TyldesleyLatic

“The reason we are currently 2 points above the relegation spots is not down to the system that we play.
It’s because our strikers haven’t been taking their chances but mainly because we haven’t had the killer instinct to finish teams off”

I’m sorry but the system Bobby is deploying has got everything to do with it. Take a look at our goals conceded figures. Latics have conceded 47 goals. That has absolutely nothing to do with our forwards not putting enough of their chances away
The system is why we lost 9-1 at Spurs, why we got mullered home & away by United, why Portsmouth scored 21% of their season’s goals to date tally in one game against us. I’ve said in other posts on other threads that there have been brief glimpses that it can work but they have been far outshone by the times when the whole system we play looks terrible & devoid of any direction or impetus
I’d dispute some of the games you say we should have won too – with City at home Bobby had the chance to go for the kill when they went down to 10 men but persisted with 4-5-1 & the game fizzled out. Everton away we were f00kin awful & deserved nowt. Brum we lost coz we crumbled when we conceded a goal as we have done regularly this season, Everton on Saturday our keeper was the busier, against Stoke we were awful in the 2nd half & a draw was a fair result

“Most teams are playing 4-5-1 these days.
Arsenal and United did today. It’s the way of the game, I think.”

To play that system (or any other for that matter) successfully you need players with the technical ability and suitablity to it. United & Arsenal do, Latics quite clearly don’t
As a result we have square pegs in round holes all over the pitch. To have blindly persisted in the formation when it is blindingly obvious it isn’t suitable to those players currently at the club is a sign of Martinez’s managerial naivety

b0ll0x

We have played some decent football when in possession but football is about far more than what you do when you have the ball & I’m sorry but when we aren’t in possession the stuff served up by Martinez has for the most part been complete & total $h!te.

We give the opposition far too much time & space on the ball, there’s no closing down & a defence that was one of the most watertight in the division is now leaking goals for fun. That has got absolutley feck all to do with players being used to playing “long ball” football
Bobby has turned formally good defenders into ones that look like rabbits trapped in headlights. The same players who didn’t need clearing out before he took over now look dyer
His signings, so far have been poor (its too early to judge McCarthy & Caldwell) with the exception (IMO) of Diame so if he does do this clearout you say we need in order to get us playing this fantastic brand of football Bobby wants then I dread to think who he is going to bring in

“the reason it hasn’t worked all the time is that we don’t have the players to play the system.” – ?????? :lol: :lol: That is an unbelievable statement. If we don’t have the players to play Bobby’s system then why the feckin hell has he insisted on playing exactly the same way week after week??? It was clear very early on that we don’t have the type of players to play it out from the back (although the ones he’s brought in don’t look capable either) so any manager worth his salt would have said at the end of the last transfer window “These players can’t play the way I ultimately want to see latics play so until I get the chance to bring in some more of my own blood during the next transfer window I need to get them playing in a way that suits them”
What he’s done has bloody mindedly stick to the same turgid 4-5-1 with players out of position almost everywhere on the field & its costing latics game after game

Also, any manager that either a) lets Paul Scharner convince him that he is a midfielder or b) actually believed it himself (prior to Scharner shooting his gob off in the press) has to be questionned. It was one of the earliest & best decisions Bruce made brining him back to centre half. IMO Bobby showed himself to be a very weak manager when he decided to push him upfield days after he’d been in the press saying his best position was midfield & that’s where he wanted to play

Hindley Blue – you took the words right out of my mouth.
If the Duke thinks “its brilliant we’re playing good football at last” then he’s been watching a completely different Wigan Athletic to the one I’ve seen for the vast majority of the season

As for Bobby, I’ve been willing him to be good. I’ve been willing him to learn from his mistakes, but all I see is:
Poor formations, poor tactics, sub-standard signings, a total inability to learn from his mistakes, players playing out of position, players who have proved themselves time & time again becoming woeful overnight and the same tired excuses match after match after poor performances.
I had to laugh when I heard Bobby’s post match comments that “we weren’t ourselves in the first half last night” but when you consider Latics haven’t scored in 14 of 21 games in teh first half I’d say we’d been playing pretty much exactly to standard in the first half.
The stand out players this season (Rodallega & N’Zogbia) are other managers signings, the only 2 on top of them that other clubs are after (Figueroa & Scharner) are other manager’s signings so I don’t buy the “he’s having to cope with the mess he was left with” garbage some of his defenders come out with

