Category Archives: Reflections

No Place Like Home

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Other, Reflections and tagged with , , ,

dwstdred

Another nervy, edgy performance by  Wigan Athletic on their home ground. The end result a 2-2 draw with newly promoted Southampton. The visitors dominated the game so much that they looked like the home team.  Why were Latics not able to stamp their authority against a team short of Premier League experience, whom they had already beaten in August? Why didn’t Wigan put  them under pressure from the start? So far this season Latics have a woeful record of W2 D4 L7 at the DW Stadium. The wins came against West Ham and Reading. So why are Wigan not a greater force to be reckoned with on their home ground?

Since joining the Premier League Wigan Athletic have an aggregate home record of W46 D43 L57. In fact only in two seasons have they won more matches at home than they have lost, both during Steve Bruce’s reign between 2007 and 2009. Even in that wonderful Premier League debut  season of 2005-2006, under Paul Jewell, they lost more than they won at home, although their away form was excellent. It was in Latics’ second season in the Premier League that they gained the least total of points at home, with just  19. Martinez’ teams  gained 22 home points in 2011-2012, 23 points in 2010-2011,  and the best being 25 points in 2009-2010, when they won as many as they lost at home.  

Steve Bruce had some simple strategies that worked during his brief tenure in the Premier League with Wigan. He produced teams of iron, with a combative and aggressive midfield providing cover for the defence. He did not worry too much about results against the top clubs, but stressed the importance of good performances against teams nearer the bottom.  But more than anything else his teams performed well at home.

Figures sometimes don’t tell a true story, or should I say that results don’t always paint a true picture of a game?  Too often this season  the picture has been Wigan playing good football, but being undone by individual or collective errors. Sometimes they have been plain unlucky. Injuries have reaped havoc and the team has played all season without a settled defence. Critics would say you make your own luck and that Wigan go into matches without a proactive approach, paying too much respect to the opposition and only rallying when going behind. For what reason did Wigan not put the pressure on Southampton in the opening part of the game? Was it due to a lack of confidence or a tactical approach that did not work? In order for Wigan to stay afloat this season their approach needs to be more proactive, less reactive.

Last season Wigan Athletic drew one and won four of their last five home games. Crowd support was a key factor in their resurgence. Latics now have only six home games left this season – with Liverpool, Newcastle, Norwich, Swansea, Tottenham and Aston Villa coming up. It is to be hoped that their home form will have improved sufficiently by then to make that final match with the Villans a meaningful encounter. The DW Stadium needs to become a ‘Fortress Wigan’ if that is going to happen.

Like us on Facebook, or follow us on twitter here.

That sinking feeling — how can Wigan defy relegation?

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Other, Reflections and tagged with ,

logo_premier_league_1241BadgeLatics
That sinking feeling is back again. After the resolute rearguard performance at Fulham came the 25 minutes of defensive shambles which gifted Sunderland three points. An exposed defence lacking cohesion, leaking like a sieve. Players looking short on confidence, with nobody willing to take a risk and do something special.

Once again Wigan Athletic find themselves in the bottom three in the month of January. The team that promised so much at the end of last season has failed to live up to expectations. Key players have had dips in their form at various times since the season’s opener in August, even Wigan’s top player, goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi. So many times the team has played well enough to merit a positive result, but it has not happened because of individual errors or a collective lack of understanding among the back line. Put simply, there is no reward for playing good football if you give away goals by not getting your fundamentals right.

Are Latics capable of staying up? How are they going to be able to stop hemorrhaging goals, having conceded 43 in 23 league matches up to this point? The good news is that they are still 4 points ahead of bottom placed QPR and only 4 points behind Southampton, currently in 15th place. A couple of back-to-back wins would be sufficient to get them out of the bottom three.

So what can Wigan do to defy the threat of relegation?

1. Stick with the 3-4-3 formation, but have a plan B if things go awry. The current squad has been built around the 3-4-3 formation. It is not the system that has been the determining factor in the more disappointing performances witnessed this season, but individual and collective errors. Wigan are the only team in the Premier League to regularly play 3-4-3 and other teams have had difficulty dealing with it. However, tactically wiser opposition managers have learned to find ways of neutralizing the wing backs, who play a crucial role in the system. If the shape becomes neutralized then it needs to be adapted. Being behind at Fulham, Roberto Martinez reverted to a flat back four in the second half, pushing the balance back into Wigan’s favour.

