BFTG - Wigan away

[EarleyRoyal16]

http://youtu.be/SMa-OZ1ACIY

Lovely little move this. Kind of proves Uwe had his Wigan tinted glasses on when he said we were the ones playing "long ball".

[The Rouge]

Hi PieEater, did you eat a pie at the game? If so, what was your pie selection thought process and how would you rate the chosen pie out of 10?

I did have a pie or two as it happens Rouge. They aren't Pooles Pies any more so not as good as they used to be, there was a choice of Steak, Meat and Potato or Cheese and Onion. I spotted the pastry on the Meat and Potato looked the best so went for one of those, it turned out to be a wise decision as the Steak Pie pastry was pretty limp and you just know the cheese pie will kill you with fat and calories. For those not in the know, Meat and Potato pies are always round, Steak pies are rectangular. Just to make sure it wasn't a one off I had another, quite good value at £2.40, I topped it off with a dash of brown sauce. A steady 7/10 for the pie, but an added bonus point for the excellent value 8/10.

Thanks for the information PieEater. Unless I am mistaken, I met you extremely briefly back in about 2004 to sell/buy a ticket to/off you and I think you were a thin man in stature, so ignore any h8ers on here.

[PieEater]

You're quite right Rouge.

You don't have to make stuff to be a Mackem.
You don't have to hang monkeys to be a Monkey Hanger
You don't have to like stew to be a scouser
And you don't have to eat Pies to be a Pie Eater.

[melonhead]

If I am being harsh maybe Federici could have got off his line quicker for the second goal.

Yeah, I felt Federici was culpable for the second goal, and was caught out once or twice when the ball was pumped into the box, he seemed to be struggling to get near it.

Always been Federici's bête noire.

Feds is no worse or indeed better than McCarthy when it comes to claiming balls pumped into the box.

LOL. both decent keepers at this level, but feds has always been shit at commanding his area, whereas its one of mcarthys stronger points

As for him being to blame for the second goal - absolute nonsense. As someone has already pointed out, he was perfectly entitled to rely on his centre back(s) to deal with that ball. Had he come, and the centre backs had done their job, the same people who are now criticising him for not coming would have been questioning his judgement in coming for the ball!

the whole point is that he did neither. if he'd have stayed on his line and allowed the defender to challenge he'd have had time to save it.
if he'd come and taken out both ball and player, they wouldnt have scored either.

instead he just came half way and limply waved his arms in the direction of the man

[sandman]

Must have imagined McCarthy going walkabout against Yeovil last season and his part in the Gunter og at Brighton.

[Ian Royal]

Must have imagined McCarthy going walkabout against Yeovil last season and his part in the Gunter og at Brighton.

Being better than someone else at something doesn't mean you're faultless.

[bcubed]

As for him being to blame for the second goal - absolute nonsense. As someone has already pointed out, he was perfectly entitled to rely on his centre back(s) to deal with that ball. Had he come, and the centre backs had done their job, the same people who are now criticising him for not coming would have been questioning his judgement in coming for the ball!

the whole point is that he did neither. if he'd have stayed on his line and allowed the defender to challenge he'd have had time to save it.
if he'd come and taken out both ball and player, they wouldnt have scored either.

instead he just came half way and limply waved his arms in the direction of the man

what I said - he ended up in no mans land

[RoyalBlue]

the whole point is that he did neither. if he'd have stayed on his line and allowed the defender to challenge he'd have had time to save it.
if he'd come and taken out both ball and player, they wouldnt have scored either.

instead he just came half way and limply waved his arms in the direction of the man

what I said - he ended up in no mans land[/quote]

It may appear that he ended up in no mans' land but I maintain that was due to the mistakes of others, rather than his poor positioning/play. Initially, he rightly stayed back expecting his central defender(s) to do the job. The moment they cocked up, he comes out quickly but even Bolt would have struggled to have completely closed their guy down in the time that was then available. And there was no option to stay back and allow the defender to challenge, as there wasn't anyone close enough to their player. The way I see it, he comes as far as he can to reduce the angle and then 'sets'. Perhaps he should have done the Marcus star jump?

I suspect we once again have outfield 'experts', who have little to no goalkeeping experience, critiquing his performance. That's exactly why football has specialist goalkeeping coaches and I suspect few, if any, of them would criticise Feds for his role in that goal.

[Nameless]

I don't think anyone on here has experience of anything approaching professional level football as a coach or player. Doesn't mean some don't know what they are talking about.... If discussion was restricted to things people had direct experience of then we may as well close the Team board down !

And the reason teams have specialist keeping coaches is that old keepers would be unemployable otherwise, given that keepers know nothing about any of the outfield skills. It's a kind of care in the community scheme.

[melonhead]

Must have imagined McCarthy going walkabout against Yeovil last season and his part in the Gunter og at Brighton.

yeah, because i actually said that mcarthy has never flapped at a ball in his entire life

[melonhead]

the whole point is that he did neither. if he'd have stayed on his line and allowed the defender to challenge he'd have had time to save it.
if he'd come and taken out both ball and player, they wouldnt have scored either.

instead he just came half way and limply waved his arms in the direction of the man

what I said - he ended up in no mans land

It may appear that he ended up in no mans' land but I maintain that was due to the mistakes of others, rather than his poor positioning/play. Initially, he rightly stayed back expecting his central defender(s) to do the job. The moment they cocked up, he comes out quickly but even Bolt would have struggled to have completely closed their guy down in the time that was then available. And there was no option to stay back and allow the defender to challenge, as there wasn't anyone close enough to their player. The way I see it, he comes as far as he can to reduce the angle and then 'sets'. Perhaps he should have done the Marcus star jump?

