Wow, after a great start of the season with promising displays during August we were soon hit the ground faster and harder than we could expect. The coming months we were just miserable, but there was a slim hope of a turnaround. Sadly that turnaround never came, and Dean Keates was relieved from his duties way too late in my opinion. I guess the legendary status he has at the club from his years as a player where the reason he got so long time.
I feel sorry for Keates, but I thought when they appointed him as the new manager that it was too soon. He should have stayed at Wrexham a few years to gain experience before eventually maybe come back to Walsall as a better manager with more experience.
I hope he gets a chance at some other club soon, maybe a non-league club where he can develop his tactical knowledge because he needs to improve that area.
We could all see the last months of the season that we where to be relegated, the team didn’t have the belief in them self. The squad completely lacked self-confidence, and it was pretty clear the managing staff didn’t get through to the players.
One thing that struck me while watching matches on iFollow Walsall was that Dean Keates lacked tactical knowledge for this level of football. We had no plan b, and we often didn’t respond good enough when conceding a goal. There were loads of individual errors, especially in defence. We were under constant pressure, and we didn’t win back possession of the ball high up in the field to put pressure back on the opposition’s defence.
All in all, I’m pretty happy this season is over, but I’m very disappointed it ended with relegation. Now it’s time to start a new chapter, and I have seen promising stuff from Clarke clearing out all the dead wood from the squad and staff to be able to start with a completely new campaign this summer.
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