He had a few games as a caretaker. I recall many times Bloomfield had served up a turgid result, yet we persisted and look what happened.
I'm saying we carry on with Dodds as it makes sense to give a coach time to work with players, but also there no way he's getting fired. It'll make life easier to accept that
The academy is a long term project though isn’t it? Even if they get sign off for the next category up each year they have an audit, Cat 1 is what, 5 years away? (And I for one don’t think they will be able to pass each category each and every year just because it’s a very tall order)
So it could be argued if they don’t put these appointments in now, rather than 5/6/7 years to cat 1 it’ll be more like 9/10/11
Two of the three wins in the nine league games you refer to were a 4-1 win away at Shrewsbury Town and a 3-0 win away at Stevenage. Interesting you believe they weren't 'spectacular' performances.
We were better than Wrexham for 80% of that game. We’ve watched Wrexham highlights all season and we know they are not that good a team. But we are struggling to break down well organised teams who combine a solid defensive unit with a high press.
Long balls to Dan Udoh, G Mac and Fred isn’t going to do it for us.
The long break at 0-0 (was it 50 minutes?) was the time to reset. As someone else said, take off GMac (maybe others too) and bring on fresh legs for a high tempo 18 minute run to the end. Wrexham stepped up a gear after the enforced break and it ended up with them scoring.
Here’s some data. 6 goals in 8 games, 2 of which against a team heading to league 2 with 1 of those goals inexplicably scored by their own player. 50% of those games we haven’t even scored in despite having the choice of Lubala, Udoh, Vokes, Berry, McCleary, Onyedinma, Lowry and Kodua even when King Kone is out injured.
Regarding the bit about the actual owner and his team vs the couhigs I’m in (almost - i’ll come to it) complete agreement with you.
I’m minded to mention the Jim Ratcliffe interview with GNev this week regarding Man United and how at the very least he is “front up” and speaking to the press and people while harsh decisions are being made. Whereas many football owners like to sit in silence and do things with little recourse for any negative decisions. I would prefer the Ratcliffe/couhig approach than the Silent billionaires like ML etc that are completely unapproachable, uncontaactable and unaccountable to fans.
This is why, I personally, give Dan Rice a lot more credit than most do. He is at least the face, and the voice, and the fall guy that will and has met with fans and will get a direct taste of any discourse that may come the Leaderships way with both barrels.
Mainly because it's quite noticeable that from that period our form dropped.
We had been great, but then we hit a patch of form where we struggled, and you can pin it back to the start of those games. Going 2 down early at Exeter is the game.
No, no. You’re artificially cherrypicking a point in order to make the figures look worse unless there is a specific reason you’re picking nine games. It’s a circular to say that’s where the form started to drop - you need something outside of the data itself which explains why you have decided to start there.
We had definitely dropped a gear late on with Bloomfield, especially at home - hence our last Sat league game win being 26th October!
And unfortunately Doddsy's early Wycombe form hasn't been much better than Bloomfield's start here.
2 wins from 9 games now, that's pretty worrying.
It would take a real optimist to think that we can see off a number of teams and still come 2nd at the end of the season, even if we could actually easily be back there after Tuesday's game.
IMHO i think we got the transfer window wrong. Wrexham went and spent 2 mill on Sam Smith as a striker, who has been getting goals and giving them hope of getting over the line. Without Kone, I have little faith these days we can even score. For the outlay on players we invested in in January, none seem to have made a significant impact yet. Let's hope the Danes can bring home the bacon (sorry)
May actually just leave one comment that everything I have said, everything anyone else has said, whether we get promotion or not does actually pail into absolute irrelevance compared to the fact someone, maybe a family, set off to watch the football today and this evening I find myself hoping they are recovering in Stoke Mandeville and it’s not something much worse.
The struggle started a couple of months before Blooms left. I don't think that's deniable. I'd pinpoint it to Mansfield at home, which we won with Leahy's fluke cross. Since then, every single team has come to AP and tried to shut the game down. Under Blooms we struggled at home against all of:
- Mansfield
- Reading
- Bolton
- Exeter
- Blackpool
- Huddersfield
Every single one of them was the same type of game. No fluidity, scrappy, the away side barely attacking. We scraped a couple of fortunate wins, but mostly struggled to create anything. Since Dodds arrived, it's just been a continuation of a trend that started in November. And Wrexham are th absolute masters at that type of game. It's no surprise today went as it did
Just watched his interview and he says 'moments' about twenty times. The face touching is a lot less but the swaying is starting to get out of control.
Ever since teams began to suss us out and started parking the bus (well before MB’s departure), we started to struggle. Earlier in the season, I was suggesting (naively as it turned out) that it was vitally important for the new owners to offer Matt Bloomfield a contract extension that he wouldn’t be able to refuse. We now know that that was never going to happen and, equally of course, we cannot be sure that we would now be better off, points wise, if Matt had stayed.
