Early on both Joe and Caleb brought the ball out from the back. Wrexham twigged and from then on, those two and Josh found themselves being dangerously pressed whenever they tried passing it about in front of the goal. Parky is no fool.
He looks completely out of his depth sometimes doesn’t he? If we were in the middle eight with nothing to play for it would be on, but the stakes are far too high to have hired a rookie.
Would love to know what Sam Vokes makes of it all. He's the real leader that the players seem to go to for instructions whenever there's a break in play. Mike Dodds just stands there to the side not making eye contact.
It's difficult to describe the first six seconds of Mike Dodds post-match interview on Saturday. He looks so uncomfortable. It happens again at 02:45 and at 03:37.
It's certainly difficult to watch. Whatever the reasons for it, I feel like it needs addressing privately.
I’m by no means a psychologist but I find it incredibly uncomfortable watching him sway side to side every interview for over four minutes. He may well be an excellent coach behind the scenes but he’s a weak leader of the club. Constantly whingeing about how hard it is to drop players from the squad. The truth is that none of the players have delivered for him properly yet, so it should be easier than ever to drop players from the squad. None of them are in formidable form, really. Bizarrely, he’s dropped three of the most in form players (and popular squad favourites) in Rav, Sonny Bradley and Bakinson and results have been poor. I do think we’ve been quite unlucky in recent weeks and things aren’t that bad, but our squad now has real pedigree and depth and he’s contributing to making us look bang average.
Edit - also what has happened to Finn Back, Jasper, Sadlier, Hagelskjaer, Skura. Would be nice if someone asked where they all are. Dodds has barely mentioned them by name in interviews.
to be fair @frequentstander our back four(s) have been excellent, so not hard to see why Jasper, Declan and Finn find it hard to break in regularly...but at least we know they appear to be quality.
He looks very worried at every interview. Presumably doesn’t want to say anything that isn’t sanctioned by his employers. He certainly isn’t the manager.
Rightly or wrongly, perceptions count for a lot. We are only mere fans, after all, and hardly privy to every little behind-the-scenes detail, so we have to go off a lot of gut feel. It'd be a real madhouse if we knew everything.
Right now, Dodds is scoring a D- in the perception stakes. It seems like he'd be more comfortable working 'on the grass' at St. George's Park, nurturing the England U17s, rather than managing the hothouse of a L1 promotion race, while juggling a bloated and mishmashed squad of different origins and eras. But that's real world frontline 'management' (sorry, Dan R) for you. Something that coaching badges and assistant roles can't prepare you for (or can they?).
I feel for Doddy. It’s not him, it’s down to a bloke who has never run a league football club with limited contacts in the men’s game that wants it done his way and finds himself without a first team manger / coach as a result.
Experienced managers don’t or won’t fit that agenda. His first (?) choice Scandi has similar reservations and pulls the plug. So he gravitates to familiar turf and appoints an academy coach with very very little league football experience and certainly no track record in the men’s game.
The issue at heart is down to that bloke. And Rice’s inexperience in the mens game and perhaps, just perhaps a management style that is trying to compensate for this. A dogmatic obsession with ‘data’ recruiting numerous underperforming squad players compounds the problem.
And poor Doddy is left to deal with the situation without crossing the bloke who his new paymaster.
He isn't the manager, he is the Head Coach; with the emphasis on coach.
His job is to coach the side, develop individuals, select the tactics & the 18 guys that will deliver that at match time and that is it.
He will have agreed with the Head of Football the style we are aiming to play as a club and all his efforts will be towards delivering that consistently, this possibly will include having a say in the recruitment decisions (probably from a shortlist provided by the data/recruitment team).
My concern is that with the demands of the league schedule etc. he has not had a huge amount of time to do much of the development stuff yet and is perhaps being a tad too conservative in his squad/starter selections relying too heavily on those who hav eplayed the most rather than taking a chance on some of the more fringe squad members. With the pressure to achieve this is sort of expected but he really does need to put his own stamp on things at some point (perhaps as I said earlier in pre-season).
As we saw earlier in the season, two players can change everything and very, very quickly.
Until Morley and Humphreys appeared, we were playing very similarly to we are now. Then we were suddenly Rolls Royce.
Add to that Ravizolli, who should not have been dropped. Norris is not an upgrade from what I have seen so far.
Kone, Harvie and Simons have been absent over the last month as well.
Arguably, we have gone from Rava, Morley, Harvie and Kone playing every game to all of them missing for an extended period of time.
I'd like to see Dodds throw caution to the wind, get the ball moving forwards quickly. Re-invigorate Fred, Kone and Humphrey's. Although, we may be seeing how a 20 year old in his first full season needs a rest. Humphreys has been pretty much ever present and seems tired to me.
