Saddlers Social: Walsall fans on a tough start for Brian Dutton

Chris Saunders

Let’s start on a positive, at 2-0 down against Bradford we showed some fight and energy and if we could show that level of desire for 90 minutes we would compete in games. Also we are still playing more football and less hoof ball which long-term will stand us in good stead in my opinion.

Right, with that out of the way on to the bad. I want Brian Dutton to succeed but he needs to stop tinkering in game with formations so much, the players are adapting to more possession based football and don’t need multiple in-game formations. Until we have settled and are used to this new style we need more stability on the pitch and shape changes every 20 minutes are not good for that.

For all the keeping the ball we still look vulnerable at the back and this is probably due to the changing in game formation, solid teams build on consistency of personnel and shape and that’s what we need in the short term.

Finally against both Newport and Bradford we look devoid of any spark or quality once we get 20 yards from goal. No one player is to blame for this but without Rory Holden we really don’t seem to be able to create chances and ultimately this wears us down and gives the opposition confidence that we are not an attacking threat.

Ian Newbold

It’s becoming more obvious why Darell Clarke jumped before he was pushed, isn’t it? Imagine the pressure he’d be under if he was still here and had overseen these results.

I can distinctly remember a chat about 10 games into our return to the league’s basement with a fellow Saddler I respect a lot, he spoke about this being League Two and that you should know and pick your best XI each week, sticking to perhaps two formations. That’s generally the formula for success at this level.

We still haven’t done that, and it feels like we are wasting time at the moment. Clarke wasted much of the last two seasons not implementing a consistent playing style or team. And Dutton has started his reign doing much the same. Chop and change. Formation switches. Trying to be too clever.

On Saturday an on-loan teenager winger, starting only his third professional game on a heavy pitch after a recent injury, was moved around to play in three different positions. Expecting far too much of him.

If I could see what we were trying to do, this period may be easier to stomach, but at the moment it’s making me consider whether I want to continue watching at all. Saturday was all too predictable and we are simply too easy to beat at the minute.

Rob Harvey

Another game, another loss and it was inevitable that Andy Cook would score against us. This season is just going further downhill with each game now and it doesn’t seem like stopping any time soon. In fact, I genuinely fear we don’t have enough goals in us to win another game this season and that is scary. Even if we do score we have a defensive error or two in us to peg us back. I’ve put £10 on us getting relegated at 33/1, that’s how I’m feeling about us right now.

Our next two games are against Exeter and Cambridge and I’d be lying if I said I was expecting anything less than two defeats. That could leave us in a dangerous position coming into the back end of the season, so I really hope that the club have some plans to stop the rot before it becomes too late. I can’t face going to Wealdstone next season!

Performance wise, things have improved in terms of the style of football under Brian Dutton, but if you look at xG (expected goals) stats, it pretty much suggests that not much has changed when it comes to us scoring (or not scoring) goals and conceding.

All that appears to have changed is that we play a slightly more attractive style of football and try to keep it on the floor. I don’t blame Dutton really as he was always going to take the job if it was offered, as I’m sure most of us would do, but his lack of experience doesn’t stand him in good stead. An old head who’s been around coming in until the end of the season may have shaken things up and managed to get a better reaction from the squad.

On the squad, most of them are out of contract at the end of the season and I wonder how many are 100 per cent committed to the club. This is also going to work against us.

March is going to be a crucial month for this football club. It will be the most crucial month we have had for many, many years. Let’s do our bit and get behind them as much as we can. Hopefully my £10 is lost.

Finally, just a thank you to everyone who donated to the JustGiving crowdfunding page. We totalled £7200 which is amazing, and your support cannot be thanked enough.

Nick Etheridge

Another toothless performance, and another defeat by a narrow margin. Every week it seems that the script is already written. Even more so this week as I’m sure we all knew that Andy Cook would score at some point with the only silver lining being we weren’t there in attendance.

The feeling for me at the moment is very ‘meh’. There’s no real reaction anymore when we lose games and the team seems to be coasting in the wrong direction which is worrying at this stage of the season. It reminds me very much of the Dean Keates era where everyone felt that we had enough to stay up yet we all know how that ended.

I might be doom mongering at the moment but I don’t think it’s as cut and dried as people make out that we’ll just end up in mid table nothingness. The longer this bad run of form goes on, the more difficult it will be to get out of. Hopefully the nature of League Two means we’ll pull out a crazy win from nowhere, we certainly need it.

Roberto Petrucco

Things just aren’t clicking under Brian Dutton. Although his style is an improvement on Clarke’s, it isn’t proving successful. There is something lacking, and it was highlighted more against Bradford than any other game under Dutton.

There is no belief in the team. It doesn’t appear that they think they can win games. The fight and drive was only there at 2-0, when there was very little to play for. There has been a lot of effort, but no real end product. Our defence looks like they expect to concede, and only Caolan Lavery looks as though he believes he can score.

I’m concerned about the coaching element of things. Mat Sadler stepping up to aide Dutton means he is mixing his focus, and we need him to play. Dutton needs help from somewhere, and from someone that can relieve some of the pressure that is being mounted on him.

Stuart Cox

I am looking forward to matchday less and less as the season goes on. Saturday was poor apart from the 15 minutes around the time of our goal. We looked like a below average League Two side without attacking ideas, the strikers looked lost and without confidence and our final ball into the box was poor for most of the game.

Where do we go from here? Our play-off light that was flickering a few weeks ago has now been firmly extinguished and we find ourselves looking a little nervously over our shoulder towards the other end. To be honest, the way we are playing at the moment, you couldn’t rule it out.

In some of his previous games I was fairly happy with the way Dutton had got them playing, but Saturday just didn’t work. Is he the man for the job? Don’t know yet. Are the players actually good enough? Not convinced. What do we do in the Summer? Who knows. Let’s hope that we’re still in League Two to carry the plan out.

James Kenealey

I just don’t even know where to start any more.

The Bradford game was another in a string of infuriatingly predictable outcomes. It just seems to follow the same pattern week in, week out. We have a spell of encouraging play. We get caught and go a goal down and slump to another defeat. Amid all the general malaise, I was impressed with Alfie Bates, a stand-out performance that you might expect from a player five years his senior.

A single win in our last 11 matches and not one at home since December in seven attempts. We might look like we have a cushion from the bottom two but that can easily be eroded, and quickly. March has some tough fixtures but also some that offer us a lifeline in our seemingly relentless tumble down the table. Fail to secure three points at home to Barrow, or something away at both Southend and Grimsby and I’ll officially start to panic. Not that I’m not already, because on current form I honestly can’t see where the points are going to come from.

This descent isn’t new. We’ve been tumbling since 2016 at varying rates. We could well equal – or even surpass – our worst league finish in 30 years. Poor decision after poor decision dating back years. With all this comes the need to rebuild yet again come the final whistle in May. That we have to do this off the back of a season financially ravaged by Covid does not fill me with any confidence at all.

Big summer coming up for this football club. Huge.