But, to me, one thing seems certain. If the player identification and recruitment system operated by Matt and Scott Mitchell, his own appointee, had continued beyond the very important loan signing of Sonny Bradley (in which I’m fairly sure Matt would have had a say), we wouldn’t have wound up with the hotchpotch collection of signings that are now giving Matt’s successor such a headache.
If someone had said in December that the number 1 priority in the window should be a striker, they would think you were a bit mad. Or greedy given the attacking options we had free scoring.
And despite our apparently struggles infront of goal, we have a GD of +7 and a game in hand compared to the team in 2nd.
Up until the medical emergency it was a fairly even game, and certainly not a great spectacle. After the break only one team wanted to win that in my view. We looked totally lost and void of any leadership.
Our January transfer business seems bizarre, the players we’ve signed haven’t improved us at all, arguably we are worse. It makes no difference if you’ve smashed the transfer record 2 or 3 times if the players you’ve signed aren’t very good. Wrexham went out and signed players to directly improve their starting 11.
Dodds needs to be given time to put his own stamp on things and get the players he wants in the summer assuming he’s allowed to but right now we don’t look like promotion material.
It’s probably too late to switch keepers now but Rav being dropped is an absolute disgrace too.
There’s nothing wrong in appointing now. It is good business sense I’m sure. Therein lies the tension going forward. It may well all work out beautifully, maybe just in a different way than we are used to. Or we may flame out in ruin. Interesting times.
Felt like we played to control the game and took no risks. The stoppage worked badly for us as until then we’d not been great but looked in control- although the big mix up between Taylor and Norris could have easily given them a goal.
Our recent scoring record is not good enough for promotion at all though. If Kone is out for a while we might need to try a new approach.
Comments
He had a few games as a caretaker. I recall many times Bloomfield had served up a turgid result, yet we persisted and look what happened.
I'm saying we carry on with Dodds as it makes sense to give a coach time to work with players, but also there no way he's getting fired. It'll make life easier to accept that
The academy is a long term project though isn’t it? Even if they get sign off for the next category up each year they have an audit, Cat 1 is what, 5 years away? (And I for one don’t think they will be able to pass each category each and every year just because it’s a very tall order)
So it could be argued if they don’t put these appointments in now, rather than 5/6/7 years to cat 1 it’ll be more like 9/10/11
Two of the three wins in the nine league games you refer to were a 4-1 win away at Shrewsbury Town and a 3-0 win away at Stevenage. Interesting you believe they weren't 'spectacular' performances.
Fired "soon", I assume you mean?
It's pretty likely he'd be fired in the mid term if we don't win enough games.
We were better than Wrexham for 80% of that game. We’ve watched Wrexham highlights all season and we know they are not that good a team. But we are struggling to break down well organised teams who combine a solid defensive unit with a high press.
Long balls to Dan Udoh, G Mac and Fred isn’t going to do it for us.
The long break at 0-0 (was it 50 minutes?) was the time to reset. As someone else said, take off GMac (maybe others too) and bring on fresh legs for a high tempo 18 minute run to the end. Wrexham stepped up a gear after the enforced break and it ended up with them scoring.
So frustrating today.
Here’s some data. 6 goals in 8 games, 2 of which against a team heading to league 2 with 1 of those goals inexplicably scored by their own player. 50% of those games we haven’t even scored in despite having the choice of Lubala, Udoh, Vokes, Berry, McCleary, Onyedinma, Lowry and Kodua even when King Kone is out injured.
Regarding the bit about the actual owner and his team vs the couhigs I’m in (almost - i’ll come to it) complete agreement with you.
I’m minded to mention the Jim Ratcliffe interview with GNev this week regarding Man United and how at the very least he is “front up” and speaking to the press and people while harsh decisions are being made. Whereas many football owners like to sit in silence and do things with little recourse for any negative decisions. I would prefer the Ratcliffe/couhig approach than the Silent billionaires like ML etc that are completely unapproachable, uncontaactable and unaccountable to fans.
This is why, I personally, give Dan Rice a lot more credit than most do. He is at least the face, and the voice, and the fall guy that will and has met with fans and will get a direct taste of any discourse that may come the Leaderships way with both barrels.
Mainly because it's quite noticeable that from that period our form dropped.
We had been great, but then we hit a patch of form where we struggled, and you can pin it back to the start of those games. Going 2 down early at Exeter is the game.
As just explained, you can see that's where form started to drop.
One of my friends is a paramedic and was dealing with the incident today.
The fan is alive and in ICU.
A fantastic job by everyone who helped them.
If Data Dan is responsible for data signings that don’t work out then he will be the fall guy in this data driven project
They were brilliant. We had a great run of form. Then, we started to struggle.
Charlton seem to be doing it the other way round.
I'd be surprised if we hadn't taken data into account with any transfer over a number of years.
