Tactical Strikes

I'm really looking forward to this afternoon's game, despite the fact that we're the two dullest teams in The Conference-fewer goals are scored in ours and Altrincham's games than anyone else's-and the only goal in our two games last month came completely out of the blue.

Both those matches saw an interesting tactical battle of wits break out between the managers, and encouragingly Dean Saunders was often a step ahead.

Alty's boss, Graham Heathcote, deserves massive credit. His side is part-time, but they show a level of flexibility rare amongst sides that are able to work on things every day. In each of the five clashes we've had with them over the last two seasons Altrincham have adjusted smoothly during matches, adapting to circumstances adeptly, their players showing an ability to cope with a variety of positions. It's good to see, even if solidity is often their first aim.

In the F.A. Trophy games last month we started out playing 4-4-2 and failed to make an impact on Altrincham, who played three at the back and outnumbered us in midfield. In both matches Saunders switched to 4-3-3 and immediately took control of the game.

Will Saunders be tempted to start with a 4-3-3 today? Does he see Andy Mangan as the sort of striker who can play on his own up front? Would that allow him to accommodate Jamie McCluskey, who has put in two impressive substitute appearances this week, playing behind a front two for the first time for us last Saturday?

Or will he recall what happened in the tie that we lost: after hammering Alty for twenty-five minutes our domination ended when Heathcote responded by switching to 4-3-3 himself. The result? The tie returned to a tight, thrill-free tussle, and they got a scrappy winner from a set piece which they then defended easily.

That was one of the few games this season which actually conformed to Dean Saunders' claim that we consistently create chances; if he can find the formation to create a similar amount today then Mangan will get chances to score his first goal for us. The battle in the dugouts will be as crucial as that on the pitch.

McCluskey's Catch-22

So where do you stand on Jamie McCluskey? And more importantly, how does Dean Saunders see him?

He's hardly had a proper run to show what he can do; admittedly the injuries he keeps picking up don't help, nor his finishing; let's just say he hasn't found his feet in front of goal yet! Both those factors could count against him when he looks to renew his contract in the Summer.

Yet there is always a sense of promise about him. Look at the AFC Wimbledon game. He has never played behind a front two for us before-he lined up behind Jeff Louis from the start at Kettering last season, but he's never been allowed free reign with two forwards making runs ahead of him.

He impressed, and also made an impact off the bench on Tuesday. But will that help or hinder him? If he gets pigeon-holed as an impact sub his hopes of establishing himself with us will be limited. The only way he can shake that reputation is to perform well when given a start, but the only way he'll earn that right's to impress off the bench, which might tempt Saunders to keep him there.

McCluskey needs to find an answer to that conundrum, and so does Saunders. In a squad lacking creativity, the little Scot could prove to be very handy indeed.

Mangan Signs For Wrexham at last!

At last! And you thought the Christiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid saga was tiresome! Now we have to see if we was worth the wait.

To be fair, you can't fault Saunders for his pursuit of him. When did we last land the top scorer in our division?

He looks like the type of player we're screaming out for too, so let's hope he delivers! There are plenty of others who’ve arrived at The Racecourse looking good on paper who haven’t delivered on the pitch, and frankly we can't afford for Mangan to join that list.

It'll be nice if he does come off as it'll buck a trend; transfer window signings tend to be born out of desperation and are often doomed to failure.

In the old system I seem to recall the occasional stunning signing on deadline day. Didn’t Mick Harford sign minutes for Birmingham City minutes from the deadline in the 1980s and score the goals that kept them up?

However, such cases are few and far between.

You never know though. Sometimes a few subtle changes to a squad can make a surprising difference. Football’s not as easy to read as the pundits claim-the regularity with which they contradict themselves shows that. I mean, can Rafa Benitez really alternate between fool and genius as often as we’re told he does?

The game is littered with players who looked useless or finished, but suddenly find a new lease of life, Stephen Carr at Birmingham being an obvious current example. He was contemplating giving the game up, having been without a club for a fair spell, when Alex McLeish came in for him.

Although this can happen, the chances of stumbling on a gem are slim when you’re in the bargain basement. That’s why I’m reassured to see we appear to be going after players teams are reluctant to let go-Barry and Mangan are the sort of players we ought to aim for.

Of course, Mangan carries a different sort of baggage, and I'm not going to pretend I'm comfortable with that. Still, everyone was horrified when Gary Bennett signed, but those objections dissolved when he started banging the goals in. I'm going to be a coward and hide behind the football fan's prerogative to decide what sort of signing he is once he's scored a hatful!

Fear of January

We're getting a lot of optimistic noises from The Racecourse, with Dean Saunders talking about getting nine points in a week, and Gareth Taylor talking about promotion pushes.

I wouldn't want to hear anything else coming out of the club; you don't want your club to give up the season before January. However, I suspect January might just be the cruellest month when it comes to dashing those hopes.

