AFC Wimbledon 1-0 Wigan. My match report...

The visitors will probably be smarting as they drive out of Plough Lane, they'll be wondering how on Earth they lost that  game. I must confess I can't help them as I don't know either, but they did & we're very happy with the points.

Say what you like about Johnnie Jackson but he isn't afraid of inviting negative comments with his team selection. His decision to go with Aron Sasu as Jaydon Stockleys partner had the fans scratching their heads over their pre match pints in the Alex. Not me obviously as I rate the kid, but given how low his stock is with many fans this was a brave call. Did it come off? Well I personally thought Sass put in his most complete performance for us in a competitive match, but such was the frequency that shots were raining down on our goal I shouldn't think anyone noticed overly.

Wigan (who looked like a decent team to me) were seemingly able to cut through our midfield at will and only a combination of some wayward finishing & some good goalkeeping kept it 0-0 at half time.

In the second half we improved, but still the Wigan centre forward put one over the bar from the centre of an open goal four yards out. Our subs when they came energized us however, and it wasn't a surprise (to me) when we took the lead five minutes from time. This was a good finish from Myles Hippolyte assisted by the new striker from Forest who'd come on a sub. I liked the look of him, very aggressive & looks like he could make a player for us.

There was still time for some very hairy moments, a couple of goalie saves, a baffling tactical approach which saw us instantly giving possession away whenever we won it, but we got over the line so who cares?

My suspicion is that wins for us are going to be very hard won this season, we should enjoy this one & not worry too much stats & stuff.

Fulham 3-0 AFC Wimbledon

I don't think I can ever remember a 3-0 defeat generating quite so much debate amongst the losing teams supporters than our fairly comfortable "seeing off" by Fulham last night. The manager said he was proud of the team, the Chairman said we "Lived our values" (no, me neither) & while plenty of fans agree with them if you go online or were in the pub last night, many viewed our performance with utter dismay & disillusion. One thing we can all agree on is that the fans were utterly magnificent, but the question of whether or not we DID actually "Go for it" as the manager promised we would caused plenty of debate.

From my seat I thought we played very well under extremely difficult circumstances, and on the "wentforitometer" I had the needle firmly settling into the green "As well as we could" section. For sure not rattling round into the "balls out kamikazi" red zone, but definitely well clear of the "didn't give a shit" blue section.

I aren't privvie to Johnnie's team talks, but I'm fairly sure "stay in the game" will have figured a few times during it. Dead right too, as was the "Slow the game down at every opportunity" section which no doubt existed. Let's face it, we haven't got a single player who currently would get near their squad never mind first team (I guess Junior Nkeng possibly could given time) so to embark on a "Let's have a free flowing end to ender & see who comes out on top" would have been madness (in my opinion anyway). The 3-0 could have very easily been double figures if we'd gone down that route, so I for one totally agree with the decision not to go there.

Equally at 2-0 down at half time, that isn't (once again in my opinion) the time to "go for it". You are still totally in the game at 2-0, and I'm fairly sure the thought process would have been that if it's still 2-0 with ten minutes to go, we've only got to nick a goal from a set piece or something and it's game on. Once again, that is EXACTLY what I would have said, so if Johnnie did I can hardly criticize. In fact to that end we DID stay in the game and were only eventually killed off by a goal from a player they signed from Real Madrid for 40 million quid 😂.

Of course we didn't get EVERYTHING right, I'm not saying that. Steve Seddon (who I love) won't need me to tell him that his set piece deliveries in the first half were rubbish. They were always going to provide us with our best chances of scoring a goal, so I imagine the groans off the bench were just as loud as they were in the away end when he fluffed it. Aron Sasu continued to frustrate, although it's worth pointing out that playing up top on your own against four Premier League defenders was always going to be about as easy a gig as a fella having his first go at standup in front of three pissed up pool playing Scotsmen at the Edinburgh fringe. In fairness if you WERE that unfortunate aspiring comedian, you'd know that quietly reading out jokes was going to get you nowhere. In fact anything you did was likely to get you nowhere, so fuck it you might as well jump on the pool table, drop your kegs & get the old todger out. At least they'd have remembered you, perhaps Aron should have channelled a bit of that energy (in a football sense), last night.