No, no. You’re artificially cherrypicking a point in order to make the figures look worse unless there is a specific reason you’re picking nine games. It’s a circular to say that’s where the form started to drop - you need something outside of the data itself which explains why you have decided to start there.
We had definitely dropped a gear late on with Bloomfield, especially at home - hence our last Sat league game win being 26th October!
And unfortunately Doddsy's early Wycombe form hasn't been much better than Bloomfield's start here.
2 wins from 9 games now, that's pretty worrying.
It would take a real optimist to think that we can see off a number of teams and still come 2nd at the end of the season, even if we could actually easily be back there after Tuesday's game.
IMHO i think we got the transfer window wrong. Wrexham went and spent 2 mill on Sam Smith as a striker, who has been getting goals and giving them hope of getting over the line. Without Kone, I have little faith these days we can even score. For the outlay on players we invested in in January, none seem to have made a significant impact yet. Let's hope the Danes can bring home the bacon (sorry)
May actually just leave one comment that everything I have said, everything anyone else has said, whether we get promotion or not does actually pail into absolute irrelevance compared to the fact someone, maybe a family, set off to watch the football today and this evening I find myself hoping they are recovering in Stoke Mandeville and it’s not something much worse.
The struggle started a couple of months before Blooms left. I don't think that's deniable. I'd pinpoint it to Mansfield at home, which we won with Leahy's fluke cross. Since then, every single team has come to AP and tried to shut the game down. Under Blooms we struggled at home against all of:
- Mansfield
- Reading
- Bolton
- Exeter
- Blackpool
- Huddersfield
Every single one of them was the same type of game. No fluidity, scrappy, the away side barely attacking. We scraped a couple of fortunate wins, but mostly struggled to create anything. Since Dodds arrived, it's just been a continuation of a trend that started in November. And Wrexham are th absolute masters at that type of game. It's no surprise today went as it did
Just checking, can you see that's where the form started to drop?
We won 2 out of his last 5.
4 out of the last 10
5 out of 5 before those 10
4 out of 5 preceeding that
2 out of the first 5.
We started slowly, hit a great patch, then started to struggle.
( i think these are correct, but may be out im flipping between 2 tabs)
Just watched his interview and he says 'moments' about twenty times. The face touching is a lot less but the swaying is starting to get out of control.
I haven't read any comments but after today I'm resigned to League One football next season.
Not in the least bit impressed by Dodds, but who appointed him,and engineered Bloomfield's exit, is the bigger issue at play for me here.
It was all in our hands, and we've blown it. Don't see us winning on Tuesday either.
How many times have scouts been directly responsible because a player they think was good turned out to be rubbish?
All being “data driven” means is trying to put some metrics and statistics around some scouts gut feeling and expirence.
Ever since teams began to suss us out and started parking the bus (well before MB’s departure), we started to struggle. Earlier in the season, I was suggesting (naively as it turned out) that it was vitally important for the new owners to offer Matt Bloomfield a contract extension that he wouldn’t be able to refuse. We now know that that was never going to happen and, equally of course, we cannot be sure that we would now be better off, points wise, if Matt had stayed.
But, to me, one thing seems certain. If the player identification and recruitment system operated by Matt and Scott Mitchell, his own appointee, had continued beyond the very important loan signing of Sonny Bradley (in which I’m fairly sure Matt would have had a say), we wouldn’t have wound up with the hotchpotch collection of signings that are now giving Matt’s successor such a headache.
I still can't get why we bought the Danish players.
Is it a language barrier why they aren't in the starting lineup or fitness or what?
Easy with Hindsight though isn’t it?
If someone had said in December that the number 1 priority in the window should be a striker, they would think you were a bit mad. Or greedy given the attacking options we had free scoring.
And despite our apparently struggles infront of goal, we have a GD of +7 and a game in hand compared to the team in 2nd.
That’s great news.
Up until the medical emergency it was a fairly even game, and certainly not a great spectacle. After the break only one team wanted to win that in my view. We looked totally lost and void of any leadership.
Our January transfer business seems bizarre, the players we’ve signed haven’t improved us at all, arguably we are worse. It makes no difference if you’ve smashed the transfer record 2 or 3 times if the players you’ve signed aren’t very good. Wrexham went out and signed players to directly improve their starting 11.
Dodds needs to be given time to put his own stamp on things and get the players he wants in the summer assuming he’s allowed to but right now we don’t look like promotion material.
It’s probably too late to switch keepers now but Rav being dropped is an absolute disgrace too.
There’s nothing wrong in appointing now. It is good business sense I’m sure. Therein lies the tension going forward. It may well all work out beautifully, maybe just in a different way than we are used to. Or we may flame out in ruin. Interesting times.
I think it might be a talent barrier.
Felt like we played to control the game and took no risks. The stoppage worked badly for us as until then we’d not been great but looked in control- although the big mix up between Taylor and Norris could have easily given them a goal.
Our recent scoring record is not good enough for promotion at all though. If Kone is out for a while we might need to try a new approach.