MATCHWATCH : Wigan Athletic (a)

[Sutekh]

We didn’t have a shape. Lane and Doyle just wandered around seemingly at random.

I thought it might be me being thick for not being able to figure out what our formation was (still possible). But it's been pretty difficult under LR. At first I thought it meant we were playing a more advanced and fluid game, but now I'm wondering if it's causing too much confusion. I said a while back; I'm a big advocate of fluid football, but I think it's something you grow into from an initial plan of clearly defined roles.

Midfield has and remains our biggest puzzle. Savage and Wing are fine, but our attacking mids seem to draw their positions from a oxf*rd raffle every game.

Hound thinks it was a 3-4-2-1... but Nyambe barely crossed the halfway line first half whilst §

Doyle and Lane drifted from left wing to AM to right wing, often both in the same place at the same time and leaving oxf*rd enormous holes in their wake. Hell, they both came into wingback or DM positions at times.

It was a oxf*rd shambles. Then the one time Dorsett got forward, start of second half, as LB/LCB he scored, because Wigan were totally unaware he was there, because he hadn't previously crossed the halfway line.

Wasn’t Roberts playing further forward, more as the left wing rather than as left back, seemed to see a lot of Dorsett back in that LB role.

[MR. CYNICAL]

It was hardly a game to make the neutral fall in love with football was it? Maybe I’ve been watching too much PL, CL and Serie A games recently, because that really was dire.

But, Dorsett is coming along really well. He’s all round a lot more solid and there are fewer of the silly mistakes that blighted him earlier.

.

It's a shame that he decided to take a nap and completely lose track of his man for their goal. Watching the replay, he was actually goal side of him initially but seemed to hesitate and just let their guy ghost past him to get into a 1 on 1 with JP.

Thought JP should of claimed it to be fair

[MR. CYNICAL]

Yes, couple of times he actually managed to cover by being able to run

A few more games and he should become fairly key to the set up.

I think we all need to cool our beans. We keep proclaiming players to be the messiah based on one performance and then half a dozen games later deciding they're shit.

Hopefully he can maintain this and grow further into the team and he could form an excellent partnership with Williams, or even Williams and Paudie, but its too early to really say anything other than promising debut.

This is a Wigan side that has scored just 2 goals now in their last 5 home games and started with an 18 year old striker so , I agree with Ian, a bit early to be heaping praise on the new signing even if he didn't do much wrong.

I do hope that Young gets a start on Saturday-we really do need some pace out wide and you don't take a player from a top Premier club deemed good enough to make an appearance only the other week in the Champions League and not play him.

We do

[Clyde1998]

Turgid, but somehow got the win. Wigan much better in possession that us and were actually looking to progress the ball properly. Too many of our balls, once again, are too safe or too long. The lack of off the ball movement doesn't help; nor does our shape tbh.

Have to say Doyle looks our best attacking outlet at the moment and his cross for Dorsett's goal was brilliant.

Dorsett needed to track the attacker for their equaliser. Not doing this allowed their striker to get to the ball easily ahead of Pereira.

Great ball from Wing and header from O'Connor for the winner.

Benn Ward looked good last night, but it's a single game; Ritchie generally poor going forward as usual, although he battles well.

Feels very much like the Northampton game though: performance poor; result good. Not sure it was worth the trip despite the result

[RoyalBlue]

It was hardly a game to make the neutral fall in love with football was it? Maybe I’ve been watching too much PL, CL and Serie A games recently, because that really was dire.

But, Dorsett is coming along really well. He’s all round a lot more solid and there are fewer of the silly mistakes that blighted him earlier.

.

It's a shame that he decided to take a nap and completely lose track of his man for their goal. Watching the replay, he was actually goal side of him initially but seemed to hesitate and just let their guy ghost past him to get into a 1 on 1 with JP.

Thought JP should of claimed it to be fair

Really? I think most keepers would expect their defender to deal with the danger and, IMO, they'd be right to. By the time JP realised that Dorsett had dozed off, he was on a hiding to nothing. Did his best to close down the striker but couldn't get there. I believe Richardson also believes Dorsett dropped off on that one and called him out for it?

I'm not a fan of manager's publicly calling out individual players for mistakes but I guess it depends on how it is said. e.g. 'Jeriel knows he should've done better in that situation' or 'Jeriel would like that one back' might be a diplomatic way of doing it.

[Snowflake Royal]

I thought it might be me being thick for not being able to figure out what our formation was (still possible). But it's been pretty difficult under LR. At first I thought it meant we were playing a more advanced and fluid game, but now I'm wondering if it's causing too much confusion. I said a while back; I'm a big advocate of fluid football, but I think it's something you grow into from an initial plan of clearly defined roles.

Midfield has and remains our biggest puzzle. Savage and Wing are fine, but our attacking mids seem to draw their positions from a oxf*rd raffle every game.

Hound thinks it was a 3-4-2-1... but Nyambe barely crossed the halfway line first half whilst §

Doyle and Lane drifted from left wing to AM to right wing, often both in the same place at the same time and leaving oxf*rd enormous holes in their wake. Hell, they both came into wingback or DM positions at times.

It was a oxf*rd shambles. Then the one time Dorsett got forward, start of second half, as LB/LCB he scored, because Wigan were totally unaware he was there, because he hadn't previously crossed the halfway line.

Wasn’t Roberts playing further forward, more as the left wing rather than as left back, seemed to see a lot of Dorsett back in that LB role.

Yes, but that's my point. Roberts was more LW than LWB or LB, and Dorsett LB, while Nyambe was RB. So it really didn't look a 3 or 5, but a 4, with Roberts out of position and Lane and Doyle both a drifting shsmbles rather than RW and AM.