Have you seen our upcoming fixtures? When we finish our game at Oxford on January 30th, we'll have completed a run of nine games, seven of which were away from home! And just to ensure this road trip is particularly gruelling, the next free Tuesday we'll enjoy is the other side of Valentine's Day!

If we can get the momentum going for a promotion push off the back of that run of fixtures, we'll be real contenders!

Altrincham Podcast

The ALtrincham podcast is now up at http://www.wrexhamfan.co.uk/ featuring Dean Saunders and Sam Russell

York Podcast

The York podcast is now up at http://www.wrexhamfan.co.uk/ featuring Dean Saunders and Andy Fleming.

An Embarrassment of Riches

Never mind where's Wally, where's Angelos?

When we signed Angelos Tsiaklis I was rather pleased. Here was a player who'd done well on loan last season and was clearly technically sound. With him on the pitch results were good last season, so he appeared to be a good acquisition.

I was pleased with his debut at Cambridge too. Having not been attached to a club in the Summer he faded and was withdrawn, but while he was on the pitch he looked quite sharp and influenced play significantly in the opening thirty minutes.

And then nothing; he's not been near the first team since!

Admittedly, we seem to have an awful lot of central midfielders, so breaking into that position isn't easy, especially as Andy Fleming and Christian Smith have sewn the two positions up for themselves in recent weeks. With Hedi Taboubi, Mark Jones, Nathan Fairhurst and Silvio Spann also capable of playing in that position (and Saunders has started Marc Williams too) maybe Tsiaklis is just at the end of a very long queue. But if that's the case, perhaps we oughtn't to have shelled out on a contract for him.

It's a position Nathan Fairhurst is also in. I'm on record as being a fan of Fairhurst, and I'm clearly not alone; hearing a chorus of "There's only one Nathan Fairhurst" ring out for an inexperienced holding midfielder when he was brought on last Tuesday was an unexpected treat! Surely, in the suspended Smith's absence, he'll start at York as Mark Jones sadly failed to take the first chance Saunders has given him to play centrally in a midfield four. And if the Fairhurst-Fleming combination can replicate the success they enjoyed last season, when they were at the heart of our excellent winning run which propelled us into promotion contention until Andy Crofts came and turfed Fairhurst out of the side, then Christian Smith might pay a heavy price for that rash tackle last Saturday.

Paying The Price For Hayes?

I suggested a couple of weeks ago in my leader column that Dean Saunders, in being absent for the Hayes match, had damaged the relationship between him and the supporters, who are uneasy at the thought of a manager who doesn't hold his club as his only priority. Looking at the reaction to the game last night, I'd say that damage was evident after the Forest Green game.

Fans at the game were angry, although Wes Baynes' late goal took the sting out of their protests at the final whistle; on Red Passion they were furious, demanding Saunders ought to go. I'd argue that this reaction is an manifestation of how upset the supporters were three weeks ago.

Yes, the performance was poor yesterday; Forest Green looked to be a very poor side, and in the first half we certainly couldn't claim to be any better than them; we created nothing. We imposed ourselves upon them after the break, but without a great deal of quality, and needed a daft foul by a player who ought to have been sent off already to win the game in the 89^th minute. However, I'm not sure that the game in itself would warrant such an outpouring of anger.

Look at it in context. Since we lost to Hayes we've drawn at Histon, a performance which has divided fans when measuring its merits, and put in two good performances without getting the reward we deserved. You really couldn't complain about the way we played against Kidderminster or Swindon, so yesterday was the first chance the hard core of home fans, and let's be honest, that's what we're down to right now, to vent their anger at Saunders since the Hayes debacle.

I'm struggling to think of a worse game of football I've ever seen than yesterday's first half, but if you take in the bigger picture, I suspect the vitriol aimed at Saunders was a little harsh. After all, we'd just put in two good performances (maybe three) in a row, and he did act decisively at half time yesterday, throwing on two subs and switching to 4-3-1-2 in a move which brought about an improvement and, ultimately, three points.

Yet damage was done against Hayes, and yesterday was a chance to express that.

Forest Green Podcast

The Forest Green podcast is now up at http://www.wrexhamfan.co.uk/ featuring Dean Saunders and Wes Baynes.

Three's a Crowd

Tonight's crowd was the first time we've attracted less than two thousand fans to a league match in nine years!

Admittedly there were extenuating circumstances: a freezing night, the third of three home games in a week and Man United reserves live on Sky in the League Cup. Still, the main factor is that we're in poor form in the lowest league we've played in since joining the pyramid in 1921.

In case you're interested, that previous low crowd was in November 2000, when we attracted just 1,584 to see us draw 2-2 with Cambridge United in a game I recall vividly as Lionel Perez was awesome and repelled shot after shot, allowing United to equalise in the last minute!

To put tonight's crowd into further context, we've attracted under two thousand to The Racecourse for a league game just four times in the last seventeen years!

