Wigan Athletic raised plenty of eyebrows early on their return to the Championship, particularly with their away results, but according to our correspondent @Mudhutter it's started to slide alarmingly of late.
How's the return to the Championship gone so far?
We’ve been up and down that much that it’s easy to forget that this is a good level for us to be at. I’ve no problem admitting that we are one of the smaller clubs in this division but we’ve always punched above our weight. I’m sure you are aware that it is a mad, mad league with lots of daft results. The only team we’ve beaten recently were top of the table on Tuesday until you nicked it off them. I think our recent defeats have certainly reset expectations, and piled a bit of pressure on the manager. Our goal this year is and always has been to stay up, the problem is that I’m not sure that the three teams down there currently will stay there. It’s certainly never boring, and I was quite prepared to see us win one, draw one, lose one, week in, week out but the losses have been hideous and hard to take.
Wigan league results so far…
Wigan 0-0 Preston
Norwich 1-1 Wigan Aarons 62 — McClean 29
Wigan 1-1 Bristol City Keane 67 — Weimann 6
Birmingham 0-1 Wigan Broadhead 82
Wigan 1-5 Burnley Keane pen 43 — Rodriguez 17, Brownhill 27, 86, Tella 51, Bastien 88
Wigan 1-1 West Brom Magennis 6 — Grant 22
Luton 1-2 Wigan Morris 39 — Lockyer og 80, Aasgaard 88
Huddersfield 1-2 Wigan Lees 76 — Keane pen 25, Lang 82
Wigan 0-1 Reading Ince 63
Rotherham 0-2 Wigan Keane 12, Naylor 84
Hull 2-1 Wigan Pelkas 21, Estupinan 65 — Keane 14
Wigan 1-3 Cardiff Wyke 83 — Robinson 7, Ojo 65, Wintle 90
Wigan 1-0 Blackburn Broadhead 62
Sunderland 2-1 Wigan Embleton 54, Cirkin 72 — Wyke 44
Wigan 1-4 Boro Keane 34 — Jones 44, Watmore 51, Hackney 57, Akpom pen 69
Brilliant away, ropey at home, quote odd for a newly promoted team, what are some of the possible reasons for that?
I think we’ve been a real Jekyll and Hyde side in general. The problem now is that our away form has deserted us and our home form only improved for one game. I think we’re more likely to play five at the back away from home, and our three centre halves seem more comfortable with that, but they get destroyed when playing as a flat back four. Maybe it's unfair, but we’ve timed it right in a few of our away wins at teams like Huddersfield, Rotherham and Birmingham when they’ve been unsettled. Although, in the interests of balance, we gave Norwich a good run for their money in our first game back. We lack confidence at home, it would be easy to blame the big soul-less chasm that is the DW but there’s more to it than that. We do seem to get murdered on our big pitch, even though they keep shortening it but we just seem so fragile. We are easily capable of getting ahead against any team but it’s then that the problems seem to start. I think most of our wins, either at home or on the road have come because we’ve scored a late goal. When we score early, the nerves set in and we seem to fall to pieces.
Four defeats in five, five in seven, any concerns?
As I write in the aftermath of getting upended at home by Boro, there are massive concerns and the natives are quite rightly, absolutely fuming. We have perhaps been guilty of starting off too well, which has raised expectations and perhaps we have no right to expect anything more than a relegation battle. But on the other hand, we’ve shown how good we can be and there is absolutely nothing to fear in this division. Anyone can beat anyone on their day, the trouble is that our day is becoming more and more infrequent. It may just be that the new Wigan Athletic is a team like Rotherham, Peterborough or Barnsley, that becomes a Championship/League One yo-yo club and I will be quite accepting of that but it is looking grim right now. And what is the point of having all that fun and winning a League One title, just to get promoted and end up getting tonked every week?
How did your summer transfer window go? Looked very quiet, anything in the offing for January?
When the owners took over, they said the aim was to become a stable Championship club within five years, and they took us up at the first year of asking. We've basically got a high end, mature League One squad on their second year of three year contracts. There’s always been speculation as to how much they’d invest but it increasingly looks like it will be minimal. Which is fine, we’ve been down that road with the last lot where they overspent and when the gamble didn’t immediately pay off, they left us in the sort of situation that no football fan should ever find its club in. So, we are in essence a League One club, with quite an ageing/experienced set of players and we have only added a few here and there. A lot of the lads who got us up deserve a crack at this level but we are getting exposed all over the place. We’ve gone from bullying teams in League One to looking weak and fragile. I could name eight or nine positions which need strengthening or replacement in January, but I don’t expect more than one or two, and we could see outgoings. I’d have said Jack Whatmough or Thelo Aasgaard could be prized away for big money, but if anyone came to watch them last night, they’d be putting their cheque book back in their pocket.
Ins >>> Anthony Scully, 23, RW, Lincoln, Undisclosed >>> Matt Wonnacott, 18, GK, Torquay, Undisclosed >>> Ryan Nyambe, 24, RB, Blackburn, Free >>> Ashley Fletcher, 26, CF, Watford, Loan >>> Rarmarni Edmonds-Green, 23, CB, Huddersfield, Loan >>> Nathan Broadhead, 24, CF, Everton, Loan
Outs >>> Adam Long, 21, CB, Doncaster, Undisclosed >>> Gavin Massey, 29, RW, Port Vale, Free >>> Jordan Jones, 27, LW, Kilmarnock, Loan >>> Luke Robinson, 20, LB, Tranmere, Loan >>> Jamie McGrath, 25, AM, Dundee Utd, Loan >>> Stephen Humphrys, 24, CF, Hearts, Loan >>> Luke Robinson, 20, LB, Tranmere, Loan >>> Scott Smith, 21, CM, Torquay, Loan
Stand out players and weak links so far?
We’ve had a few stand out players in games but nobody has been consistently good. I’d have said Jack Whatmough, the young centre half we signed from Pompey, but he had an absolute stinker last night. Callum Lang took a while to adjust to this level but he was tearing it up before he got injured. Nathan Broadhead, on loan from Everton is an exciting player but hasn't had a settled run in the team. Graeme Shinnie looked incredible in centre mid for a couple of games but he’s also been terrible in others. His first job coming off the bench on Wednesday was to give the ball away and concede a penalty. We are the model of inconsistency, individually and throughout the squad at the minute.
We’re susceptible down the flanks, no matter who plays there. It seems that every Championship team has quick, pacey wingers and we can’t deal with them, whether we play full backs or wing backs. We’ve got about six left backs, none of whom are any good and on the right hand side, even our captain Tendayi Darikwa, can be exceptional one minute and awful the next.
Revised expectations for the season?
Just to stay up. That’s all we need. Have a few unexpected wins and put up more of a fight at home than we have been doing recently. I don’t expect us to win every game but we need to at least turn up and enjoy the battle, and sadly that’s been lacking. I've no problem with us getting undone by superior quality, but it feels like we are our own worst enemy right now.
Links >>> Official Website >>> Pie at Night - Podcast >>> Cockney Latic - Forum >>> Vital Wigan - blog and forum >>>
Twitter @Loftforwords, @MudHutter
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