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Another One Bites the Dust: Scunthorpe United sack Graham Alexander
‘Scunthorpe United FC can confirm that Manager Graham Alexander and Assistant Manager Neil McDonald have this evening both been relieved of their duties.
The Club would wish to place on record their appreciation of Graham’s efforts during his two years at Glanford Park.’
A very short statement that doesn’t give those who aren’t Iron fans any indication as to why this decision has been made. As promotion is the ultimate aim for the season and with teams such as Wigan and Blackburn bound to be fighting for the automatics, this was always going to be about getting into the playoffs. With seven games left and Scunthorpe currently sat in fifth place surely everything seems to be going to plan. Well it may look that way from the outside however, there are a number of considerable problems at this club and rightly or wrongly the removal of Alexander has been on the cards for sometime. I’m going to look at what’s been going on recently at the club and try and pinpoint just where it’s all gone wrong for Alexander.
Club statement – https://t.co/6CpwDHEjAZ
Scunthorpe United FC can confirm that Manager Graham Alexander and Assistant Manager Neil McDonald have this evening both been relieved of their duties. pic.twitter.com/E6iosD1Cy9
— Scunthorpe United FC (@SUFCOfficial) March 24, 2018
Form:
Scunthorpe may currently be sat fifth in the table but that is down to a combination of a number of good results earlier in the season and the relatively poor standard of the league this year. It is certainly not as a result of recent performances. The Iron are currently on an abject run that sees them having only one win in thirteen. We are almost in April now and Scunthorpe have only taken two wins this calendar year, and one of those was on New Year’s Day. If you look at the results table since January then Scunthorpe would currently be 22nd, hardly promotion form, and if the actual table reflected this position then I’m sure there would be very few questioning the sacking of Alexander.
The Assistant:
This may seem like an odd thing to bring up but I do think it’s had a significant contribution to the events that resulted in the sacking. When Alexander joined, just over two years ago, one of the first things he did was bring in Chris Lucketti who he had worked with at Fleetwood. Nothing unusual in this as managers and assistants often go to new clubs together and the two clearly had a good friendship and working relationship. Lucketti, like most assistant managers, was fairly quiet in the public sphere so little was known about what impact he was having at the club.
Personally I believe Lucketti fulfilled the ‘man-manger’ role as I have never got the impression that this was a strong suit of Alexander’s. Fast-forward to November 2017 and Lucketti is offered an opportunity he couldn’t turn down and left for, an ultimately ill-fated, spell managing Bury. After what seemed like an age a replacement was appointed on the 4th of January when Neil McDonald joined after leaving a position managing Limerick FC. McDonald said himself that he was using this as a means of returning to the English game. The appointment seemed strange at the time and, though it may be a coincidence, it has coincided with the poor run, just one win since he has been here. I’m not suggesting he came in and disrupted the club, but perhaps as the form deteriorated he didn’t have the same ability that I presume Lucketti had with the squad. The conspiracy theorist in me also notes that McDonald isn’t thanked in the club statement; make of that what you will.
The Board:
There are a number of things that Alexander did wrong, which I will come onto shortly, but first the Board need to take responsibility for the position that have repeatedly left Alexander in. Last season and this have something in common. A reasonably strong start followed by a catastrophic second half of. It is widely held that the poor run of form last year was down to contract distributes. Chairman Peter Swann wouldn’t offer deals until the end of the season, and with a number of significant contracts coming up it is likely that the players were more inclined to move to clubs who were offering certain contracts for the coming years.
This undoubtedly would have caused unrest and was probably a factor as to why the Iron didn’t get promoted last year despite being top of the league at Christmas. This season the problems again started in January. Scunthorpe’s January transfer dealings have without doubt hindered the team. Specifically in relation to the strikers. Paddy Madden was the first to be sold, and this made business sense. His contract was going to expire and he hadn’t scored for a number of months, this insistence of Alexander to keep him in the starting 11 for so long did have a negative effect on play. This was an expected departure.