My current feeling is that he is not a Manager/Head Coach but a very good assistant coach but we haven't seen enough yet to confirm that. I was impressed with our 2nd half at Birmingham but apart from that we've been distinctly lacklustre. MB was afforded a lot of time, perhaps due to how long he'd been here. My feeling is even if we give Dodds that amount of time, that he is just not a good fit. I'll be very happy to see him prove me wrong.
Even trying to pick that squad, it was impossible. We have way too many players. If anything this is giving us more problems than having a smaller squad.
I haven’t been to the games recently but what I’ve seen on TV ( Wanderers TV or Sky Sports +) Dodds apart from pacing up and down in the technical area and chewing furiously, he doesn’t appear very animated and giving instructions to the players as the game progresses. Have to say I want my manager to live and breath the game like Ainsworth.
I'd like Westergaard to score a blatantly offside goal missed by the officials leading to Raynor punching the fourth official and Evans sent to the stands. Is this really too much to ask?
That would be radical @mooneyman but I doubt the data supports it and might increase nervous tics in pre-match ad post -match interviews!
I'm in the Rav camp as well, but agree about including Reach but if you're putting in Bradley (not a bad shout) I would rest Joe rather than Taylor. I suppose Dan is due a rest as well so I will give you Kodua.
I doubt Kone will make it if he was too ill for the biggest game of the season...so perhaps Dan does not get a rest.
There were people on here in the past who constantly wanted that Ainsworth out, if you can believe it, not sure Doddsy has the muscle memory to kick and head every ball, but he may come good given time.
Is Dan Rice running the football club? He has the job title of Chief Football Officer and Interim Chairman of the Board of Directors, so it seems a reasonable assumption. He's also the visible front-man for the ownership.
He is based in England (London) at least. He was said be helping the Board with financial controls and planning. I have read he is Mikheil Lomtadze's son-in-law but can't find any corroboration. Is he really taking orders from Rice? or is it the other way round?
Correct @drcongo. V early on in the new era I was in the ‘business lounge’ pre match with a friend (it’s just a bar with a high price to pay just for cleaner loos folks so don’t bother) and Dan and his look-a-likes breezed in. No acknowledgement of anyone deemed not to matter, you know the sort who look over your shoulder in the pub in case there is someone more ‘important’ to talk to. My mate sipped his pint and muttered “cuckoos in the nest”.
Norris distribution has been very poor compared to Ravazolli. The latter's passing was often crisp and in front of the recieving defender for a short pass, this gave them extra time to build or look for the next ball.
Rava's long balls, felt like it was accurate a huge amount of the time, perhaps around the 70% mark to allow a better than 50/50 chance for a Wycombe player to win it.
Norris' passing is often behind the player, he spends ages rolling the ball under his left foot before a soft short pass or a hammered long pass which rarely is near it's designated target.
Shot stopping, then Rava did a lot more but Norris definitely wins on commanding his area with free kicks. I'd say though that in such a strong defensive team, we need Rava's qualities over Norris'. Perhaps, if we were to get promoted I'd then prefer Norris over Rava, as I suspect we would be under the cosh a lot more.
If you're playing 4-4-2 then I'd switch Kodua and Humphreys. Humphreys was innocuous at right midfield the other week. I'd give him a rest tomorrow from the starting XI. With Norris in goal, I can understand why Bradley might come in, as Norris will be hitting long balls more often than not. Your side could definitely do a job as well.
I did think about Kodua and Lowry but we've got so many options, it must be causing Dodds a headache and perhaps if MB knew what the plan was in January, maybe he wasn't happy about having to deal with 35 players.
If anything, I think our biggest mistake in January was not getting a young prem loanee in / taking a risk on a non league striker to back Kone up.
I looked it up a while back, I think Rav was behind only Allison and Ederson for passing accuracy. Norris plays at least one hospital pass to the defenders or pivots every game.
Can only speak from personal experience but I met Dan Rice at the sponsors day and enjoyed a good conversation. A couple of weeks later I bumped into him as I was leaving the Business lounge he remembered that I was Manchester based and asked how my journey down had been. Two positive experiences for me.
Likewise. I've met Dan and Edouard with a group of other Wycombe fans at Wigan train station and they were happy to stop and chat for at least 10 minutes whilst waiting for the train. Others may have different experiences of course.
While there are comparisons to be made the truth is we were in a very different position when MD was appointed compared to when MB and GA were.
MB had gotten us to second and, although our form had dipped, we were very well placed to push for automatic promotion.
