“Failure to win
promotion this season will be a disaster.”
We've all heard that
phrase, or some form of equivalent, before. Inevitably it gets an
airing at some stage every season and yet, after several seasons of
failing to win promotion the club is still standing and, most
importantly, still able to raise a competitive side in League Two.
But by forcing ourselves to believe that every season is a
potentially pivotal one in the history of the club are we piling
unnecessary pressure on ourselves? It seems this kind of attitude
remains something of a hangover from the Conference days, when the
future of the club really was at stake - but is it any more? If the
club remains at this level for too long with little sign of being
promoted then, yes, its potential
to grow will be stunted, but this is a gradual process over a
number of years, not dependent on the result of one season.
Which is all a rather
roundabout way of saying that the season ahead is important (as they
all are) but not necessarily a pivotal one as far as the club's
future is concerned. Promotion is again expected, and rightly so, but
if we fail to achieve it the club will still be here next year.
However, for one person in particular this season really is pivotal.
If it turns out to be similar to the last one it seems difficult to
believe that Chris Wilder will still be in the hotseat and preparing
for another shot at promotion in 2014-15.
For a large section
of the Oxford support, patience with Wilder dried up at some point
during the last campaign. It was indeed a dreary,
morale-sapping season with very few highlights and it's
unsurprising that some of the supporters got a little tetchy. This
summer's transfer dealings have certainly restored the faith
among quite a few of those fans, but make no mistake that patience is
most definitely not a virtue the United 'faithful' possess in droves
at the moment and a poor start to the season could result in the
atmosphere around the ground becoming poisonous very early into the
season. The 'Wilder out campaign' has been noticeably quiet during
the summer months, but it won't take much for those rumblings to stir
once again. Fortunately, Ian Lenagan seems like a steady type and
unless the club is in danger of relegation it seems likely that he
will allow Wilder to see the season out no matter how loud the
protests.
But there can certainly be
no mistaking Wilder's intentions this year. He doesn't simply want to
cling to his job for another year and see the season out; he knows
that this season really is pivotal for his career and has gone about
assembling a side that he believes will be lifting the League Two
trophy at the end of the season. For all the noises last year about
challenging for promotion, I suspect he knew very early on that it
wouldn't happen and that for many of those players (most of whom had
been signed on two-year deals the previous summer) it was simply a
case of seeing out the remainder of their contract. That's given
Wilder plenty of time to think about how he's going to build his side
and to correct some of the problems that have dogged recent cohorts.
Gone are the
injury-prone
stars who missed much of last season. Gone are the mercurial
wing-backs and forward three of previous Wilder sides. Gone is
the 4-3-3
formation which often looked nice, but failed to deliver in the
hustle and bustle of League Two. The buzzword for this year's vintage
is 'robust'; unlike in previous years, this time we've made it a
priority that new signings are physically capable of surviving the
campaign, with a more
stringent medical weeding out those potential recruits who would
be likely to spend more time on the treatment table than the pitch.
Wilder has also built this
side to fit into the more standard 4-4-2 formation favoured during
the latter half of last season. Some might think that an
unimaginative system but it proved last season to be more effective and
with Wilder experimenting with 4-3-3/4-5-1 at times during pre-season as
well, the side should hopefully be more tactically flexible this
season than in previous years. With Alfie Potter and Sean Rigg on the
wings (with Callum O'Dowda another realistic option if he continues
his good form) the name of the game this season is getting the ball
into the channels and then into the mixer for Kitson, Smalley, Beano
et al to finish.
The side is packed with
quality at either end of the pitch, with the marquee signings of Dave
Kitson and Johnny Mullins meaning that we undoubtedly have among the
most impressive defensive and attacking units in the league. Question
marks remain, however, over our midfield and players like Asa Hall,
Danny Rose and Jonathan Meades all have a point to prove this season
for a variety of reasons. Should they fail to step up, we could be
left with the same problems we've faced in recent seasons. You can
have the best attackers in the world, but if they get no service we
will again struggle to score goals. Likewise, even the most solid of
back fours will leak goals if it's not protected adequately.
One other stated change in
approach is the decision to recruit promising young hopefuls who have
been discarded by other clubs' academies to fill out the development
squad. With Josh Shama (Reading), Kenzer Lee (West Ham) and Matt
Bevans (Watford) joining the recent youth team graduates – and with
Josh Ruffels (Coventry) and Ryan Williams (Fulham) also looking
likely to sign – the makeup of the squad this season is markedly
different to what we're used to seeing. The majority of the budget is
concentrated on a relatively small pool of first team players, with a
large group of young and inexperienced players ready to step up and
provide cover if needed.
This should reduce the
need for so many loanees this term, which should avoid the problem of
having to repeatedly stretch the budget to pay for them, but the result is that it is imperative that we don't suffer a similar injury crisis to recent seasons. The 5-1
demolition job at Oxford City demonstrated that, no matter
how talented this crop of youngsters may be, we can't afford to carry
more than one or two of them at a time in senior football.
That result may have set a
few alarm bells ringing, but actually shouldn't have been such a
surprise when viewed sensibly. City are a highly disciplined side
with a good number of experienced former pros in their ranks and look
strong this year (they destroyed
Didcot Town the weekend before we played them and held
a strong Wycombe side to a draw just days after). For many of
these young players, this was the first time they had really played
together in a proper match and they were to a certain extent thrown
in at the deep end.
We should gain a better
understanding as the season draws on which of those players will be
able to step up to League Two, but there are some positive signs
already that some could become future stars. Of course the priority
for these players this season is progression, not a starring role.
The real responsibility for the first team falls squarely on the shoulders of Messrs
Kitson, Mullins et al, but that should distract from the fact that there is definitely a dual aim this
season; immediate promotion for the first team, while producing the
next generation of Oxford players with the new development squad. Not
an easy balancing act to get right, but at this stage, with the
season stretched ahead of us, the signs are good that we just might
achieve both of those aims.
