Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
although I had my head in my hands, we battled really well. I slated Gomez, but what a goal.
When it boils down, they had two attempts, they scored off one, put 10 behind the ball rather than 9 and rattled the cross bar. Al Habsi had nowt else to do.
I LAUGH AT THE ONES WHO BOO’D AT HALF TIME AND THEN LEFT ON 87 MINUTES., Arsenal anybody???
Well done on avoiding a banana skin.
First Cup win against them as well.
Hit the post too didn’t they?
Revenge somewhat for that 999th minute goal they scored back in 92 (or maybe 93) that put us out on away goals.[/quote]
I hate to be a picky fecker but if we’re thinking of the same game they didn’t put us out on away goals.
It was in 96 & we’d lost 3-2 at home & won 4-3 at their place over the 90 minutes. Away goals only count after extra time so it went to extra time & the ref added over 5 minutes of injury time onto the 2nd 15 minute period of extra time when he’d only added somet like 3 minutes on to the 2nd half of 45 minutes.
They scored a screamer with the last kick of the gameThe only time I can remember him making an appearance was in a game at Rochdale the back end of the 94/95 season where i think he came on as sub
Don’t recall him particularly standing out but remember a bit of a buzz amongst those who were there when he came on coz we’d all heard he was destined for the top
Think the club was in a bit of shock for a while after that
Hard to believe that was 15 years ago – is the young/youth team player of the season award still named in his honour?
I cant believe Martinez doesnt see the option of changing the formation and tactics etc, he obviously believes in them and will stick with it.The real issue in any game, like Sunday is that if he sees it isnt working he will only change it in the last 5 or 10 minutes. I do wonder if its the players who change it not Martinez?
There’s no problem with him believing that a certain style of play &/or formation is the right way to play football. In certain games the system he believes in has worked really well and other teams have had a great deal of success playng that way but any half-decent manager realises that they have to have a back up plan – whether that be a change of formation or a change of tactic.
If you’re 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go you have to change something to try & get somet out of the game. If he does see other options but chooses to ignore them then it shows him as a poor manager. If he doesn’t see them then it shows him as a poor manager tooTo wait until the 86th minute when you’re 2-0 down to make his “attacking changes” shows him up as a poor manager too
I didn’t expect us to win on Sunday regardless of what formation we played but its the manner of the defeat, in fact the manner of most of Latics defeats under Bobby, and his apparent inability to learn any sort of lessons from his mistakes that have long convinced me that he aint the man for the jobIf I kept continually trying to pick up a white hot piece of coal & it kept burning my hand, sooner or later I would realise that the things is too hot for me to pick up & I should try picking up something else
Watching Roberto Matinez over the last 14 months reminds me of that Homer Simpson clip where he keeps trying to grab the 4 pack of beer off the electricity cables, gets electrocuted but keeps trying to grab hold of them anyway
Will he ever learn his lesson that there is more than one way to skin a cat & that if his preferred way isn’t working he shoudl try something else even if its just tinkering with his formation??? I don’t think I’ve seen a more one dimensional, naive & pig headed manager in my 23+ years of watching Latics
What’s the use in him telling the players that they need to learn to cut out the stupid mistakes if they can see him making the same ones over & over & over & over again??I can take getting beat 2-0 at home by a team that’s spent the best part of £300mill over the last 2 seasons & I can accept not really getting a sniff against that team & even the sloppy mistakes that cost us the goals (we all make mistakes)
but what I find increasingly baffling & frustrating is the conduct of our manager during the games.
For a start there’s his substiutions – if your team is 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go & hasn’t really looked like creating anything or scoring for those previous 70 minutes & you want to try & salvage something from the game I would expect to see attacking changes made yet what we got was 1 winger & 1 central midfielder brought on
There’s also then the old chestnut of his formation – if he thinks 4-5-1 is the way to start out all his games then fine but as above if after 70 minutes that has left you 2-0 down & nto looking like you’d score if you played that way till Xmas I’d expect to see any manager worth their salt change things around a bit. I wouldn’t expect to see them make like for like changes with players who, in effect, he didn’t think were good enough to start the game but who he now expects to be able to turn it on its head & persist with exactly the same formation & tactics that haven’t worked for the previous 70 minutesEvery time I see a chink of light that Bobby may well be slowly gettign things right, in the next game he does something that shows he’s learnt nothing from a hell of alot of the mistakes he’s made in the last 14 months
I wouldn’t just look at the salary & condemn it
Look at the jobs they do, the size of the council & all manner of stuff & then compare it to the salaries of private company directors in control of similar sized firms.