We should have been looking for a manager/head coach to push on not someone with no experience who needs time to learn his trade.
MD might yet prove to be a very successful head coach for us but if he fails to secure even a play-off spot - which is looking quite possible - then he will, in the short term at least, be judged to have fallen short this season IMHO.
Yes if MB had remained as manager we might still have fallen away and that too would have been a failure given where we were.
Nevertheless I'll continue to follow WWFC no matter what and I still hope we get automatic promotion, but it's really hard work of late to feel a connection to the club I've supported for more than 55 years.
As I said back when the Trust were looking for a buyer to rescue the club "Be careful what you wish for, it may not be what you get".
We could easily have won that match with slightly better finishing/luck, but the performance would have been exactly the same either way. At the time of the stoppage, we were starting to get on top, but I’m not suggesting we were playing well. The conversation here would have been very different if we’d managed to grind out a win, but such is the life of the manager. We can still be heroes, the time for recriminations will be in a few weeks time if the balloon has completely burst.
Comments
Anyone else remember when either Joe or Caleb managed to take the ball down the pitch rather than just getting it back to the goalie to hoof forward?
Agree with a lot of what's been said - undelwhelming so far.
Early on both Joe and Caleb brought the ball out from the back. Wrexham twigged and from then on, those two and Josh found themselves being dangerously pressed whenever they tried passing it about in front of the goal. Parky is no fool.
He looks completely out of his depth sometimes doesn’t he? If we were in the middle eight with nothing to play for it would be on, but the stakes are far too high to have hired a rookie.
Hindsight is 20/20 of course.
Would love to know what Sam Vokes makes of it all. He's the real leader that the players seem to go to for instructions whenever there's a break in play. Mike Dodds just stands there to the side not making eye contact.
It's difficult to describe the first six seconds of Mike Dodds post-match interview on Saturday. He looks so uncomfortable. It happens again at 02:45 and at 03:37.
It's certainly difficult to watch. Whatever the reasons for it, I feel like it needs addressing privately.
Meanwhile, in Sunderland - https://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/football/sunderland-afc/regis-le-bris-heading-into-sunderland-games-blind-after-mike-dodds-exit-to-wycombe-wanderers-5036099
Like the games, I am obviously watching different MD interviews to some people.
I don't see the body language that 'needs addressing' that others do when MD is interviewed.
The Norris arrival interview, however, I found strange.
If he ever punched me in the face outside Tesco Express and just said 'I'm here to contribute...' I would not be surprised.
I’m by no means a psychologist but I find it incredibly uncomfortable watching him sway side to side every interview for over four minutes. He may well be an excellent coach behind the scenes but he’s a weak leader of the club. Constantly whingeing about how hard it is to drop players from the squad. The truth is that none of the players have delivered for him properly yet, so it should be easier than ever to drop players from the squad. None of them are in formidable form, really. Bizarrely, he’s dropped three of the most in form players (and popular squad favourites) in Rav, Sonny Bradley and Bakinson and results have been poor. I do think we’ve been quite unlucky in recent weeks and things aren’t that bad, but our squad now has real pedigree and depth and he’s contributing to making us look bang average.
Edit - also what has happened to Finn Back, Jasper, Sadlier, Hagelskjaer, Skura. Would be nice if someone asked where they all are. Dodds has barely mentioned them by name in interviews.
In fairness with 28 or so first teamers, if Doddo had to name check everyone not starting he'd never get round to chatting about anything else.
Couldn't give a toss how much he itches his chin, looks into the distance or twiddles around. It's about the results on the pitch.
to be fair @frequentstander our back four(s) have been excellent, so not hard to see why Jasper, Declan and Finn find it hard to break in regularly...but at least we know they appear to be quality.
He looks very worried at every interview. Presumably doesn’t want to say anything that isn’t sanctioned by his employers. He certainly isn’t the manager.
Rightly or wrongly, perceptions count for a lot. We are only mere fans, after all, and hardly privy to every little behind-the-scenes detail, so we have to go off a lot of gut feel. It'd be a real madhouse if we knew everything.
Right now, Dodds is scoring a D- in the perception stakes. It seems like he'd be more comfortable working 'on the grass' at St. George's Park, nurturing the England U17s, rather than managing the hothouse of a L1 promotion race, while juggling a bloated and mishmashed squad of different origins and eras. But that's real world frontline 'management' (sorry, Dan R) for you. Something that coaching badges and assistant roles can't prepare you for (or can they?).
I feel for Doddy. It’s not him, it’s down to a bloke who has never run a league football club with limited contacts in the men’s game that wants it done his way and finds himself without a first team manger / coach as a result.
