Rage Online

Well who'd have thought Mr Wilder would have such excellent computer skills that he managed to knock this site out of action so we could avoid any knee jerk reactions after the Vale shambles - shame he couldn't do the same to yellows forum, what depressing reading that site makes.

Whilst this season has ultimately ended very disappointingly, I think overall it was ok, getting the better over the PDC twice, including at their place to break the hoodoo and just missing out on the play offs on the last day would probably have been something I'd have settled for at the start of the season. The manner of our fall from grace has lost Wilder a lot of credit in my book though. He is far too reliant on loan players, playing them ahead of those contracted to the club and no real improvement in performance from them it seems. The formation is too rigid, when he first joined he mixed it up and changed the formation to suit the players - he now seems very stubborn and will force the players to fit a formation that doesn't really work for them. He can organise a team well and has made us solid at the back but going forward we have often lacked invention and our goals for column makes poor reading - with Beano the top scorer on 11 goals it's clear where the problem is. I also think his management of Beano has been awful this season, he is a Oxford hero, yet to me has been treated like he has done something wrong, how he can't manage to get in a front 3 is frankly beyond me looking at some of the players who have started ahead of him this season. He also dumps players far too easily and instead of managing a player giving him problems, he'll get rid, Josh Payne, I think, is a brilliant player, when he came on against Daggers earlier in the season he was fantastic yet he barely got a look in after that - this was the player who replaced Bullman lets not forget. Adam Murry and Sam Deering are also others who he has taken a hard line for - many players with a bit of creativity and spark are often harder to manage (Gazza being the best example of that, Rooney is another) but instead of improving them and setting them straight they get shipped out.

However, the credit for Wilder was at a high level before the season and he deserves another shot next season. His first season was us was astonishing how he turned the team around, the second we got promotion via Wembley and the third we finished comfortably in mid table, with a small improvement this season. He has also had a shocking injury crisis, had Clarke not been injured I think we would have made the play offs, he would have stopped that shot when the game he was injured for a start and stopped the first goal against Sarfend.

Hopefully he will learn some lessons from this season - an attacking coach is much needed which can help him bring in some decent attacking players - his record here is somewhat poor and more of a scatter gun approach - if I bring 3 players in maybe one will be decent.

The memory of Ian Atkins, Rix, Patto, Kemp, Mark Wright etc are still too fresh to pay any attention to the calls to sack him, roll on the Euros and next season.

Most people agree with you - http://yellowsforum.proboards.com/index ... hread=9322 - but it would be nice to have at least 90%|| backing for the most important football employee at Oxford United but the dissent is higher than at this time last season.

Next season will be a challenge and a lot of pressure to deliver by Christmas, be it Wilder or whoever else is in charge, but it's clear that not everyone agrees with your view, so that's not a good starting point to mull over during the long close season.

Treading water -v- giving the manager time springs to mind.

He's kept his record of beating the previous season's finish, so despite the disappointing end, there's no reason to get rid. Apart from anything else, what are the chances of attracting someone better? I will be astounded if we don't get promoted next season.

Definitely changes are needed - he needs to sort out his problem with forwards by getting in a new attacking coach and maybe a change to the scouting setup - too many also-rans in as loanees (apart from R Hall the temps this season have been largely atrocious).

Regarding formations, it's less about what is a good or bad one, and more about realising that with the opposition having professional teams that watch video after video looking for weakness, sticking to a one-size-fits all solution is just a recipe to getting found out.

To put it into context - best finishing position since 2004 (Atkins and Rix, ffs), and with over a thousand extra supporters every week. We're doing OK. Since Christmas 2008 Wilder has almost reversed the decline since the turn of the century, and every fan should salute him for that.

I agree with a lot of what Ty has had to say with only a couple of minor exceptions. I didn't rate Payne as highly and I think this season has been a big disappointment, especially when it didn't need to be.

But disappointment or not, it is clear that the expectation levels created by the finance produced with 7-8,000 crowds has not been met, partly for the reasons Ty gives, and partly for the less than fullsome player budget because of the club's circumstances. When those factors are coupled with the goodwill that Wilder has created, and the fact that progressive clubs tend to be th estable clubs, Wilder deserves one more season at achieving promotion.

I really can't see supporters accepting his continued tenure unless we achieve success.

As I've just highlighted ont he OV forum, next season, the club's coming into this division will not be scary clubs. They will all be on lower budgets than us and we really should be towards the top of the tree. Play offs final absolute minimum next season, but we should be aiming for automatic promotion really.

An attacking coach has surely got to be high on the list of priorities for next season, even if that is at the expense of Mad Dog or Melville.

Frankly, I think the idea that failing even to get in the playoffs being acceptable because we did the double over PDC is disgraceful and shows how much their presence in the same division as us has distorted sight of what really matters.

