Not going to overdo it, we played well first half again for what that's worth and the fixes needed aren't massive but we're just an average team at the moment.
@thecatwwfc I too get frustrated by the finger pointing but I also get frustrated when we have the likes of Kaikai etc on the bench & we dont use him.
I do feel that the squads confidence is low which isn't helping & we seem to find it particularly difficult to deal with teams who set up with a low block & counterattack with speed; which coupled with our uncharateristic flaky defending means we are settling for draws when historically we would have probably got a win.
I see it as a compliment that teams are setting up against us with a low block, given that most think we are a direct team. It's up to us to find a way around that now. Today we scored 2, which would win most game given our rear guard. Improvement on that side, but we seem to have forgotten how to defend. May not have been that way with Forino or Taf on the pitch.
Like I said, we are not losing many games recently, and although frustrating - this is our level right now until we get players back. We have yet to field our strongest XI - and probably won't this season at this rate!
The most disappointing thing for me is that there’s literally no entertainment value in watching that. I can’t imagine ever dragging a non-Wycombe mate along to a game any more as they’d never speak to me again in case I tried to take them to another one. I feel like an idiot for paying to watch in the midst of a cost of living crisis, and that’s really not what I want out of supporting a football team. I genuinely don’t want to watch that every week.
That's the big risk of playing boring football. Substance > style (although preferably both), but an entertaining style does buy you a little goodwill for when the results dry up.
I know seasons aren’t decided in November and teams are well capable of making surges for the playoffs, but if we go Occam’s Razor on our season and judge what we can currently actually see and not what we think ‘could’ happen, it seems we’re destined to be a mid-table side this year.
Call it us being unlucky with injuries, refereeing decisions or losing key characters; whatever it is, we’re just not consistent enough in our performances or results to occupy one of those top 7 spots.
Really frustrating as our squad is far too good (on paper) to be languishing in 12th / 13th, and we’ll likely not see Mawson or Mehmeti (possibly more) here next season, so it feels like a missed opportunity.
On the slightly more micro level topic of substitutions - while I’m a big fan of GA and he’s certainly got more expertise than me, it seems really odd that we seem unable to change things (injuries aside) before 75 mins. Mellor came on today in the 89th minute (where you’ll be lucky if you can get a touch, let alone influence the game). I think GA’s rule with subs all comes down to the Fleetwood away game last season, where he made changes before Simon Grayson and then Grayson reacted to those changes with 3 of his own, ultimately changing the game. I remember GA saying in an interview afterwards that he learnt from that and now prefers to let the opposition make their changes first, but that seems far too black and white a policy to adopt when every game is different. We’re all learning, but when we’ve been seeing such a drastic drop in our second half performance levels, it seems strange that we seemingly haven’t tried to experiment with earlier subs.
To be fair we are currently 12th in the table on 22 points & only 5 off 5th place - the league is pretty bloody tight this year, yes Plymouth are starting to pull clear at the top on 41pts with Ipswich on 37 & Wednesday on 34 but as for the rest 4th to 15th in the league is covered by 10 pts.
I think the frustration is aimed at the previous two games when ultimately, decisions out of our control cost us points.
Plymouth we were good and unlucky. Peterborough we were excellent. Oxford and MK we did a job. We would have taken 7 points out of 9 from the last 3 games. Unfortunately, things could be so different now but for refereeing decisions. Those extra 5 points would see us in the playoffs now.
Not a good game this evening, neither side really got going. 2 great strikes for our goals, but let ourselves down with the defending from corners, the 2nd especially.
I don't go with the opinion we're not an entertaining watch though. There's always going to be the odd poor game and tonight was one of those. Last weeks game against Cambridge would have been hugely entertaining for a neutral, it was just very frustrating from our viewpoint.
Regarding substitutes, what I don't understand is why GA can't make his changes first? Even if that allows the opposition to make changes after yours, if your changes have made a significant difference all they can do is react.
Surely the point of substitutes is to influence the game in your favour. If you had any confidence in your subs you wouldn't just wait.
A few things seemed a bit off tonight. Max didn’t seem his usual self although he did make a few crucial saves. Alfie could do with a rest on Saturday and to be fair, it’s understandable given he came in late. Obita didn’t have his best game either.
Positives - Grimmer looked great when he came on and seems to play better when we play four at the back. Macca played well, and he tends to find an extra few percent when he’s wearing the armband. Wing is coming into form and showing what he can do. Wheeler put in a decent shift.
