- This topic has 13 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
A story of two teams….
Who both play so far deep, it’s a sad inditememt on the modern game.
At one point, Neil Critchley was mentioned as a possible managerial option for us. Going off what I saw today, had he come into us instead of Maloney, we would still be playing the exact same way as we are now. Both manager opting for a deep defensive line and a tippy-tappy pass from the back style.I wasn’t sure what we were playing today. Humphreys the only striker we had on, and yet he was playing on the right. I think Asgaard was playing a ‘false 9’ role. Barca used to do it, with Messi playing to one side and no real ‘centre-forward’, so to speak.
The first half I really enjoyed, not so much the second. Blackpool were nothing like the threat I expected…I thought they were very average as a team, as are 85% of teams we’ve faced this season. Great for Scott Smith to get his first professional goal…he played really well. As did Hughes, Kerr, Chambers and Jones. Tickle made a couple of really good saves. Humphreys went close bug was a bit quiet. Thelo Asgaard had a fairly quiet game. Godo doesn’t seem to want to take anybody on these days.We got the win, but it wasn’t a great watch, again.
I have to agree with alot already said above. We basically don’t have a forward no focal point. Humphrys and Aasgaard are certainly not what I’d class as forwards. J.Jones played very well for me, I love the positivity he brings to a fairly negative side as he’s always prepared to take players on and attack with pace.
I’d break the bank for Chambers he’s gonna go all the way. He never makes a mistake and always looks to go forward
I hope S.Smith can make that right back position his own over Claire he’s a far better more aggressive player than Claire.
My tin hat goes on here for my next remark but I don’t get Adeeko. The manager see’s something I don’t. For me he gives the ball away far far too easy and too often. He rarely wins it back and it’s alot of headless chicken stuff for me looking busy but not actually doing much.
That second half was like the Alamo and we got pummelled but held on. Was it good defending or poor finishing?, today I’ll say it was more like poor finishing especially the sitter of a header tr TV TVhey missed.
At the end of the day it’s 3 points against a side who’s fighting for a play off spot so we can’t grumble but playing like that 2nd is a dangerous game to play.
There’s a basis of a very good side. The problem Maloney has is finding a steady regular starting 11, he prefers using 16 players per game
As for Magennis coming on ? It’s like going down to 10 men hence no rest bite up front.
I didn’t really feel like it was the Alamo today, I thought we were really comfortable and it was one of our easiest 1-0 wins.
Definitely first half was better than second half. We really need to start scoring a second goal when we are so much in control.
I thought Charlie Hughes was imperious today. I’m not a huge fan of Charlie Goode but I reckon he’s worked with Hughes on his heading and physical presence.
Here’s my statement of the night. If we have Hughes and Kerr next season then we will win the league. Unfortunately we will probably have neither.
I agree with both of you, Cup Winners and Skeggy.
I think if we had more depth in the squad, Adeeko wouldn’t have featured as much this season. I think he needs to up his performance levels if Maloney is going to bring some new players in, in the Summer, or he will be a lesser part player. Theres a player in him, but not quite ready yet. (IMHO)
Charlie Hughes was solid, steady on the ball, he really is class. As is Kerr.
Add about 4 good quality players to this squad and we will definitely be top 6 next season. That is without departures in the summer though. I dread Tickle and Hughes going, but if Premier league clubs come in, it’s an opportunity they can’t turn down. That said, let’s hope the days of fire sales have gone now and clubs coming and taking the piss, paying peanuts.
Well it’s how you individually look at it, were we pinned in our own half the 2nd half or did we purposely sit back and went to the defend the 1-0 lead?.
Ok Alamo was abit strong but we preferred to counter attack in the 2nd half. Blackpool were poor up front and I’m not sure Rhodes would have made that much difference.
The way Maloney used our subs it was clear he wanted to defend the lead but this invites teams to have a go.
Look, it was a well deserved 3 points, we attacked well in the first half and defended well in the second half. We tend to make changes to counter the opposition rather than “of the same”. What I mean is, we over think what their doing rather than let them think what we’re doing.
Great when you get away with it but I prefer the option of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and let them think how can we stop them from getting a second goal.