My biggest criticism though (and l'll bet it drove the coaching staff mad) was that we were WAY too nice. I'm not advocating running around kicking people, in fairness we wouldn't be able to catch em anyway, but we didn't give away anywhere near enough fouls in the centre circle or when the ball went anywhere near Sasu.

In the centre circle, on second balls (after we've won a defensive header) the mindset should have been either we win it, our we foul their bloke when HE looks like winning it. Like I say I'm not talking Kung Fu kicks, I'm talking jumping into people, getting across them, handballing it by accident, that sort of shite. Then, when the ref gives the free kick (a note on him later) you can dispute it, debate it, delay it. All of this stuff helps to break the game up which was always going to be to our advantage. I'd have been saying to Sasu, I want you to commit AT LEAST three fouls in the first half. If the ball goes anywhere near you and youre not going to get it, throw yourself at their bloke who is. Grapple, hold, back in, jump in, whatever. I want three fouls MINIMUM per half though. He could try this next time he comes on, he's waaay too nice.

And the ref? Fuck me. I don't think he gave us a single 50/50 call all night. He penalised Jayden Stockley at the end for the clearest case of "six of one" I've ever seen. In order to win the game we'd have needed EVERYTHING to drop in our favour, the referee was one of a lot of things which didn't.

Anyways we move on. No doubt the players that were "carrying knocks" will recover by Sunday, and we really must try & get something against Wigan.

Kai Jennings. Is this the correct decision?

By & large over the recent years that I've followed them, I've been a bit of a happy clappy Wimbledon fan. Even though the football isn't always reminiscent of the Milan team of the 90's, I love everything about how we try & do stuff the right way. There's also something which appeals to my cussedness about ALWAYS being outgunned financially, ALWAYS being the underdog. I tend not to criticise the players and/or the manager too much, I fully get that the job ain't easy and that they are all trying their best. Such has been my "positivity" over the years that I've on one or two occasions been called a dickhead to my face for not seeing the "dark side". Online it's much heavier, my support for players such as Aron Sasu puts a target firmly on my back. The arrows aimed at it are mostly good humoured, but by no means all.

That's all good though, it goes with the territory & I think it's unlikely that I will become downbeat anytime soon.

But. But, but. I feel compelled to comment on the decision to allow Kai Jennings to go out on loan for the last year of his contract. I know nothing about the situation, but my guess is that Kai indicated that he wasn't prepared to sign a new contract with us. Because of that, we felt that we may as well let him bugger off a year early.

Here's my problem though, and I appreciate it's all about opinions. I think Kai is 100% a good enough MIDFIELDER to be getting lots of minutes for us, IN MIDFIELD. I think he is a kid of rare talent who given the opportunity could develop into a very decent footballer who we could possibly sell on.

I personally think it's madness to firstly play him at wing back (where even there he was decent) but then not give him a chance in midfield. I think this is a huge mistake on the part of the manager and director of football. Like I say I 100% GET that's it's all about opinions, but that's mine.

I

Some thoughts on a difficult opening day.

Getting Huddersfield away first game up was a bit of a double edged sword in many ways. For sure not ideal in terms of building momentum but at least I guess we get a trip to a team who will undoubtedly be up there "out of the way". It's worth briefly adding a bit of context to the defeat, the fella who scored Huddersfields first two goals cost one million euros. Of course that doesn't mean you are without hope, but it does obviously indicate the budgetry imbalance.

The reality in the game lets face it was that we were comfortably beaten. I used the word "comfortably" advisedly here. To my mind getting beat is inevitable from time to time in football, but getting beat "comfortably" should never be an option. By comfortably I mean the opposition could beat you 6-0 but they should never enjoy playing against you, it ought to always be the sort of game that they can't wait to finish. It should never be as it was yesterday, the opposition high fiving & having a day in the sun. No, we've got to be nastier than that, much uglier, a whole lot more niggly. If we DON'T make it like that, then more skilful, more trickier, more expensive players are going to put us to the sword every week, it's going to be a long season.

