Who cares what Merson thinks, he didnt even know the name of the Wigan player who went down for the penalty. His opinion"s about as valid and worthwhile as mine...
Funny that! I have a hearing problem, I thought that's what he said, then dismissed it and decided to get a hearing aid
Having not been at the game, the best I could manage was to watch it live online and then catch the extended Sky highlights on football first. I have to admit that from what I have seen, there were one or two things that concerned me. Although we had a fair amount of possession, we always looked less comfortable than Wigan. On the most part I though Wigan looked stronger, faster (in thought) and more controlled than we did. Remember, Wigan are one of those tipped to struggle this season yet we had to work very hard to get anything from the game. It is a learning curve for our players and a very steep one at that. I believe they will get better and better over the next 4 to 6 weeks. I believe they will need to! Very pleased that we got something from the game and overall think we deserved something from the game, but if Wigan are one of the worse sides then we have a lot of improving to do. We can do it though. And ultimately, it could be a whole lot worse. We could be waking up this morning as QPR fans !!!!
I hate to say this, but with the current level of quality I tend to agree with Merson. We will find it very difficult not to concede. We kept clean sheets less than 25% of the time last season and the quality is a wee bit higher. Wigan's half decent players looked very pacey and pulled three players towards them each time creating huge gaps. Massive improvement needed
To try and qualify the above, I am a little concerned about the defence, but Ritchie did make amends for his mistake with some fine blocks at the end of the match, I think Barnett will be a better partner for de Laet. I expect that Naughton will get into the side pretty quickly. I was most disappointed with Crofts and thinking back to how he has played for Wales, I do fear that he won't be able to make the step up. It also raises the question of whether we need a better central midfield player who can dictate play as well as break play up. I think if Lansbury had come back, he could have made this role his own. I'm a little puzzled by the midfield signings, I think the two wider players will come good but we need some creativity in the centre. Can't see where this is going to come from. Maybe I am being too harsh and the team will find its fluency and sharpness. On that note, Holt in the first half had a dreadful first touch, again I hope he improves, but I can see the front pairing becoming Morison and Vaughan if he is ever fit.
To write us off after 1 game away from home and not conceding from open play is mental, last season we scored bags of goals but nearly always conceded one. I would rather play like we do than a Stoke style hump it up and bang into the keeper game.....
No one is writing anybody off , or saying that we should play like Stoke, jesus wept no one can make a comment without it being seen as completing slating the side. We were slow, there was minimal running off the ball, the options that a player had each time was limited. There is massive room for improvement and I believe we can.
Considering the bombardment we faced I thought the defending was actually a strong point, with the exception of Russell Martin who was getting hell off Moses, I'm not sure why Lambert started with him since Naughton was brilliant in the Pre-Season. The way we sat back was what worried me the most, we just let them have too much possession at some points of the game, against the bigger clubs like Man United they would tear us a new one. It was first game though so hopefully they'll get the nerves sorted, I'm quite sure Lambert would of gave them a bit of dressing down after the match.
i think lambert decided to give the majority of last seasons promotion team a chance yesterday. martin was out of his depth against moses and i agree that naughton will take his place very soon. its a shame as i'm a big fan of martin but he lacks pace to recover if out of position, which playing the way we do, will often happen! i disagree that we sat back except for the last five or ten minutes. this may have been because we were tiring - it certainly looked that way - but i think they'll learn not to do that because we aren't good enough to sit back - we need to play to our strengths and attack till the end in my opinion. i also doubt lambert will have given them a dressing down - there was absolutely no need for that! we matched them at worst and got a valuable point. lambert's reaction after the game suggested he was pretty happy. what he will have been disappointed with was the two individual errors by de laet and whitbread (though de laet improved massively after this) and the poor passing from the first half. these are things which will improive with match sharpness. we really have nothing to worry about! we are capable of beating plenty of teams in this division and i would genuinely be surprised if we don't finish above wigan on the evidence of yesterday.
In the paper today Norwich had both more possession and territorial advantage and I was watching a stream of the match yesterday where Norwich were pressuring constantly for a period...yet everytime SSN went to Merson he said "Wigan are dominating and really pushing for a winner here"...I mean WTF
Merson is annoying Was a little annoyed we were second last on motd, but I guess not suprised. Had to put the Hanson analysis on mute as I couldn't be bothered listening to it And apparently the swans have the best chance of staying up as Alan shearer saw them play last season a couple of times
Does anyone else cringe like me when Lawro tries to crack a joke ( and I don't actually mean when he just talks about football )
At last the voice of reason.... With it being your first game in the prem and having brought a cracking support with you, if that was the best you can muster then you have to say you're going to struggle. And I know we all watch games through tinted glasses but the reason some Wigan fans booed the team off (disgraceful in my opinion) was because we've seen enough top flight football to know that with just a bit more ruthlessness we could have dispatched you without too much fuss. So to see all the comments that it's a good start for you - well, result aside I just don't get that. You were second best across the pitch, and we let you back into it with our usual scrapiness and lack of discipline. You could be playing today and you still wouldn't have scored without Ali's fumble. Just be reminded that that was your only shot on target. Good luck and all that. In our first season we were written off by all and sundry - most famously that muppet Rodney Marsh - and I think it was good for the club to have something to prove against all the idiot punters.
Easy there HP Sauce, while I agree that Moses was a handful the rest of your starting 11 weren't a million miles beyond us. And while as you say we scored from our only shot on target, the only reason you scored - though you had many attempts - was because of the linesman giving a penalty. Tinted glasses work both ways. Both teams based solely on that game are likely to struggle, but basing a season on one game is ludicrous.
HP sauce, I think you'll find there were three shots on target: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14429588.stm Don't believe everything you see on MOTD. I was at the Newcastle-Arsenal match Newcastle had several very close calls that didn't even get a mention
Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to suggest that Wigan are heading for a healthy mid table finish. We'll struggle as much if not more than you lot. All I'm saying is that I would expect a newly promoted club who've been out of the top flight for a decade? to be coming out all guns blazing. And if what I saw on Saturday counts as all guns blazing then I would - respectfully - suggest that you've got a lot to do to secure your place. But yeah, ludicrous to base a prediction for the season on one game (which I was at Rob so I didnt have to rely on MOTD). So good luck for the rest of the season.
Is this the same Paul Merson who said West Brom were dead certs to go down last year and Newcastle would be right in the mire . Wouldn't take it personally every team that comes up always gets this **** every year. We're getting it still this year and its our second year and we finished 12th last year. Good luck with the rest of the season accept if its at our expense.
Merson was spot on, I watched the whole match on my computer, we did not look good enough to stay up on that performance. Really turgid stuff at times against a side who didn't play well either. Poor quality at times, we cannot kid ourselves that further performances of a similar ilk are going to keep us up. Hopefully the obvious nerves apparent two days ago will be exorcised by Sunday
