It is the system. Wilder hasn't any evidence to prove it isn't. We've lost 21 from 26 with his system, and looked decidedly shit since the lockdown return.
I have pointed it out with the diagrams how teams have countered Wilderball. The system he claims isn't failing has only one critical route to goal of successful note - the now-dead-as-fuck 'overlapping centrebacks' which was useful in the rise to the PL, had novelty value at the beginning of last season but during the COVID break, strategists and tacticians simply sat down, did the maths, looked at the passing lanes, the overloads and the way teams had conceded and simply made their teams ship four out to counter-overload-the-overload. We stop, we pass it back, Norwood smacks it over to the other wing, and rinse and repeat until we fuck up a pass and we are in full retreat, three-in-a-line midfield easily outnumbered and we're under the cosh, unable to win it back, Norwood trips someone, a car comes out from the touchline, it's wings and doors fall off, a swannee whistle goes off, Lundstram attempts a tackle and his flower squirts water, there's a trombone slide, Fleck makes a giraffe out of some balloons and Ramsdale's hat falls off and he kicks it forward trying to pick it off the deck.
We've been sussed, and Wilder refuses to acknowledge it. It's fucking late in the day to acknowledge it mind, given most teams this season have fed greedily from our inability to change strategy. When we've been forced to however - and actually gone four at the back and four in midfield - we've looked different and slightly more capable, even if it is obvious the players aren't comfortable playing like that (simply because I feel CWAK don't entertain setting the team up in training to have any system as an alternative.)
Wilder can't blame anything else, he really can't. No one is buying 'COVID and crowds' - it's the fucking same for everyone and really, they've been playing in front of empty stadiums for a year now, for fuck's sake. What happens if we suddenly let crowds back in and we are trunked once again? You gonna blame 'not playing in an empty stadium'? All 22 players have the same experiences, home and away. It's a fallacy, and nothing more.
He also can't blame 'quality of players versus riches'. He's spent a fucking fortune on poor quality players shaking the risky dice on what he reckons were 'the best Championship players', yet we know (and knew) that was far from the truth. They weren't, and they won't be next season either. He can't blame wages - it is a policy he has been instrumental in setting and he's squandred several million on fees and wages of players who have been fringe or not used at all.
In all, he MUST take responsibility for this seasons humiliation. Not saying I want him gone - at the moment and for the first part of next season he is the only solution we have to recover. But he must accept where the blame lies, learn the lessons (no one, even the most seasoned professional in any trade stops learning), act effectively, stop being so fucking brickwall and make sure we have one season and one season only in the Championship to recover, rebuild and reappear in the top flight.
pommpey
