Fleetwood Town – From optimism to angst
12/02/2024 09:52 AM
Sad faces. Disillusionment. Mockery. The Cod Army faithful walked away from this latest home league match against Colchester United – Fleetwood Town's fifth draw in eight Highbury attempts – with a new emptiness, confusion and swelling anger.
The team before them looked like a collection of individuals largely content with a mid-table finish and a six-month holiday. Only two months earlier Fleetwood had a different kind of six in their heads as they rammed half a dozen goals past automatic promotion hopefuls Walsall.
What should have been optimism and belief since then has become indolence and indecision – a team not fighting for each other, an eleven too sure of their places, with more passengers than a Saturday night cab.
There are potential reasons for the slide – a decimated defence and postponed matches due to Fleetwood's girth of international players (Carl Johnston, Northern Ireland U-21, MacKenzie Hunt, UAE, Elliot Bonds, Guyana, and now David Harrington of Wales) – but one has to question the recruitment process (new guys Hunt and Bonds) given the importance of regular matches in this division and match fitness.
The loss of defenders Brendan Wiredu, Harrison Holgate and Zech Medley has been damaging. Nous, experience and height count for a lot. Their replacements Liam Shaw, James Bolton and Finley Potter have arguably done a fine job though. The defence, alas, does not seem to be the reason why Fleetwood are floundering.
That responsibility lies with the wing-backs (Johnston and Hunt), the midfielders (Matty Virtue, Danny Mayor and Mark Helm), and the strikers (Ryan Graydon and Ronan Coughlan) – those tasked with the job of impacting maximum damage on the opposition for the last two league matches.
Even against Bradford on November 9 (a fortunate 1-0 win), before the disruption of those postponed games versus Tranmere and MK Dons, a few worrying things were clear:
- That FTFC had metamorphosed into a 60-minute team;
- That they do not have a hunter or water carrier in midfield;
- That Graydon works five times harder than Coughlan up front;
- That FTFC's bench does not inspire (apart from Phoenix Patterson and Ryan Broom).
Such factors would hurt any team. And given where Fleetwood sat after eight games, dollying their way through this league with a modicum of panache and vigour (sixth with a game in hand: W 4, D 3, L1), their form since then (W 1, D 4, L 2) has been not cataclysmic, but certainly goal shy and feeble, like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor second time around.
Fleetwood do not have the legs for 90 minutes. This has been evident since mid-October. Whatever that middle three (Bonds, Virtue, Helm or Mayor), it doesn't have the required thrust and dynamism to instill fear and consternation in the opposing team. Fleetwood don't have a goer, a motivator, a mover and shaker.
Or maybe they do. And he's been shifted into the back three like a bandit or highwayman without a gun. In Liam Shaw, Fleetwood Town have the closest thing to former great James Wallace that we've seen since Bosun Lawal was transformed into a central midfielder. Good in the air. Comfortable on the ball. Strong. An engine that never stops. Pacey. Relentless. Shaw is the man needed – given our current predicament – to shake up Fleetwood's lethargic midfield.
Call him the white Lawal. Although that is too premature. Call him Wallace with an extra four inches of height. If Fleetwood are to stop having picnics mid-game, plus running out of juice after 60 minutes, then Shaw should be slotted in immediately to lift and inspire the ranks around him.
It is always obvious and palpable when watching a team and witnessing that lack of togetherness, that it takes just two or three players to infect the entire pitch, two or three players to send a message to the others that today will be a stroll, a holiday, a canter. Often those players are the most skilful on the pitch, not used to the functional stuff, the without frills graft, the tenacious and immovable duties needed for victory.
At the beginning of the season, Danny Mayor seemed re-born, a yard ahead of every other League Two midfielder. Now, four months in, he is not.
Likewise, Mark Helm, just 23, formerly of Burton Albion, seemed snazzy, special, scintillating at times. You could see he was different. You could see he brought barrels of lustre and artistry to the Highbury turf. Now, his magic act has changed.
Ronan Coughlan, the Irish wonder – it is hard not to think of those incredible attacking feats during Charlie Adam's early reign. The way he'd chest the ball after we lumped it forward, as if someone had thrown a pillow in his direction. Such control, such strength, such impetus and awareness. And a great eye for goal. Now, something vital has vanished in his armour. Next to Graydon, he looks impassive and lukewarm.
These are players crucial to Fleetwood's fortunes. But when they sink and sway uneasily, the team suffers. “Why should I graft when this guy isn't putting in the yards?” must run through the heads of other players.
Football is simple. Work first. Show that you care. And luck will follow.
Charlie Adam is at a crossroads now. Remove some of the twinkle from the team and risk becoming a more mundane dogs of war outfit. Or find that energy in his star players and tell them to stop shuffling around.
