Tag Archives: mccann

Sheffield Wednesday Preview – a potential banana skin

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

The dream continued to come true on Sunday as Latics grafted out a win that took them into the FA Cup semi-finals. Apart from a few glimpses in the first half we did not see the kind of flowing football that won them the FA Cup in May. But we did witness once again the “character” that this Latics team now displays under Uwe Rosler. It might not have been as pleasing on the eye as what we saw in May, but in many ways this win was even more impressive. Only one English team- Chelsea- had beaten Manchester City this season at the Etihad Stadium prior to Wigan’s victory. City had hit six against Arsenal and Tottenham and seven against Norwich.

It is a reflection upon the changes that have occurred since the historic May victory that only four players from that Wembley final made the starting lineup on Sunday. There may be even less in the team that meets Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow.

If any match this season presents a potential banana skin it is this one. It would be all too easy for Latics to slip up against the Yorkshire club after the elation of the quarter final win. Latics are clear favourites to win this match after six successive victories and a 3-0 win at Hillsborough a month ago. However, the performance at City will have taken its physical toll and this match is the second of three in a period of six days.

Rosler will certainly have to rotate his squad for this match. Chris McCann went off injured at half time on Sunday, so will be doubtful. Rosler has already stated that Ivan Ramis is not yet fit enough for two games a week. Leon Barnett, who has played more games than anyone this season, was rested from the starting lineup on Saturday but had to come on for McCann after half time. Rosler will also be tempted to rest Emmerson Boyce, who was superb on Sunday.

Nicky Maynard and Martyn Waghorn will almost certainly return to the starting lineup. Callum McManaman and James McClean shared game time on Sunday and may well do so again, the latter being the more likely starter. If Rosler goes for a flat back four then Ryan Tunnicliffe might well start in holding midfield. The big Swede Marcus Holgersson might well make his debut, teaming up with Barnett in the centre of defence. However, he can also play right back if Rosler decides to rest James Perch. Jean Beausejour will return at left back, providing he is fit. Rosler is fortunate to be able to choose from probably the two best goalkeepers in the division, in Ali Al-Habsi and Scott Carson.

Dave Whelan was quoted this week as saying “I’ve loved that FA Cup and the whole town has but this year you’ve got a feeling the league is more important. You get people asking ‘what do you want to do?’ Well there’s only one thing – promotion back to the Premier League.”

Rosler will be therefore be keen to bring his players back down to the ground following the elation of their amazing performance at the Etihad. They will have to knuckle down and fight for the fifty-fifty balls against a Wednesday team currently sitting in 16th place.

Latics fans will be hoping they don’t slip up on that banana skin tomorrow.

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

Manchester City 1 Wigan Athletic 2 – the dream is coming true again

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Match Reports, Other and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,
James Perch gets Latics'second

James Perch gets Latics’second

Wigan Athletic defied the odds once more with a remarkable victory at the Etihad. They now face Arsenal in the semi-final at Wembley.  The dream simply refuses to die.

Latics went into the game on the top of a run of good results, but were facing a side that had won 12 of its 13 home games in the Premier League and had already beaten them 5-0 in the League Cup. However, Uwe Rosler’s team were by no means overawed by their star-studded opponents and played with great spirit and organization and with no mean level of skill.

As expected Rosler fielded three central defenders, pushing back Chris McCann to the left side, with Emmerson Boyce on the right and Ivan Ramis in the centre. Scott Carson made a return in goal and Josh McEachran took over the Ben Watson role in midfield. Marc-Antoine Fortune and Callum McManaman played upfront with Jordi Gomez playing behind them in a forward midfield role.

Latics had started brightly, showing no fear, taking the game to the home team. In the 27th minute Marc-Antoine Fortune turned past Martin Dimichaelis near the byline for the Argentinian to make a clumsy challenge within the penalty box. Jordi Gomez was coolness personified as he slotted home the penalty. Latics continued to play the better football and City had not tested Carson as the half time whistle sounded.  Latics high pressing tactic had stemmed the flow of City moves and they deservedly went in ahead.