Kevin Van Veen was also sold on the final day of the window. Again this made some sense as his form has constantly been hit and miss and if the club were offered significant money they would be foolish to turn it down. However, Van Veen was in form at the time he was sold with 4 goals in 6 games and was one of the few players that actually scored, so this caused some unrest. The Board’s biggest failing regarding this situation was that the players were not replaced. Yes, Ivan Toney was brought in on loan, but that is temporary and he isn’t exactly a proven player. With Lee Novak inured it realistically only left Alexander with Tom Hopper, who despite a lot of work on the pitch, is never going to be a lone striker; and certainly not one you can rely on for goals. The Board without doubt left Alexander short so it was always going to be difficult to maintain a winning run, but what he chose to do with his players is definitely his own fault and ultimately, I believe, is the main factor as to why he has gone.
Alexander: Square pegs round holes, tactics and style:
When Alexander joined his first home game saw the Iron thrash Swindon 6-0 and for the first few months there was some excellent attacking football, some of the best we’ve seen at Glanford Park. All of which came as a breath of fresh air after a number of seasons with Mark Robbins at the helm. Over time however, this has slowly deteriorated into something that boarders on unwatchable. This season I struggle to think of a home game that I’ve actively enjoyed; and that speaks volumes. What was once attacking has become negative. These days if the Iron take a 1-0 lead, expect to sit back for the remainder of the game, inviting pressure and inevitably conceding in the last 10 minutes.
Also Alexander’s substitutions often make little sense. I recall a recent game against Shrewsbury, 1-2 down and he decided to take off Duane Holmes, the player who the ONLY person was offering any kind of attacking threat. His final game against Rochdale in a way sums up what we have become. A bottom of the league team completely outplay us on our own pitch and the Iron can only manage three shots on target in the whole game. Does that sound like a team that deserve to be fifth? Or one that would end up remaining in the playoffs?
Alexander’s last game in charge versus Rochdale
However, the thing that caused the most contention was playing players out of position. Specifically in relation to Murray Wallace. When you have one of the best centre backs in the league why force him to play at left-back and keep, one of the best natural left backs, Connor Townsend on the bench. Throughout this season this is the thing that has been the most questioned, and not once has Alexander offered a reasonable or convincing response as to why he continued with this decision.
Which brings me to squad unrest. I’m loathed to use the term ‘lost the dressing room’ because for me it’s up there with ‘the magic of the cup’ as one of the most stupid sayings in football; but this does seem to have happened. If you read my Shrewsbury match report then you will know that there has been arguing on the pitch between players. Things like this doesn’t give the impression that the dressing room is united and I do believe a significant number of players had become alienated and had lost confidence in Alexander’s tactical decisions.
Finally, football is supposed to be entertaining. I’m not expecting Barcelona style play but you cannot play home games as defensively as we have been doing. You have to go back to May last year where I would consider a performance being anywhere close to justifying the £23 entry cost. This decision isn’t about Scunthorpe expecting to be top of the league, or thinking they are entitled to promotion. It is about the fact that the performances would be unacceptable of a team in the relegation zone, never mind one in the playoffs.
To me there was absolutely nothing to suggest this poor run would have been turned and it was almost an inevitability, with teams having games in hand, that we would have dropped out of the playoffs. So much so that until yesterday I had written this season off. So is the sacking of Graham Alexander justified? Scunthorpe may be fifth but it is a false position. On performances, style, tactics and stubbornness not to change the team when the run continues I will say yes, Swann was justified in making this call. Whilst I am sorry that it didn’t work out for Alexander in the end and I would have liked it if he had been the one to take us back to the Championship something did have to change. However, having said that I am a little surprised at the timing of the decision. Swann obviously thinks this season can be turned around and that it isn’t over yet. But if someone isn’t lined up already how much of a chance will they have? Even if we appoint someone tomorrow, with only seven games left it’s a big ask to steady the ship and guarantee that play off place. As we were thirteen games into the run I expected Alexander to have the remainder of the season and then possibly go in summer or at the beginning of next season if it was a poor start. This article has gone on for far too long already so I will leave manager speculation for a separate piece; but the rest of the season will be very interesting indeed.
words Bradley Mell, D3D4 Scunthorpe United correspondent
Great summing up of the events You hit the nail on the head with the shocking standard of football Scunny fans don’t expect miracles but a bit of entertainment and excitement shouldn’t be too much to ask should it !!
Excellent piece of writing Mr Mell, completely agree with your comments, onwards and upwards now for the Iron!!
Entitled much?