In Defence of Joyce

In Defence of Warren Joyce

Joyce was appointed by Sharp with the future development of the club in mind. With the parachute payments expiring this season the club faces an uncertain future. Financially we cannot compete with the majority of clubs in the Championship – this is common sense. Our attendances are poor, we sell next to no merchandise, and our chairman is a pauper compared to others in the top two divisions. The way I see it the club has one option available to it: to recruit talented young players, develop them and then sell at a profit. Fail to do this and we will fade into obscurity.

During our rise to the Premier League in the mid noughties we were accused of buying the league. The £1.4million spent on Jason Roberts was considered to undermine the integrity of the competition. Whereas Whelan’s financial clout has remained the same, however, the money thrown around in the Championship has spiralled out of control. Look at the cash splashed by some of our rivals this season. Rhodes, McCormack, Gayle, Pritchard… Norwich have spent £7million improving their bench! We can’t go toe to toe with these clubs; the game is up as far as that is concerned. We have to try something different. The club knows this and the appointment of Joyce is an acknowledgement of this fact.

As far as getting in a manager with experience of developing young players we couldn’t have done much better on paper. He knows the youth and reserve league systems in England as well as anyone. He has contacts at clubs up and down the country. His record at Man Utd is impressive (as it should be). The big question is, and remains, is he capable of replicating that success when he is the main man in charge? I honestly don’t think we have seen enough to judge him on that yet. He needs a summer transfer window (regardless of what division we are in). We need to see what becomes of the players he brought in in January – will they become integral players next season? If we sacked him now we could live to regret it.

One thing that I am certain of is that Caldwell was never good enough. He was the cheap option appointed at the lowest point in the club’s recent history. Even last season some of his tactical decisions were baffling. He’d often make the wrong substitutions or set up the wrong way. We were promoted last year despite Caldwell in my opinion. We had the strongest squad in the league, the biggest wage bill (probably?), and the likes of Wildschut and Grigg were a class above anyone else in the league. This summer something obviously went on behind the scenes. Pearce leaving was puzzling; Morgan nearly went as well; the Morsy loan, as proven by his return, was madness. We knew we needed a striker yet ended up with Le Fondre – an almost identical option to Grigg -at the last minute. We had, and still have, one of the weakest squads in the division yet Caldwell set up to play free flowing Barca style football. It was madness. Surely you have got to fit the system to the players you have, not the players to the system regardless of ability. Look at the mess he made of Buxton and Burn. By asking them to play like Pique and Puyol he turned them into the Chuckle Brothers. To his credit Joyce as at least fixed those problems. You could make a strong argument for Burn being our best player since Joyce came in, a player who many wanted gone under Caldwell.

We will never know, but under Caldwell I seriously doubt that we would be in a better situation than what we currently find ourselves. The common problem faced by both managers this season is that they are working with a poor squad. I don’t like having a go at our own players, and especially this group as they clearly are giving their all and care strongly about the club. However, when all is said and done, some of them just don’t cut it at this level. Grigg has found it too difficult. He is a goal poacher and will do well in any team that creates lots of chances. Unfortunately this season we haven’t been able to give him the service he requires. As a result, we’ve need a striker who can offer more, someone who is either strong or quick or both; someone who can hold it up and create chances for themselves. I don’t think Grigg is that man; he’s too slow and doesn’t have enough of a physical presence.

The big failing that has killed us all season, and the reason why we are going down, is a lack of creativity. We got away with it to some extent when Wildschut was here. With his pace he dug us out of a few holes but was never consistent enough to make a massive difference. You could say we have been unlucky in this regard. We had Wildschut, Gomez, Gilbey, Powell and Jacobs. On paper at least they looked like they could do the business. Gilbey and Powell have had their seasons ruined by injuries though, Jacobs has struggled (although in fairness to him works his arse off), and Gomez wasn’t the same player he once was. The sale of Wildschut and Gomez was the final nail in the coffin as far as creativity was concerned. We made ourselves weaker in our weakest department. Joyce cannot be blamed for this. £7million had to be accepted and apparently the Gomez move was agreed before he arrived. Yes we could have looked to bring creative players in. I would argue though that he did that in Bogle, Obertan and Weir. The January transfer window went well considering our position. Who wants to sign for a club desperately struggling in a relegation battle? The players who did sign seemed genuinely pleased to be at Wigan and all cited Joyce as a main reason for signing.

The majority of abuse leveled at Joyce at the moment concerns his defensive tactics, in particular his decision to use 4 centre midfielders across the middle. I think he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. If he plays one upfront he gets stick, if he plays two upfront he gets stick. Grigg should play every game in the opinion of some – despite offering nothing all season. Joyce is obviously aware that we are a poor team and is wary of setting up to be attacking. The reason for this is obvious: the same thing will happen that was happening under Caldwell. Better teams will deal with our threats and then easily pick us apart. At least Joyce has made us difficult to beat. The defence has been solid since he came in and across that unadventurous and boring midfield we have at least some players who will get stuck in and fight for the ball. It’s boring to watch but there is a reason for it. He has taken the calculated risk that if we play this way we can pick up enough wins to survive. Obviously this isn’t happening and his hand is going to be forced into taking more risks – this will probably happen this week. What those risks will be isn’t clear. Do we start with Obertan on the wing? Bring Weir back in? Gilbey could return in the centre of midfield? Grigg upfront with Bogle? I can’t see any of those options being a magic remedy. We have struggled all season because the options available to both managers have been poor. We have a weak team that isn’t, despite all their efforts, good enough.

I think give the guy a chance. If we go down let him rebuild in the summer and try again. These are difficult times for the club and things will get harder post parachute payments. We need to stick by a manager and give him some time. Chopping and changing every six months will never work.