The Oxford English dictionary defines “knee-jerk” as a response that is automatic and unthinking. While typically a knee-jerk reaction would be delivered a lot more instantaneously than, say, over the course of an entire month, there’s no arguing that “unthinking” is a wonderfully superb synonym for any article written by this particular writer/non-thinker.
Now we’ve cleared that one up, here are some knee-jerk reactions based on what I saw over the month of August. You’ll notice that this isn’t a monthly
review, or review of the month, because that would require the skill of actual thought and the seas would boil over if I ever had to attempt such a thing as that.
It’s worth noting that, with some fortuitous timing, our transfer activity for the first team was all wrapped up in August and that will be touched upon here, while the death of football occurring around the time that Reading popped down the M4 to visit some far-flung place called Swindon happened in the month of September and therefore won’t be mentioned, and instead be consigned to the scrapheap and never spoken of again.
Alright then, let’s get down to business.
Transfer window
I had many thoughts about the window, some of which I’ve already written about, but then Sim went and wrote a rather excellent piece on the window as a whole. Instead, I’ll summarise the initial conclusions that I have drawn from the business conducted.
Pretty good, is what I’d say. I know Ben on the pod has commented that it feels like there was no clear plan for the window, but I’m inclined to disagree. We picked all the positions that we needed to strengthen and recruited for them.
Left-back – Matty Jacob. Central defence – Finley Burns, Paudie O’Connor, Derrick Williams (more on him later). Back-up goalkeeper – Jack Stevens. Back-up deep-lying midfielder/Lewis Wing rotation option – Liam Fraser. Harvey Knibbs replacement – Kamari Doyle. Wingers – Paddy Lane, Matt Ritchie and Daniel Kyerewaa. Strikers – Jack Marriott and Mark O’Mahony.
I feel like we have also struck a balance between recruiting experienced players to help provide guidance and leadership to the group, young players to complement the existing group and a small handful in the peak years of their careers, ready to make a more immediate impact.
Doing this provides a healthy balance to the team. Most notably as well, the recruitment was centered around players who both know the division and its demands well already from previous experience, but also with a loftier ceiling to be competitive at a higher level.
Lastly, we seem to have a knack for recruiting players in a very low-key way without much fanfare, and then they turn out to be really, really good bits of business.
Fraser, for example, was one giant collective shrug given he was a free-transfer from a team relegated from League One last season. Two worldies later, he has given us a clear option to give Wing a bit of a breather. Daniel Kyerewaa – who was he when he was at home? Turns out, he’s an unpolished gem whose direct running and development of the end product is a dangerous outlet for us on the left side of the pitch.
And then: Williams. You could almost here the collective Googling of his background when he came in towards the end of the window, addressing the need for extra cover in central defence.
What. A. Player. A leader, coming in match-fit from the US, a left-sided centre-half with experience at this level has slotted straight into the side and looks like he’s been one of ours forever. On a free transfer. Incredible bit of business there. Brian Carey must be a magician.
Goals – or, the lack thereof
Not been great, has it? We’ve had a slow start and we look short on goals. There’s probably a few factors there.
We’ve only just brought in Marriott so he may need a bit of time to settle into being a goalscorer. O’Mahony is also raw and getting settled into the side. As our only two strikers (Long Kelvin is probably a back-up option now through the centre and on the left) they will get there, but it can’t help that this is a team very unfamiliar with each other.
“I still believe a 4-2-3-1 set-up would bring the best out of our squad”
O’Mahony strikes me as the kind of player who plays his best football almost with his back to the goal, being able to drop deeper and bring the wingers into the game and into goalscoring positions. We should give him the chance to start gelling with those wingers, also new, to see that pan out over the course of the season.
We have found goals from Wing and Fraser, and Ben Elliott and Doyle as our more creative central midfielders will get in and among the spoils soon. I still believe a 4-2-3-1 set-up would bring the best out of our squad and help get a number 10 closer to the striker to bridge that seemingly massive chasm that often opens up between whoever is leading the line and the midfield.
The goals will come, one way or the other, but it’d be nice if it was soon, please.
The style of football
Last season it was ‘backs to the wall, grind out the results because the world is against us’. And that mentality largely worked, though we did see a dearth of attacking football at times – again, however, that was partly attributed to the loss of Sam Smith.
This year doesn’t seem to be any different, though. And it should be. Right?
Here’s the thing: when Ruben Selles was in charge, while we may have had our quibbles with the shape or deployment of the players, there was a very clear philosophy to his style of play. But what is ‘Huntball’? I’m still not sure, and I don’t know if the players are either.
It’s time to see a more distinctive stamp put onto this team by Hunt. He’s stabilised the ship after Selles departed, but even now, how the players are used and the shape of the team are things brought in by Selles and not Hunt.
Even if his style turns out to be defensive football, that’s OK, because then we could argue the philosophy would be a clear counter-attacking style, to use the pace we have out wide and creativity in the middle of the park to pick out the runners to break. But, again, we haven’t seen that because there’s no clear style of play yet.
Maybe some time during the international break – with a now-settled group after the close of the transfer window – will help develop this. If not, more questions will surely be asked of Hunt and his coaching set-up.
Cup run
‘snice, right? Winning some Carabao Cup games. Probably good news for Carabao themselves too, since they sponsor us in some kind of way, I think. No idea where the money comes from though, because I literally don’t know anyone who has ever drunk a Carabao.
It’s been nice as well because it’s given Hunt the chance to rotate a bit and give some of our academy lot a bit of time to play. Shay Spencer, Tyler Sackey and John Ryan are good examples of this and, if we can get a result against Wrexham – which isn’t likely but weirder things have happened in football – then it will be a great chance for them to continue to stake claims for league action.
Ryan feels like he’s now competing with Jeriel Dorsett to be the back-up for Jacob, which is a progression in itself for the squad depth. Spencer looks like someone else who can be another back-up option for Wing, although he’s a different style of player who would again benefit from a system change to 4-2-3-1.
Ashqar Ahmed
I didn’t mention Ahmed in the previous part, and for good reason. He feels like a player who has really stepped up when given the chance, and is now competing to be first-choice right-back for us, which is useful, since Kelvin Abrefa and Andy Yiadom seem to collect injuries like Pokemon cards.
“Ahmed is an exciting player and has a bright season ahead of him”
It’s reminiscent of recent years when we’ve seen the likes of Caylan Vickers and Nelson Abbey drafted in for cup games, grab their opportunities and kicked on with their careers. Ahmed is an exciting player and has a bright season ahead of him, as well as future in general.
The only worry is how to manage his gametime to make sure we don’t burn him out too soon. There were times last season when we were left with no choice but to play Andre Garcia, whereas this year we have more depth, so we should make sure to rotate Ahmed’s minutes wisely.
Ownership
The summer started with big promises, but has slowed down to now – as far as I’m aware – be much quieter and be about just slowly getting on with the business of running the football club sensibly. There were fans who thought Rob Couhig and Todd Trosclair were over-promising, and perhaps they might have been, but they are also demonstrating their ability to learn on the job and respond to what the fans are seeking.
And the sense that the fans are at the forefront of their thinking is there – there is a clear and obvious attempt to ramp up the matchday experience, while they’ve worked hard to give Hunt a good, competitive team with depth to work with to deliver success in the league.
There may be those who don’t like everything they’ve done so far, but I genuinely believe they’ve made a strong start and are setting us up for success. Whether that success will arrive sooner or later is yet to be seen.