2. Avoid losing to other teams in the danger zone. The home encounter with the Southampton on February 2nd is going to be a crucial one for Wigan, as are all of those against teams in the danger zone. In the first half of the season Wigan had largely positive results against teams currently in the bottom 6. The one they lost was 3-0 at Newcastle, but they beat Aston Villa, Reading and Southampton and drew with QPR.

3.Sign a dominant and experienced central defender in the January transfer window. The loss of Ivan Ramis for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury was a hammer blow. Add to that the hamstring injury suffered by Adrian Lopez and the slow recuperation of Antolin Alcaraz. Injuries have meant that Wigan have had to constantly chop and change their back three, resulting in a lack of mutual understanding between the players selected. Last season’s grand finale was based on a back three of Alcaraz, Caldwell and Figueroa, each player knowing the other ones’ game, gelling together as a unit. The trio have not once played together in a back three unit this season. Moreover in recent matches Emmerson Boyce has had to be moved across from wingback to the centre of defence. Having Boyce at wing back gives Wigan more height in defence, a key factor in the aerial battles.

4.Crowd support. Latics great escape last season was underpinned by the wonderful “I’m a Believer” support they got. Being a Wigan Athletic supporter in the Premier League can be exasperating, but that intensity of support is going to be needed if Wigan are to defy their critics in the media and stay in there.

5. Stay calm when other teams are panicking. Latics have been in this position before and have kept their cool and survived. Any 3 of the teams currently in the bottom 6 could go down, but there is always the possibility of a club in a higher position going into freefall. Teams  like Fulham, Norwich and Sunderland could yet be dragged into the relegation mire, with panic setting in.

6.Have luck smile upon Wigan Athletic. Seldom does a team suffer the number of injuries that have hit Wigan Athletic this season. The injuries have had a severe disruptive effect on team performance and morale. Some say that refereeing decisions even themselves out over the course of the season. However, teams near the bottom seem to consistently suffer, more so than those at the other end of the table. In Wigan’s case it has been severe, with so many marginal penalty decisions given against them, let alone good goals being disallowed for non-existent offsides and dubious red cards changing the course of a game. They say that you make your own luck. Let’s hope Wigan can do that!

Like us on Facebook, or follow us on twitter here.

A trip to Moss Rose

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Other, Reflections, Specials and tagged with , , , ,

maurobosellibournemouthwigangoal_576x324
Mauro Boselli’s rocket shot at Bournemouth on Tuesday was eventful in more ways than one. Once more he showed the kind of clinical finishing that Latics have desperately lacked in the Premier League this season. The big question is whether he will ever be able to show such finishing in the Premier League. Roberto Martinez has been reluctant to put him in there, but has the time come for a change of heart? In any event, Boselli’s goal was enough to beat Bournemouth and set up a fascinating match at Macclesfield.

Macclesfield Town is a special name for those Wigan Athletic supporters who remember the club’s non-league era. My first sight of the ‘Silkmen’ was at Springfield Park in autumn of 1961, when the reigning Cheshire County League champions were visiting. Latics had only just got back into the league, at the expense of Wigan Rovers, after being relegated in 1947. However, they had finished in second place in the Lancashire Combination and were holding their own in the Cheshire League.This match proved to be a rude awakening for Wigan. Macc’s silver-haired player-manager, Frank Bowyer, led his team to a 4-1 rout. Macclesfield were to finish second and Wigan fifth at the end of the season.

Macclesfield proved to be formidable opponents for Wigan over the next couple of decades. A visit to their Moss Rose ground was to be feared and Latics often came unstuck there. One exception was a Boxing Day fixture on a snow-bound pitch in 1964 when Carl Davenport’s volley was the difference between the two sides. That was the season when Harry Lyon scored his 66 goals and Latics won the league, Macc finishing second. Both Wigan and Macclesfield joined the newly created Northern Premier League in 1968, each club winning the championship twice before Wigan got elected into the Football League 10 years later.

The fortunes of the clubs have differed greatly since those days. Wigan are in their eighth season in the Premier League and Macclesfield back in the Conference after 15 years in the Football League. There are people who knock Wigan Athletic’s success, but the reality is that Latics are four divisions above their old rivals. A remarkable achievement.

Like us on Facebook, or follow us on twitter here.

