Wigan Athletic Preview

[trueblue]

Just watched extended highights on Football First... Where the back four were yesterday I haven't a clue - they certainly weren't at Wigan !!

At 3-0 down you would have expected game over, we then did the hard work and got it back to 3-3 (brilliant hat-trick by Santa Cruz btw) and I thought ok a point will definitely do after that atrocious start... but what happens? we fall apart and end up getting beaten by what has to be said is a very poor Wigan outfit !!

There are too many players in the side (Pederson, McCarthy to name two) who just look as though they are not interested.

Gutted !!!!!!

[Roost]

If that was Bennis way of putting himself in the shop window as a top goal scorer for the January sales, then the only interested party would probably be Trading Standards.

The penalty miss said it all.

Dont moan about lack of service - if the ball aint coming to you hows about trying to go and fight for it yourself? Just look over your shoulder and take a leaf out of RSC's book - thats what committed players do Benni. Stop flailing your arms around like nobody wants to pass to you.

Less swagger and more sweat you lazy get.

One Love - BRFC

[OhmiBRFC]

His hearts not with us,

Sell him in Jan

[den]

I've seen some pretty dire performances fom Rovers over the past 25 years and it all comes with supporting a football team. We got stuffed 5-0 by Barnsley some years ago. That was bad enough.

Perhaps we just had a day when Nelsen, Sambba & Warnock all made mistakes in the same 90 minutes; Savage, Bentley & Reid were pretty ineffectual; & Gamst was completely rubbish.

But I'd just like to reserve my ire for Emerton. The stupid sod got himself booked in the first half for a nothing challenge next to the corner flag and when went all "Saturday night drunk" wanna fight? wanna fight?" and got himself sent off. If we had 11 men on them field & then equalised to go 3-3 then maybe Wigan's heads would have dropped.

Then maybe if my uncle had tits then he would have been my aunt.

The good news is that I've just got my body temperature back to normal.

Well, if the linesman had flagged for offside on Wigan's last two goals, we would have got a 3-3 draw. Then maybe the reaction on here would have been different. [that's not defending a dire first half performance, of course].

BTW, when was the last time rovers were allowed four clearly offside goals within a couple of weeks? I'm not talking about close decisions where there might have been daylight between the defender and attacker, either. They were all definately offside goals.

[Eddie]

If that was Bennis way of putting himself in the shop window as a top goal scorer for the January sales, then the only interested party would probably be Trading Standards.

The penalty miss said it all.

Dont moan about lack of service - if the ball aint coming to you hows about trying to go and fight for it yourself? Just look over your shoulder and take a leaf out of RSC's book - thats what committed players do Benni. Stop flailing your arms around like nobody wants to pass to you.

Less swagger and more sweat you lazy get.

One Love - BRFC

Actually, that's something that Benni does that RSC doesn't. When Benni isn't getting service he drops back into midfield to try and get the ball, which means he isn't upfront and it causes us problems. RSC doesn't do that, so when the ball gets forward he is there to get it. People need to lay off Benni, this isn't one man's fault and everyone misses penalties. It's not like he tried to miss it. As for RSC's brilliant hat-trick, the first goal was great, the next two were simple finishes that he did what he should have. He later missed a pretty easy chance and he also missed a half-chance early-on. I'm not being critical, but Benni has won us games before, got us out of trouble before, I just don't like how it is everyone is taking the easy option and taking out their anger on individual players. We have to look at Hughes and the TEAM, not one or two of them.

[thenodrog]

Well, if the linesman had flagged for offside on Wigan's last two goals, we would have got a 3-3 draw. Then maybe the reaction on here would have been different. [that's not defending a dire first half performance, of course].

BTW, when was the last time rovers were allowed four clearly offside goals within a couple of weeks? I'm not talking about close decisions where there might have been daylight between the defender and attacker, either. They were all definately offside goals.

Correct Den. At last some perspective amongst the plethora of knee jerk reactions. Certainly a poor 1st half performance but without the two offside killer goals and a very very harsh sending off we might all be in a very different mood this morning.

[Hasta]

Correct Den. At last some perspective amongst the plethora of knee jerk reactions. Certainly a poor 1st half performance but without the two offside killer goals and a very very harsh sending off we might all be in a very different mood this morning.

