuvenated. Having 2/3 or 3/4 of the crowd at away games became the norm.
I really think the arrival of those two were pivotal to where we are as a club today.
For many years prior to that, the towns folk would say the committee had no ambition and just wanted a healthy bank balance, but it all changed in the summer of 86. Noel Ashford was just so far superior to the level of opposition and frankly the majority of our squad that season. Not only was he the conductor that set the tempo and pulled the strings, he was also the lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player.
It was a great season to be a fan of the Wanderers, and I can still remember clearly so many incidents and goals from that season.
.....and yet, as the stats will suggest this is our most successful season. “Strange old game Saint”.
I think being ‘direct’ is often assumed to be less attractive and ‘passing’ football assumed to be more attractive.
The Spain team of the 2010 WC was one of the dullest sides I’ve ever seen. Endless short, sideways passes is not fun to watch and was also incredibly risk averse as they prioritised keeping the ball over anything else. It won them two tournaments so I’m sure Spaniards were pretty happy about the whole affair and I’d be delighted if England could do the same.
Liverpool over the last 2-3 seasons have found a way to play very direct football, getting it wide or into the front 3 at speed. Super entertaining and a winning formula too.
My point, I suppose, is that both a direct or a passing style can be either excellent or awful to watch. But if your team is winning, does it really make any difference whatsoever?
Likewise, if we lose badly I really don’t care whether that defeat involves lots of aimless long balls, or lots of aimless passes along the defence.
That is interesting. Thanks @ChasHarps .
I liked the Gormania period and loved the gung-ho way we played. But I remember a lot of criticism of the lack of consistent results (lots of wins turned into draws). And it never felt like we were getting value for the money invested in that team, in the form of consistent wins.
Since Ainsworth has been in charge we have always tended to get the ball forward quickly and avoided playing in our defensive third. But the style beyond that has varied a bit. Most notably that seasons when JJ and Sido and Hayes came in. The full-backs got forward to support the attack more and we tended to try to work the opportunities more patiently. It was probably the move from Hayes/Thompson to Bayo as the focal point of the attack that made the long ball approach a bit more extreme.
It'll be fascinating to see whether the dimensions of the pitch change in the summer but I wouldn't put money on it. It was narrowed in August 2014, just ahead of the play-off season when we mostly played with wingers in a 442. I'd say we're more likely to see that formation again next season but don't see the pitch size altering.
In a 2016 fans forum written up on the club website Ainsworth "explained that the pitch was narrowed and shortened two years ago to suit the style of play that he wanted to introduce, which also limits counter-attacking opportunities for away sides who often come to defend and play on the break."
This season has shown us that Championship opponents aren't really prevented from starting counter attacks on a narrow pitch as their sharpness and speed of passing cut us apart no matter how close our wide players are to those in the centre. But that'll be less apparent next year when League One clubs are not so adept at slicing open our lines.
Enjoyed this thread and pleased that most contributors share my view that there is more than one way to win football matches. I have said before that if you listed the managers who played an ‘attractive’ style but lost more games than they won, and those who played ‘direct’ but won more games than they lost, their would be far more sackings in the first group than the second.
To a degree though, Liverpool seem to have been found out now. Since Watford beat them 3-0 to end their long winning run last season, they are a shadow of what they were. Since the watford game they have played 39 games winning 18 drawing 9 and losing 12. They were hit by Van Dyke's long term injury, but "one man" shouldn't have that sort of huge effect on a Premier team.
Will be interesting to see what happens with Liverpool next year.
Is it a case of a Klopp side burning out after a few years again, is it the packed schedule that's been impossible to replicate their high energy style, will Van Dyke coming back mean the likes of Trent Alexander Arnold, who has looked massively exposed this season in defence, and others resume their "usual" form?
Or is it the end of line for this group of players, with the famed attacking three all seemingly dropping a couple of gears at the same time.
May I just say I don’t give a toss about the Premier League or the teams in it - until that is we play at that level (just in case Bobby C reads this).
Martin O’Neill had a great philosophy on the most successful style of football:
“When the ball’s in your half play like Wimbledon. When it’s in their half play like Brazil”. Simple really!
I think that is precisely the direction in which we’ve been moving @A_Worboys.
I was on an FA coaching course led by Geoff Pike, ex West Ham FA Cup winner 1980. We asked him what was the ‘West Ham way’ when West Ham were known for attractive football. He said they were told to get the ball forward to the furthest forward player, as quickly as possible, under control...it’s not a bad plan, is it?