Twin strikers at Wigan Athletic — a trip down memory lane

Posted by JJ (Tony) in News, Other, Reflections, Specials and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

1964-65 : Wigan Athletic 3 Oswestry 0. Harry Lyon gets on to a Walter Stanley cross as Carl Davenport lurks menacingly. Allan Brown looks on from midfield (photo from Wigan World). 

In the late 1970s, my Dad and I would typically go out for a beer on Friday nights. We would rarely discuss things like politics or the weather, preferring to focus our conversations on Wigan Athletic’s progress in the Cheshire League. Among our discussions would be recollections of trips to watch Latics in exotic places like Stalybridge, Mossley and Oswestry. We lived in the south of Wigan, rugby league territory, so the pubs around us were steeped in that kind of nostalgia. One of those was ‘The Waterwheel’, run by ex-Great Britain rugby player, John Stopford. In his heyday in the early 1960s Stopford had been a lightning-fast winger for Swinton. Although he never played for Wigan RLFC, Stopford would draw rugby enthusiasts to his pub. We mostly avoided such places, preferring to walk further afield to pubs that were more salubrious for Wigan Athletic supporters.

One rainy night we succumbed, and tried ‘The Waterwheel’. Upon opening the door and the sight of the scrum surrounding the bar we started to think twice about it. There were some burly men there, faces like boxers, some with arms in slings. We were just about to walk out when my Dad said “Look it’s Harry Lyon over there.” It was indeed my hero from my teenage years. Chatting with Harry was easy. He just made you feel comfortable talking with him. Although he had left the club a decade before you could tell that Wigan Athletic was his first love. He said that it was a wonderful feeling running down the tunnel at the start of a game at Springfield Park, with some 3,000 people urging you on.

Harry Lyon was a great favourite with the fans, Wiganers not only appreciating his incredible goalscoring record, but also loving his commitment on the pitch. I asked him who was the best manager he had worked under – he had 5 during his time at the club from 1962-1968 — his reply was Allan Brown. Brown caused waves in the non-league world in 1964 when he took over at Wigan as player/manager, hiring a swath of full time professionals in a semi-professional league. After training, Brown would sometimes take his players to the town centre restaurant where my mother worked. I would be thrilled when she would bring home players’ autographs, usually written on the backs of serviettes.

Brown’s teams played an attacking 4-2-4 with the manager orchestrating from the centre of midfield. Carl Davenport was Lyon’s striking partner in Brown’s first year. Like Lyon he was an excellent header of the ball. I recall going to the Anchor Ground – aptly named at the time, a real quagmire of a pitch – to watch Latics play Darwen in a cup match. My Dad would recall for many years how Davenport had risen so high that his head was well over the height of the crossbar as he put the ball in the opponents net. Although Davenport was often referred to as an inside forward in those days, he was in reality a twin striker with Lyon. No teams found it easy to cope with the two of them. That season Harry Lyon scored 67 goals!

However, when I asked Harry who was the best striking partner he had played with he immediately retorted: Bert Llewellyn. Unlike Carl Davenport, Bert Llewellyn was only 5 feet 4 inches tall. A headed goal was a rarity, but after joining Latics in the summer of 1965, he scored 49 goals in 39 league appearances over the course of the season. Llewellyn was far from an elegant player, but was a natural goalscorer, sniffing around the penalty box for deflections, toe-poking and scrambling the ball into the back of the net. In his four years at Springfield Park, Llewellyn scored 140 goals in 185 appearances in all competitions. Remarkably, he outscored Lyon in his time at the club. Check out this wonderful article on This Northern Soul on Bert Llewellyn.

Since that era there have been lots of twin striking partnerships at Wigan Athletic. What a pity that wonderful pairing of Jason Roberts and Nathan Ellington was broken up when Latics reached the Premier League. How refreshing that Robert Martinez has adjusted his tactical system to play with two big strikers this season. The interplay between Arouna Kone and Franco Di Santo is a joy to watch. It is almost like turning back the clock.

We would love to hear from our readers – which has been your favourite striking partnership at Wigan Athletic?

Moving up a tier? Wigan and the Premier League financial league table

Posted by JJ (Tony) in News, Other, Reflections, Specials and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

Over the years, Wigan Athletic have delivered performances ranging from the majestic to the downright nightmarish — none more so than the 2010 season opener against Blackpool. A 4-0 home defeat to anyone would have been bad enough, but to a team who the pundits had already condemned to relegation even before a ball was kicked? It was to prove a difficult season for Latics, only securing safety on the final game of the season. It also went down to the final game for Blackpool, who put up an amazing fight before eventually succumbing to Manchester United.

