thewwfc
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Well we're almost done for this campaign, and only the playoff winner and final relegation spot remain to be confirmed.
So I think it's fair enough to start this thread.
What happened this season:
6. As I said, I was fully expecting this to be a transition season with an inexperienced manager finding his own identity, and a squad with a bunch of new arrivals, but fuck me have we been hard to watch at times.
What needs to change:
So I think it's fair enough to start this thread.
What happened this season:
- My personal pre-season expectation was one of transition, and an 8th-10th finish, definitely not good enough for playoffs but not bad either
- Rookie manager Matt Bloomfield led us into his first full season in charge
- The idea was to transition us to a less direct style than the Ainsworth era, and (shudder) do the "playing the ball out from the back" crap that players at this level are generally terrible at
- After a massive influx of new players over the summer (I think our biggest ever turnover) initial results were a mixed but acceptable bag
- We then ran into a terrible run of form (I think 17 games without a win?) characterised by an incoherent side lacking identity, poor in attack, and with an abysmal tendency to switch off and concede late goals
- The "Bloomfield Out" chants did appear towards the end of this run, although never reached critical mass
- The owners pointedly ignored this and backed the manager to the hilt
- After a record player turnover in the summer, some deadwood was identified in the squad midway through the campaign, and we had an equally record January turnover with several ins and outs
- From here, we seemed to stabilise
- Ditched the "play it out from the back" nonsense
- Abandoned some of the pretty football pretences and went back to a more "Ainsworth-lite" style, more long passes from the back but less dark arts than Ainsworth
- Results were still a mixed bag, but enough to elevate us into the realms of mediocrity rather than flirting with relegation
- Got to the tinpot final - as shit a competition as it may be, a welcome distraction from an otherwise meh campaign, regardless of the disappointment of the actual day
- We have found some consistency in recent weeks and best possible finish would be 10th - in line with my pre-season prediction, although we've taken a fucking horrible route to get there
- We have used the loan market well this season, and benefited from some good young EPL players
- Signed very wisely in January which saved our season, otherwise we were at serious risk of going down
- Bloomfield learning some pragmatism and not to be over-ambitious with the expectations of skill levels of third tier players
- The board in fairness did well to back Bloomfield through the doldrums, many would have got shot of him
- Playing 3 at the back never seemed to work, and we conceded a bunch of unnecessary sloppy goals despite actually having some very good CBs
- We have been particularly lacklustre in attack, trying to play more ball to feet, whilst still having a big target man (Vokes) - the strikers have been misfiring and our goals are thinly spread across a bunch of different players.
6. As I said, I was fully expecting this to be a transition season with an inexperienced manager finding his own identity, and a squad with a bunch of new arrivals, but fuck me have we been hard to watch at times.
What needs to change:
- A more coherent idea of how we are trying to play in attack - we signed a couple of decent attacking players in January, they now need to kick on
- Vokes is still great at holding up the ball but I feel his time may have passed - do we go for a younger target man, or stop trying to play that way altogether?
- If it goes well - outside shot at playoffs
- If it goes badly - lower mid-table finish, 14th-16th. Anything lower is unacceptable - Bloomfield has now had enough time to make this his team.
- If I had to guess right now, I would say 8th, not quite good enough for the playoffs, but decent.