Robbie Savage: Diary of a Manager: Avoiding becoming football’s biggest bottle jobs…
In association with Planet Sport Bet, Robbie Savage is taking us behind the scenes each week at Macclesfield FC.
Robbie has played one of the leading roles in the rebirth of a now-thriving football club, first as director of football, now as first-team manager as the Silkmen seek to climb their way from the ninth tier back to the Football League.
This week, Robbie reflects on a lead he could not have dreamed of, and how Macc must avoid becoming football’s biggest bottlers…
My boys keep setting new benchmarks, so don’t be surprised if over the last 10 games they cause me to rethink, but I reckon Saturday’s win could prove to be the best of a remarkable season.
The trip to Warrington Rylands occupied my thinking all last week. Their manager, Neil Reynolds, has built a very good side, pushing for the play-offs and very well drilled in a 3-1-4-2 formation. I had all week to ponder my selection and shape – and I took every minute available.
Even on matchday, I was mulling over the best approach. I’m very proud of how tactically versatile this squad has become, but with options come dilemmas.
In the end, we – my coaching staff and I – decided to stick with 4-2-3-1. When we play to our strengths, and we run harder and further than the opposition, I believe that to be our most effective system.
On Saturday, it was not. Warrington Rylands caused us plenty of problems in the first half; we went behind early on but got ourselves level quickly, and it could have been 3-3 at the break. At that point, I might have taken a point but, by then, I’d already made the decision to change our shape. In and out of possession, we needed two up front.
The switch paid dividends almost immediately. We got ourselves in front inside three minutes of the restart, and added a third halfway through the second half. We needed to step up and, yet again, the starting XI and the four finishers off the bench were absolutely magnificent.
That victory takes us 22 points clear at the top of the table. Such a lead at this point of the season was beyond my wildest dreams, but it’s no more than I feel we deserve.
Job done? Absolutely not! My stated aim with a dozen games to go was 12 wins. Two down, 10 to go.
Promotion is the objective that really matters but, as a squad, we have other targets to help us achieve that. The lads want 100 points and 100 goals. Right now, with 10 matches remaining, we are on 79 points and 78 goals.
We have been able to put our foot down and widen the gap in recent weeks with five wins and a draw from the last six games. The biggest factor in that: we have a relentless group of players, the best in the division, all desperate to succeed, for themselves, each other and the club.
No doubt, though, that we have benefitted from our schedule. Of late, while some of our rivals have been playing twice a week, we have been able to train twice and prepare fully for when Saturday comes. Don’t forget, at this level, midweek matches mean only one training session. If you play on a Tuesday night, there would be no session between that and the game the weekend before. When Premier League managers moan about a lack of training time… try it down here, lads.
Our artificial pitch means we don’t have to postpone games that other clubs, who play on grass, would. So we swerve the fixture pile-ups that can derail the ambitions of teams at this stage of the season.
The pitch is crucial to our entire model. People point to our budget – I’ve covered that – but hiring out the playing surface provides substantial revenue and plays a massive role in helping us to forge a connection with the community.
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How many EFL clubs would benefit from the same opportunities? It baffles me why, as soon as any club reaches the Football League, they have to rip up one of the assets that helped put then on a firm-enough footing to achieve promotion.
I’ll continue to bang this drum because the modern artificial surfaces are superb. These are not the sand-based pitches that QPR, Luton, Oldham and Preston played on when I was coming through. Almost 20 years ago, I played for Blackburn at RB Salzburg in the UEFA Cup on their artificial surface and it was great. The fact I scored a 25-yard free-kick that night in no way tints my memory!
That these pitches are allowed in the Champions League but not League Two. That makes no sense to me. Still, we are a few seasons from having to worry about that. Let’s first get out of the Northern Premier League.
A few managers in this division have already said they can’t wait to see the back of us. It is a compliment – from most. Some will just be happy to be rid of me! And either way, I won’t be in the Northern Premier League next season. We either get promoted, or we become the biggest bottlejobs in football. In which case, quite rightly, I’ll be out of a job.
But me, my staff and my players will be doing everything in the next 10 weeks to ensure we don’t give our critics the satisfaction. And Macc will be missed if we achieve our aims in the coming weeks.
Our magnificent travelling fans have swelled the coffers at every ground we’ve visited this season, with another 600 or 700 following us to Warrington last week, making up over half the crowd. No doubt we’ll travel in big numbers again when we go to Lancaster City on Saturday.
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