[Snowflake Royal]

It's a shame that he decided to take a nap and completely lose track of his man for their goal. Watching the replay, he was actually goal side of him initially but seemed to hesitate and just let their guy ghost past him to get into a 1 on 1 with JP.

Thought JP should of claimed it to be fair

Really? I think most keepers would expect their defender to deal with the danger and, IMO, they'd be right to. By the time JP realised that Dorsett had dozed off, he was on a hiding to nothing. Did his best to close down the striker but couldn't get there. I believe Richardson also believes Dorsett dropped off on that one and called him out for it?

I'm not a fan of manager's publicly calling out individual players for mistakes but I guess it depends on how it is said. e.g. 'Jeriel knows he should've done better in that situation' or 'Jeriel would like that one back' might be a diplomatic way of doing it.

I did feel Pereira was slow to try to cut it out when he should have been trying to dominate.

But a defender can't just sit on their heels and hope a keeper will get there, they have to play the game and stick to their man. Unfortunately Dorsett has been doing this regularly for a season and a half... he just randomly stops playing, ambles around like nothing is happening and leaves his man unchallenged. Did it the other game when the (was it Northampton) lad got through one on one and Periera saved. He just stood, 3-5 yards off his man, not gosl side while someone else (O'Coonor or Nyambe I guess) played him on, and watched the ball go past for the guy to run on to. Then sauntered back in his wake making no real effort to get close enough to put him off let alone challenge.

[Brogue]

Hound thinks it was a 3-4-2-1... but Nyambe barely crossed the halfway line first half whilst §

Doyle and Lane drifted from left wing to AM to right wing, often both in the same place at the same time and leaving oxf*rd enormous holes in their wake. Hell, they both came into wingback or DM positions at times.

It was a oxf*rd shambles. Then the one time Dorsett got forward, start of second half, as LB/LCB he scored, because Wigan were totally unaware he was there, because he hadn't previously crossed the halfway line.

Wasn’t Roberts playing further forward, more as the left wing rather than as left back, seemed to see a lot of Dorsett back in that LB role.

Yes, but that's my point. Roberts was more LW than LWB or LB, and Dorsett LB, while Nyambe was RB. So it really didn't look a 3 or 5, but a 4, with Roberts out of position and Lane and Doyle both a drifting shsmbles rather than RW and AM.

Leam was asked ‘different shape tonight’ he said nope it’s like it always is - a 4231 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gwvwNDU4F10 1 minute in

[Hound]

Hound thinks it was a 3-4-2-1... but Nyambe barely crossed the halfway line first half whilst §

Doyle and Lane drifted from left wing to AM to right wing, often both in the same place at the same time and leaving oxf*rd enormous holes in their wake. Hell, they both came into wingback or DM positions at times.

It was a oxf*rd shambles. Then the one time Dorsett got forward, start of second half, as LB/LCB he scored, because Wigan were totally unaware he was there, because he hadn't previously crossed the halfway line.

Wasn’t Roberts playing further forward, more as the left wing rather than as left back, seemed to see a lot of Dorsett back in that LB role.

Yes, but that's my point. Roberts was more LW than LWB or LB, and Dorsett LB, while Nyambe was RB. So it really didn't look a 3 or 5, but a 4, with Roberts out of position and Lane and Doyle both a drifting shsmbles rather than RW and AM.

Whoscored had it as 4-2-3-1 with Roberts LW, Doyle CAM and Lane RW

Which may well have been more accurate than the 3-4-2-1 I suggested

[Snowflake Royal]

Wasn’t Roberts playing further forward, more as the left wing rather than as left back, seemed to see a lot of Dorsett back in that LB role.

Yes, but that's my point. Roberts was more LW than LWB or LB, and Dorsett LB, while Nyambe was RB. So it really didn't look a 3 or 5, but a 4, with Roberts out of position and Lane and Doyle both a drifting shsmbles rather than RW and AM.

Leam was asked ‘different shape tonight’ he said nope it’s like it always is - a 4231 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gwvwNDU4F10 1 minute in

Which tells you just what an absolute shit show of a mess the shape was.

[Clyde1998]

It was definitely a 4-2-3-1 as its base:

Pereira
Nyambe - O'Connor - Ward - Dorsett
Wing - Fraser
Lane - Doyle - Roberts
Marriott

Would shift into something like these at different times:

Pereira
O'Connor - Ward - Dorsett
Nyambe - Wing - Fraser - Roberts
Lane - Doyle
Marriott

Pereira
O'Connor - Ward
Nyambe - Wing - Fraser - Dorsett
Lane - Doyle - Roberts
Marriott

Roberts was absolutely primarily being used as a LW/LM rather than a LB/LWB (that was Dorsett).

[Clyde1998]

No-one seems to have picked up on this, but a Wigan fan died at the game. My condolences to their family and friends. No-one should be dying at a football match.

https://x.com/LaticsOfficial/status/2021562362512208147

[Brogue]

No-one seems to have picked up on this, but a Wigan fan died at the game. My condolences to their family and friends. No-one should be dying at a football match.

https://x.com/LaticsOfficial/status/2021562362512208147

Many many years ago my friends dad had a heart attack just as he walked up the hill to the stadium. the paramedics that were at the ground rushed to his aid and saved him. They said to him at the time if you’re going to have a heart attack anywhere this is probably one of the best places to have one - as there are so many paramedics about that can give you instant care.

When you say ‘no one should be dying at football matches’ that’s usually a phrase reserved for crowd trouble and someone getting stabbed or something.