[BFC SITE] Press Conference | Darrell Clarke | Wycombe vs Reds

Fixtures

• Wycombe Wanderers Vs. Barnsley - Tue, Jan 28 2025, 19:45

Darrell Clarke spoke to the media ahead of facing Wycombe Wanderers in Sky Bet League One on Tuesday evening at Adams Park.

On Injuries
"He’s coming on (Maël). I’m not sure if he’ll be ready for tomorrow night, and Neil’s (Farrugia) struggling as well. Tight thigh. Other than that, Barry Cotter is bad news. Needs surgery, so he’ll miss the majority of the season. Feel for the lad. Barry’s a great lad. He’ll keep his spirits high. He’s great around the group and will bounce back. He started the season really well. Corey O’Keeffe has done really well. He’s second in the table on assists on the right-hand side. Got Georgie (Gent) and Neil now on the left wing-back, so competition in the wing-back places. Barry was coming back again, getting into good form. It’s a big blow for us."

On Maël absence
"Massive miss. He’s Mr. Consistency. I love the kid to bits. He’s professional every day, the way he plays, the way he performs. You’re always going to miss a player of his calibre, but other players have to step up."

On Recent Performances
"It’s a frustrating group to manage. We reach highs and play really good football at times. Then Saturday, watching it back, the quality was poor. It’s not for a lack of effort. It was the quality on Saturday. Playing a team like Stevenage, big, robust, strong. Some decision-making was poor. Went too long at times. When we tried to find a 10-15 yard pass, it didn’t happen. In the final third, not making the right decisions. Over time, our expected goals have been high. Saturday was poor. The quality of the performance wasn’t where it needed to be."

On Upcoming Matches
"I need to concentrate on our performance. If we hit the levels we can, we’ve got a great chance of winning. Wycombe are having a strong season, lost their manager to Luton, added players in the window, and invested heavily in the squad. It’ll be a tough game, but they’ll look at us and think, "Barnsley are a good team." I’ll pick the players up today. They were low in the changing room, rightly so. Got a lot of criticism, myself included. We have to build a siege mentality and put on a performance our fans can be proud of."

On Expectations
"Anything can happen. We won four games on the bounce recently. We’ve got to put a run of wins together. The target, as always, is to finish in the top six. Working with a squad of fringe players from last year, we added players in the summer and aim to add more in this window. My job is to stay consistent, improving the players physically, mentally, and tactically. Mentally is key. There’s a high level of expectation. I said it when I arrived. Barnsley being in League One comes with pressure. We have to handle that. The lads have shown they can bounce back, and I expect the same tomorrow night."

On Strengthening the Squad
"The plans haven’t changed in my mind. My job is to ensure the players are mentally ready and confident. We thought we’d turned a corner with two home wins at the start of the year, but Saturday was disappointing. There’s no quick fix. One of my biggest achievements will be turning the home form around. We were among the best EFL teams away from home but near the bottom at home. I need to ensure the players are mentally right. Players can help themselves by performing. They’re a good group to manage, but I want more quality at times."

On the Transfer Window
"It’s busy every day. I know how much work goes on behind the scenes. I also understand people’s frustrations. It’s a balance. We’ve got players in the squad who need to move on to free up other options. It’s a balancing act. When I arrived, I said it would take two to three windows to shape the squad. We’ll keep working hard to achieve that."

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As always very candid.

 

A siege mentality? The enemy have already infiltrated the gates mate. They're currently sat in our favourite chair, watching our TV, eating our pork pies, drinking our beer and shagging our daughters.

 

Farrugia touch and go for tomorrow, MDG likely to miss tomorrow and Cotter could miss the rest of the season.

 

It's sad to say, but he doesn't come across as having a great deal of intelligence a lot of the time. In just a few minutes, he can contradict himself multiple times, and you can guarantee a liberal dose of cliches.

Tuesday will be the first game I've had opportunity to watch for a while, so I'll be interested to see over a prolonged period if our organisation and tempo has evolved for the better since the opening few months.

 

If he believes the solution to our problem is to a "build a siege mentality" then we're more fücked than I thought we were.

It's going to be painful watching the slow fail.

 

We could brick our goal up.

 

I’m not having this ‘fringe players’ excuse. For two reasons.

Firstly, it just isn’t true.

There’s only Watters who I’d accept was a fringe player last season. He made about 30 appearances but most starts were in cups and half his game time was as a sub.

Jon Russell wasn’t a fringe player. He started 23 league games (Connell started 25), was in the squad every week.

The club made a big deal of Slonina coming in. Signed for £10,000,000 by Chelsea, American international. And he was replacing last season’s loanee goalkeeper. That he turned out to be pap, and we now have the number 2 (Killip) in goal does not make him a fringe player.

The rest of the regular starters this season were either regulars last term, or they’ve been new signings. Oh, and Pines who was the club’s key addition this time a year ago, who got injured soon after.

Secondly, I feel like the word fringe is a dig at bald men.

 

If I grew one I'd look like Donald Trump.

 

Perhaps he's suggesting that the quality that was here was 'fringe player' quality and that effectively most of the squad wasnt/isnt good enough....

 

He says he can't knock the effort or their attitude just they're not very talented and mentally weak .

 

Thank you for summarising so I don't have to listen to his inane drivel

 

I read it.

 

The only thing MDG does consistently is get picked by Clarke he makes him sound like John Stones MK2 which is a million miles from the truth.

 

Precisely what I was getting at. In the space of a few paragraphs he's praised the players while then going on to call them mentally weak, lacking in quality and frustrating.

I'm sure when he first joined, he said he was a good man manager. If he is, it's certainly not displayed publicly.

 

Of course.