The fact of the matter is that if you want the best people to run your firm/council/whatever then you have to pay them the going rate.
Now I aint saying any particular council is well/badly run or that they couldn’t make substantial savings but just because they work for the public sector doesn’t mean they should be paid in buttons – offer the job up for £30k a year & see a) who applies & b) what monkey gets the job
As for the pope’s visit – I’m an atheist so had no interest in him coming over, but if the UK govt recognises the vatican at a state even though the UN doesn’t then fine his costs should be covered just like the costs of any other head of state who visits is covered. The issue of how much is deemed appropriate to cover a state visit from any head of state is another matter
Whilst he no doubt moved on for more money & glory (who wouldn’t) he did conduct himself well all throughout his transfer/shop window period & afterwards.
We all knew he was going, he knew he was gonna go but you heard nowt in the press about how he wanted to leave, he was given the chance to go in January of that year & turned it down (no doubt coz someone from united had contacted his agent & told him to wait till the summer, but still) & after he left his comments about Latics seemed sincere – somet about what a great club it was, great supporters & how he’d owed Wigan Athletic everything
I for one hope he makes a full recovery
Yes, because Wigan Warriors “official” attendance figures have a long history of reliability don’t they?????????????
Regardless of you thinking nobody pays to watch Latics & the frankly laughable claim that Wigan Warriors don’t give out freebies, there were 15000 at latics game on Saturday so lets use that as a comparison shall we?
Sunderland brought 4500 whereas leeds brought about 1000 so you can knock 3500 off the Latics attendance which gives you 11500 for the rugby game straight away. The East & West Stands were both substantially emptier for the rugby than they were for Latics the day before so knock off another 2.5k at least. South stand was fuller so stick another 1k back on. I get that to about 10k or thereabouts.
Therefore I know which attendance figure for yesterday’s game I’m inclined to believeNo way on this earth were there 12177 on in the DW yesterday
Not forgetting of course that the play-offs in the football league involve a sixth of the total number of teams in the division and as a result only consist of teams who were in & around the promotion picture
In the Super League the play offs now consist of three quarters of the teams involved in the bloody competition which is the equivalent of opening up the League 2 play offs to 18 of the 24 teams in the division or in the premier league all the teams down to 15th would be involved – which means Latics would have been in with a chance of winning the league in 3 out of our top flight 5 seasons
Like Griff I actually like rugby league (not Wigan RL admittedly but I enjoy the sport) but to have so many teams now in the play off makes the regular season virtually a complete waste of time. Add to that the scrapping of relegation, the introduction of “franchises” & the continued ignoring of RL heartlands like Leigh & Widnes in favour of inviting teams in from France/Spain and Wales & the recurring financial propping up of a team in London and I’d have to agree with Griff that the RL hierachy are making the sport into somewhat of a joke
but I know in our first season up they only brought just over a 1000 (a stark contrast to a few months before when they sold out the East Stand for a Championship game)
I note that you are an armchair fan these days – was that a game you actually went to or did you just hear it from a bloke in a pub?
Check about 1 min & 48 seconds into this link and you’ll see what “just over 1000 fans” looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHGEx0nJYcY
Sunderland dont sell out at Wigan? It seems they have! Again!!!
http://www.safc.com/page/Tickets/0,,10281,00.html[/quote]
I was at that one Mr Lord – I wasn’t married, nor did I have any kids, nor had I started refereeing. In fact if you look closely you can probably see me – I was in the first row down from the entrance out from under the stand & to the left of the block with the disabled platform in it. Seat M224 my memory serves me right.