The second half saw a change for Latics with Leon Barnett coming on for Chris McCann. The Irishman had been outstanding, solid in defence, building up play from the back via his cultured left foot. He had been injured in the 40th minute following a powerhouse tackle on Micah Richards.

The question was whether Latics would have the energy  to continue to operate their high pressing game, boldly leaving two players up front even when under pressure.

Incredibly Latics went 2-0 up just two minutes into the second half. Lethargic defence by the home team saw James McArthur receive the ball outside the penalty area. The Scot ran through the defence before putting in a superb low cross from the left. It looked like Gael Clichy was going to clear it, but somehow James Perch got a foot to it between the Frenchman’s legs to put the ball in the net.

Manuel Pellegrini took a calculated risk after 53 minutes, using his substitute allotment by bringing on James Milner, David Silva and Edin Dzeko.  Soon after Dzeko was unlucky to head against the post and Latics were on the back foot. City scored a controversial goal after 68 minutes when Samir Nasri  shot from outside the box with Joleon Lescott trying to connect, but the ball passing between his legs to beat Carson.

Latics had brought on James McClean for McManaman after 58 minutes and Roger Espinoza for McEachran after 66 minutes. Following their goal City continued to bombard the Wigan defence, but somehow it held firm. Boyce made an amazing block to prevent Dzeko from scoring, but it was not to be City’s day. A breakaway saw Fortune wastefully blazing the ball over the bar from distance when a simple pass would have seen McClean put through on a direct route to goal.

Sheer resilience saw Latics through five minutes of added time to gain a win that was richly deserved.

The Good

Uwe Rosler had clearly done his homework and his tactics were spot-on.  In the first half the three central defenders passed the ball out of defence with composure and snuffed out the danger of strikers Aguero and Negredo. The combination of McCann and Crainey proved too much for the flying winger Navas, who was taken off after 53 minutes.  Crainey was to have his best game yet in a Latics shirt in the left wing back position. At right wing back, James Perch was as solid as ever and capped his display with an opportunist goal. It is an indication of the type of attacking approach that Rosler encourages when a wing back gets into that kind of scoring position.

Boyce gave an inspirational display. His performance in the FA Cup Final was huge, but this one might have been even better.  He forms a fine partnership with the intelligent Ramis. Barnett once again gave his all for the cause.

McArthur was his usual tireless self in midfield and made an assist for the second goal. Apart from one sloppy pass that put his defence in danger McEachran played his part until going off after 66 minutes. Gomez played well, linking up the play in the first half, putting in a lot of hard graft. Who else do Latics have who could take a penalty with such aplomb, despite the huge pressure?

Fortune gave Dimichaelis a match to forget, playing the target man role. City had clearly recognized McManaman as a danger man and although he came in for rough treatment, he made a valuable contribution.

The Bad

One wonders what might have happened had the referee, Antony Taylor, correctly disallowed City’s goal for offside.  As one might expect City did have some shouts for penalties but Taylor rightly ignored them.

Player Ratings

Scott Carson: 7 – a welcome return from the excellent ‘keeper. Did all that could be expected of him.

Emmerson Boyce: 9.5 – has he ever played a better game for Latics? Superb.

Ivan Ramis: 8 – another fine defensive performance from a quality central defender. His anticipation is a real advantage to his team mates.

Chris McCann: 8 – excellent. Let’s hope the injury is not serious. He has become a key player for Latics.

James Perch: 8 – excellent in defence and we will remember his goal for years to come.

Stephen Crainey: 8 – it has taken the Scot some time to adjust to the quality passing game that Latics favour. Today he was solid in defence and his use of the ball good.

James McArthur: 8- a midfield dynamo.

Josh McEachran: 7 – still lacking match fitness, but could become a key player over the coming weeks.

Jordi Gomez: 8 – a tireless display, capped by his goal.

Callum McManaman: 7.5 – looked useful.

Marc-Antoine Fortune: 8 – a fine performance as the central striker.

Substitutes:

Leon Barnett:-  came on after half time.  Solid and committed.

James McClean: – high on endeavour, but his control lets him down when switching over to the right.

Roger Espinoza: – tried hard to stem the tide of City attacks.