As for the goals, it was frustrating to watch both. The first should have been Max’s ball and was poor communication, and the second - never mind the free header in the box, Mawson tried to over do it which resulted in the corner.
Another disappointing performance and more dropped points. All the impetus gained by the three wins on the trot , have been lost by the last three games. I suspect most supporters would have expected 9 points from these games pushing us closer to play off positions. Ainsworth continually talks about having the best squad he has ever had in his time at Wycombe, so why , despite some injuries, does he seem to have little confidence in using his bench. When he does use subs , it always seems to late. How can he possibly think, players can make any serious impact with only minutes left. Lack of tactical flexibility? Unfortunately it looks like mid table for this year , which is not going to convince Mawson, Taff, Forino , Mehmeti etc to stay for next season.
Well that was rubbish. We scored two ‘low %’ chances and created almost nothing. Vale scored two and could have had an additional two or three. Lucky to get a point. We miss Tafazolli and Scowen very badly.
That was a mid table game with two teams playing mediocre football of the lowest order.
If only we had attacking options like a Kaikai or a Mellor or even a Horgan on the bench that you could turn to at sixty minutes and say ‘go on, let’s win it’.
The more these second half capitulations go on, the more I do wonder if it really is as simple as not freshening up when other teams are already three subs to the good. There always seems to be a burst of energy coming from the other side at some point in the second half.
Comments
Well there’s an hour and half of my life I’m not getting back.
Not going to overdo it, we played well first half again for what that's worth and the fixes needed aren't massive but we're just an average team at the moment.
Should have gone to the pub with @drcongo
Wonder if you can buy Wanderers TV passes for half a game?
@thecatwwfc I too get frustrated by the finger pointing but I also get frustrated when we have the likes of Kaikai etc on the bench & we dont use him.
I do feel that the squads confidence is low which isn't helping & we seem to find it particularly difficult to deal with teams who set up with a low block & counterattack with speed; which coupled with our uncharateristic flaky defending means we are settling for draws when historically we would have probably got a win.
Hey ho, onto Saturday & FA Cup glory 😄
I see it as a compliment that teams are setting up against us with a low block, given that most think we are a direct team. It's up to us to find a way around that now. Today we scored 2, which would win most game given our rear guard. Improvement on that side, but we seem to have forgotten how to defend. May not have been that way with Forino or Taf on the pitch.
Like I said, we are not losing many games recently, and although frustrating - this is our level right now until we get players back. We have yet to field our strongest XI - and probably won't this season at this rate!
The most disappointing thing for me is that there’s literally no entertainment value in watching that. I can’t imagine ever dragging a non-Wycombe mate along to a game any more as they’d never speak to me again in case I tried to take them to another one. I feel like an idiot for paying to watch in the midst of a cost of living crisis, and that’s really not what I want out of supporting a football team. I genuinely don’t want to watch that every week.
That's the big risk of playing boring football. Substance > style (although preferably both), but an entertaining style does buy you a little goodwill for when the results dry up.
I watch as I took advantage of the season pass for Vipienne residents - sorry overseas viewers
I know seasons aren’t decided in November and teams are well capable of making surges for the playoffs, but if we go Occam’s Razor on our season and judge what we can currently actually see and not what we think ‘could’ happen, it seems we’re destined to be a mid-table side this year.
Call it us being unlucky with injuries, refereeing decisions or losing key characters; whatever it is, we’re just not consistent enough in our performances or results to occupy one of those top 7 spots.
Really frustrating as our squad is far too good (on paper) to be languishing in 12th / 13th, and we’ll likely not see Mawson or Mehmeti (possibly more) here next season, so it feels like a missed opportunity.
On the slightly more micro level topic of substitutions - while I’m a big fan of GA and he’s certainly got more expertise than me, it seems really odd that we seem unable to change things (injuries aside) before 75 mins. Mellor came on today in the 89th minute (where you’ll be lucky if you can get a touch, let alone influence the game). I think GA’s rule with subs all comes down to the Fleetwood away game last season, where he made changes before Simon Grayson and then Grayson reacted to those changes with 3 of his own, ultimately changing the game. I remember GA saying in an interview afterwards that he learnt from that and now prefers to let the opposition make their changes first, but that seems far too black and white a policy to adopt when every game is different. We’re all learning, but when we’ve been seeing such a drastic drop in our second half performance levels, it seems strange that we seemingly haven’t tried to experiment with earlier subs.
So did I, and a season ticket. The rest of the season would have to be incredible for that not to have been a criminal waste of money.