Experienced managers don’t or won’t fit that agenda. His first (?) choice Scandi has similar reservations and pulls the plug. So he gravitates to familiar turf and appoints an academy coach with very very little league football experience and certainly no track record in the men’s game.
The issue at heart is down to that bloke. And Rice’s inexperience in the mens game and perhaps, just perhaps a management style that is trying to compensate for this. A dogmatic obsession with ‘data’ recruiting numerous underperforming squad players compounds the problem.
And poor Doddy is left to deal with the situation without crossing the bloke who his new paymaster.
BUT...
He isn't the manager, he is the Head Coach; with the emphasis on coach.
His job is to coach the side, develop individuals, select the tactics & the 18 guys that will deliver that at match time and that is it.
He will have agreed with the Head of Football the style we are aiming to play as a club and all his efforts will be towards delivering that consistently, this possibly will include having a say in the recruitment decisions (probably from a shortlist provided by the data/recruitment team).
My concern is that with the demands of the league schedule etc. he has not had a huge amount of time to do much of the development stuff yet and is perhaps being a tad too conservative in his squad/starter selections relying too heavily on those who hav eplayed the most rather than taking a chance on some of the more fringe squad members. With the pressure to achieve this is sort of expected but he really does need to put his own stamp on things at some point (perhaps as I said earlier in pre-season).
As we saw earlier in the season, two players can change everything and very, very quickly.
Until Morley and Humphreys appeared, we were playing very similarly to we are now. Then we were suddenly Rolls Royce.
Add to that Ravizolli, who should not have been dropped. Norris is not an upgrade from what I have seen so far.
Kone, Harvie and Simons have been absent over the last month as well.
Arguably, we have gone from Rava, Morley, Harvie and Kone playing every game to all of them missing for an extended period of time.
I'd like to see Dodds throw caution to the wind, get the ball moving forwards quickly. Re-invigorate Fred, Kone and Humphrey's. Although, we may be seeing how a 20 year old in his first full season needs a rest. Humphreys has been pretty much ever present and seems tired to me.
My current feeling is that he is not a Manager/Head Coach but a very good assistant coach but we haven't seen enough yet to confirm that. I was impressed with our 2nd half at Birmingham but apart from that we've been distinctly lacklustre. MB was afforded a lot of time, perhaps due to how long he'd been here. My feeling is even if we give Dodds that amount of time, that he is just not a good fit. I'll be very happy to see him prove me wrong.
This would be my starting XI on Tuesday:
Rava
Grimmer Low Taylor Leahy
Simons Scowen
Fred Westergaard Udoh
Kone
Bench: Norris, Humphreys, Kodua, Bradley, Lowry, Vokes, Reach
Even trying to pick that squad, it was impossible. We have way too many players. If anything this is giving us more problems than having a smaller squad.
Would definitely like to see Westergaard get a start and show us why we reportedly went so high on his fee.
As the longer this few mins here and there spell goes on, the more the fear that we've made an absolute horlicks will hang about.
I haven’t been to the games recently but what I’ve seen on TV ( Wanderers TV or Sky Sports +) Dodds apart from pacing up and down in the technical area and chewing furiously, he doesn’t appear very animated and giving instructions to the players as the game progresses. Have to say I want my manager to live and breath the game like Ainsworth.
I'd like Westergaard to score a blatantly offside goal missed by the officials leading to Raynor punching the fourth official and Evans sent to the stands. Is this really too much to ask?
I can't see how replacing Ravi with Norris has cost us any points.
My team would be radically different to yours:
Norris
Grimmer Bradley Low Reach
Humphreys Simons Scowen Lowry
Kodua Kone
Subs Rav, Pattenden, Taylor, Berry, Leahy, Udoh, Fred
That would be radical @mooneyman but I doubt the data supports it and might increase nervous tics in pre-match ad post -match interviews!
I'm in the Rav camp as well, but agree about including Reach but if you're putting in Bradley (not a bad shout) I would rest Joe rather than Taylor. I suppose Dan is due a rest as well so I will give you Kodua.
I doubt Kone will make it if he was too ill for the biggest game of the season...so perhaps Dan does not get a rest.
There were people on here in the past who constantly wanted that Ainsworth out, if you can believe it, not sure Doddsy has the muscle memory to kick and head every ball, but he may come good given time.
Is Dan Rice running the football club? He has the job title of Chief Football Officer and Interim Chairman of the Board of Directors, so it seems a reasonable assumption. He's also the visible front-man for the ownership.
As you say, he has never run a football club before. His CV perhaps raises questions about his appointment - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/dan-rice/profil/trainer/115773 - he's a scout. Perhaps it's no surprise Scott Mitchell didn't last long.