Comparing last year's and this year's final tables, we won no more games this year that last (17). Last year we drew 12, lost 17 this year it was D17 L12. We managed to score only one goal more, although we did concede 12 fewer. Last year, there was only one team in the top half of the table that conceded more goals this year there were eight - including five that finished above us. The most telling figures for me, though, reinforce what others have already said: both last year and this, only one team in the top half of the table scored fewer goals than us.

The trouble for me is that all the other things I have found so frustrating - formations, loan players, etc etc etc - have failed to address this indeed have contributed to it I would say. Which begs the question - even if CW brings in a striking coach, will he allow that person to influence who CW brings in, as signings or on loan? Will he be allowed to alter CWs formations? CWs team selections week to week? Even when CW does bring in good goalscorers, Midson being the obvious example, he doesn't get the most out of him. Will a striking coach really be allowed to address everything that is wrong?

Definitely agree that Wilder should remain in charge. Longevity in football management tends to yield more success than making a change every time you don't quite achieve everything you want to.

The main problem for me was the (enforced?) reliance on loan players who weren't good enough. Rendell, Morgan, and Montano were all ok but nothing more (and occassionally worse). It was disappointing to see Wilder persist with them.

The other main problem for me this season was that there was too much focus on the Slumdon games. For some people, it seemed that beating them was the be-all and end-all. Personally, I would happily have lost both games and swap positions with them. With them off the scene next season hopefully we can focus on all 46 games.

The thing that strikes me as odd about Wilder's tenure is that every season we have a period where we are total rubbish. Unfortunately this season it came at a time when we could not recover from it. As it happens every season, there must be a reason?!

&quotGodalmingYellow&quot wrote: As I've just highlighted ont he OV forum, next season, the club's coming into this division will not be scary clubs. They will all be on lower budgets than us and we really should be towards the top of the tree. Play offs final absolute minimum next season, but we should be aiming for automatic promotion really.

Gone up - S*****n, Shrewsbury, Crawley - quite possibly the top three spenders from 2011/12
Leaving three from Torquay, Southend, Cheltenham, Crewe. Southend are probably the team I'd like to see out of this division. Torquay and Cheltenham feel like one season wonders to me, and the Crewe academy one day will stop churning out players for the first team. Although they do have the momentum.
Coming up. Fleetwood and York/Luton. I'd hope that they have a problem adjusting to L2.
Coming down. Wycombe,Chesterfield, Rochdale, Exeter. Wycombe have overspent for years and with the collapse of a new stadium for football and rugby, their owner may be on the verge of giving up. Exeter are a Supporters' Trust run club, and I think will inevitably run out of cash like Rushden. Chesterfield and Rochdale, I know nothing about.

Gillingham's stadium move has stalled, they have a £3MM overdraft, I can't see them progressing, although they do have fairly similar income and expenses to us. (slightly higher turnover and cost of sales, lower admin costs, which I guess are rent savings, but higher directors' fees)
Port Vale could progress once out of administration, and Plymouth too after this season's woes. Rotherham have a new stadium and are backing the manager. Then there's us.

So overall, I expect Fleetwood, us, Plymouth, Vale, and perhaps two of the defeated play-off teams to be up there next season.

Refreshing to see plenty of people bacing Wilder, I'm on a few facebook sites and it's all he needs to go, he's a (insert insult here) although I suspect a lot of those don't actually go to games.
I still think some criticisms are pretty harsh, I mean the formation thing, who's to say we would be any better playing other formations, I often thing we could do with a second man up front, but equally I think we often look weak if we only have 2 in midfield, and with Heslop injusred Rendell/Beano have been more isolated than with him in the team.
And do any of us really know a lot about the Beano/Wilder relationship, I think it's very hard for an outsider to judge that situation. Considering how far Wilder has taken us in the last couple of years I think he deserves two seasons to get out of this league, and it's easy to forget that he's still learning, he's 44 years old, this is his 2nd managerial job, and he's just completed his second year as a football league manager (plus half a year as an assistant) so he'll improve with experience.
One more thing, some one said that we always go on a bad run of form, I think pretty much every team goes on a bad run in a season, just take these:
S*****n from 13th-30th Aug: L L L W L L
Shrews from 10th Dec-7th Jan: L W D L D L
Crawley from 14th Feb-13th Mar L L D L L D D D

Much as I can't understand the 'hoof the ball up in the air lots of times' tactic, especially as we don't have any tall forwards, I am happy with CW.
I feel that many football matches hinge on random acts of luck or misfortune, that managers have little influence on. In particular this season I can think of examples where individual errors have cost us significant points...
Alfie's miss at Burton after scoring the best goal I have seen live in a long time (2 points dropped)
That loan forward losing control of the ball last minute at Shrewsbury before their player let fly (2 pts)
Chappos's penalty miss at Northampton (3)
Clarke's howler against Torquay (2)
...
I'm sure that you possibly have other examples from last season please remind me (if you must!)

