Saturday signified the quarter-way mark of a season that has begun in frantic fashion but now levels off somewhat with a fortnight until the next scheduled league fixture - the FA Cup instead briefly taking centre stage - and it's a timely break from the norm for a Dagenham outfit whose recent downturn in fortunes (four defeats from five including three in succession) has severely diluted their otherwise tremendous start to the season. Daryl McMahon's troops' scintillating start made them the division's early pace-setters but within the staggeringly concise timescale of barely a fortnight they've now fluctuated from one extreme to the very other, the rapid nature of this downfall made all the more baffling by it's lack of discernible origin. However, the club remain in sixth, a commendable position which necessitates a degree of bigger-picture pragmatism when evaluating our admittedly woeful streak of recent results. The overriding weakness centres around a defensive instability that's existed since the very outset yet has come to the fore recently since it is now no longer being masked as prominently by our razor-sharp firepower at the opposite end of the pitch. That the club have conceded in ten of their eleven fixtures, nine of which have been the opening goal (and seven of those inside the opening ten minutes), underlines an inevitably-unsustainable trend. McMahon almost exclusively deploys a fluid 3-5-2 formation, which suits the overall complexion of the squad yet does place heavy reliance upon the wing-backs - primarily Vilhete and Weston - whose level of productivity often determines the direction of the contest. Despite being a great system around which a pacy attacking team can be structured, it sometimes leaves our trio of technically-astute, yet not necessarily streetwise, defenders exposed in the now frequently-occurring scenario that we're on the back foot in games. Momentum can be generated from a good run of results and the same principle applies to the inverse, which is taking effect now, but fundamentally this is a supremely talented team with many of the attributes that are conducive to a promotion battle. Performances correspond with the philosophy we're attempting to cultivate, the only genuinely poor one coming most recently at Boreham Wood, and are characterised by a fearless attacking mindset that might come at our own expense sometimes but is largely appreciated by a fanbase long starved of such excitement. It's of unrecognisably stark contrast to the safety-first approach deployed by the previous occupant of the dugout, but having only three defensive outfielders on the pitch naturally incurs a sizeable risk. Ideally, they will be able to develop some rigidity without diluting their creative output - striking a palatable balance becomes the challenge. Or, maybe, the club will simply return to outscoring their opposition before too long and any issues will dwindle into merely a minor gripe amidst overwhelming positivity again. Only time will tell.
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May 2024
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