An old Bob Dylan song reminds us that “Money doesn’t talk, it swears.” The primary reason the pundits had tipped Blackpool for relegation that year was the perception that they did not have enough players of Premier League quality. Their Chairman, Karl Oyston, was not willing to splash money around like confetti and put the club at risk of insolvency. Blackpool’s salary bill that season amounted to just £14 million. Wigan’s was almost £40 million. During that 2010-11 season Blackpool were to do the home and away double over a team with a salary bill almost 10 times that of their own. That was Liverpool, at £135 million.

In the end Blackpool couldn’t quite avoid that relegation trap-door in the jungle of the Premier League, where clubs regularly make huge losses in an effort to keep up with the Joneses. You could say Blackpool got it right. Their salaries amounted to only around 25% of their income – compared with the league average of around 69% – and this helped them gain a positive cashflow for the season. They continue to be run on a sound financial basis in the Championship. Manchester City actually spent more on salaries than the revenues they had coming in, and even Aston Villa were leaking 92% of their revenue on salaries. No wonder Villa have since cut back, putting the emphasis on youth rather than established big-earners. It could be argued, however, that they have gone too far as the lack of quality and experience in this year’s squad makes them candidates for relegation.

Statistics show that the Premier League is financially tiered. In the 2010-2011 season club salary levels published by the Daily Telegraph ranged from £14 million to an absurd £190 million. The top three clubs in the table paid in the £150-£190m range. The teams finishing 4th and 6th paid in the £120-150m range, Tottenham bucking the trend by finishing 5th on a budget of “only” £91m. Fulham and Everton, with budgets around £58m managed to finish ahead of Aston Villa, who spent £84m on salaries. Then followed a clump of clubs paying between £40 and £60m, which included West Ham who were to be relegated despite a wage bill of £56m. Wigan Athletic, Wolves and West Bromwich had salary totals between £37 and £40 million, with only Blackpool below. It would be interesting to see salary levels for the current season, when these become available.

According to the Guardian “ The Premier League’s 20 clubs collectively made a loss of £361m last year, after spending all of their record £2.3bn income. Of the clubs which were in the Premier League in 2010-11, the year of most clubs’ latest published accounts, eight made a profit, of £97.4m in total.”  Dave Whelan wrote off Latics debts for £48m in August 2011. He advocated financial fair play to ensure that debt is maintained at “reasonable and sustainable levels”.

According to Alan Switzer,  of accounting group Deloitte, clubs with salary to revenue ratios of 70% and above are not likely to make a profit. He suggests that levels should go down to the low 60s. In 2010-11, Wigan Athletic were around the 80% level, according to the Daily Telegraph stats, which indicates a negative cashflow of £0.1 m.

The Daily Telegraph statistics show a clear correlation between salary levels and success on the field, although there are some exceptions. So how does a team stay afloat in a tiered Premier League? Do Wigan Athletic have to significantly increase salary levels in order to move up a tier in the league table? Would doing so make them financially less stable?

Last season both Mohamed Diame and Hugo Rodallega left at the ends of their contracts. A rough estimate might suggest that Wigan Athletic lost maybe £10 million in potential transfer money for the two. Whelan rightly insists that Wigan Athletic keep a lid on their salary payments so it is unlikely that either player was given an offer he could not refuse to stay on at the club. This season we have Franco Di Santo and Maynor Figueroa in their final year of contract. Both are key players. Figueroa has developed into an excellent left of centre defender in Martinez’ tactical system. He could prove costly to replace. Di Santo has now added goal poaching to his repertoire and could be worth in the region of £20 million on the open market if he continues to improve at this rate. When Roberto Martinez took over at the club various higher wage earners were sent packing to bring down the wage bill. He is now facing a dilemma in how to keep his top players from leaving at the ends of their contracts, given the total salary cap imposed by his chairman.

Given the factors above, is it possible for Wigan Athletic to consistently reach a mid-table position? Could they defy the stats on an annual basis, keeping a nucleus of good players, allowing a couple of stars to go for premium transfer fees each summer? In this way, the budget could be balanced. The first step would be to already have the replacements for the stars ready and in place. The second would be  to find a way to offer top players longer contracts at competitive rates, whilst maintaining a reasonable total salary cap. Food for thought for Bob and Dave.