Sorry Den and Droggy I disagree. Had we wormed out of that with a 3-3 draw or better it would have just papered over the cracks of the first half. Even in the second half who actually played well apart from Santa Cruz? Practically all our attacking impetus came from lumping the ball up or over the big man hoping he'd cause a bit of panic. The annoying thing was that the two times we actually got the ball wide we scored from. However all the other times it was hump it up.

My Marks

Friedel - 4

Warnock - 2

Samba - 3

Nelson - 3

Emerton - 4

Savage - 3

Reid - 3

Bentley - 3

MGP - -5

McCarthy - 2

Santa - 7

The Marquee - 10

[den]

Sorry Den and Droggy I disagree.

With which bit Hasta?

[Hasta]

I disagree that we'd all be hunky dorry isn't life rosey this morning. Had we drawn 3-3 the first half would still have been the worst 45 away minutes I've ever seen, and I've seen a few. The second wasnt much better but we nearly salvaged something because Wigan are, and here is the irritating factor about yesterday, a very poor side.

[den]

True, it wouldn't be hunky dorry. We would all have been a LITTLE happier though.

[RevidgeBlue]

Correct Den. At last some perspective amongst the plethora of knee jerk reactions. Certainly a poor 1st half performance but without the two offside killer goals and a very very harsh sending off we might all be in a very different mood this morning.

I disagree with that as well Gordon, no matter what spin you try to put on it and no matter how much Eddie tries to defend an indefensible attitude from McCarthy it remains a completely unacceptable level of performance.

I just can't understand how a team can go from amassing twenty one points over ten games to looking like relegation candidates in such a short period of time. Like I said in my view the players that played so badly yesterday are not bad players, they're good players playing like bad ones.

I was at Spurs away and the team celebrated Sambas's last minute winner like they'd just won the Cup, players hugging each other and jumping into each other's arms etc. We didn't play especially well that day but won out eventually through a will to win and strength of character. I remember thinking at the time that I'd never seen such a good team spirit but it seems to me that that has been lost in recent games and indeed the reverse is currently the case. What the cause is I don't know but I suspect this is something Hughes will have to sort out before he starts looking at the tactical side.

As for yesterday, if we can't improve on that, you'd have to be thankful we've already got 26 points in the bag.

[den]

There seems to be an attitude of "glad we lost" on here and didn't deserve anything at all.. Well I'm not glad we lost, I'm never glad when we lose - I paid good money and Wigan shouldn't have won the game - fact. We played poorly in the first half - accepted. We must have done something right afterwards, because we scored three goals and but for the linesman not disallowing both Wigan's winners, we could even have won it - with ten men. We certainly had the chances.

To be glad we lost though is out of order. Why would anyone want to travel to an away game and lose to two offside goals? The thinking that it will shake them up, or what? The best way would have been to come back from three down, with ten men, take a point, then take the positives from that and move on.

[jim mk2]

I remember thinking at the time that I'd never seen such a good team spirit but it seems to me that that has been lost in recent games. What the cause is I don't know .

Easy.

Roberts, McCarthy and Savage have all caused problems in recent weeks for various reasons.

Rotten apples who need to be weeded out.

[brian_gallagher85]

Which 2 jokers voted for Benni?

[Paul Mellelieu]

Is it the Inter toto catching up with us?

[Eddie]

I hope not, I hardly think 4 games against lower opposition should derail our season. It was essentially a preseason, particuarly the first two games, so it can't be used as an excuse.

[Paul]

Well, if the linesman had flagged for offside on Wigan's last two goals, we would have got a 3-3 draw. Then maybe the reaction on here would have been different.

Surely Warnock played them onside for the fourth?

[John]

I was going to post this pre-match but due to being drunk for the past 3 days, I did not have an opportunity.

Ways to beat Blackburn (or disrupt them):

Slow the tempo up when playing them at Ewood Park. Do anything you can to create a slow tempo.

Hassle them in the centre of the park. If Tugay is playing, someone should be on him as soon as he gets the ball. If you stop Tugay playing it will reduce the amount of chances they will create.

If pacey striker, try and get one on one with Nelsen.

Get in Savage & Reid's faces. The both struggle to pass the ball when not given time and when in tight situations. No danger of either playing a 'killer' ball centrally.

Particularly weak at defending set pieces.

If you want to day dream, wait until they get a corner then you can switch off. They rarely beat the first man.

Target Emerton in the air. Get crosses in from the right and have somone aerially attacking his side of their defence.