I have dragged a non Wycombe supporting mate (he supports Posh and friends with Swanny!) to a few Wycombe games now.
Wycombe 0-1 MK
Man City 6-1 Wycombe
Wycombe 0-2 Sunderland
Wycombe 3-1 POSH hehe
Dull as dishwater. Again.
Delighted to not have to watch us again till December.
To be fair we are currently 12th in the table on 22 points & only 5 off 5th place - the league is pretty bloody tight this year, yes Plymouth are starting to pull clear at the top on 41pts with Ipswich on 37 & Wednesday on 34 but as for the rest 4th to 15th in the league is covered by 10 pts.
Port Vale are on a good run themselves.
I think the frustration is aimed at the previous two games when ultimately, decisions out of our control cost us points.
Plymouth we were good and unlucky. Peterborough we were excellent. Oxford and MK we did a job. We would have taken 7 points out of 9 from the last 3 games. Unfortunately, things could be so different now but for refereeing decisions. Those extra 5 points would see us in the playoffs now.
Not a good game this evening, neither side really got going. 2 great strikes for our goals, but let ourselves down with the defending from corners, the 2nd especially.
I don't go with the opinion we're not an entertaining watch though. There's always going to be the odd poor game and tonight was one of those. Last weeks game against Cambridge would have been hugely entertaining for a neutral, it was just very frustrating from our viewpoint.
Regarding substitutes, what I don't understand is why GA can't make his changes first? Even if that allows the opposition to make changes after yours, if your changes have made a significant difference all they can do is react.
Surely the point of substitutes is to influence the game in your favour. If you had any confidence in your subs you wouldn't just wait.
Baffles me.
And look at the teams ahead of us....(less Exeter and Vale). We are "little" Wycombe Wanderers and we are disappointed.
Plymouth, Ipswich, Sheff Wed, Derby, Peterboro, Bolton, Barnsley, Charlton - these are all MASSIVE clubs.
Remember where we came from....
A few things seemed a bit off tonight. Max didn’t seem his usual self although he did make a few crucial saves. Alfie could do with a rest on Saturday and to be fair, it’s understandable given he came in late. Obita didn’t have his best game either.
Positives - Grimmer looked great when he came on and seems to play better when we play four at the back. Macca played well, and he tends to find an extra few percent when he’s wearing the armband. Wing is coming into form and showing what he can do. Wheeler put in a decent shift.
As for the goals, it was frustrating to watch both. The first should have been Max’s ball and was poor communication, and the second - never mind the free header in the box, Mawson tried to over do it which resulted in the corner.
Another disappointing performance and more dropped points. All the impetus gained by the three wins on the trot , have been lost by the last three games. I suspect most supporters would have expected 9 points from these games pushing us closer to play off positions. Ainsworth continually talks about having the best squad he has ever had in his time at Wycombe, so why , despite some injuries, does he seem to have little confidence in using his bench. When he does use subs , it always seems to late. How can he possibly think, players can make any serious impact with only minutes left. Lack of tactical flexibility? Unfortunately it looks like mid table for this year , which is not going to convince Mawson, Taff, Forino , Mehmeti etc to stay for next season.
I like how you ironically slipped Peterborough in there
What's hang?
But that's 2 games in a row he's managed to get into some aggro.
Well that was rubbish. We scored two ‘low %’ chances and created almost nothing. Vale scored two and could have had an additional two or three. Lucky to get a point. We miss Tafazolli and Scowen very badly.
Worst part of the game might turn out to be the Forino injury.
That was a mid table game with two teams playing mediocre football of the lowest order.
If only we had attacking options like a Kaikai or a Mellor or even a Horgan on the bench that you could turn to at sixty minutes and say ‘go on, let’s win it’.
Disappointing to say the least, to finish arguably one of the most disappointing triple home game spell in a decade or more.
Just not clicking at the moment and we can do the basics defence wise.
Thank goodness it's a cup game next.
I don't think we can play the "och we'll be grand when Scowen is back" card as we're not firing both ends.
The more these second half capitulations go on, the more I do wonder if it really is as simple as not freshening up when other teams are already three subs to the good. There always seems to be a burst of energy coming from the other side at some point in the second half.
If we’d won those three games we’d be fifth.
It was like someone light a rocket up the metaphorical of Gmac…. He was superb when he came on.
How many goals have we conceded from corners this season? I don’t remember us ever being so poor with them
Ha yes not in the same category as the others in the list, but still a big club and rightfully have a bigger status/following than ourselves.
Chants.
I've got fat fingers and can't proof read very well.