I long for us to return to an arrogant style of play which I remember enjoying at Morecambe the season before, and a nasty 'kill the game off' attitude at all times. Football is such a simple game, yet the players often make it look like rocket science. Back to basics with a bit of flair. Bring on August!

I had a good chat with a couple of other fans pre-season and discussed what we considered to be the success criteria for the coming campaign.

We were agreed that we should be in the running for automatic promotion and the minimum success criteria would be to make the play-offs. We haven't achieved that.

Dr Bob hits the nail on the head for me. Whilst many talk about the progress we have made this season, the tangibles (games won, goals scored etc) don't demonstrate that much of an improvement. And this is in a season where the manager has asked for extra funds to bolster his squad and then overspent on that increased budget too. Many of the failing of last season are still there too - lack of goals, failure to hold on to a lead, second half etc., so it's right to ask the question of how much progress we have actually made this year. Is Wilder showing that he is &quotlearning from experience&quot which Joepoolman says he will?

Mr T talks about individual errors and &quotmatches hinging on random acts or misfortune, that managers have little influence on&quot. Sorry, but that is guff. If the game was as random as suggested, Wigan have as much chance of winning the Premiership as Manchester City. Further, you could probably point the finger at some sort of &quotindividual error&quot for 90% of goals conceded. Managers DO have an influence on these random acts and individual errors - by assembling a squad of sufficient quality to avoid these, and further mitigate it through coaching and tactics. We are a relatively large fish in a relatively small pond and we should be able to assemble a squad which is &quotbetter&quot than the majority in this league.

Anyhoo, my view is that now isn't the time to pull the trigger, but if we aren't in/around the automatic promotion positions come early-December, then I think the time may well be right for a change.

&quotMyles Francis&quot wrote:I had a good chat with a couple of other fans pre-season and discussed what we considered to be the success criteria for the coming campaign.

Going back to viewtopic.php?f=1&ampt=3959 shows that the majority thought we'd make the playoffs, but hardly anyone thought we'd win them (bit of a lottery etc. Given our end of season form, I don't think finishing seventh would have made any difference to what league we were in next seson.

The next second highest vote was for automatic promotion. I think given some of the very well resourced teams that we ended up facing, that was a tall order.

And I guess League 2 isn't quite as easy as we thought it was. I remember back in the Conference years all the moaning that the top half of the BSP could beat the bottom half of L2. Maybe not as cut and dried as that - the L2 teams nowadays are (mostly) battle-hardened, financially-sound, well-run football clubs with decent players. The really crap teams have, quite simply, gone.

I'll do a repeat poll when the playoffs are all sorted and we know who we're facing next year.

I largely agree with Myles - we stagnated somewhat this year, despite the extra money. I think injuries are a mitigating factor so I don't think it needs an overhaul but Wilder must be aware he needs a good start next year. He should be aiming to make sure that if we're &quotunlucky&quot (although it can't all be luck) with injuries next year we still make the playoffs. If we have a good season we should be aiming for the automatics.

It might be that Wilder has reached his level for now (as my view is he needs to gamble a bit more to win more games at the risk of losing more as well and I'm not sure it's an easy philosophy to change particularly if you're under pressure in the job). Christmas will be the time to contemplate a change, if we're midtable and looking like we're repeating this season then given that a lot of player contracts will be up at the end of next season, getting a new manager in then (following the same process we used to identify Wilder in the first place) might be sensible. Gives him time to assess the existing squad and then a close season to build his own.

The key issues which 'everyone' wants Wilder to own up to are
fitness / injuries
loanees
finishing games off.

KT has already talked about the first, and using the Wigan Warriors connection can only be positive.
Wilder has now said that the use of loan players needs to be cut back to bringing in an extra one or so, but that he was forced this year with injuries and suspensions.
and finishing games off is the next step. In his first six months, we really went for it, getting last minute winners and equalisers against York and Wrexham etc.
Mark Wilson has also posted some interesting tweets about our formation and lack of adaptability. Which presumably comes down to the coaching staff. Anyone know what level coaching certificates / licences we have?

For me, Wilder now needs to be bolder and take more risk in games. His natural incline, to hold and protect what he has, resulted in 17 draws, costing us promotion / play offs. Just go for it man! .... Cut out this sitting back nonsense. We'll lose and win more, but the net effect will be favourable. Failure to take more risks in games is too big a risk to Wilder's career.

I think Wilder's natural inclination to not take risks (as with our lack of striking abaility) comes down to the fact that he is a defender. Throughout my 'career' I have played centre back and I have also run/managed a couple of teams and my natural inclination was always to defend first, make the team difficult to beat, and then hope to nick a goal or two. I concentrated fully at getting good players to play with me at the back and defensive midfielders to further solidify the defence. I just put people who I thought were 'flair' players upfront and let them get on with it!

I know that my Sunday League comparison is fairly worthless but I can see why Wilder does struggle and finds it difficult to let players off the lease. However, if he is to be successful he has to see this fault and change.