Anyway, as someone who was actually at that game (as opposed to someone who has used a shaky, mobile phone clip which shows no more than half of 2 sections & a tiny bit of a third) of the away stand I can tell you that Sunderland did not come anywhere near to selling out their allocation for that game. In fact it was commented on quite alot on this board afterwards because several months before many of em had been on here bragging about their massive followings after they’d brought 7000 for a midweek game
Having seen that clip 1500 may well have been a very conservative recollection but there weren’t many more than 2-2.5k – still a following Latics would be more than happy with but they are not (consistantly) one of the larger followings that come ot the JJB – which was the point I was trying to make originallyMind you having watched alot of yesterday’s game (which I enjoyed) & having seen 2-3 banks of seating in the East Stand, probably the same in the west stand & plenty of empty seats in theouth stand, I’m guessing you’ll be keeping quiet about attendances today
I was refereeing on Saturday & so have only seen the extended highlights on SKY which for once (as my wife is due to drop the new baby any day) I watched sober.
Anyway, my game finished about 20 past 4 & I checked the score on my phone & had the live text commentary on whilst driving back – i could see the stats of 64% possession, playing against 10 men, only 1 shot on target & of course 1-0 down & drew the conclusion that it was the same old guff I’ve been watching since Bobby took charge. This was confirmed when I read Bobby’s post match comments about being able to see a good team starting to gel
But – I watched the highlights & I have to say that for the first time since he took charge I actually agree with him. 1-1 at home against 10 men against a team I expect to finish mid-table does on the face of it look like 2 points dropped but I saw enough out there in the hour or so Sky show to be able, for the first time, to see some sort of progress.
I thought the defence looked solid, they all look comfortable on the ball. I thought the midfield chased & harried all game. Boselli (if you exclude his miss) looked like he was starting to adapt – held the ball up well & showed some good movement. I was very impressed by what little i saw of Di Santo & Cleverley. Other things are hard to put a finger on but i turned it off at the end having been quietly pleased & being able to see a team capable of showing some long term improvementStill some things to moan about in that the midfield gives away possession too cheaply, too often and when they have given it away they seem to think its someone elses job to get it back. Also if a player has gone past them (as with Sunderland’s goal) they don’t bust a gut to try & get back at them. Also the team has had false dawns before but I can see a little chink of light at the end of the tunnel. I hope it continues
During the qualifying campaign & the world cup he was in charge, i really rated Hoddle & thought he would really be the man to bring success
However from the start of the qualifying campaign for the euro’s he had quite clearly lost the trust & respect of virtually all the players
Leaving aside his pushing of the faith healer to injured players & coming out with garbage that his biggest regret in the world cup was not taking her along – the way he handled telling players who weren’t selected for the world cup was poor & then the frankly bizarre decision to sign a deal with a publishing company to print his “World Cup Diary” & all the things he said in that signed his death warrant
From being someone who got the best from his players & seemed tactically astute his teams started to produce some poor performances & results
The FA I think, correctly, had decided he needed to go long before his comments on disability & re-incarnation gave them just the excuse they were looking for – although I think had he challenged it, the FA would have been on very dodgy grounds using someones religious beliefs as an excuse to dismiss them from their job.
However, he had shown enough very bad errors of judgement before then to convince me he wasn’t the man for the England job – he had his chance & he c0ck£d it up
Got to agree there
if you’re a floater/someone who will watch either Latics or rugby in “big games & can afford to pay to watch one game this weekend which one are you going to watch?
Latics v Sunderland or Warriors v Leeds
I’m a firm believer that if the manager brings players in & they perform well then they should keep their place in the team
The performance against Spurs was the best this season by a country mile so each & every one of em should keep their place.
i think it would also show Kirkland that he will have to be on top of his game to get his place back & keep it (hopefully improving his form) and like Filmoss says it will show N’Zogbia that no matter how good he is, if he acts like an @r$e he can’t just expect to waltz back into the team
To be honest i can see the case for putting N’Zogbia back in but IMO if Kirkland or both of em start it looks like bad bit of management
