Q We are nearly halfway through the League One season. How has it been from a Walsall point of view?
Disappointing. The shadow of our promotion failure two years ago looms menacingly over us, as we, as a club, are still coming to terms with losing to Barnsley in the play-offs.
We have generally flattered to deceive, giving a three-year contract to a physio to become manager (we know Scunny had success with that!), which at the time, and even more so now seems a very poor decision.
We are disjointed, Jon Whitney doesn’t know his best team which culminates in tactic ping-pong, there is strange in-game management, bizarre post-match interviews, fall-outs with players, but we are littered with some genuine quality players at this level.
Q What would fans class as a success this season?
Let’s not beat around the bush, Walsall fans don’t expect to challenge for promotion every season.
What we do expect, however, is to build on previous seasons and progress forward. This was seemingly impossible given our third-place finish two seasons ago.
Last season was a season of stability following the loss of several key players. As such, this season success would mean a top half of the table finish.
Q You have won two of the last three. Are there any small signs of recovery from your bad start?
We have changed our style of football in the last few games, from a direct in-your-face style to a more stylish possession-based game. Quite why we changed this in pre-season we will never know.
However, given our recent form, I am still slightly sceptical about the long-term recovery.
We haven’t really played any side of great quality, and have been quite lucky in this mini-run.
I am conscious of sounding overly pessimistic, but such is the aura of negativity at the club at present, I would be lying if I thought we had turned the corner.
Q Manager Jon Whitney has been under a lot of pressure. Is he still the man to lead the Saddlers?
Absolutely not. To be clear, Jon Whitney has been a tremendous servant to the Saddlers, but he is not a football manager. I am still in disbelief at him being given a three-year contract.
The fans have turned on Jon, and whilst a lot of the vitriol he receives is sometimes a bit too far, he doesn’t help himself.
We can’t defend, we are clueless going forward, and we rely on the prodigious talents of Tyler Roberts and Erhun Oztumer to get us out of trouble.
We were also told in the summer ‘I am going to vastly reduce my loans this year’ by Jon Whitney, yet we have ended up with five loan players again – two of which, Shaun Donnellan and Tyler Roberts signed from West Brom – coming from the end of the spectrum of brilliant to terrible.
This is just another example of our manager having no plan for the future, and it appears as though he is making it up as he goes along.
Q If he did leave, who would Walsall fans like in his place?
Good question. I think the overwhelming rhetoric right now would be to go for Adrian Viveash, former hero of a player and very successful former development squad coach of Chelsea.
I am surprised no other team has gone in for him yet, but he would be warmly received and would hopefully bring some structure and management to this side.
Another candidate that stands out is Saddlers legend Dean Keates who is doing unbelievably well as manager of our Welsh friends Wrexham.
Q You have only managed one clean sheet in the league this season. How much is the defence a cause for concern?
Jon Whitney signed a new defence in pre-season, proclaiming how we were going to be much harder to beat. What we have seen, is a new defence making the same mistakes as last year.
What is concerning, is that our coaching staff have all previously made careers out of being defenders.
We have a real weakness to wide play and crosses (both in play and set pieces), so that is definitely something Scunthorpe might exploit this weekend.
Q Erhun Oztumer looks to be your most dangerous player. How important is he to your fortunes this season?
He is sensational. The Turkish Messi is a wonder player at this level. As alluded to previously, Ozzie is out of contract in the summer, and the worry is that the Walsall board might cash in on him in January given our season is practically over.
I am seriously worried about our status in the league if we lose Ozzie (and Tyler Roberts) in January. I should also point out another talent in our side – Kory Roberts is 19 years old and a star for the future – let’s hope he plays Saturday!
Q Where will Saturday’s game be won and lost?
We are so inconsistent that I wouldn’t be surprised if we won 4-0, or, as it seems to be an annual event now, lose 4-1 to Scunny on Saturday.
The game will be won or lost in the wide areas. Walsall fans turn up each week not having a clue in what our starting 11 will be.
I imagine we will go with a 4-4-1-1 (given its success recently), however we are very open wide, and have a large amount of goals conceded via crosses and knockdowns.
We will win the game if Roberts and Oztumer click – on there day they are unplayable.
The question however, is will our set up of the whole side benefit them? That is what really frustrates Walsall fans at present: there is great guile, skill, speed and class in our squad – we are just not playing in a way that makes the most of it.