We played really well that first half then Maloney decided to sit back in the second basically saying to Blackpool, go on then, try score !!.That’s five 1-0’s in our last 7 games (4 wins) so I’m not going to grumble especially after a period of leaking goals for fun but let’s concentrate on what we’re doing rather than what their doing and kill games off because 1-0’s ain’t good for the old ticker
I have to agree with alot already said above. We basically don’t have a forward no focal point. Humphrys and Aasgaard are certainly not what I’d class as forwards. J.Jones played very well for me, I love the positivity he brings to a fairly negative side as he’s always prepared to take players on and attack with pace.
I’d break the bank for Chambers he’s gonna go all the way. He never makes a mistake and always looks to go forward
I hope S.Smith can make that right back position his own over Claire he’s a far better more aggressive player than Claire.
My tin hat goes on here for my next remark but I don’t get Adeeko. The manager see’s something I don’t. For me he gives the ball away far far too easy and too often. He rarely wins it back and it’s alot of headless chicken stuff for me looking busy but not actually doing much.
That second half was like the Alamo and we got pummelled but held on. Was it good defending or poor finishing?, today I’ll say it was more like poor finishing especially the sitter of a header tr TV TVhey missed.
At the end of the day it’s 3 points against a side who’s fighting for a play off spot so we can’t grumble but playing like that 2nd is a dangerous game to play.
There’s a basis of a very good side. The problem Maloney has is finding a steady regular starting 11, he prefers using 16 players per game
As for Magennis coming on ? It’s like going down to 10 men hence no rest bite up front.
I’ve raised this possession football mallarky a couple of times on this board.
Sad to say, but that’s how modern football is played.
Today we played the possession card in the second half and it worked; but not without giving the fans the jitters. Had we been able to bang a second in before the 60 min mark, we would have been in cruise control.
So just for VAT 69, here are my comments from previous posts:-
As previously stated, I for one would love the legend that is Shaun Maloney to become one of our all time favourite Managers.
I think the problem starts with football in general, whereby it’s “fashionable” to play possession football and Managers follow the herd rather than create their own winning brand / style of exciting football. Anyone remember Kevin Keegan at Newcastle; if they score three, we’ll score four.
I think I posted the following comments 3 or 4 months ago: listening to post match analysis on Radio Lancashire, Kevin Gallagher was decrying the style of Blackburn Rovers and other Championship teams. This Saturday, after watching Blackburn Vs Plymouth he was reiterating the same comments, saying: how a lot of the games are boring because Managers have adopted this possession philosophy, but haven’t got sufficient skill sets within the squad to pull it off. In other words you cannot emulate Liverpool or Man City without the right ingredients.
I do get this thing about “possession” if you are playing Premier League or European football, where the standard of the players are generally World class and if you lose the ball you can be punished at the blink of an eye. However, we are playing in League One where class is replaced by cut & thrust energy & enthusiasm and we must therefore have a more adaptive style of play, but still be able to play the possession game when we need to “shut up shop” to secure the three points to win (and not to protect a draw).Yep the days of the big & small guy are things of the past. I think most managers can’t go any other way or the run the risk of been overrun in the middle.
Were in this habit of, a dozen passes along the back in the hope we draw the opposition out but they never do so it’s all for nothing.I’m not impressed with our current midfield. I think it’s on the weak side so I’m hoping Shaw can come back in and add abit of steel but who he replaces I just do not know as Maloney is very loyal to a few.
But as I said before, we lack a forward, an out and out forward. Not a wideman of 3 or a big hold up guy a forward, a poacher, a guy who reads the game and is there to tap it home, and the massive thing we lack
PACE
But at the end of the day we’ve achieved our goal, to stay up. Let’s not forget we were handicapped by the EFL and we’ve comfortably done it with games in hand.
It will be interesting to see what Maloney’s budget will be in the summer. Will it be a healthy one or heavily restricted. I don’t think he’ll be given much to actually buy players, his budget will be all about years wage budget.
This was my point when people are on about the embargo been lifted it won’t make a sod of difference as I reckon Maloney will have to wheel & deal, loans, freebies, youth the days of £500k-£1million have gone and rightly so
I also fear that if we do get a “windfall” from a Robinson move to Chelsea, the money will be earmarked for the general running of the club and not seen as a bonus to be spent on bolstering the squad. We could actually end up with a less able squad than we have now
Next year our weekly wage bill will be hugely reduced with all the big earners i.e.:-
Wyke, Magennis, J.Jones, Kerr and whoever no longer on the pay role that’s unless we need them and they agree huge pay cuts.
