With back-to-back 2-1 losses to kick off their season, Wycombe Wanderers have had a less than ideal start to the 25/26 campaign – a summer that looked so promising off the pitch hasn’t quite translated on the pitch yet, but what is going wrong at the Buckinghamshire side?
All The Gear but No Idea?
Wycombe recruited fantastically over the summer, with new signings reaching double digits – a mix of proven players with quality like Junior Quitirna and Taylor Allen along with some hidden gem talents in Jamie Mullins and Caolan Boyd-Munce created a lot of excitement amongst the Chairboy’s faithful.
There’s been some lovely moments in the 180 minutes played so far from the new men, with Quitrina and Mullins providing some eye catching performances that show Wanderers do have the quality on the pitch to create and finish neat passages of play – made clear by both their goals so far this season, especially Mullins’ finish against Stockport at the weekend.
However, you can have all the quality you want, but without team cohesion it can count for nothing. Twice Wycombe Wanderers have left themselves too much to do to get back into their games this season, with poor starts leaving them 2-0 down to both Bradford and Stockport. They could count themselves unlucky in the latter game, with a missed penalty and some great saves from County keeper Corey Addai stopping them from getting a point.
The bottom line is the team hasn’t found their stride properly yet – you would like to think a hefty pre-season would hash out these issues, but they can take time and, in this scenario, things are taking a bit longer than you’d like them to down at Adams Park.
Dan Casey, naturally a centre half, was tasked with playing at full-back against Stockport and was hung out to dry for 60 minutes and it didn’t look like anyone knew what system they were playing. If they can iron out these early teething issues, there’s certainly signs that this side is more than capable of playing teams off the park and really challenging the top of the league.
A Summer of Transition At Wycombe Wanderers?
When Mike Dodd’s took the reigns in February, the new head coach was wary of changing too many things too soon while still on a promotion push, so left it until the summer to implement a new style of in-possession play.
Whilst there wasn’t much excitement to be seen during the pre-season fixtures, there’s been glimpses of what Dodd’s is trying to implement in the opening couple of league games which is really giving Wycombe Wanderers fans some hope.
The signing of George Abbott was a statement of intent, filling a hole that was massively missing in the midfield. With main man Josh Scowen out for the majority of the season, a ball-playing midfielder with the ability to do the dirty work was a must and Abbott is the perfect candidate for that role. Many were surprised he didn’t go to a higher level side, which is testament to the player Wycombe have on their hands.
Having a deeper lying midfielder is crucial for Dodd’s system, as that will give his other two midfielders the freedom to create and get forward – allowing talents like Alex Lowry and the aforementioned Jamie Mullins that freedom on the ball to provide will be the key to opening up defences across the division and if they can get that right, it’ll be a struggle to keep them out.
The Loss of Richard Kone
It was always looking like a matter of when and not if Wycombe would lose talisman Richard Kone, and the dreaded day had finally arrived when Peter O’Rouke reported a deal had been agreed with QPR for the Ivorian striker.
Although his performances did dip towards the end of last season, there’s no denying how crucial Kone is and the quality he brings up top. 18 league goals – especially with a period out because of injury – is more than impressive and it’s absolutely deserved move for a top player that has come from a rags to riches story.
On the flip side of things, it leaves Wycombe Wanderers with a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in. Whilst they do have some top quality strikers in Dan Udoh and summer signing Bradley Fink, it’d be difficult for either of them to step into Kone’s boots and provide a 20+ goal season.
There’s no doubting Wycombe would’ve been planning for this, it’s more a case of weather they have a shortlist ready to dive into to replace him or if they have enough belief in their current attackers to make up for the loss. Quality wise there might be enough, but with Fink already missing fixtures with knocks and Udoh playing 90 minutes week in week out, it wouldn’t hurt them to reinforce in that area, possibly by reinvesting some of the money they’ll receive for Kone’s move.
Can a Quick Turnaround Save The Season?
It might sound silly to be talking about saving seasons after just two games, but Wycombe Wanderers don’t have the luxury of time to sort out their issues – even just a handful of more weeks’ worth of poor starts and bad results could leave them adrift of the early leaders and give them a lot of work to do to claw themselves back into contention.
However, and it’s a big however, those glimpses that Chairboy’s fans have seen could be more than enough to propel them into frontrunners – if they can translate their last 30 minutes of their opening two games into a full performance, they can turn themselves into a force to be reckoned with very easily.
The quality is there, the ideas are there, it’s all a matter of patience and letting it all come together – but how long will it be before it all clicks? And will it be too late by the time it does? The next few weeks are crucial for Dodd’s side to set themselves up for the rest of the season and will be a story to keep a close eye on as the season progresses.
