I read and enjoyed Whitey’s report of the Wigan game in the Johnstones Paint Trophy. He described a game dominated by the Barnsley midfield with lots of first half chances and a deserved win, even though it was a draw, if you know what I mean. Wigan clearly learned more from the game than we did. Today Wigan played 3-6-1 formation (5-4-1 when out of possession). If you slice the field of play length ways instead of the traditional sideways, you would find that they outnumbered our central midfield players 4 to 2. Not surprisingly, the outnumbered Pearson and Hourihane struggled to cope. Jacobs constantly found room between the lines and their late breaking central midfield players were able to run through us and past their only forward on to a stream of passes. Only when the initial damage had been done did we narrow our back four in order to make it harder for their passers to find their mark. This gave their full backs room out wide, but that was the lesser of two evils. That first half was an embarrassment. I am sure that Nyatanga will have attracted the most criticism on here, especially after that second goal, but in my view, Long was no better. Before they scored, he had lost his player from a cross, which was headed narrowly wide when the Wigan player should have scored easily. He struggled, just as Nyatanga did with the Wigan system in that first half. It looked like the manager had prepared for an aerial battering, but what we got was pace and passing on the deck. We simply were not prepared, and I cannot believe that Wigan played in the same way two weeks ago. They dictated how the game would be played, and that was not how Barnsley wanted it played. The second half was different. Wigan looked happy with their 1-0 win, and they would have got it too without the Nyatanga and Davies show (or should that be no show). The fact is that Wigan’s 41 year old keeper can rarely have had an easier day in his 20 odd years of professional football. I cannot say that I recall a worthwhile shot on target throughout the whole 90 minutes. But why did their system so comprehensively defeat our 4-4-2. Well, the first goal was crucial, but there is more to it than that. We have too many young players who were simply perplexed by the way that they played. Toney started well, but gradually got worse as nothing seemed to work for him. Winnall suffered more than most from Toney’s gradual withdrawal from proceedings. With the front two out of the game, and with central midfield struggling to cope when not in possession and unable to find a player ahead of them moving into space when in possession, the two wide players were their only outlet. Regular readers will already have noted my impatience with Watkins, and today has not cured it. With almost everything going through Hammill, Wigan were well briefed on what to expect. In fairness, Hammill did not have his best game, but we should not put all our footballing eggs in his basket. Today, we were well beaten. Wigan had the better players, they had the quicker players and they had the more accurate passers. They looked a good side, but we helped them to look a good side, because we were poor. Let us not look for scapegoats though, because we were poor from front to back, and even on the bench.
For once I find myself in absolute agreement with you. Watkins has delivered precious little since he was signed. When Hammill did get involved his delivery was woeful. Winnall was ineffectual, and should have scored with the big chance that did fall to him. Modesty forbids me from repeating what Grandfathertyke had to say about that chance. Hourihane's delivery was substandard, his involvement in open play marginal, and his leadership in the captain's role non-existent. The talk of a big fee for him (are we being softened up for his moving on?) is laughable. The defence showed such little togetherness and awareness of who was marking who that you would have been forgiven for thinking that they had done no work together during the week. (What does that say about the coaching?). I felt there were very valid reasons for believing that today was an opportunity to build on some limited positives in recent weeks. Instead I felt that the performance was even more woeful than the abysmal show against Sheffield United. I left the ground feeling angry today about the lack of professionalism shown. I understand the calls that stability is required, but this stability will result in our playing in a lower league, with a lower fan base, and with a business whose turnover is even less than that in League One.
We genuinely bossed them a fortnight ago. We were a joy to watch offensively, but as I said at the time our defence was still appalling. I'm assuming Wigan must have had an off day, and us a good day. Because you've described the BFC I've seen 90% of the season. And so I look at the manager, unfortunately. No other manager this season at any professional club in any league would still be in a job with the record Johnson has got. And that's without taking into consideration the size of our club, budget, gates etc in this division. Cryne is finally backing an horse. It's the wrong un, obviously.
An astute and accurate summary as usual. Thought Williams deserved a mention as he did more on the ball in 20 minutes than anyone else in the preceding 70 though that wouldn't be had.