There has been the odd spark that the team is capable of somet more but so far they are proving to be mere flashes in the pan in amongst a sea of mediocre & sub-standard performances

As someone else has pointed out earlier in the thread it seems to be the vast majority of his defenders are driven by senitment due to his “legend” status & are letting it blind them to his failings & quite why one poster is defending him by saying how shit Bruce has been at Sunderland i don’t know

As I’ve said I hope in 4 months time I’m eating my words but at present I can’t get excited by a bloke who scored 3 goals in 28 appearances in Spain’s top flight last season. especially when he’s cost a reported £7mill of our limited transfer budget

“Reserve player for a side who finished 5th last season and so can’t be any good???????
What if he had been a Utd, Arsenal, City, Spurs, Chelsea or Liverpool reserve”
If we were spending £7mill on a unproven reserve team player from those clubs in England you mention I would be equally cautious

To try & get some comparison, so far this season he has scored 9 goals in Spains 2nd division. The following players Best (Coventry), Boyd (Peterborough), Cleverley (Watford), Morrison (Coventry) & Simpson (QPR) have all scored the amount in the Championship this season. Would you be happy if latics spent £7mill on any of them?

“I have a feeling about this lad, I don’t think Bobby or Whelan would have spent a record fee if they weren’t sure of his ability”

Whelan authorised the spending of £5mill on Marlon King, as well as various other amounts in the millions on Kapo, Hall etc.. so saying what you did about him aint really that good a barometer of how good a player is

Likewise with Bobby, he’s spent money (albeit lesser amounts) on players he has brought in who have been crap so far (Scotland, Gomez, Amaya etc..) & I’m sure no manager ever signs a player thinking he hasn’t got the ability to succeed

Personally rather than simply trust a manager’s judgement when he pays a large amount for a player (after all they all buy duds – even the greatest manager) I’ll go off their track record in signings so far, the level the guy is currently playing at, age, career history etc.. before I decide whether to get excited about em coming. I’ll wait till I see em play for a while before I judge em

With this signing I’m just slightly puzzled by Bobby saying that he wanted an English spine to his team, signing no English men so far (many foreigners often use the term English to describe anyone British so I may let himoff with Caldwell) & also saying that foreign players represented better value for money before spending £7mill on an Argentinian, Spanish League 2nd division player

I hope the lad turns out to be an absolute cracker & I’m forced to eat my words but, if Latics do have a limited transfer budget, this seems a very risky signing to have spent so much money on

I’ll be honest enough & say that I can only judge him from the highlights & he looked alreet. Having said that though the GMR commentator I heard on my way back from refereeing said (shortly before Scotland scored) that the keeper looked very shakey

Seemed to have pretty good reflexes though & having seen the goals I can’t really understand the criticism of him for either. The first was a good one on one finish & how a keeper is supposed to save a free kick curled over his wall & into the far bottom corner I don’t know. If he’d stood behind the wall & davies had put it in the other corner he’d have been slated for poor positioning but the whole point of having the wall is to guard one side of your net whilst you guard the other. If a player is good enough to curl the ball up & over into the far corner then you have to hold your hands up to the taker.

Actually on that free kick – did anyone else notice that Notts County took it a good 5 or 6 yards further forward than where the foul was committed? There were what look like rugby markings on the pitch & the foul is well committed well on one side of it (though Hughes’s fall eventually stops on the other side) but they bring in forward the other side of the line & in range for a shot – cheating bastards tryna derail our wembley dream!!!!

IMO supporters at a game are there to help their team in whatever way they can whether that’s through encouraging their own team through the atmosphere they generate or singleling out players of the opposition & putting them off their game
Sometimes it works (Ellington at West Brom) & sometimes it doesn’t (Altrincham’s keeper in the 94 cup tie) but I’ve no problem with any Latics fans dishing out any stick to Lee Hughes this weekend

IMO after what he did he shouldn’t expect any less