We don't have enough mobile CBs, and I think we have a manager who clearly knows how he wants to play - but doesn't know how to implement that. And that's not just the purposeless initial build-up phase - there's alarmingly little pattern when we get into any semblance of an attacking phase, either.
I don't even think there needs to be a radical overhaul, but MB is too stubborn for his own good (or he just isn't tactically versatile enough and that's coming across as stubbornness) and that will cost him his job.
It certainly has but the basics of the game are still the same and since 1995 Martin’s philosophy has brought him success with Leicester, Celtic and Aston Villa.
It'd be wise to keep the comms open with him anyway.
No immediate rashness, give Bloomfield plenty of time to get players back fit and hope this last month has been our usual Christmas/New Year meltdown come early.
I was working yesterday (lucky me) so didn't see yesterday's game, though that was pretty much my impression of the Reading game. Our back line hat afternoon simply weren't suited to the quick sharp passing needed to pull off Bloomfield's vision of how he wants the team to play, and seemingly weren't able to adapt their tactics and style of play to what suited the players on the pitch. You might forgive odd occurrences of situations like that from a manager at the start of their career, if this becomes a regular occurrence then we can't go on like that.
A four is also much more conducive to playing out from the back - although I think we'd be safer playing out through the full-backs unless the CB pairing is Low and Forino.
We definitely had a little period where it looked like we'd "got it" didn't we?
And a 4 game spell against the top teams we were very close to success. Unfortunately, top teams quickly moves to "any old gub", and "very close" became "not near at all".
Recent performances have been woeful and no doubt pressure is building on Bloomfield, but I'm not a fan of sacking a manager with several key players out injured. What happens when a new manager has an injury crisis and loses a few games, do you get rid of him also?
Easy to forget that we were showing real promise a short time ago. Our confidence looks shot, but let's see how we get on once we have the likes of Leahy, Potts and Vokes back. I want us to be a club who supports the manager through a tough run. Of course there has to be a limit, but it seems far too soon to me to be calling for a change.
I used to laugh at teams trying it a couple of seasons ago and we had a wonderful heatmap showing that Stockdale had done it once (no idea why he did it that one time). Now it is normal. Either as a time-wasting device or a way of trying to build from the back but as you point out defenders at this level don't have the quality and it is so easy to defeat by closing down. We look a joke by doing over and over and it is killing the confidence of the players involved. I think the drop in confidence and form of Forino is due to this mind-boggling tactic. Potts is probably capable of doing it, Leahy too and thats it. Dobbo was an excellent tactician and probably knew that it didn't and wouldn't work. Maybe Matt needs a similar calm hand on his shoulder.
Well, 7pm on Sunday & I still can't believe the utter dog shite that I have watched the last 3 games! Apart from one moment of brilliance by Killian Phillips, we have never even looked like threatening to score a goal. I travelled up to Bradford on the supporters coach with my son. Cost IRO £100 for travel and tickets. A pretty good 1st half saw us go 2-0 up. Potts didn't appear 2nd half and the game as far as WWFC were concerned went downhill from there. We conceded a goal and for the remainder of the game it really was like Rourke's Drift and the charge of the Zulus. In the end we scraped a win. I remember posting on here that I really hoped we were not relying on one loanee to keep digging us out of the poo each time. Since then Potts hasn't played and we have lost every game apart from the "Nobody gives a shite cup, unless there is a very good chance of seeing the Wembley Arch".
I have attended all the games with the exception of Barnsley away which I managed to convince the current title holder of Mrs EwanHoosaami to watch with me. I have to be honest and say it was excruciating for the majority of the game and the ending has been discussed to death on here.
Ordinarily I "overspend" on this club, have three season tickets, WWTV subscription, Vipienne season pass, go to the FA Cup matches, buy club shirts, scarves, hats, hoodies, mugs etc. I attended even the Bristol Street Motors games with my son, however I can't bring myself to go on Tuesday and spend another £50 on tickets and food, to sit in freezing conditions & pissing rain to watch anymore of the crap that is being clothed as entertainment.
Arsenal are playing Luton live on Amazon Tuesday night which my wife is trying to convince me to watch instead or I can watch the "Nobody gives a shite trophy" match from Belgium, it really is a toss up atm!
