Latics out to prove relegation battles are behind them

Posted by Ned in Match Previews, News, Other and tagged with , ,

Following an exceptional result at White Hart Lane and convincing home success against West Ham before it, Wigan Athletic are starting to answer the question many of us spent the summer pondering: can the performance levels from our season-saving run of form be matched when the pressure is off?

Back in April and May, the intensity and tenacity of Latics’ defensive play at times seemed superhuman. The harrying, chasing down, selflessness — surely this was an attitude borne of need, the will to survive and fight another day. Over the summer, doubt intensified. Without that full commitment, would Wigan lose its edge?

Early season results did little to clear things up. A couple weeks ago, after some strong performances and one or two rotten ones, the general consensus was that a lack of sharpness at the decisive ends of the pitch were costing the club points. Wigan was stuck in the all-too-familiar bottom quarter of the table. Forward to present, and Roberto is a win away from the top half. What changed?

Despite a history of starting slowly at home in the Martinez era, I would argue that home wins are catalytic to the club’s good form. The players enjoy an unusually close relationship with the support, and the good feeling brought after a convincing win breathes not only confidence but urgency into the team. If anything, the last minute consolation goal by James Tomkins strengthened that resolve. A reminder that whilst the victory was more-than-warranted, a lead is a fragile thing that you have to fight to protect.

It was with this urgency that Wigan approached the Spurs match. All for one, and one for all. Ben Watson, eventually the match winner, put in a defensive shift we didn’t know he was able to. There was unity all over the park. Finesse in attack, real steel in defence. It was on par with the wins over Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool last season. And one notch below the 4-0 hammering of Newcastle, only due to missed chances to increase the scoreline.

And so what would have been viewed as more of a must-win home tie against West Brom when fixtures were announced, has become a real opportunity. Instead of the trepidation that accompanies these home matches we “should” win, there is real excitement that Wigan have rekindled the form that gave us so much joy earlier this year — and may deliver us three wins in a row and a place in the top half of the table.

But West Brom are not to be underestimated. In fact, they took advantage Wigan’s good work against Spurs and leapfrogged the London side into fifth place when no one was looking. Steve Clarke appears to be doing terrific work with an odd group of players, who seem capable of pulling off big results but never really look all that special. They’ve had two fewer days of rest, but will hardly have needed them after beating Southampton very comfortably indeed. The match should find two sides in decent form with few injuries to complain of — Latics’ main doubt is James McArthur, but Ben Watson will have earned a recall if there is any doubt about the Scot’s fitness.

There is always the possibility of a flat start, an unlucky deflected goal, a red card or an injury. But if Wigan can match the performance levels of Spurs and West Ham, it will put any lingering doubts to rest. Roberto has brought this club, beyond reasonable doubt, up a full level since this time last season. Relegation battlers simply can’t play the sort of football his team is capable of.

JORDI GÓMEZ – A LOOK AT WIGAN ATHLETIC’S ENIGMA

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

Just over  a year ago I wrote an article on this site about how Wigan Athletic’s new tactical system had helped get better performances from the players. In particular I focused on the improvements in performance of Jordi Gómez and Ronnie Stam.  

Both Stam and Gómez had previously struggled in the Premier League. But then Gómez had scored four goals in five games and Stam was clearly relishing playing in his more natural position of wing back. Latics had come through an horrendous set of fixtures in December with pride intact. It looked like they were going to be moving onward and upward. That proved not to be the case for the next three months until the miraculous recovery started in late March. During that time Stam hardly played and has since become almost a forgotten man as supporters are concerned. Gómez lost his place to Shaun Maloney during the revival run and has since been limited to the odd starting appearance, largely being used as a substitute.

