Last Saturday's mauling at the hands of Notts County will solemnly hang over us for a little while longer after this weekend's fixtures were spontaneously postponed. It was wholly unacceptable in every single way, yet accepted is sadly the very thing it will be. Peter Freund's late-night statement cemented as such, our principal owner asserting that we were nonetheless still 'positioned for play-offs and challenging for promotion'. His optimism has been admirable in recent years but proved badly misplaced on this occasion and, rather than having the reassuring effect it intended, only succeeded in making the fanbase all the more disconcerted after the worst afternoon at Victoria Road since the consortium he spearheads took over the club almost four years ago. After all, the Daggers had been brutally dominated by a side they possess the budget to compete with yet were clearly lightyears behind in every single department. If anything, they seem as far away from their ambition as they've ever been, a damning indictment on manager Daryl McMahon towards whom toxicity amongst supporters is steadily intensifying with every passing week. A woeful performance fuelled it worse than ever before, signifying a clear impasse in his tenure were it not at that stage already, similar to the dark period directly before the axe finally fell on predecessor Peter Taylor. The parallels are clear, Taylor having steered us clear of relegation initially before proving unable to take that next step, not to mention the turgid, safety-first football he oversaw. McMahon is very different in his approach but is experiencing the same problem of the task being beyond him, so it seems time for somebody else to seize the baton and deliver the achievements proportionate to the budget available. Notts County (H) was the point of no return, even in the minds of many who still clung onto hope that McMahon is the man for us - a disaster we had been teetering on the precipice of for a while much worse than was dreaded. Other performances this season have contained phases just as poor, Bromley the only exception, but the difference was our opponents this time were diligent and ruthless enough to administer the thrashing we deserved. In doing so, mercilessly exposing the flaws of a system the personnel at our disposal simply cannot enact, which hinges upon a positionally-sloppy Mauro Vilhete and ageing Myles Weston - the latter being our one-dimensional source of creativity - as the wing-backs either side of a really poor centre half trio. Talking of which, putting three full-backs there was a epitomised our tactical ineptitude. Admittedly Elliott Johnson has played on the left side for a long while now so isn't anywhere near as unfamiliar to his respective position as Sam Ling and Josh Hare, but the fact there was a genuine centre-half in Yoan Zouma sat on the bench while another (Nikola Tavares) featured in defensive midfield frames our narrative of depletion as somewhat hyperbolic. McMahon had options but, for reasons only he can possibly rationalise, chose to start without a natural central defender on the pitch. Making things unnecessarily complicated, an apt microcosm for his reign. It was always going to backfire spectacularly against a genuinely good side, worryingly the first we'd really come up against, and so it proved from the very first whistle as Notts predictably targeted the region in-between Vilhete and Johnson for their balls in behind, thus foreshadowing the massacre which soon began manifesting. Even when it had reached maximum damage at 0-5, we still did nothing to mitigate that problem area, to absolutely nobody's surprise given it has been a blatant weakness since opening day against Gateshead - once again indicative of a manager either incapable or unwilling to adapt even when we are clearly sleepwalking into sheer peril. Essentially, we are even worse defensively than last season without the frequency of goals at the other end to mask our deficiencies. Manny Onariase makes as many mistakes as the departed Callum Reynolds did but lacks the same ability to establish the tempo by bringing the ball out from deep. Similarly, Josh Hare is no better nor worse a defender than Will Wright however doesn't provide the set-pieces so his purpose in the team is unclear. Quite why we are even attempting to convert him into a wide centre-half after conceding so often last campaign under that square-pegs-in-round-holes mentality is another issue that frankly beggars belief in itself. If we have to use this formation, then players in their right position would be a positive step. Wright's departure, while undeniably a loss, provided an opportunity to restructure the backline. Instead, we're doing exactly the same thing with lesser-able personnel.
Yet there are problems in this team that go beyond structure. It took just twelve minutes of the new campaign, at which point we were 2-0 down, to prove our recurring issue of giving ourselves a mountain to climb remained unaddressed despite it being over a year since that first manifested as a major concern. Though we salvaged a draw in the last minute that day just over a month ago, it set the tone for most that has followed since. Conceding a last-gasp equaliser in the chaos of Eastleigh's keeper coming up for a corner against us in the dying seconds, then the very same thing almost happening again (only a superb Justham save preventing it so) against Maidenhead days later only provide further proof to how vulnerable we are. While players have to shoulder some responsibility for individual lapses the manager cannot legislate for, ultimately they embody him and therefore that's where it all must stem from. Even last season, we were our own worst enemy and constantly lost the crucial battles against top-seven rivals, with the exception of games in the first month when we caught everybody cold, a home clash against a then-freefalling Grimsby Town and the last game at home to Wrexham, which came too late to haul us into the play-offs as we missed out by the narrowest of margins despite a 3-0 victory, in itself vindicating the frustration of many supporters because it proved how capable a side we are on our day. It's true we were just a point short of achieving our target under McMahon but that in itself, coupled with the fact we contrived to lose an FA Trophy quarter-final tie in which we were ahead in the 96th minute, cannot be a coincidence, rather self-destructive tendencies stemming from a collectively weak mentality. As Peter Freund also mentioned in his statement, it is early days and football can change in a month let alone the eight we have left. That we were top this time last year (with pro-McMahon chants proving a buoyant soundtrack to our magnificent, goal-laden start which it would be unfair not to mention) showcases how everything can change, as we went from looking genuine title contenders to missing out altogether. Conversely, if that start was deemed sufficient to ill-advisably and very prematurely reward him with a new contract then this one should jeopardise his tenure altogether presuming there is a consistent approach applied. However, there is nothing to indicate that the Daggers will ever reach the required standard under the current stewardship or the problems that have plagued it ever being addressed if they haven't in over two years now. The definition of insanity is theorised by Albert Einstein as doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Daryl McMahon's Dagenham & Redbridge are very much trapped in that monotonous cycle, so something desperately has to give.
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WRITERArchives
January 2024
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