I’d appreciate it, @Malone, if you wouldn’t totally misrepresent the perfectly valid point that I made earlier today regarding the current relative value to the team of two very different players as reflected in their weekly wages ranging, if the figures I was shown are to be believed, from hundreds of pounds a week to several thousand respectively.
My comments were made in good faith and reflected my genuine sense of injustice that there should apparently be such a huge disparity. To me, that is something (if true) worthy of serious consideration rather than a dismissive, inaccurate and sarcastic quip.
Pattenden has had some decent games recently but I'd imagine not enough to earn either a permanent spot in the team or a new long term lucrative contract. Vokes may not be offering full value but that's dealt with in bonuses rather than basic wage so it's entirely possible and highly likely Vokes earns a huge deal more than Jasper. Happens up and down the country and further afield, MLS has the biggest extremes with the likes of Beckham and now Messi making more money whilst having a pee than young teammates do in a game, or sometimes in a week.
Spurs drew away to Man City today without 10 first team players. No winging about having players injured. Just attacked and got their just rewards. Anyway at the start of the season we were told we had a strong enough squad. The problem is Bloomfield being to stubborn or inept to change his tactics.
We were a Max gaffe from drawing away to Barnsley too. I believe Spurs lost three in a row before this one, and their fans have very much been banging on about injuries.
If injuries to key players do not matter, why do clubs all try and buy key players? If less talented players automatically become as talented as starters when the starters get injured, surely we can draft in a bunch of Sunday leaguers and tell them they should just get it done?
My source has confirmed that the report was indeed from Salary Sport. As he’s a Wimbledon fan (somewhat lapsed !) he evidently set out to compare the wages Wimbledon are currently paying with those paid by Wycombe. I did challenge him regarding the likelihood that the figures were spurious, based on my understanding (rightly or wrongly) that such information is not publicly available but he was having none of it.
He said that their number one goalkeeper was paid more than ours but the next thirteen players in the joint table were Wycombe. The difference between League 1 and League 2, he suggested, reasonably enough!
I was horrified at the level of wages some of our players were reported to be receiving and have since chatted about it with a fellow supporter of very long standing who often appears to have the inside track when it comes to football finances. His understanding is that there has been a 40% cut in the playing budget this season. I find that hard to believe. Like others on here, I felt that there must have been an increase but the situation is complicated by the re-introduction of loan players, some (if not all) of whom may be paid fully or in part by their parent clubs.
Against a background of disappointing home gates, the loss of significant potential income from at least a second round FA Cup victory and, perhaps, a £4m to £5m annual wage bill, it’s hard not to be concerned about sustainability.
Thanks @micra - the 40% cut in wage bill would be excellent news if true. It seems hard to believe on the surface, but as you say, the loans complicate things.
Mawson, Horgan, Wing and Obita were all probably on big money, and Gape, Thompson and Freeman might have seen their wages increase over the years. 40% is still a difficult number to arrive at, but I would be delighted.
If Couhig is selling the club, it may be unusually important to stay up this season. After all, the new Georgian owner might want to have a spending competition with Ryan Reynolds and the other chap to see who can have the most romantic club.
If Couhig isnt selling the club, it may be unusually important to stay up this season. After all, the new Georgian loan shark might want his money back.
Will the Morecambe game go down as the defining era low point of this team? When we are storming into the Championship we can say 'remember when...' or when we have another shocker months into the future we can say 'yeah it was bad but not as bad as Morecambe home in the FA Cup'
My recent low water game was Tranmere in the FA Cup replay on a freezing Tuesday when we couldn't beat a poor team with 10 men for 80 minutes.
For me, Walsall last season (another FA Cup game) was probably worse than the Tranmere replay. At least for Morecambe, by contrast, Blooms chose his best available team (allowing for illness, as well as injury). The Walsall game reeked of complacency from start to finish.
Comments
We don't have enough mobile CBs, and I think we have a manager who clearly knows how he wants to play - but doesn't know how to implement that. And that's not just the purposeless initial build-up phase - there's alarmingly little pattern when we get into any semblance of an attacking phase, either.
I don't even think there needs to be a radical overhaul, but MB is too stubborn for his own good (or he just isn't tactically versatile enough and that's coming across as stubbornness) and that will cost him his job.
