Five Talking Points – Darrell Clarke

Usually, these talking points pieces are based around a game. However, today I am going to do talking points based on the topic that we are all discussing, manager Darrell Clarke. It is going to be a mix of positives and negatives, so here we go.

Is he improving us?

It has been a just over a season and a quarter with Darrell at the helm. Any fan wants to see a manager improving the team, so is he improving us? It’s mixed. There are elements where he is not, and our attack is that area. We look out of ideas going forward, and once again, we look like a side that hasn’t got a goal in us. We look like we can’t break a team down, and you have to look at the manager, and the tactics, as well as the underperforming players. Defensively I think we look better than last season, however not massively, as the points haul after 12 games, is only 1 better.

The biggest improvement that Darrell has made, is the fact that we are more difficult to beat. Taking the cups to one side, we have only lost twice in the league, and when you consider that at this point last season, we had lost 4 games, that is an improvement. The flip to this, is that we have won one game less. The fact we are drawing more are both good and bad. We aren’t losing, but we aren’t winning either.

The biggest issue is the comparison to last season, we are not looking like a ‘better’ side with our points return, and position in the league. I feel the actual style of play has improved a bit, but if we aren’t picking up the points, then it is irrelevant, and questions will be asked. We have had spells this season where we look very good. But my biggest annoyance under Darrells reign, is that we can play very well, but then we also have the games like Saturday, where we look very poor. The inconsistency is the biggest frustration, and this inconsistency, means that we aren’t looking like a side that is improving.

Players want to play for him

This is something we saw over the summer. In years gone by, players we have had on loan, or offered new deals to, often choose to go elsewhere, rather than stay at Walsall. However, in Darrell, we have a manager, and a set-up where players, like Rory Holden and Jack Rose, want to sign permanently, and work under Darrell further. We may criticise the team in recent games, however the players that I have mentioned, have looked our better players too. Holden has been up there for player of the season, and we were surprised that we signed him. Darrell is the main reason he came back, and we cannot look over that fact.

The squad is happier

We hear a lot from the club, and other sources, that the players enjoy playing their, and that they are happy. We look back to previous era’s, and this has not been the case. Again, results have not eluded to it, but I am glad to see a happy camp. It gives the impression, that if we can get a couple of good wins in a row, that the confidence and the belief would be there. A squad that enjoys working under a manager, and a squad that enjoy playing is not a bad thing.

It took a while to shake the relegation and adapt to life in League Two, however we can see that the players are much happier under the current regime than previous ones. It is a bonus, and it ties in to the previous point about signings.

Tinkering

At the start of the season, we looked good good, in a 4-2-3-1. It made us tighter at the back, and looked better going forward. But as the season has gone on, and even in game, the system has changed. Darrell says that he changes the team to counter a threat, or exploit a weakness. However Saturday showed that we didn’t exploit any weakness, in a side that has shipped 25 goals, and the tinkering, and changing of players is what fans will look to. It is frustrating to see a formation, system, or player do well, then it be different in the next game. We have looked better, and had good runs or form, when we have a settled side, with a settled system. It is the biggest annoyance that I think fans have with Darrell, especially with the way we have been playing.

Time is important?

The best we have done in recent seasons, was under Dean Smith. The argument swirling in the ‘sack him, keep him’ debate, is that giving a manager time, allows him to really build. Not just the team, but everything else. We have young players on the fringes, that DC will be looking to in the next couple of seasons, he will still have players under contract that he does not want, and he will be still working out a system. Under Smith, there were calls in the earlier part of his tenure for him to go. However, we were rewarded with our best spell in the last few years by sticking with him. We may not see it at the moment, but given time, I do feel that a manager who is not doing badly (I would say Clarke has been average so far), deserves the chance to build a team, and club up.

At the moment, there are question marks over Clarke’s future, and the direction he is leading us. These are just a few points to talk about in the debate about whether he should be the man to lead us. Let me know what you think, and feel free to add your own too!