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

McCann silences his critics

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Player profiles and tagged with , , , , , ,

Chris+Mccann

When managers change clubs they often take with them players from their previous club. Roberto Martinez is a prime example in taking Antolin Alcaraz, Arouna Kone, James McCarthy and Joel Robles from Wigan.

It was therefore no surprise when Owen Coyle’s first signing was one of his former players. Most Wigan Athletic fans would have expected it to be someone from Bolton, but it turned out to be a tall Irishman who had played under the Scot at Burnley.

Not many of us had heard much about Chris McCann, who had spent nine years at Burnley after being signed from Dublin club, Home Farm. When we found out more about him, it looked as if maybe Coyle had made a mistake.

McCann’s best season with them was in their promotion year, 2008-09. A cruciate knee injury  early in his first Premier League season proved a severe blow for McCann. He made only eight appearances that season and four in 2010-11, being plagued by injury.

However, the Irishman was to come back to start in 83 Championship matches over the next two seasons.

Owen  Coyle had taken over a fragmented squad at Wigan following Martinez’s departure. There was shortage of players in various positions, particularly the centre of defence and up front. But central midfield was the one area where Latics were well supplied – with James McArthur, Roger Espinoza,  Fraser Fyvie,  Jordi Gomez and Ben Watson – plus James McCarthy, who was to be sold.

McCann’s  performances in his early starts for Latics at home to Doncaster and Middlesbrough and at Zulte Waregem were solid, if uninspiring.

Cynics said that Coyle had brought in an ex-player who was not up to par, but who was ahead of both Espinoza and Fyvie in the pecking order. It looked like Coyle was snubbing  players from the previous regime to bring in his own men.

However, McCann was to come back to the starting lineup with a fine display against Rubin Kazan. That night he was tireless in defence and his cultured passing when under pressure helped Latics keep possession. He followed that up with a fine performance at Charlton, being unlucky with a flick header that hit the crossbar. In the subsequent match against QPR he once again put in a hardworking stint, being denied by the woodwork with a far post header. On Sunday against Huddersfield he once again put in solid defensive shift and this time saw a fine long range shot palmed over the bar by the keeper.

Coyle has so far relied heavily on McArthur and Watson in the midfield holding roles. They bring Premier League quality to the Championship. Both have excellent technique and work tirelessly to win the ball back and support their defence.

However, McCann has already shown that he too is a player of such attributes and will be challenging them for a place in the starting lineup. He too has a touch of quality. At 6’1” he also poses an aerial threat to opposition defences.

Chris McCann has already silenced most of his critics through a series of good displays. He is still only 26 years old and could prove to be a key player for Latics for years to come.

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

Phasing out Martinez’s men?

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

Fraser Fyvie

“It’s not great. The manager’s just not given me any chance at all. Of course it’s demoralising. You go down there and a manager (Martinez) buys you and tries to mould you into the player that he wants you to be and then of course he went to Everton. The new manager (Owen Coyle) has come in and he’s got his own players, so there’s not much I can do apart from prove a point to him that I want to get in the Wigan side.”

The words of Fraser Fyvie quoted by the Scottish Herald, before he joined Yeovil Town on a three month loan deal today. The young  Scot had not even been made the bench, let alone started, in a league game this season.

Were Roger Espinoza  less tactful he too might say something similar.  A star in  an Honduras side that has secured qualification for Brazil, he has started in only two league matches for Latics this season.

Despite his international experience – 34 caps for his country at the age of 26 – Espinoza has not appeared in either of the Europa League games up to this point.  In the league matches where the Honduran made the starting line-up he was taken off after 65 minutes against Nottingham Forest and 55 minutes at Leicester.

The loan of Rob Kiernan to Southend was announced earlier this week. It is the central defender’s fourth loan  move since joining Latics in 2011.

Kiernan is 22 years old and does not yet have the right kind of experience to enable him to challenge for a first team place. He has made regular appearances for Latics’ under 21 team, but the lack of serious competition in the Central League would not have done much for his development. The under 21s  find themselves in a division of clubs from the third and fourth tier of English football. The gap between the level of football in the Central League and that of the Championship is huge.

