I don't believe this is an accurate portrayal at all, even leaving aside the catalogue of off-field shenanigans that have afflicted the club, and Maher's ability to put out a squad for the vast majority of that period.
When he arrived at the club, we were in complete freefall. The spirit and confidence in the squad was at rock-bottom after Phil Brown's failed return. We'd suffered consecutive relegations, recruited poorly, and were staring at National League South with just two wins from our first 10 matches of the season.
How he did that was to get the squad believing in themselves, playing on the front foot, being proud to wear the badge. He had a lot of success in the early part of 2022 with three at the back (that has been a key principle throughout), then four in midfield and three up front (generally Cardwell through the middle - sometimes Murphy - with Dalby and Dennis or Powell outside).
That changed in the televised game at Woking. After going 2-0 up and cruising at half-time, Woking scored twice in the first quarter-of-an-hour of the second half by flooding the midfield, where we had only players positioned centrally. Maher brought on Harrison Neal for Callum Powell to counteract that and add ballast to the midfield, and Harry Cardwell popped up with the winner. So, flexibility in formation, reacting to an opposition's tactical switch with one of our own and then a perfectly-timed substitution to turn the match around.
From then on, 3-5-2 has been the preferred formation. There's always going to be a preferred formation, so there's a focus on areas to work on in training. But there are subtle tweaks within that formation (I often say football is far more about mentality and confidence, rather than formations). Jack Bridge has been a left wing-back for much of that time, and initially you would see him pushing up with Ralph behind in support, and the right-back (in that first season this would be Demetriou or Leon Davies) sitting, making the formation effectively a 4-4-2. It was lop-sided, and play often came down the left, so when Gus Scott-Morriss arrived the following season, he wasn't as effective because he didn't get up as much. That's not the case now, of course, and we're equally as effective down the left or right (arguably more so down the right-hand side now).
The Wealdstone away match this season is another case in point of Maher being flexible and brave enough to make hard decisions to attempt to get a result. The first half was pretty insipid, and Wealdstone came out early in the second half much the stronger team and were dominating particularly in central areas. Pepple was taken off and James Morton replaced him, creating a box midfield with two sitting and two (Moncur and Appiah-Forson) supporting Bonne up front. We were much better after that, and their go-ahead goal (later cancelled out by Josh Walker) was completely against the run of play.
Three at the back has been constant, but the two outside central defenders are both given license to overlap the wing-backs (I suspect this has been encouraged by Darren Currie, who will have seen this successfully deployed at Sheffield United). We've had four in midfield, five in midfield, even six in midfield at Wealdstone. We've generally had two forwards in operation, but sometimes we've only had one there and sometimes three.
We've just come off the back of three unbeaten away matches without conceding a goal, dominating the last one and just not quite finding the final touch. If Coker's strike (from outside the box) goes the opposite side of the woodwork, or Crowther hits the target inside of nodding wide, this thread probably wouldn't've even been necessary.
But it is, partly because of three consecutive home matches losing each by a two-goal margin. Gateshead were superior to us, and sometimes you do get out-played. It's not a case of Southend United turning up to play every week and that's enough. But we were well on top against Sutton until individual errors cost us, and it was individual mistakes, rather than the set-up or mentality of the team, that led to the Maidenhead reverse.
What this squad desperately needs now is for everyone that turns up tomorrow to get behind them, to show they believe in them, just like those who went to Eastleigh, to Rochdale and to Aldershot did. It's not about formations, or tactics, or the mentality, because Maher has proved over and over again that he is capable in all those areas. It's about confidence, so that when that chance drops to whoever it falls to, they take it on rather than picking the safe pass.