I suspect we once again have outfield 'experts', who have little to no goalkeeping experience, critiquing his performance. That's exactly why football has specialist goalkeeping coaches and I suspect few, if any, of them would criticise Feds for his role in that goal.[/quote]

lol at the idea you need to be an expert to see that feds half came, and then stopped, in the middle of nowhere, doing nothing

[If you still hate Futcher]

^You could say that about either goal tbh but neither were Fed's fault. What he actually does is come out to narrow the angle but if he even got a hand to it, it would've been a Banksesque effort.

If you're going to apportion blame then first on the list would be Morrison who comes 5 yards for a header which he doesn't win, takes Pearce out of the game and leaves a gaping hole around the penalty spot for the Wigan player to run into and collect the flick on.

Next is Guthrie (I think) who didn't track the runner back allowing him to go through unchallenged.

If Morrison just holds his position and leaves the header to Pearce then even if Pearce loses it he's in position to clear any flick on into the danger area.

PS No experts were involved in working out any of the above

[Brum Royal]

Rather l8 to this thread, but it's the first chance I've had to post. I'll try and avoid repeating too much of what has been said so far.

Obviously a very pleasing performance and gutted to concede the late equaliser when we had been so far on top in the second half. I've watched the highlights on the Sky Sports website and we really did domin8 that game second half, and should have walked off comfortable winners.

From what I've read of this thread, I'm slightly surprised no one has picked up on the big hole on our left wing. Cummings did a decent job at left back, but first half especially there was no one providing width down the left (possibly this is where Taylor should have been filling in?) and with Obita playing centrally (our only left footed player I believe) we looked quite lopsided. I also think this (as well as a great ball over the top of us) contributed to Wigan's goal. Nigel deserves a lot of praise for his substitutions, as Guthrie's enabled us to push Obita out to the left wing, and we had a lot more balance and shape about us. The left wing then became a real focal point of the attack, with Obita, Cummings, Cos and Pog all linking well in that corner to create opportunities. If Nigel is going to play Obita centrally, then we need to sign an orthodox left winger to give us the balance. However, given our midfield injuries, Obita playing centrally may have been more of a matter of necessity.

I was very impressed with Hector, looked good on the ball throughout, and won some good tackles. Cox looked very hungry when he came on, clearly keen to impress on his second debut as his shot after 30 odd seconds showed! But he really was very good, and gave us a bit of pace and spark up front, linking well with Pog and the two wingers. Speaking of wingers, Blackman looks a different player to last season, played very well, and was unlucky with his curling effort which hit the post.

As others have posted, I'm more inclined to apportion blame on the two centre backs rather than the keeper for Wigan's equaliser.

[winchester_royal]

^Agreed. There was a real lack of width down the left with two right footers playing on that side. We can get away with Taylor cutting inside on the left if we have Obita flying down his outside, but Cummings was very reluctant to get forward first half so we had no real out ball. Cummings did well, but I think in the long run when everyone is fit we'll have McCleary/Mackie/Blackman at LW and Obita playing behind them. Which will be pretty fuking gr8.

[bobby1413]

Wasn't Obita better in a left back position towards the end of last season? Or have I gone absolutely mental?

[If you still hate Futcher]

As others have posted, I'm more inclined to apportion blame on the two centre backs rather than the keeper for Wigan's equaliser.

I wouldn't even blame Pearce for the equaliser, at the risk of repeating myself, Morrison coming for the header takes Pearce out of the game.

If Morrison had held his position and Pearce doesn't even contest the header then they are both in position to mop up any flick on.

The only criticism of Pearce would be that if he doesn't contest the header then he could've dropped off a little bit more and he's a a couple of yards too far out to the left

[Victor Meldrew]

Wasn't Obita better in a left back position towards the end of last season? Or have I gone absolutely mental?

I think it is normally better to keep a settled back 4 and in our case that currently means Obita at left-back.
Vision and I had a disagreement about right-footed left backs some years ago and my view is that it messes up the shape (let alone right-footers having to come across a winger going outside to tackle which often leads to free-kicks, corners and even penalties).
Adkins played Obita in central midfield away at Bournemouth and after that dreadful experience I am surprised he has done it again, albeit that injuries required a bit of mix and matching.
With Obita going to left midfield when Guthrie came on it sounds as though our shape was better and we scored 2 goals and nearly won the game.

[westendgirl]

With Obita going to left midfield when Guthrie came on it sounds as though our shape was better and we scored 2 goals and nearly won the game.

But starting like this would have been a real gamble as Guthrie missed all the preseason games

[blueroyals]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the fact that we came from 1-0 down. Hadn't we only done that twice since Adkins took over?

[bobby1413]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the fact that we came from 1-0 down. Hadn't we only done that twice since Adkins took over?

That is a very good point.

I dread going 1 down in recent times as it often means we're always on a backfoot. Was amazed we came back to 1-2 and absolutely fine with 2-2, not going to be greedy.