Anyway aside from that general observation, here's some of my thoughts.

Aron Sasu

It's inevitable that I mention him. My banging on all over social media yesterday that "If he plays, he WILL score" aged about as well as raw prawns in the sun. Obviously I deservedly took stick for that, any credibility that I do/did have (admittedly not much) is disappearing like bath water down a bucket sized plug hole.

My thoughts on his first half display yesterday were yes he didn't get any service, I'll give him that much. BUT, there were two instances where he had me throwing easy peel tangerines at the telly (My wife had moved the apples out of reach). Before I detail them, Aron should ask himself what Matty Stevens would have done. I've said before that if Matty had Sasu's pace & build he'd play in the Premier League. There are LOTS of things Aron Sasu can do that Matty Stevens can't, yet there are also lots of things the other way around & yesterday there were two perfect examples.

The first was when we worked it wide and it got fired across the six yard box, away from the keeper. The Huddersfield guy did well to clear it in fairness, Sasu was behind him ready to tap in. What would Matty Stevens have done? Well I can tell you right now there is not a chance on God's Earth that the fella would have been able to "comfortably" clear it as he did. Stevens would have been all over him like a Scousers shellsuit. He would have either scored or there would have been a resulting scramble, or we would be surrounding the ref for a penalty shout. I've played centre half, fuck me you are EXPECTING a fight once that ball comes in. Standing behind me & going "Aw Sheesh I nearly had that" is not what strikers do.

The second one was at the end of the first half. Channel ball gets knocked down the left, the defender is the favourite & does well, gets in front & down by the corner flag is looking to clear it. Now with my centre half's head on again, I am EXPECTING to get smashed into row B of the seating into the corner, the corner flag landing on my head & the ball hitting row L. That's what would have happened if I'm defending Matty Stevens, 100%. Fair enough too, I've been fighting him all game, only natural his eyes are gonna light up here. Sass? Stood back & let him clear. Fuck no. I've known lads in football who if they were playing for us would have gone through him like a dose of salts for that.

Must do better, a lot better. Must be harder, a lot harder.

James Tilley as the last man.

To my mind, Tills is by quite a distance our most likely scorer from outside the box. I guess we've asked the question, are we more likely to score with Isaac Ogundere in the box or Tilly outside it? I think we've come up with the wrong answer, particularly when you factor in the "With which one are we more likely to CONCEDE?".

I just think we've got this one wrong, we should bin it off. 

Olly Harrison

It's obvious that this kid can play, you haven't even got to see him on the ball to know that. You've only got to see his head movement when he's asking for the ball to see that he knows his onions, then when he does get it his two reverse passes through the lines like yesterday show you that he sees great pictures. He's the most naturally talented midfielder we've had since Maghoma I should think, but 18yo holding midfielders in mens football come with complications as their third goal yesterday demonstrated.

I'd very much like to see him given opportunities, but there are a couple of caveats if we're going to get the benefit of his loan season and see him near his best.

When he IS on the pitch, we are probably going to need to be less direct otherwise there's no point in playing him. He isn't athletic enough yet to be a Callum Maycock Duracell type, and he ALWAYS comes in short to build/start the play. He's really potentially going to be VERY good at that, but if like yesterday we aren't going to give him the ball & let him dictate, there's no point in playing him.

Second thing is he either has to learn very quickly, or at 18 he isn't yet ready to play as a 4 in L1. I'd still play Ally Smith in there, but this kid would be an excellent 6. To do THAT though he's gonna have to come out of the pocket/comfort zone and get up & down more. I like him though, smashing footballer.

Anyways I could go on (and do). No point in going through the areas of the goals where players could have done better, the lads themselves will know. I'd just like us a team to be a nastier than we were yesterday, that's a minimum.

Aron Sasu-Is this his time?

