Fleetwood

Tonight proves there’s a side there it just needs unlocking. J.Jones motd best I’ve seen him play since he come to Wigan. The first half was shockingly bad, slow and let’s not forget Fleetwood hit the post 2 times in the first half 3 in total.

I personally don’t think the new edition loanees are good enough and Clare for me struggles we need a old fashioned right back.

Stones tonight was a breath of fresh air. Not only putting himself about but at one stage he chased back full pelt at least 30 yard and tackled in our half, something Wyke Magennis do not do due to age and having the legs.

The 2nd half we were far better after going 3 at the back playing 1 centre half, Humphrys got more involved higher up the pitch and it paid off with a cracker of a goal.

I just hope Maloney can sort this player conundrum out otherwise he’ll be gone asap. I’m sure Danson and his crew can see the same as us fans that in our case a new manager wouldn’t need a big budget and loads of ins and outs just a change of tactics so hopefully Maloney can sort it and remain at the club.

But let’s face it, it was a pen shootout that saved us tonight, we conceded 3 goals which is simply not good enough and he knows it

It doesn’t make good reading granted but we all know there’s a half decent team amongst our squad.
For me it has to start at the back. For some reason we suddenly forgot how to defend. Every ball that came in we were at 6s and 7s and not sure what to do.

I’m not convinced with any of our centre halfs and that includes Hughes then when you throw in 2 very average left and right backs we end up with a “jelly on a plate” back 4.

For me Maloney’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. His wobbly defence has him on pins pushing players forward so in the 2nd half he gambled leaving Hughes in the middle and bringing on Pearce who inturn pushed Humphrys abit more forward and it paid off but I think a better side would have ripped that 2nd half formation apart.

One big thing I noticed 2nd half and we looked 20 times better, we stopped the 40 yard cross field up and unders and played football along the floor using width and the difference was chalk and cheese. Jordan Jones was outstanding so we know we can play that way we just need to convince the one dimensional manager.

For me we lack experience at the back. You need at least one older head in there to help the young lads along.
Losing all at that experience in one go in Keane Whatmough Naylor McClean all in one foul swoop has killed us.

The manager needs to sit someone in front of the defence as Naylor would have done and help out but if your left and right backs are poor ?.

So for me the whole problem is, we’ve forgot how to defend and defend in numbers. If we can get that right we’ll be fine and personally it’s time for Stones to be on the bench every week. He’s shown enough to me he’s worthy of 10-15 every other week but he can’t do that from the stands.

So the final question is one I doubted at the beginning of the season

Is Maloney the right man for the job?

The right man to put together a broken side and a mish mash of players ? I said no. He lacks that managerial experience you’d need and in bucket loads to fix a side who’s just clawed themselves back from the brink of death.
Should we keep him ?

Yes because as he’s already shown when it clicks there’s a side there and he needs to go back to simple basics, defend and counter.

Why he suddenly started playing super slow build up football and 40 yard cross field balls I do not know. If wouldn’t be a bad idea bringing in an old manager to have a word in Maloney’s ear on an advisory role.

Neil Lennon and Gary Roberts were there last night……..

I do feel sorry for Maloney as I said from the beginning this was going to be one hell of a difficult job this season with so many leaving.
I keep harping on about it but the building block of any team is the defence. He needs to get that right but I’m not sure how with the players he has to choose from.
The average age of our centre backs currently playing is 20.75 years of age which is unbelievable. I’ve always been an advocate of playing young players but that’s taking it to the extreme.
To be honest we need Kerr back fit which I feel will be a huge boost but I feel defence wise including left and right back is a massive problem right now.

How does Maloney solve it ?, I’m not quite sure I suppose good coaching right now is his only way. If he doesn’t get them to stop leaking goals asap then I’m afraid there’s nothing down for him and let’s face it it’s not really his fault, it’s the cards he was dealt hence why I say getting shut isn’t the answer.

The likes of Neil Lennon won’t come here on peanuts so we then end up spending any money we have on managers with no guarantee of sorting it when the real issues is with the players the manager has to choose from