Wycombe's style of play

[Hazey]

I have just seen an interesting stat on Twitter that I thought some people might find intriguing.

Wycombe are currently joint top of our league, yet their playing stats show that this hasn't been achieved by any "total football" approach.



Obviously they seem to be succeeding with a very particular style of play. Now I remember the seasons after Tilly when Sturrock came under a lot of criticism for the way he played and there was a lot of general negativity around it on here, even in the year we came 4th on over 80 points.

I'm not suggesting that direct is the best way to go, but I wonder whether people would be more receptive to these sort of stats after the last few years? How would you feel now if our new manager tried to emulate what Wycombe are doing?

Edit: Here's the tweet, just to give the original poster credit

https://twitter.com/x/status/1171359271302455296

 

[fbm]

This was pretty much Sturrock's philosophy; there was always the argument that as long as we were winning, we'd put up with the less than exciting football. But when that actually happened, we were moaning like crazy. I remember a 3-0 victory v Port Vale where I left the ground bored out of my skin.

Personally, I don't think we'll be totally happy unless we are playing scintillating football with 12 man passing moves, spectacular shots from 25 yards plus and also winning matches by 3 clear goals. Even then, there'll probably be a faction that say we should have won by 4...

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I have just seen an interesting stat on Twitter that I thought some people might find intriguing.

Wycombe are currently joint top of our league, yet their playing stats show that this hasn't been achieved by any "total football" approach.

View attachment 8950

Obviously they seem to be succeeding with a very particular style of play. Now I remember the seasons after Tilly when Sturrock came under a lot of criticism for the way he played and there was a lot of general negativity around it on here, even in the year we came 4th on over 80 points.

I'm not suggesting that direct is the best way to go, but I wonder whether people would be more receptive to these sort of stats after the last few years? How would you feel now if our new manager tried to emulate what Wycombe are doing?

Edit: Here's the tweet, just to give the original poster credit

https://twitter.com/x/status/1171359271302455296

Really interesting to see the stats. My Wycombe-supporting mate is quite open that their style is largely direct and that they are niggly and get involved in lots of timewasting when it helps their cause. It’s a product of several years of tiny budgets and squads, meaning that the ends very much justified the means and their fans have been accepting and even sanguine about that.

While they had a big investment on the eve of this season, if their style may be improving slightly and their quality is certainly better Ainsworth seems to be pursuing a fairly slow evolution rather than the Big Bang approach that’s worked so wonderfully for us this season.

 

[Chairman Trigg]

Watching England last night playing out from the back and I must admit at times it looked like us over the last few weeks

 

[SheldonW65]

Ainsworth is a very astute manager, plays to their strengths and works hard to cover up their deficiencies. The team spirit and togetherness is what beat us a few weeks ago, never die attitude that we've lacked for many years.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Aspiring to emulate Wycombe is not Southend.

That's not even Gillingham.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Aspiring to emulate Wycombe is not Southend.

That's not even Gillingham.

We might not want to be a mirror image in every way - and that’s not because we are any bigger or more worthy it’s just that IMO not absolutely everything about Wycombe as a football club would be a step forward for us. They have no youth teams or academy for a start. But would I like to emulate their team spirit, effort and determination? Absolutely. Barrett might be able to help us emulate those qualities and that absolutely must be what Southend should do.

 

[Mad Cyril]

We might not want to be a mirror image in every way - and that’s not because we are any bigger or more worthy it’s just that IMO not absolutely everything about Wycombe as a football club would be a step forward for us. They have no youth teams or academy for a start. But would I like to emulate their team spirit, effort and determination?

If this means having a manager that looks like Michael Bolton then quite frankly I'd rather us be in the conference.

 

[SheldonW65]

If this means having a manager that looks like Michael Bolton then quite frankly I'd rather us be in the conference.

Harsh, he's more of a hybrid Ray Parlour / Roger Daltrey

 

[Magnum PI]

All we need to do is start scoring two goals a game direct from corners. Easy

 

[Shrimper Neil]

Ainsworth is a very astute manager, plays to their strengths and works hard to cover up their deficiencies. The team spirit and togetherness is what beat us a few weeks ago, never die attitude that we've lacked for many years.

I would agree with this. How many late goals did we score in the run in for the promotion season... almost every week... and then of course the playoffs. What a difference in attitude to the current lot

 

[rigsby]

I did mention Graham Taylor's much criticised Watford in the memory lane thread the other day.

We just hoofed blindly last season but there is a total difference between that and a well planned long ball game.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I did mention Graham Taylor's much criticised Watford in the memory lane thread the other day.

We just hoofed blindly last season but there is a total difference between that and a well planned long ball game.

This is Rigsby’s post in the other thread (scroll down to post 36):

https://www.shrimperzone.com/forums...v-blues-fa-cup-1978.98296/page-2

 

[TheGoat]

I think it’s how you do it. I loved Sturrock for what he did here, the bloke pretty much saved us as a club but there’s no doubt that at times with Dickinson up front and Mohsni on the left wing, it was basically hit and hope.
I haven’t seen Wycombe too much apart from when they’ve played us but Ainsworth is a really smart manager and Leicester showed us that there’s nothing wrong with being direct if you play to your strengths. It won them the league after all!

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

This is Rigsby’s post in the other thread:

https://www.shrimperzone.com/forums...v-blues-fa-cup-1978.98296/page-2#post-2174528

You get a
"Not Found
The requested URL /forums...v-blues-fa-cup-1978.98296/page-2 was not found on this server."

Link when you try to access this.

 

[duncan bulgaria]

I like a good brand of football but as stated you have to play to your strengths , for me our strengths are that we have 4 league one level strikers and as such we should be getting the ball into areas where these players can perform . Let’s get back to winning football then make little tweaks to improve our style but at the moment we need points on the board however we can get them

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

You get a
"Not Found
The requested URL /forums...v-blues-fa-cup-1978.98296/page-2 was not found on this server."

Link when you try to access this.

Trust you to be the one to spot it!

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Oh sod it. I’m having a brain fade and I need to get on with work. Look for Rigsby’s post on page 2 of the Watford memory lane thread.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

I think it’s how you do it. I loved Sturrock for what he did here, the bloke pretty much saved us as a club but there’s no doubt that at times with Dickinson up front and Mohsni on the left wing, it was basically hit and hope.
I haven’t seen Wycombe too much apart from when they’ve played us but Ainsworth is a really smart manager and Leicester showed us that there’s nothing wrong with being direct if you play to your strengths. It won them the league after all!

And a striker as good as Vardy to put those chances away.That goal he scored last week with a first time volley from a route 1 move was just sublime.

 

[Chrisb]

I like a good brand of football but as stated you have to play to your strengths , for me our strengths are that we have 4 league one level strikers and as such we should be getting the ball into areas where these players can perform . Let’s get back to winning football then make little tweaks to improve our style but at the moment we need points on the board however we can get them

Absolutely agree. We need to get some points and some confidence and if that means tough defending and balls hoofed out to safety then fine. The new manager will have to work with the squad already here and must get them all to play to their strengths in their best positions.