Not sure what to expect from this one I must admit. Would be nice to stop our little blip! I must admit that a few tactics/formations over the last 3 games are puzzling me, but we move on. Wigan are not having the best of season but we must not underestimate them as they have been here before, although I am sure Lambert will discourage that mind set. I am hoping for a positive approach from the off and just hope we do not get the classic Norwich versus a team in a lower position game whereby we concede early and struggle, scoring in injury time to salvage a point!! The pressure on the players would be awful! Formation wise, I would go 4 4 2 Ruddy Naughton, Whitbread, Ward, Drury Bennett (counter pace of Moses with Naughton), Fox, Howson, Surman Holt, Jackson Thoughts?
I would go with the diamond and line up that served us so well up until Lambert changed for the cup. Ruddy Naughton Whitbread Ayala drury Fox Pilkington surman Hoolahan Holt Jackson
Should be targeting this fixture for a win, but all it takes is Wigan to score an early goal and all the fans who turned up expecting to watch us turn over Wigan 5 - 0 () will start getting on the team's backs and we could easily lose this fixture.
Lambert tends to make a few changes after a loss so I think we'll see Morison starting: Ruddy Naughton, Whitbread, Bennett, Drury Bennett, Fox, Howson, Surman Morison, Holt
I was at Wigwam on the weekend lads, no worries you'll muller them, you've got a much much better team.
Keep Moses quiet and I think we will win Good if alaya is back, mainly as he had a good partnership with Zak, nothing against ward And not too many changes to the team
Surgeryman lets stop any talk of pressure on the players, there should be NONE we are 11th in the PL , everyone calm down all will be ok we will a couple of games before the end of the season even if we lose against Wigan , I remember us losing to Tranmere a couple of seasons ago, did that stop our progress upwards?? This year PL survival Next year PL mid table and a cup win Year after Top 4 finish Year after Champions Leauge final plenty of steps and a few hiccups on the way ILWT OTBC!
If Wigan haven't scored away from home for x amount of games, or haven't won away for x amount of games, or haven't kept a clean sheet away from home in 10 years, we SHOULD beat them. No easy games, but as difficult games come, this should be one of the easier ones. If they do have some unwanted records, then I expect us to get turned over, as we always seem to be generous in ending teams or players terrible form. If Ayala isn't fit, I think Lambert will throw R. Bennett into action and I agree that Morison will play, probably in place Holt.
Well Ayala was in full training but the game Saturday was too early. I would like to see R Bennett start alongside zak though. The key is to keep Moses quiet, which we failed with at there place cos martin is just to slow. We must start naughton at rb to have any joy from this game.
i spoke to a city fan on sunday evening who said 'never mind about the stoke result - we've got wigan saturday and that'll be about 5-0' thankfully he isn't going! if we start positively i'm sure we'll win the game. jackson and holt up top for me to start.
I'd like to see: GK: Ruddy RB: Naughton (basically to match Moses pace) LB: Drury CB: Whitbread CB: Ayala RM: E.Bennett CM: Fox CM: Howson LM: Surman F: Holt F: Morison Playing 4-4-2.
looking good although i think i'd stick with jackson ahead of morison simply because his pace will cause wigan's sleepy back line a few problems and i think he works best with holt would be interesting to see pilks on the left and surman instead of howson in the middle. might leave us a little weak in central midfield but against wigan we won't be overpowered. we would however, be able to keep the ball very well and with the proper width wingers give us, easy outlets for fox to use. howson could then be eased in as a sub.
the pressure SHOULD be on wigan because they are bottom personally, i wouldn't be too unhappy with a draw and a good performance to go with it. this is another piece of quality reporting here........ http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11709/7570329/Whitbread-not-panicking
Jarold, admire your 4 year plan. Not talking up pressure but you know what it will be like if we go one down or are not playing well. With so much put on staying inthe PL it will happen. Not from me I hasten to add!
A draw would be OK.We are playing for fun from now on in, they are playing to survive.I expect Bolton and Blackburn to be the two that make a fight of it.
As well as the club has done this season, its not over yet, they still get paid and supporters still expect the players and management to give 100% every game. If these guys really have got something about them, if the "bought players who are hungry" cliche is correct in this case, then they should be going out and beating a team who are so many points adrift of us at the foot of the table. If the players are fit my preference would be: Ruddy Martin Whitbread Bennet Naughton Bennet Fox Johnson Pilkington Hoolahan Holt Subs Steer Drury Ayala Surman Howson Jackson Morison
This for me is a MUST win game! I don't hold with "there's no easy games in the Premiership", yes there are, some are harder than others, some are easier, it's a fact of life. It's just a football cliché . It's how you approach things, if the team can be gee'd up to play Man U off the park, then they should do the same against Wigan. I will be very disappointed if we don't beat them, and even more disappointed if we don't put in a good performance. Before the disrespectful of Wigan comments start, it's not, I actually like their manager, and given a different set of circumstances I believe he could be very sucessful, but, they are not a good team at the moment, and in my opinion will be relegated. Saying that, I hope they will battle for their lives and take part in the game, but in all honesty we should beat them, probably not 5-0, I hope not as that is a bit demeaning, but beat them we should. I have to word this carefully as it gets misconstrued; I go to every game hoping and expecting my team to do well, I wouldn't be a true supporter if I didn't, and sometimes I expect a win, I don't think thats unreasonable, it's (cliché time) a "results driven industry", and we need results to survive. I do expect us to beat Wigan, I didn't expect us to beat Man U, but the Man U performance was excellent, should I expect that every week? ILD OTBC PS, I don't really care who plays, I just want to see effort and commitment and a win.