I said on Twitter that in my brief time supporting Wimbledon NOBODY has come close to polarizing opinion like this kid. It probably wasn't accurate now I think about it. The word polarize suggests a 50/50 split, the truth is we're a long way from that. The ratio of people who have given up on him to those who still believe is probably closer to 95:5 in all honesty, and that is even after four goals in pre season.

The good news for Aron & no doubt his family is that within those 5% of believers, there are some that are absolutely adamant that the kid is a performance or two, a goal deflected in off his arse or two from exploding onto the scene. I used to be there myself, but these days although I recognize that his potential is massive (and in all honesty if you can't even recognize THAT after his first goal on Saturday then I have no hope for you), in order to reach anywhere near it (that potential) he is going to need to rapidly improve certain aspects of his game. For sure the pace is startling, the heading that goes with that brutal athletic ability is improving and will continue so to do, but in other aspects he needs to find a new level.

Just to be clear here I'm definitely NOT giving up on the kid. I STILL think he can be a player who is a country mile too good for League One and is potentially a massive transfer move waiting to happen, but unless he learns & does it quickly he'll end up not making it.

And what does he need to learn? Well the principle thing is how to move around a football pitch & when to do it. Far too often when he plays I'm left feeling that I could still do a reasonable job of marking him myself (I'm 60 next month). And let's put that into context, if this kid knew when and where to run then there isn't a centre half in the lower leagues who could live with him and I wouldn't have got within ten yards of him when I was 20. He'd literally be impossible to play against if he knew what he was doing, but as it is if you asked the defender what he would want Aron to do in an ideal world (for the defender), that's exactly what he does.

Even for the goals on Saturday, let's start with the first one. Before he gets the ball, he looks like a relay runner waiting for the baton. His body shape is all wrong, he's kind of jogging in a straight line away from the passer while looking over his shoulder. Yes when the ball gets to him the rest is poetry, and like I say if you can't see the potential in THAT then I'm afraid you are clueless, sorry to be rude but there it is. I know people will say "Yes but he's played 159 times" or whatever it is, but the simple fact of the matter is that for 99% of footballers, they could play 1000 times and not be able to do THAT.

For the second it's a good header, not lacking in bravery to nick in front of the keeper & fair enough. Again though, it's a STRAIGHT LINE run which has a massively low percentage chance of success. 

The simple fact of the matter with Aron is that if we and he can get into situations during games of L1 football where he gets the opportunity to go full throttle, he will create absolute mayhem. To do that though needs a bit of clever movement to open the door for a pass. For example I NEVER see him back peddling three paces to duck out of the line of sight of the defender. In a perfect world the defender wants to be able to see the attacker AND the ball at the same time, in the same frame. Duck out & instantly it's less comfortable, he has to feel for you or worse still, take his eyes off the ball to check where you are. Good strikers know that when he does THAT, the moment he looks back at the ball is your trigger to explode across the line. It only needs a simple poke between the lines from a midfield player from there & a Sasu at full pelt won't be caught by anybody in L1.

Similarly I don't ever see him check in short THEN back peddle away when the ball doesn't come before exploding into the space he's created for the next pass. Essentially his movement should be about going through the gears BEFORE the ball gets there wherever possible. Check in and get it short on the half turn if it DOES come, then go, take someone on (at pace), get a shot off.

And in the box, I don't see him attacking areas like a wardrobe falling down a flight of stairs. Gambling that it will come near post. I don't see him going near post then checking back out to the penalty spot (again out of line of sight). Sheesh if he did any of this stuff repeatedly over 90 minutes, with his ability, pace & physical presence he'd be a ridiculous player.

I've no doubt the guys at the club work with him on this stuff (unlike the other stuff that he has naturally, you can actually LEARN this shit) so why doesn't he do it? 

I so hope he gets it soon. If he ever wants to bob in the Alex for a coke zero I'll explain it to him myself. Whatever though, it would be an absolute crime if a kid with his talent & potential didn't make it. Fucking hell imagine Omar Bugiel or Matty Stevens with Arons pace, power, size & technical ability. Bugiel & Stevens would under those circumstances have made it to the Premier League.

Come on Aron, you can do it too 👊