It certainly has but the basics of the game are still the same and since 1995 Martin’s philosophy has brought him success with Leicester, Celtic and Aston Villa.
Yes that would have been nice and £105,000 for 3rd winners and that is without the TV money.
3rd round winners
For the worserings in a lot of ways.
It'd be wise to keep the comms open with him anyway.
No immediate rashness, give Bloomfield plenty of time to get players back fit and hope this last month has been our usual Christmas/New Year meltdown come early.
But, at the most basic level, you can't play an effective progressive system with a back three.
In a 4, two from Taf, Forino and Low should be brilliant really. In a 3 it just doesn't seem secure at all.
I was working yesterday (lucky me) so didn't see yesterday's game, though that was pretty much my impression of the Reading game. Our back line hat afternoon simply weren't suited to the quick sharp passing needed to pull off Bloomfield's vision of how he wants the team to play, and seemingly weren't able to adapt their tactics and style of play to what suited the players on the pitch. You might forgive odd occurrences of situations like that from a manager at the start of their career, if this becomes a regular occurrence then we can't go on like that.
A four is also much more conducive to playing out from the back - although I think we'd be safer playing out through the full-backs unless the CB pairing is Low and Forino.
If we had supreme wing backs you could understand the system more as well.
Supreme wing backs and allowing them to properly motor on.
Probably not good enough for you or statistically @ReturnToSenda but I don't remember it being traumatising and it was keeping @trevor quiet.
We definitely had a little period where it looked like we'd "got it" didn't we?
And a 4 game spell against the top teams we were very close to success. Unfortunately, top teams quickly moves to "any old gub", and "very close" became "not near at all".
Recent performances have been woeful and no doubt pressure is building on Bloomfield, but I'm not a fan of sacking a manager with several key players out injured. What happens when a new manager has an injury crisis and loses a few games, do you get rid of him also?
Easy to forget that we were showing real promise a short time ago. Our confidence looks shot, but let's see how we get on once we have the likes of Leahy, Potts and Vokes back. I want us to be a club who supports the manager through a tough run. Of course there has to be a limit, but it seems far too soon to me to be calling for a change.
I used to laugh at teams trying it a couple of seasons ago and we had a wonderful heatmap showing that Stockdale had done it once (no idea why he did it that one time). Now it is normal. Either as a time-wasting device or a way of trying to build from the back but as you point out defenders at this level don't have the quality and it is so easy to defeat by closing down. We look a joke by doing over and over and it is killing the confidence of the players involved. I think the drop in confidence and form of Forino is due to this mind-boggling tactic. Potts is probably capable of doing it, Leahy too and thats it. Dobbo was an excellent tactician and probably knew that it didn't and wouldn't work. Maybe Matt needs a similar calm hand on his shoulder.
Well, 7pm on Sunday & I still can't believe the utter dog shite that I have watched the last 3 games! Apart from one moment of brilliance by Killian Phillips, we have never even looked like threatening to score a goal. I travelled up to Bradford on the supporters coach with my son. Cost IRO £100 for travel and tickets. A pretty good 1st half saw us go 2-0 up. Potts didn't appear 2nd half and the game as far as WWFC were concerned went downhill from there. We conceded a goal and for the remainder of the game it really was like Rourke's Drift and the charge of the Zulus. In the end we scraped a win. I remember posting on here that I really hoped we were not relying on one loanee to keep digging us out of the poo each time. Since then Potts hasn't played and we have lost every game apart from the "Nobody gives a shite cup, unless there is a very good chance of seeing the Wembley Arch".
I have attended all the games with the exception of Barnsley away which I managed to convince the current title holder of Mrs EwanHoosaami to watch with me. I have to be honest and say it was excruciating for the majority of the game and the ending has been discussed to death on here.
Ordinarily I "overspend" on this club, have three season tickets, WWTV subscription, Vipienne season pass, go to the FA Cup matches, buy club shirts, scarves, hats, hoodies, mugs etc. I attended even the Bristol Street Motors games with my son, however I can't bring myself to go on Tuesday and spend another £50 on tickets and food, to sit in freezing conditions & pissing rain to watch anymore of the crap that is being clothed as entertainment.
