One of the few sensible and rational posts I’ve seen on here recently, well done.
We do need to get behind the players old and new, and give Sadler a chance people need to accept he’s here and move on, What’s the alternative keep berating and moaning at everything the football club does from top to bottom.
Yes last season was devastating, but it was last season, remember we did actually finish 4th , yes I know it’s not what you want to hear, it’s just a fact.
@Saddlertd last paragraph is bang on, are people prepared to put their own agenda to one side and support the club or will they only be happy if it all fails.
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You can do both can’t you?
Support the club - but think Sadler is a clown?
I can tell you now - I have zero faith in Sadler. I can’t just close my eyes, wiggle my nose 3 times, open my eyes - and then believe in Sadler again.
Genuine question - for the majority of fans who feel like this - what should we do instead ?
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The only agenda I have is Walsall being the best version of themselves they can be.
I have opinions on that, doesn’t mean they are right. That is what a forum is for.
I can’t change the fact Sadler is here, doesn’t mean I agree he should be.
We really did have to do something special to finish 4th. Yes it’s gone, but still a bit raw.
My support for Walsall next season will be as good as anyone else, I can assure you that. My boys will make sure of it.
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I thought we got behind the players and supported the club last season.
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Some of the best support I have seen from Walsall fan’s in all my time following us. In an attempt to lift the players and get them over the line.
That is what really matters, not peoples personal opinions on a message board. When it mattered we showed up and got behind the team.
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Quite amazing this still needs spelling out to people.
There are those one end of the spectrum who literally moan about everything, and there are those at the other who literally can’t see anything wrong. Generally they are the ones who use words like “embarrassment” or “agenda” aimed at the those they perceive to be at the other end of the spectrum to the one they are camped in.
On the whole most users on here sit in the middle, praise when things are good, ask questions when things are not, and vent frustrations at capitulations. All kind of normal if you as me.
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Thank you Taylor for your contributions to the club, especially last season.
It was almost impossible to keep him here, I hope we got decent money for him.
Good player who I wish well.
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True, but the manager had the largest squad of players i can remember and plenty of other options to replace but still rinse and repeated week in week out.
Should Jellis/Barrett etc have been saying to Sadler 'dont pick me boss I’m playing crap at the moment,
This. All of this.
It’s those on the opposite extremes that jump on anyone in the middle expressing any opinion that isn’t to their extreme.
Happens throughout the season, whether we’re winning or losing and not just on UTS. It’s the same on Twitter and Facebook.
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I don’t know how much Bradford changed their style of play after Cook was injured as I haven’t watched enough of them. If they did though, and were more successful, why was it fantastic management? Had Cook stayed fit, the manager would have carried on as per.
For me, the good managers will make in game changes to exploit weaknesses and/or recognise where the opposition is exploiting ours. This is more tactical change, rather than a complete change in style (as EN alluded to)
The style will generally dictate the type of players recruited, including the back ups. I don’t see any other teams massively changing their playing style from one week to the next tbh
FWIW, I didn’t think that we were set up to be a hoofball team, just direct and high press. It worked very well up until January. We just couldn’t maintain it for a full season, and as the confidence dropped and the players became fatigued, we became more and more one dimensional.
And of course, we didn’t adequately replace Lowe.
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I agree completely with that analysis, particularly the last two paragraphs. I also think we were not as good as the points tally would have it in the first half of the season nor as bad as in the second half.
Which is Sadler’s principal inadequacy, IMHO.
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Hmmm. I can only use famous examples of this, but Spurs won the Europa League by basically changing from a gungho total football attack at all costs team on a Saturday, to a resolute park the bus team in Europe. They had two completely different playing styles and it won them a trophy. Palace did a similar thing in the FA Cup. Normally quite attacking, but went counter attack against the bigger teams.
Virtually every team in the premier league changes it style if they are playing one of the big boys because it is adaptability.
In fact, it’s only really the very top top teams that don’t need to be adaptable, I’m talking Liverpool, Man City, PSG, Barca etc because they have very special talent.
I mean, each to their own and all that, but I’m not sure that is even subjective at this point. We lumped the ball to a striker that as the season went on was less and less capable of competing.
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I don’t watch much football but when Liverpool played Man City away last season, they completely changed their style and played a deep defence and caught them on the counter. It killed Man City, they had no response to it, and Pep is thought of as the best manager in the world.
Even at our level now, everything is analysed, all the info is there for managers.
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Yeah that is very true actually, its adaptability, and regardless of level you need that and we didn’t.
My fear is this squad looks very one dimensional too.
Indeed. Some of the games we won in Nov–Dec we could easily have drawn / lost. Along with others’ inconsistency (Vale for example) around that time.
Definitely right about the first half of the season, there were close games that we won, mainly due to how clinical Lowe was.
I’m struggling to think of many in the second half of the season where you could say we were unlucky not to win. We actually got out of jail to get a point a few times.
Confidence and momentum are huge in football. Had we managed to just pinch a win somewhere, it probably would have been different. The biggest problem to me was that we were usually happy to take the point rather than going for it when the game was there to be won.
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Yes of course you can do that . I also agree that it’s virtually inexplicable how we managed not to get promoted. Personally I think it’s just too easy to just lump all the blame on on Sadler, following the departure of Lowe as you know we only needed a bang average last few months, the fact that the players couldn’t manage that says more about them than Sadler.
I said at the start of the season that I thought we were a bang average lge 1 side fortunately Lowe had a great half season which elevated average players to play above themselves and then when he went they reverted to type , Sadler brought in Amenchi I’m guessing with more of a eye for the future, Harrison is/ was a well respected lower league forward and in Wheatley we had one of the hottest young players in the country, for whatever reason it just didn’t happen .
This is why apart from TA I’m not devastated about the players who have gone I’m pretty sure the lads who come in will be at least equivalent ( hopefully better) replacements, still think we desperately need a real quality CM to give us a bit more control in games.
On Sadler taking aside missing out on promotion (difficult I realise) he has improved season on season and another major plus is the recruitment of lower league players and developing them, there’s a argument to say that at one stage last season Jellis, Barrett and Williams were our best players.
Suffice to say I don’t think he’s a clown, I do think it would be in everyone’s interest if he gave us his side of the story and a explanation of what he and his staff were trying to do to change things during the awful last few months.
I suspect that there is a story behind DJs lack of action same as the apparent dissaperance of Wheatley, but even if there is something in that I don’t believe Sadler would hang them out.
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It is now non-linear. Give them a chance under their new self-declared progress guidelines.
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Wonder how many from the Play Off starting 11 will be here start of the season?