Arouna Kone

I think over the past few games he’s been off form. He puts no pressure on the defense, Dawson had time to skin up when playing the ball out from the back.
Martinez then decides to take off our only direct player in MacManaman ( scored and won us the corner that lead to our 1st goal) and a tired and Kone who looked like he’d took a knock remains on the pitch.

Although he’s no fans favorite , Di Santo did more chasing down in the 1/2 hour he was on than Kone did all game.

Brilliant, that’s just what we want – more headless chickens

You’re not seriously comparing Bale with Di Santo?

Bing,

Do you not think that the referee warning him about tackling Dawson made him less likely to go near him in the second half ?

Don’t usually get hung up on refs, but the way that game was refereed yesterday, with the number of innocuous tackles from our lot getting punished, meant that our midfield were standing off them, especially in the first half

Gomez isn’t really that type of player; whereas, Espinoza is. I’d actually like to see these two paired together in midfield, as I think each provides what the other lacks, & they could make for a nice tandem – Gomez the creativity & possesion going forward, and Espinoza the energy & defensive cover. I Think that would be worth the try, especially with the congestion & need to rotate players in the next few games.

Gomez isn’t really that type of player; whereas, Espinoza is. I’d actually like to see these two paired together in midfield, as I think each provides what the other lacks, & they could make for a nice tandem – Gomez the creativity & possesion going forward, and Espinoza the energy & defensive cover. I Think that would be worth the try, especially with the congestion & need to rotate players in the next few games.[/quote]

That was sort of my point about Gomez – it always is – but it sometimes gets lost/omitted in my haste to throw in a sarky retort, so let me explain what I meant about the headless chicken comment. ;)

First off, I wouldn’t say that either ESpinoza or Di Santo are headless chickens. Di Santo, in particular, puts himself about more than Gomez and harries people. Espinoza, likewise, quiet similar to McArthur in my view. It doesn’t make either of them better than Gomez.

Gomez isn’t, and never will be, that type of player. He is in the team to do a specific job, namely retaining possession and trying to provide a link with the other forward players in the team.

In order to do this, he needs movement ahead of him and sometimes when that doesn’t happen, he gets caught waitinghoping for it to happen and other times the pass goes astray rather than him just lumping it hopefully forward. It also explains why he goes backwarda and sideways a lot because he would rather keep possession and start again than try something overly ambitious and give away possession.

Yes, he doesn’t always track back and he tackles like me, but we have other players in the team to do that. It is to his credit that he has improved this part of his game recently, in my view. And yes, he could do with being a bit faster and have a bit more quality with his passing, but if had all of that in his locker, he wouldnt’ be playing for Wigan now, would he?

The people who constantly use Gomez as the scapegoat (the first “Get off, Gomez” shout was heard on 6 minutes on Saturday) clearly don’t/won’t understand the role he is being asked to play.

My point being, Kone wasnt running for anything and he takes MacManaman off scorer and made the other. Dawson was walking towards the half way line for most of the game, rolling the ball forward with the studs and all the time in the world.
At least Di Santo put pressure on him so he didn’t have time to try and pick a pass.
Bale simply pressed Fig’s enough to rattle him and and a goal comes out of it.
It’s nothing to do with “headless chickens” It’s 100% workrate when not in possession.

Kone is a very good player but he’s off form he also looked like he took a knock late on Saturday. For me MacManaman should have never left the field of play and Henriquez on for Kone.