
Next MK Dons Manager Odds: What can Mike Williamson bring to the job?

MK Dons have appointed Mike Williamson as their next Head Coach, with the 39-year-old leaving his post at Gateshead after four years in the job.
EFL pundit Gab Sutton discusses how MK Dons could look under Williamson, as they seek to recover from a difficult 18 months…
What Went Wrong With Graham Alexander?
When MK Dons appointed Graham Alexander as Head Coach, they abandoned all stylistic principles in pursuit of promotion, taking the approach that the ends would justify the means, and they could start more of a long-term project once they returned to League One.
That logic, though, was flawed, because Alexander’s style didn’t suit the personnel he had, and the short-term results weren’t what they wanted.
The Buckinghamshire outfit played 83 long balls per game, the joint-seventh most in League Two, and had 48.1% possession, the 10th-lowest, with an uninspiring approach.
Operating with a 5-3-2 of some variety in all bar the last of Alexander’s 13 league games in charge, MK Dons wanted to keep things tight in the middle of the pitch with Alex Gilbey ratting around, then get wing-backs Cameron Norman and Dan Harvie to spring forward on turnovers, but there was a heavy reliance on Mo Eisa and Jonathan Leko to fashion chances individualistically.
Both can do that, but other than in the 5-3 opening-day victory at Wrexham, neither were given the service because so often the ball went over their heads, as opposed to into their feet.
Alexander might consider himself a pragmatic manager, but in this case he used a system that didn’t suit the players available.
Mike Williamson’s Coaching Background
After a playing career featuring 150 appearances for Newcastle, including a Championship title win in 2009/10 and Europa League football in 2012/13, Mike Williamson took a player-manager role at Gateshead in 2019.
At the time, the Heed were healing from ownership troubles when Neil Pinkerton completed the takeover, and his first two seasons as boss were curtailed due to COVID, but in his first full one, he led them to the National League North title.
The Tynesiders scored 99 goals that season, thanks to the form of Cedwyn Scott and Macaulay Langstaff, who played wide in an attacking trio in a 4-3-3, before the deadly forwards departed for Notts County.
Those losses took some time to get over in the National League, but the north-east outfit won eight of their final 11 league games and reached the FA Trophy final, as Williamson began to work in the 3-4-2-1 that would become a mainstay the following season.
This year, Gateshead have had plenty of joy with that system, flying high in sixth with one of the league’s lowest budgets, as the second top goalscorers in the National League, and the division’s keep-ball kings, averaging 66% possession.
All the while, Williamson has been able to replace key players in Kamil Conteh, Owen Bailey, Adam Campbell, Ethan Pye and Dan Ward, who excelled last season and are now playing regularly for League Two and big-budgeted National League clubs.
As once discussed on Tom Williams’ Patreon, when Williamson signs players, he sits them down and doesn’t mention football at all – instead, he talks to them about their family, and what makes them tick.
Mike Williamson's Short-term Challenge
The biggest test for Williamson at MK Dons will come in his first season, inheriting an out-of-form team that’s been struggling and hasn’t been coached to play his way.
One of the reasons Luke Williams at Notts County, for instance, is currently lauded as one of the most exciting coaches in the EFL, is because when he took over at Meadow Lane, the players had worked on his style under Ian Burchnall.
Sure, Williams took things to another level, but he inherited a strong template - as opposed to starting from scratch - and had a full pre-season.
For Williamson, it’s different, because Liam Manning went away from the template Russ Martin initially laid out in his final season, the team was a bitty mess under Mark Jackson, and the football has been dour under Graham Alexander.
The squad broadly suits Williamson’s methods, with most of it having been recruited for a more possession-based approach, barring this summer’s additions of Craig MacGillivray, Anthony Stewart, Alex Gilbey and Ellis Harrison.
Nonetheless, a more moderate version of his approach is likelier to deliver early results, than him coming in and forcing in the most extreme version straight away.
That way, he can get the benefit of MacGillivray’s shot-stopping, O’Hora’s brave defending, Gilbey’s work ethic, Max Dean’s form and Mo Eisa’s individual quality, in order to turn things around early on

Mike Williamson's Long-term Idealism
If appointed at MK Dons, during the first seven months of Williamson’s reign, he can begin to introduce new ideas to take into pre-season, and then the following campaign.
That way, when he opts for the more extreme versions of his methods – i.e. technical midfielders very deep, non-centre-backs deployed in a back-three, and inverted wing-backs – the players are in a place of being ready to execute them.
Plus, Williamson will have had the option to bring in players who suit the system, like potentially Scott Fraser, who played as the left-sided number 10 under Russell Martin in 2020/21, as well as attracting high-profile loans, such as goalkeeper Ovie Ejeheri at Arsenal or midfielder Michael Golding at Chelsea.
And, it’s plausible that Dan Kemp will be recalled from his outstanding loan spell at League Two rivals Swindon, and could make enough of a difference in the second half of 2023/24 to become part of the new boss’ plans.
One of Williamson’s ideas could be to deploy two inverted wing-backs, rather than one, which was the case with Luke Hannant at Gateshead.
With the Heed, he was managing a team on a low budget and may have wanted the insurance of a conventional, physical type on one side, but at a team with one of the biggest budgets in the league, it’s plausible he fancies two.
Ashley Hunter did his best work at Fleetwood on the left, and was one of the most creative players in League One between 2016 and 2019, and he was often deployed as a wing-back under Richie Wellens.
Plus, when Fraser was at MK previously, he dovetailed delightfully with a left wing-back in Mathew Sorinola who is right footed, and thus loved to cut inside, allowing him to drift onto the flank – there’s reason to think he could forge a similar relationship with Hunter.
Conor Grant, meanwhile, is a final ball player, as we saw at Rochdale, where he got a lot of assists through subtle movement before playing a killer pass.
If he operates as part of the box midfield, he’ll be too involved in the early and middle stages of moves and then struggle to be in positions where he can pick people out.
If he were to play right wing-back, however, cutting inside late on in moves to then play a vertical, killer pass in behind for a striker or an on-running midfielder, he could become very dangerous.
With the nature of the system, Grant could be freed up to do that by Cameron Norman taking on right wing-back duties in the latter stages of play, and the defence reconfiguring itself with O’Hora shuffling across and/or a midfielder dropping in.

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