If you were in a room full of Wigan Athletic supporters and asked them to speak up if they thought if Jordi Gómez merited a place in the first choice lineup then you would hear a deadly silence. However, Roberto Martinez continues to have faith in the enigmatic player, Gómez having signed a further extension on his contract at the end of last season. So what is it that Martinez sees in his fellow Catalan? Gómez had revealed his best-ever Latics form in those difficult games last December against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester  United. It looked like he had finally been able to make the transition to the Premier League. Since then his form has been patchy to say the least.

How does Jordi Gómez fit into the current tactical lineup? Martinez likes to play with a front three, with the two big strikers – Di Santo and Kone – combining with the playmaking Shaun Maloney. Nominally Maloney is the third striker, but he tends to be more effective playing behind the big men, threading through the passes. However, Maloney tends to be more based on the left. Having played as a winger he has the ability to beat his man and cross from the by-line. The Latics website categorizes Maloney as a midfielder, but his current role is a bit of a hybrid. If Gómez is to be brought in is it to be as a striker or in that hybrid role?

Jordi Gómez has scored 7 goals in the Premier League in 46 starts and 25 appearances as a substitute. He has had 128 shots on goal, of which around 30% (38 to be precise) have been on target. He has made no assists. As Championship Player of the Year in the 2008-09 season for Swansea he scored 12 goals in 38 starts and 6 substitute appearances. He made 5 assists. Interestingly more than 50% of his 119 shots on goal were on target. The stats reveal the difficulties Gómez has had since making the transition to the Premier League from the Championship. As a creative midfielder he should be providing at least some assists. As a forward he should be scoring more goals.

In the disappointing performance against Bradford last week in the League Cup, Gómez got himself into clear scoring positions on at least four occasions without success.  Rarely for him he also missed a penalty. He has the rare ability to drift in, seemingly unnoticed by the defence. There have been so many times over the last three years when Gómez has done everything right until his final touch has let him down, whether it will be a header, a shot or a defence-splitting pass. He just does not seem to have had the self belief to deliver. This must be as frustrating for the player himself as much as for the supporters. Maybe a spell in the under-21 team would be benefical in helping Gómez find his goalscoring boots?

At times one cannot help but feel sorry for Gómez. He has often been played out of his best position in central midfield. He is the butt of the crowd’s frustrations. Not only is he a poor tackler, but too often he passes the ball backwards when a forward pass is possible. This was particularly evident when he came on as substitute at Swansea a couple of weeks ago. There was a need for urgency and the substitution proved to be ill-judged. However, when he came on as substitute against Tottenham last Saturday, with Latics leading, he looked much more comfortable. Martinez will often use Gómez in such situations. When his defence is under pressure he can hold on to the ball in midfield, often drawing fouls from an opposition desperate to score.

However, whatever shortcomings he might have, there can be no doubting his determination and commitment to the club. Gómez has learned to hassle and harry the opposition, and to cover a large number of yards of the pitch in each game he plays. At Swansea he played in a newly promoted team that was on the up. His role was to orchestrate the midfield and to score goals. When he arrived at Wigan he moved into a stuggling team that was too often unable to get the lion’s share of the possession. Apart from his recent miss against Bradford, Gómez has been an effective taker of penalties. He has an aura of calm that few players have. Gómez is also capable of scoring from free kicks on the edge of the box.

Roberto Martinez clearly has faith that Jordi Gómez can reach his full potential. One hopes that his best is yet to come. He is now close to his peak at 27 years of age. Only time will tell if Martinez is right.

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?

Tottenham 0 Wigan Athletic 1: Return of the giant-killers

Posted by Ned in Match Reports, News and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Wigan Athletic made up for their slow start to the season with an away performance reminiscent of the famous victories at Anfield and the Emirates of last term, climbing to 12th in the league table in doing so.

Tottenham’s starting XI — and indeed the thousands supporting them at White Hart Lane — appeared to approach the fixture as a foregone conclusion ahead of a series of tricky fixtures. Much will be criticized about their performance, but it won’t tell the whole story. While Villas Boas shifted and tweaked throughout and his players huffed and puffed in the second half, Roberto Martinez’s men knew exactly what their gameplan was and executed it to perfection.

