A 6 Point Diagnosis Of Wrexham FC’s 2012-13 Season

With the disappointment of the play off final defeat subsiding slightly, Wrexham.com’s Wrexham FC reporter James Dutton offers his diagnosis of the season…

1. Form and Momentum

Often in football, it’s how you respond to set backs that sets you apart from other sides. Wrexham did not react well enough to defeat this season. The first loss came in just the second game of the season, and though Wrexham drew the next two games they proceeded on a 12-game unbeaten run.

It was ended by defeat at home to Lincoln City. The Dragons then lost four of their next seven games before embarking on a 13-game unbeaten run.

Defeat at Darford in early March saw league form capitulate as the season reached its business end – Wrexham won just three of their remaining 10 games.

Momentum never arrived. Wrexham were never truly ‘in form’. Even on those long unbeaten runs they were interspersed by multiple draws. Though that is enough in itself to explain why Wrexham will enter a sixth successive season of non-league football, it is insufficient.

2. Injury

Injury is part and parcel of the modern game, and can never be attributed to the sole reasoning behind a team’s misfortune. But Wrexham’s own injury travails this season should not be overlooked.

Since August Andy Morrell’s threadbare squad has been consistently plagued by injury. It began with the season-ending cruciate ligament damage sustained by Mark Creighton in the second week of the season, and culminated in Danny Wright’s dislocated elbow a week before the play-offs.

Joslain Mayebi’s agonising achilles injury, sustained at the end of January, felt season-defining at the time, but the swift acquisition of Chris Maxwell abetted any fears there. Kevin Thornton missed half of the season as he worked his way back to full-fitness and his diminutive presence was certainly missed at Wembley.

The full extent of the injuries that ravaged the squad were clearly visible in Wrexham’s final fixtures of the season as they limped into the play-offs by blooding youngsters. Dean Keates, who had spent nearly a month resting before the play offs, still required injections to play a part in the end-of-season finale.

Though injuries have not been kind to Wrexham, their effect was certainly exacerbated by some inexplicably rigid management.

3. No Rotation

Squad rotation continues to be muddied as the crackpot fantasy of a mad man. Football used to be the domain of eleven players on the pitch, before the age of the substitute and the onset of Sky Sports. It is impossible to expect a squad of 16 to cope with the rigours of a nine-month football calendar, with two or three games every week a regular occurrence.

Manchester United processed their way to the Premier League title this season, and with few stand out performers, it has been a victory for squad rotation more than anything.

Wrexham played 58 games during the 2012-13 season.

Too many have shouldered too much of the 4000+ minutes of football that Wrexham have played since August. Dean Keates – 50 games. Johnny Hunt – 49 games. Brett Ormerod, Neil Ashton – 48 games. Jay Harris, Danny Wright – 47 games. Joe Clarke – 45 games. Martin Riley – 44 games. Chris Westwood – 43 games.

Of a 21-man squad that has played upwards of 10 games this season, 43% have played in 75%+ of them; less than half the squad, in three-quarters of the available matches. No wonder, then, that the squad core wilted as the season entered its finishing strait.

When rotation came, in April, it was too late, and only as a result of regulars being driven into the ground. Squad rotation is not a sin, it is a necessity. If the midfield trio and attacking strike force had been regularly switched around, the side would not have burnt out by March and whimpered to a fifth place final position.

4. Dad’s Army

When you consider the age of Morrell’s squad this season, further enhanced by the spring arrivals Dele Adebola and Dave Artell, then the absence of rotation becomes criminal.

Including Mark Creighton, despite his injury-hit campaign, there are nine first-teamers who are the wrong side of 30.

Five of them are the wrong side of 35, while captain Dean Keates will be before the start of next season.

In football there is a general yearning for experience, but with Wrexham and Morrell it became an obsession, so much so that Dele Adebola was recruited seemingly on name and reputation alone, rather than as a result of a proficient scouting network.

Experience is not a guarantor of success. It holds a lot of weight in football circles, but is only wholly effective when used in small, meaningful measures, rather than everywhere at once.

5. Lack of Home Comforts

Home form is the staple of any side’s ambitions over a season. There are 69 points available from your home matches. If you claim over 50 points from your home form, it’s a fair guarantor that you will gain promotion.

Mansfield’s home form was outstanding across the campaign – 17 victories, and a total of 54 points, it was the centre-point of their second-half surge to the title.

Last season Wrexham gained the same number of points at the Racecourse as Mansfield managed at home this season. But it regressed this season.

Though 42 points appears a reasonable return, The Dragons played out 9 home draws. A failure to dominate opposition at home sharpens the need to pick up victories on the road, and intrinsically adds pressure that need not be present.

What’s the reason for this? Perhaps it has something to do with a front three that was often too ponderous, not incisive enough. The Racecourse pitch, though, is inexcusable and has had a damaging effect on the quality of Wrexham’s football.

Two of the club’s most impressive performances this season have come on the slick turf of Wembley – this is no coincidence. To dig up the pitch, however, would require a directive from the University, which will more than likely not be forthcoming.

Home and away this season, Wrexham won just 22 games out of a possible 46. Frankly, you do not deserve promotion from the Conference National if you win less than half of your games. More often than not, Wrexham either drew or lost a league game this season

6. What do you do with a problem like Adrian Cieslewicz?

He is quite clearly one of the most talented players in the league. On his day he is a majestic footballer, head and shoulders the most technically gifted at the club, and one who can make the difference.

Why, then, is he so infuriating? It is perhaps unfair to label him a mercenary, but the way his performances and effort levels fluctuate is alarming.

His second-half/ extra-time impact in the FA Trophy final victory over Grimsby seemed to be the making of him – it was a stage fit for him to show off his talent.

He looked ready to play a defining part in the club’s promotion run-in, and was elevated to the starting eleven for the next three games, having not started since New Year’s Day. But he was a peripheral figure in each of them, bringing the Wembley feel-good factor plummeting back down to earth.

Sometimes a player can be enduring a quiet game – but more often than not it is down to the Pole himself that he appears so forlorn and disinterested at times.

Application, work-rate and in-game-intelligence separate good footballers from great ones. It is no wonder, then, that Cieslewicz remains a non-league footballer considering those three attributes rarely feature in his overall game.

But, this is no reason to abandon him and his individual talent.

His mercurial attributes are given a license by the presence of others. The team should be set up around him, and not some giant, lumbering six-footer up top. If the Pole is granted assurances from Morrell that he figures prominently in his plans, then Cieslewicz can perform.

He is worth giving as many chances as the club can afford.

James has been covering the full season, you can click here to see his articles from throughout the ‘journey’….