Still, at least we haven't plumbed the depths of the 1980s. The ten lowest average attendances in our history were recorded in ten consecutive seasons then, a pattern which continued into the 1990s: we finished the 1990-1 season with ten consecutive sub-2,000 crowds!

There's time though, eh?

Will We See The Woods For The Trees?

Tonight's game could answer a few questions. Like whether the accepted line on Wrexham, that we excel against the better sides and are clueless when a team sets out to deny us, is true.

Forest Green have not traditionally been a side which parks the bus, but their dire league position and the loss of Jimmy Harvey might lead to a period of necessary retrenchment. If so, it'll be interesting to see how we cope with that approach, as we haven't dealt with teams that do that at all well so far this season, but last Saturday we showed signs that that could change.

Granted, Swindon certainly didn't look to defend deep or spoil the game in any respect. However, there was still a comparison to be made between our approach in that game and previous ones. We looked so confident with the ball at our feet, and players were demanding it too! It was a marked contrast with games like the debacles against Barrow, Salisbury and Hayes when, with the crowd on their back, they looked petrified.

If we can maintain that sort of confidence, and show some patience, we'll break sides down no matter how dogged they are. The more I think about this season, the more I suspect it's a question of mentality as much as anything: the players expect to find it easier against the better sides and are able to relax and play, but have it stuck in their heads that they can't brea down defensive teams. Dean Saunders needs to find a way to release the players and let them lose those inhibitions, and tonight's as good a time to start as any.

A Matter of Balance

Christian Smith's suspension leaves Dean Saunders with no option but to wrestle with an issue which is coming to define our season: the balance between defence and attack.

He knows that in Smith and Andy Fleming, a pairing who have been fixtures in the centre of midfield for a while now, he has a duo who offer admirable protection to our defence but are less effective creatively.

He might be tempted to take a chance and select a more inventive player, but that nagging doubt which always afflicts managers is there in the back of his head: can he afford to? Defeats get managers sacked, and whereas it's easy enough for us armchair experts to urge approaching games with abandon (after all, it works for us on Football Manager 2010!) it's not so easy to let go when your head's on the block.

But will Saunders grasp the nettle now? Lacking Smith for three games, two of which are at home, offers him a chance to be more progressive. Of course he has a wide range of central midfielders to choose from, having collected them as obsessively as a ten year old schoolboy amasses Match Attax cards (and believe me, that particular line of acquisition is just as expensive!) As their names suggest, Tsiaklis and Taboubi represent the more exotic option, while Fairhurst would be a safe pair of hands. An option I don't expect to see Saunders take would in many ways be the most intriguing though, and would certainly go down well with many Wrexham fans; does he dare to unleash Mark Jones in a central role?

Swindon Podcast

The Swindon podcast is now up at www.wrexhamfan.co.uk featuring Dean Saunders, Wes Baynes, Gareth Taylor and Swindon skipper Gordon Greer.

Will Gareth Taylor Suffer From Robbie Keane Syndrome?

The cup tie tomorrow will, no doubt, see Dean Saunders fall back on his most experienced and reliable performers, and there can be no doubt that Gareth Taylor falls into that category.

Yet the Kidderminster game posed an interesting question. Look back at last Sunday: Robbie Keane is a fine player and has been a regular for Spurs, but things haven't properly gelled up front for them despite their abundance of attacking options. Last Sunday Keane was rested and suddenly they clicked, Peter Crouch getting two and Jermaine Defoe hit five! Selecting a football team is about finding a blend, not picking your best players.

Central to Saunders' plans, Taylor has delivered and is not just our top scorer, he's our only scorer. Strong, willing and the one playerwe've got who you'd fancy to take a chance on the rare occasion one presents itself.

Yet Tuesday's game posed a vexing question; are we better when he isn't playing?

It seems a ludicrous question on the face of it; after all, without his goals we'd probably be in the bottom four.It's horrendous how reliant on one player's goals we are.

Yet the Kidderminster game, which Taylor missed with a knee injury, was an eye-opener. Okay, neither of the strikers who replaced Taylor have scored this season, a worrying state of affairs when you're virtually in December.

However, it was most fluent attacking performance for some time. Admittedly neither Marc Williams nor Adrian Cieslewicz were particularly clinical in front of goal, but their enthusiasm caused all sorts of problems and their movement meant suddenly we started playing football!

Saunders knows he has an issue of balance to resolve in his team; Christian Smith and Andy Fleming are both having good seasons, but neither of them have really offered much creativity. We look very solid with them protecting the back four, but we don't pass the ball through midfield quickly or penetratively. Until Tuesday. With Williams dropping off and Cieslewicz looking for balls to chase, suddenly we looked creative, rather than desperately hoofing the ball to Taylor.

So what happens tomorrow? Taylor will start, and I'm not saying that's wrong, as he's been crucial for us this season. But who makes way, and will we be hankering back to Tuesday as the game wears on?