No doubt Maloney will keep Magennis because he offers alot behind the scenes but fcuk all on the pitch were in counts.I have to agree that Maloney will see fcuk all of any possible Robinson windfall. That money will go straight back into running the club.
We can only guess were Maloney will be shopping this summer either Harrods or B&M Bargains. At the end of the day Danson is a businessman and and clever one at that but running a football is a money pit.
Hopefully he will see to progress over the next few years we need to invest in the squad otherwise we’ll be rattling around in L1 L2 for the foreseeable future
The thing is as well, to prosper as a club and be self sufficient, we need bums on seats. The football we’ve player this season isn’t going to grab people to come in. In fact, I know a lot of people with season tickets this season have been missing games, because its been dull as dishwater to watch.
Surely Mike Danson isn’t naive enough to think we can actually achieve anything by just constantly picking up frees and loans? They’re free of a club for a reason. It does need some sensible investment. League One, for the most part, is really shocking quality. 90% of teams are bang average. A little bit of investment into this squad and we can be top 6 easy next season. Look where we are now after a hit and miss, inconsistent season where we started on minus 8. With the right strengthening, we’ll be up by March.
A winning team will definitely help with crowds. We know how fickle Wiganers are. If we can get promoted back to the Championship, then your attendances will be bigger with bigger clubs bringing 4 or 5 thousand with them. But then again to survive at that level we would have to strengthen again.
The crux is most Wiganers, apart from the die hard 8-9k we already have, will only make an effort to come on the ground if we are playing well and winning most games. Always been the way. The thoughts of us starting next season without Tickle and Hughes is not a nice one, but if they do end up being sold, let’s make sure they go for the right amount, rather than giving them away, yet again.
I’d love us to keep both for another season or two but whether we can or not, I’m not sure.
Totally agree with that VAT but the thing is it will cost a small fortune for us to get promoted to the championship then a lot more money to stay there.
I don’t think Danson shares the same ambition for WAFC has the fans, It seems Danson feels he’s done his job saving the club and gave us a team to support and would be quite happy for us to be kicking around mid table in league one.
Fuck the EFL
I think we have to take a cautious approach when moving forward, baby steps rather than strides.
First issue is to smash the stupid wage bill which should happen this summer by getting rid of those on Championship 5 figure weekly wages. The recent accounts released read like a Stephen King novel.
The worse possible thing that could have happened to us this season was go up. We badly needed this season to consolidate and clearout then build from there.
So if the monies not there in a Danson war chest then our only way forward is:-
## Recruitment ##
This is the crucial component to the way the club moves forward over the next few years. Right now it’s a shambles, lack of scouting and the youth system recruiting needs a massive kick up the arse.
If the trying to buy success has come to an abrupt end then the way we recruit players needs a huge overhauling asap. What we’ll save on the likes of Wykes wages alone would go along way to employing 1 or 2 staff to set things up and get the ball moving.
I’m holding out any point of view regarding Danson for now. We had a transfer embargo stopping him from showing if he’s prepared to spend or not and we’ve a fair few big earners still on the payroll that need to be gone so let’s see what the summer holds when the sand bags have been clod out the basket.
The proof in the pudding will be what happens next, by that I mean this summer, the way we target and recruit young players and first team players who will hit the ground running and the big million dollar question, what will Maloney’s budget be, a healthy one or a fasting diet.
As I previously said, if we tread water or the ship carries on rudderless for the next few seasons then I’ll agree with some of the doubting fans but we have give him a chance he’s not been here 5 minutes and hands tied.
Danson’s sat on billions of pounds by getting it right more times than wrong so let’s not bite of the hand that gives, let’s not turn into Everton fans.
We should be grateful rather than spiteful, he didn’t need to save us
One last thing, I love the way the club are currently bragging on social media about 42% of the current first team players been from the youth system
Great
But let’s face it that wasn’t a choice that was forced upon us. Had we not been in the sh!tpit we were none of those would have played including Tickle and Hughes and Adeeko.This youth setup players coming through is something alot of Latics fans have been screaming at the club to do since way back to Whelan taking over.
Whelan promised us a youth set up to die for but put it all on the back burner in pursuit of Premiership glory and retain our status.
While we were in the Prem Whelan should have invested some of that Premiership money into a Cat1 academy and who knows things might have turned out different had we done so and might have bounced back up a year or two later
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
