On Thursday afternoon, Daggers announced the somewhat unforeseen signing of striker Junior Morias from divisional rivals King's Lynn Town for an undisclosed fee totalling five figures - thus substantiating a rumour that had spontaneously emerged on Twitter several hours earlier.
The most authentic insight towards a new signing typically comes not from reputable sources but rather the unfiltered opinions of those who supported any of their previous clubs, from the relatable vantage point of the terraces. That King's Lynn fans are unanimous in their criticism of Morias is disconcerting, with many expressing gleeful surprise that a club higher in the table has paid money for his services. His record of one in seven this season is disappointing, albeit that should probably be two because his strike against us in mid-September was harshly reclassified as a Callum Reynolds own goal. However, no positive spin can possibly be applied to the fact that he's only recorded four goals across his last 60 appearances for St Mirren, Boreham Wood and now King's Lynn combined. It's hard to envisage him suddenly becoming prolific for us, although it would obviously be brilliant if he did. For the purpose of balance, it's important to state that supporters of Northampton, for whom he actually made his professional debut at Victoria Road, largely consider him a good player based on his time there. Peterborough notoriously have an eye for a non-league gem and the then League One club also signed him in 2017. No bad footballer makes nearly a half-century of appearances in the third division of English football so a picture then emerges of someone that might have lost their way. There is an enormous difference between expressing doubts about a signing and writing them off before they've even kicked a ball. Any official judgement will be reserved until he's he's put on a Dagenham shirt, which will presumably be very soon considering our current crisis. Injuries to Wilson and Walker - the latter of which is unfortunately believed to be long-term - coupled with McCallum's suspension, means the new man will be in contention to make his debut straight away at Maidenhead. So what can we expect? Well, he was King's Lynn's biggest threat when we played them away from home three weeks into the season, although there wasn't too much competition on that particular front. Aggressive pressing and probing at our defence seemed to typify his game, but unfortunately the missing ingredient was finishing as he spurned several openings inside the box. Playing alongside better footballers could increase his productivity, though, much like being supplied with better service might. Time will only tell how this one unfolds, but one indisputable fact is that there are certainly strikers more worthy of a five-figure fee being spent on them. Morias has a lot of faith to repay and everybody will be rooting for him to do just that.
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That the Daggers have now slipped outside the top seven for the first time this season, nearly a third of the overall duration in, is symbolic of two things: how tremendous their start was but conversely also the extent of their recent decline.
Even without our top-scoring duo of Josh Walker and Paul McCallum for the past three league outings, we've managed to find the net five times to uphold our status as the division's most potent team with 29 overall. It's a damning indictment on the defence, therefore, whose leakiness will surely only increase now Elliott Johnson could be facing a spell on the sidelines. This comes alongside a spate of injuries in other positions, which necessitated the last-resort measure of having two academy scholars plus an emergency loanee on the bench for the Chesterfield game. Thankfully we now have a near-full compliment of bodies available but possibly Daryl McMahon will still have to seriously consider delving into the market for a few more. But how has it got to this stage? And what has changed? Quite simply, not actually much - we're now struggling for form because our short-term formula of simply outscoring the opposition has been exposed as exactly that; we're conceding at exactly the same rate just without the unsustainable level of firepower at the other end to conceal it this time. Performances have long been characterised by brief energetic spells rather than thorough domination and that's no different now either - three goals in six minutes against Southend, two in ten against Chesterfield. Our renowned expansiveness leads to regular chances at both ends. It's frustrating at times but few can question the entertainment value, as demonstrated by our home results being 4-2, 2-2, 4-2, 5-1, 2-3, 3-0 and 2-2 - an average of just under five goals a game. Attendances don't align, especially when contrasted to comparable or even smaller-sized clubs at our level, but that's a whole other topic of conversation. It does, though, reinforce the idea that we ship far too many goals. A measly two clean sheets at the expense of Barnet and Southend, both of whom were in dreadful condition, does similar. Yet identifying a problem and mitigating it are entirely different things. Everybody involved in the footballing aspect of the club will be very aware of our shortcomings but they show little sign of being reduced; any tactical tweaks towards this will also surely come at the detriment of the attack. We absolutely need to halt the decline, though, because teams behind us are advancing quickly and we're suddenly at risk of being left behind by a pack we were leading not so long ago. We're good enough, but we're not quite streetwise enough. |
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January 2024
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