In fact, so dominant were the Latics before Ben Watson’s breakthrough, they should have gone at least two or three up. While Gareth Bale was clearly the best player on the pitch, you got the sense that Spurs are at present just a team of expensively assembled individuals, while Wigan look an organized and well-oiled machine.

The Good: 

Roberto Martinez. The second youngest manager in the league put on a tactical masterclass for the youngest. This is the second 1-0 win in three away fixtures at White Hart Lane, against Spurs teams that have hardly struggled for goals. If you go back a fourth fixture, you get to the horrific 9-1 loss in Roberto’s first season. Where most chairmen would have panicked, Dave Whelan kept faith, and Martinez has repaid it. The team showed today it is already — this early in the season despite losing Victor Moses and having to bed in new signings — capable of the form shown that kept us up last year. Which bodes very well indeed.

The defence. Gary Caldwell was immense, as he was in the final stretch of last season. Ivan Ramis, next to him, had a brilliant match save one foul on the edge of the box that might have proven costly on another day. He looks comfortable in the league and tactical system, a quality signing. Figueroa had to cope with Lennon and Bale and got the job done, albeit with the occasional mistimed challenge. Emmerson Boyce, whose attacking play was non-existent, must receive huge praise for his defensive work as well.

Attacking link-up play. There are some excellent partnerships developing between the attacking trio. First, Maloney set up Kone. Then Kone returned the favour. Di Santo was quiet today but has been on the same wave length in recent fixtures. Latics created the five clearest chances of the match.

The Bad: 

Finishing. Both Kone and Maloney, when through with just the keeper to beat, shot straight at him. It comes down to confidence and composure. Both played very well otherwise, but you get the sense they each need a goal to get things going again. Ben Watson, who had an odd match — at times rusty, others very effective and ultimately scoring the winner — missed another sitter by blasting over.

Player Ratings: 

Ali Al-Habsi: 8.5 — Excellent. Held onto a couple stinging shots that other keepers would have spilled. Dominant in the air.

Ivan Ramis: 8.5 — Cracking performance from the Spaniard. Strong and excellent with his distribution. The way the back three knocks the ball around these days is a joy to watch. Very rarely is a ball hacked away in panic.

Gary Caldwell: 9 — Man of the match. Didn’t put a foot wrong, he was dominant. His passing out of the back, under pressure, was fantastic.

Maynor Figueroa: 7 — Had a tough time with Bale and Lennon at times, but got a very difficult job done. Lucky not to be given a yellow card in the first half, which was fortunate as he received one in the second.

Emmerson Boyce: 7.5 — Passing was at times poor and didn’t get forward, but his primary function was defensive. He had Bale to watch for most of the match, and defended well on set pieces.

Jean Beausejour: 8 — In good form. Got forward on several occasions in the first half with some quality deliveries. Neat in footwork as always, and put a real defensive shift in.

James McCarthy: 7.5 — Usual energetic, neat performance.

Ben Watson: 8 — Got the match winner. Going from Bradford to Spurs within the space of a few days must have been an adjustment, and his passing was a little wayward at times. But he was very frequently in the right place at the right time to make defensive interceptions, and stuck the ball in the back of the net — which no one else managed.

Shaun Maloney: 8 — Top class in the first half, buzzing about and creating. Should have scored his one-on-one opportunity. Faded as the team retreated in the second half.

Franco Di Santo: 7 — Couldn’t get going in this one, though he held the ball up well when required. Substituted with 20 minutes to go.

Arouna Kone: 7 — Another promising performance full of dangerous movement and skill but no goal. They’ll come.

Subs: 

Jordi Gomez: Played a couple delicious flicks that Kone and Maloney might have been quicker to pounce on. Drew a couple fouls that eased the pressure. Overall, did the job he was sent on to do quite well.

Bradford preview: More for Mauro?