Fyvie is only 20. Unlike Kiernan he has considerable  experience at a competitive level. He was signed as a 19 year old with more than 50 senior games prior experience under his belt for Aberdeen. Roberto Martinez used him sparingly last year, presumably giving him a year to adapt to English football. Fyvie has the potential to be a good player at Premier League level.

When Coyle signed Chris McCann, Fyvie probably saw the warning signs.  The squad was already overloaded with quality midfield players despite relegation from the Premier League. McCann himself has had few opportunities, despite his previous record of success in the division and might well prove to be a player of Premier League quality were the opportunity to arise.

Conspiracy theorists will say that Coyle is ridding himself of players he inherited.

Questions remain about the futures of long term injured players – Gary Caldwell, Ali Al Habsi and Ivan Ramis. Two of the three are ex-players of the year for Latics. The third – Ramis – might have received the same honour had his season not been curtailed by a cruciate knee ligament injury at Fulham in January.

One also wonders about Shaun Maloney.

A new manager typically brings in his own players. Coyle has done well in recruiting new players who can help Latics get back to the Premier League. That is quite distinct to preparing a squad that can get promotion and hold their own at that higher level.

Coyle runs the risk of losing players who have already proven themselves at Premier League level, let alone a potential talent like Fraser Fyvie.

One hopes that the conspiracy theorists are misguided.

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

Burnley supporter sheds light on Chris McCann

Posted by Ned in Other, Specials and tagged with , ,

mccann

As the Owen Coyle revolution continues with arrivals from near and far, we thought we’d re-visit a special feature approach and ask more informed writers about who exactly the club is signing.

Twenty-five year-old Irish midfielder Chris McCann was Coyle’s first signing as Wigan Athletic manager. Here’s a link back to our reaction. But in an effort to gain a more enlightened take on his eight year stay at Turf Moor and the circumstances under which he is joining our club, we reached out to the editors of the fine supporter website, Vital Burnley.

Without further ado, here is Phil Lea, aka Turfmanphil, on our midfielder, Chris McCann:

Chris McCann had been a one-club man since he arrived at Turf Moor from his native Ireland in 2004 from Home Farm. Clarets fans had seen him develop into an exciting midfielder but in recent seasons he just doesn’t seem to have been firing on all cylinders and there are a number of theories as to why.

There is no doubt that McCann’s best season was in our promotion season to the top flight during 2008-9 and of course new Wigan boss, Owen Coyle was Burnley manager at the time so it could be argued he brought the best out of him. McCann seemed to relish playing under Coyle and the ‘old magic’ might return now he as at Wigan under his former gaffer.

It was a disastrous season for McCann in the Premier League though. an unfortunate knee injury and subsequent surgery to his cruciate following the game against Sunderland at Turf Moor in September 2009 sidelined the midfielder until December 2009 In his second match back from injury, he picked up a second injury that ruled him out for the rest of the season!

Following Burnley’s relegation from the Premier League the injury woes continued for McCann although he returned and played in three pre-season friendlies, in the first game of Burnley’s tour of Singapore he was taken of with yet another knee injury. He was sent to see a specialist and faced another long lay-off. Clarets fans wondered whether the injuries had some sort of psychological effect on McCann because he never seemed to reach the dizzy heights achieved under Coyle again following his return. He didn’t seem to be going into the tackle as much perhaps conscious of his knee problems and he was certainly not as influential on the game. Eddie Howe bizarrely made him captain too for the 2011-12 season, some thought to keep him at Turf Moor and it was a total failure. The responsibility seemed to affect his game even more and most fans felt he was not skipper material generally being too quiet and ineffective.

Stripped of the responsibility after Jason Shackell became captain, last season was probably McCann’s best for sometime but again he blew hot and cold and his heart did not seem to be in it! He was no doubt thinking about his next career move and he was not even prepared to consider a new contract this summer.

In summary if Coyle can get the best out of McCann like he did during his time at Turf Moor, you will be getting a very strong and effective attacking midfielder who will also score quite a few goals for you during a season. It might be the new lease of life, McCann needs to get his career back on track and all Clarets fans I am sure will wish him well.

Phil Lea aka Turfmanphil
Vital Burnley Editor

Like Los Three Amigos Wigan on Facebook, or follow them on twitter here.