Don't let Bentley get to the touchline. His crossing can be lethal.

Some of the points above are pretty obvious (and could be applied to many teams as generic points I am making), but sometimes I do not think we are that difficult a team to play against (even though opposition managers seem to say this in every pre-match conference).

[thenodrog]

Surely Warnock played them onside for the fourth?

Only saw it on MoTD but I felt both were offside which brings me to another point. We (and I include most managers here too) whinge about referes errors but imo most of our problems nowadays are caused by linesmans mistakes. We all know that the offside rules now are so vague and open to all manner of interpretation but even so I think the Prem linesmen are regularly making too many basic errors...... and with no apparent censure either.

[Wolverine]

The Marquee - 10

Thanks for making me smile about something from yesterday! Superb, Hasta!

Just spotted a pattern:

Fans who attended the game: "The first half performance was worse than shocking and Benni Mac had no interest throughout" or thereabouts.

Fans who watched MotD/FF/from Paris: "NO! It's not Benni's fault and the performanc wasn't that bad"

Strange.

[des]

just watch the two games on sky today and the top team have midfield players who are at ease when they have the ball under pressure. something that we by and large do not have.

If we want to move forward then this will have to do addressed.

Also MH can not keep making very good buys at cheap cheap prices.

[Wolverine]

Very true, they seemed to skip around challenges when in possession, where we would panic. Samba could do this only a couple of games back, but no-one else seems to be able to do it. Dunn, Warnock and Bentley can be aggressive dribblers, but that isn't enough

[Eddie]

Fans who watched MotD/FF/from Paris: "NO! It's not Benni's fault and the performanc wasn't that bad"

Not at all what I said. I've said that it wasn't his fault and I don't think he was the worst performer. If anything I am at the extreme in terms of how bad it is team-wise. I felt the three worst performers yesterday were Warnock, Emerton and Nelsen (in that order), but I'm not going to place blame on a particular individual, because I don't think the problems we have at the moment are the result of one or two players. That is what I am saying. Benni could have scored goals yesterday, as RSC showed, it doesn't really matter unless we sort ourselves out at the back and in midfield.

I thought the performance was one of the worst I have ever seen from a premiership side, but what is really strange to me is that people will say that and then say that Benni was the worst. Surely the players who were the worst had to be at the end where the worst things happened, which is in defense. If you think Benni is lazy, not up to it, or whatever, that's fine, that's your opinion on a player and there is no way I'll change it; however, what worries me is people who seem to be saying "benni was the worst", "benni to blame", when at the end of the day the problem was that we let in 5. Now I'm all for our strikers closing people down, but there are still 9 others between them and the goal, so it really isn't their main job.

[daveoftherovers]

Okay, I've now calmed down and got over my utter disbelief from yesterday. I can't disagree with most of what has been written but these were the biggest points for me:

When EVERYONE KNOW's that all the opposition will do his hump it up front then why couldn't we cope?

Our back 4 were a disgrace! Has someone swapped Samba's legs for the Axe's??? Where's Chris gone, Nelsen was off the pace (By some way) and as for the full backs (WTF is going on) Bert didn't have to make any of the challenges that dropped him in it, 1st one was bad enough, why shove Heskey, since when has he curled a shot in from the edge of the box with his back to the goal when the ball is on the line???? As for his sending off, I wouldn't have minded if he'd have been stretchered off (If he was meant to be settling a score) but as someone else has said, the ball was miles away and what was he thinking??

Benni & MGP were so far away from what we know they are capable of it's untrue and our bench looked very week.

Roque gets us back to 3-3 and how do we react? By defending worse!

Apparently that was our strongest side (We are in the cack)

FFS

[Wolverine]

Fans who watched MotD/FF/from Paris: "NO! It's not Benni's fault and the performanc wasn't that bad"

Not at all what I said. I've said that it wasn't his fault and I don't think he was the worst performer.

It appears you are arguing whilst holding the same opinion!

I can forgive the other performances as it is either uncharacteristic, or they actually tried to run here and there. However, with Benni, it is a consistant problem which appears to be spreading through the team like cancer. He is barely ever in the right place at the right time, rarely feels the need to run and doesn't seem to give a damn for the cause. That is what I saw yesterday and that is why it is unforgivable - whether he was the worst performer or not.

For what it's worth, I think on reflection that Gamst was the worst performer.