Is Eduard Vyshnyakov running the football club? He's simply listed as one of five directors. He currently has three directorships. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/WXMqVsXpvgfCeHX7o_7dN2hW1H4/appointments
He is based in England (London) at least. He was said be helping the Board with financial controls and planning. I have read he is Mikheil Lomtadze's son-in-law but can't find any corroboration. Is he really taking orders from Rice? or is it the other way round?
This article suggests he was involved in the purchase of Feliciana EFL Ltd and WWFC - https://www.charlesrussellspeechlys.com/en/news-and-events/news/2024/05/charles-russell-speechlys-advises-on-the-acquisition-of-wycombe-wanderers-football-club/
It certainly isn't Mikheil Lomtadze. He's based in Almaty and it seems he's rather busy - https://www.turkiyetoday.com/business/nasdaqs-turkish-giant-hepsiburada-announces-new-chairman-after-1b-acquisition-114951/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWLdZFCMx8Y
Correct @drcongo. V early on in the new era I was in the ‘business lounge’ pre match with a friend (it’s just a bar with a high price to pay just for cleaner loos folks so don’t bother) and Dan and his look-a-likes breezed in. No acknowledgement of anyone deemed not to matter, you know the sort who look over your shoulder in the pub in case there is someone more ‘important’ to talk to. My mate sipped his pint and muttered “cuckoos in the nest”.
Norris distribution has been very poor compared to Ravazolli. The latter's passing was often crisp and in front of the recieving defender for a short pass, this gave them extra time to build or look for the next ball.
Rava's long balls, felt like it was accurate a huge amount of the time, perhaps around the 70% mark to allow a better than 50/50 chance for a Wycombe player to win it.
Norris' passing is often behind the player, he spends ages rolling the ball under his left foot before a soft short pass or a hammered long pass which rarely is near it's designated target.
Shot stopping, then Rava did a lot more but Norris definitely wins on commanding his area with free kicks. I'd say though that in such a strong defensive team, we need Rava's qualities over Norris'. Perhaps, if we were to get promoted I'd then prefer Norris over Rava, as I suspect we would be under the cosh a lot more.
If you're playing 4-4-2 then I'd switch Kodua and Humphreys. Humphreys was innocuous at right midfield the other week. I'd give him a rest tomorrow from the starting XI. With Norris in goal, I can understand why Bradley might come in, as Norris will be hitting long balls more often than not. Your side could definitely do a job as well.
I did think about Kodua and Lowry but we've got so many options, it must be causing Dodds a headache and perhaps if MB knew what the plan was in January, maybe he wasn't happy about having to deal with 35 players.
If anything, I think our biggest mistake in January was not getting a young prem loanee in / taking a risk on a non league striker to back Kone up.
I looked it up a while back, I think Rav was behind only Allison and Ederson for passing accuracy. Norris plays at least one hospital pass to the defenders or pivots every game.
Can only speak from personal experience but I met Dan Rice at the sponsors day and enjoyed a good conversation. A couple of weeks later I bumped into him as I was leaving the Business lounge he remembered that I was Manchester based and asked how my journey down had been. Two positive experiences for me.
Likewise. I've met Dan and Edouard with a group of other Wycombe fans at Wigan train station and they were happy to stop and chat for at least 10 minutes whilst waiting for the train. Others may have different experiences of course.
Everything that we’ve said about Dodds on field performance could have been said about the early days of the last two managers. Discuss.
While there are comparisons to be made the truth is we were in a very different position when MD was appointed compared to when MB and GA were.
MB had gotten us to second and, although our form had dipped, we were very well placed to push for automatic promotion.
We should have been looking for a manager/head coach to push on not someone with no experience who needs time to learn his trade.
MD might yet prove to be a very successful head coach for us but if he fails to secure even a play-off spot - which is looking quite possible - then he will, in the short term at least, be judged to have fallen short this season IMHO.
Yes if MB had remained as manager we might still have fallen away and that too would have been a failure given where we were.
Nevertheless I'll continue to follow WWFC no matter what and I still hope we get automatic promotion, but it's really hard work of late to feel a connection to the club I've supported for more than 55 years.
As I said back when the Trust were looking for a buyer to rescue the club "Be careful what you wish for, it may not be what you get".
We could easily have won that match with slightly better finishing/luck, but the performance would have been exactly the same either way. At the time of the stoppage, we were starting to get on top, but I’m not suggesting we were playing well. The conversation here would have been very different if we’d managed to grind out a win, but such is the life of the manager. We can still be heroes, the time for recriminations will be in a few weeks time if the balloon has completely burst.