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Match Previews, News, Other and tagged with , , , , ,

I have often thought that the League Cup is a waste of time. Shadow teams playing each other in empty stadia. What purpose does it really serve? However, in a disappointing season for Wigan Athletic up to this point it has been the League Cup matches that have been the highlight. We have seen two successive 4-1 away wins where the finishing has been lethal, an uncommon experience for Latics fans. Moreover the ties have also shown that the club has considerable strength in depth, with ‘fringe’ players putting in excellent performances.

Will the finishing in the game against Bradford City tonight once again be of that order? Leading the charge, with three goals already in the competition, will be the excellent Mauro Boselli. Boselli is well on the way to proving his doubters wrong. It has been all too easy for the cynics to knock him. All kinds of misleading statistics have been thrown his way. Recently I even heard a football commentator on television say that Boselli had not scored a Premier League goal in three years at Wigan. It is not unusual for such people to put Wigan Athletic down, with their condescending attitudes towards the club. However, this recent comment was palpably unfair. Boselli started only five times in the first part of the 2010-2011 season before going off to Genoa and Estudiantes on loan. He has not started for Wigan in the Premier League since returning in July.

At Estudiantes, prior to joining Wigan, Boselli had scored 22 goals in 29 league starts in 2009-10 and 10 in 23 league starts in 2008-09. Impressive stats when playing for a relatively small club in a league with tight defences. He was the leading goalscorer in whole of the Copa Libertadores competition in 2008-09, helping his team lift the trophy with the match winner in the final against Cruzeiro. Since his return to Wigan he has been carefully nurtured by Roberto Martinez, being limited to three brief  substitute appearances in the Premier League. However, the snippets we have seen of Boselli’s finishing for Latics League Cup and Under 21 teams have shown us how he scored so many goals in tough and competitive competitions in South America. We may well see that tonight.

Prior to cup ties Roberto Martinez typically reiterates that they are an opportunity for the fringe players to break into the first choice lineup. However, he was careful to provide a backbone of experienced first choice players in defence for the wins at Forest and West Ham. Tonight he is likely to play both Roman Golobart and Adrian Lopez in the back three. They come from the opposite sides of Spain and have contrasting styles.

Roman Golobart – a Catalan from Barcelona in the east of Spain – is a big, powerful central defender, nevertheless with good passing ability. Golobart joined the club from Espanyol as a 17 year old in August 2009. Last season he had a successful loan spell at Inverness, being voted fans’ player of the year. Playing under the influence of manager Terry Butcher, ex-England centre half, will surely have helped his game. Still only 20 he is an excellent prospect.

Adrian Lopez –from the province of Coruña in Galicia, north west Spain – signed for Wigan in December 2010 from local team Deportivo La Coruña, as a free agent after a heated dispute over his contractual situation. In the previous three years he had played 26 matches for Deportivo, scoring one goal. In Spain he was known under his nickname ‘Piscu’ to distinguish him from the other Adrian Lopez ,a forward who plays for Atletico Madrid. Now 25 years old, Piscu has had 6 starts since joining Wigan. According to the Wigan Athletic club website, Lopez “ brings cultured development to Latics’ back line”. Clearly a different type of player to the more muscular Golobart. Lopez has struggled with the physicality of the Premier League, but Martinez retains confidence in the player.

Other likely starters for the match are Callum McManaman, Ronnie Stam, Fraser Fyvie, David Jones and Jordi Gomez. There are doubts over the fitness of Ryo Miyaichi. Albert Crusat remains out injured. Martinez may once again opt to put in some of his first choice players, although maybe fewer  than in the previous League Cup games with the away match at Tottenham coming up at the weekend.

Although tonight’s match is at the DW Stadium it might seem more like a home game for Bradford City, who have sold all of their 5,000 ticket allocation. Bradford are currently in 5th place in League Two, but have the highest average attendance in the division at just below 10,000.

Prediction: at least one goal from Mauro Boselli and a win for Wigan Athletic.