Arsenal are playing Luton live on Amazon Tuesday night which my wife is trying to convince me to watch instead or I can watch the "Nobody gives a shite trophy" match from Belgium, it really is a toss up atm!
You can watch both. Wycombe game will be over 30 mins into Luton v Arsenal.
Get 2 screens cranked up.
I’d appreciate it, @Malone, if you wouldn’t totally misrepresent the perfectly valid point that I made earlier today regarding the current relative value to the team of two very different players as reflected in their weekly wages ranging, if the figures I was shown are to be believed, from hundreds of pounds a week to several thousand respectively.
My comments were made in good faith and reflected my genuine sense of injustice that there should apparently be such a huge disparity. To me, that is something (if true) worthy of serious consideration rather than a dismissive, inaccurate and sarcastic quip.
Pattenden has had some decent games recently but I'd imagine not enough to earn either a permanent spot in the team or a new long term lucrative contract. Vokes may not be offering full value but that's dealt with in bonuses rather than basic wage so it's entirely possible and highly likely Vokes earns a huge deal more than Jasper. Happens up and down the country and further afield, MLS has the biggest extremes with the likes of Beckham and now Messi making more money whilst having a pee than young teammates do in a game, or sometimes in a week.
Spurs drew away to Man City today without 10 first team players. No winging about having players injured. Just attacked and got their just rewards. Anyway at the start of the season we were told we had a strong enough squad. The problem is Bloomfield being to stubborn or inept to change his tactics.
We were a Max gaffe from drawing away to Barnsley too. I believe Spurs lost three in a row before this one, and their fans have very much been banging on about injuries.
If injuries to key players do not matter, why do clubs all try and buy key players? If less talented players automatically become as talented as starters when the starters get injured, surely we can draft in a bunch of Sunday leaguers and tell them they should just get it done?
Thanks for that @PrinceOfCrowell.
My source has confirmed that the report was indeed from Salary Sport. As he’s a Wimbledon fan (somewhat lapsed !) he evidently set out to compare the wages Wimbledon are currently paying with those paid by Wycombe. I did challenge him regarding the likelihood that the figures were spurious, based on my understanding (rightly or wrongly) that such information is not publicly available but he was having none of it.
He said that their number one goalkeeper was paid more than ours but the next thirteen players in the joint table were Wycombe. The difference between League 1 and League 2, he suggested, reasonably enough!
I was horrified at the level of wages some of our players were reported to be receiving and have since chatted about it with a fellow supporter of very long standing who often appears to have the inside track when it comes to football finances. His understanding is that there has been a 40% cut in the playing budget this season. I find that hard to believe. Like others on here, I felt that there must have been an increase but the situation is complicated by the re-introduction of loan players, some (if not all) of whom may be paid fully or in part by their parent clubs.
Against a background of disappointing home gates, the loss of significant potential income from at least a second round FA Cup victory and, perhaps, a £4m to £5m annual wage bill, it’s hard not to be concerned about sustainability.
Thanks @micra - the 40% cut in wage bill would be excellent news if true. It seems hard to believe on the surface, but as you say, the loans complicate things.
Mawson, Horgan, Wing and Obita were all probably on big money, and Gape, Thompson and Freeman might have seen their wages increase over the years. 40% is still a difficult number to arrive at, but I would be delighted.
If Couhig is selling the club, it may be unusually important to stay up this season. After all, the new Georgian owner might want to have a spending competition with Ryan Reynolds and the other chap to see who can have the most romantic club.
If Couhig isnt selling the club, it may be unusually important to stay up this season. After all, the new Georgian loan shark might want his money back.
Ange was 'under pressure' after a losing run in which he was criticised for stubbornly refusing to change his style of play despite injuries...
Will the Morecambe game go down as the defining era low point of this team? When we are storming into the Championship we can say 'remember when...' or when we have another shocker months into the future we can say 'yeah it was bad but not as bad as Morecambe home in the FA Cup'
My recent low water game was Tranmere in the FA Cup replay on a freezing Tuesday when we couldn't beat a poor team with 10 men for 80 minutes.
For me, Walsall last season (another FA Cup game) was probably worse than the Tranmere replay. At least for Morecambe, by contrast, Blooms chose his best available team (allowing for illness, as well as injury). The Walsall game reeked of complacency from start to finish.