Phelan the Effects

[Jim Smith 2,314]

[quote user="ron obvious"]Is it my imagination, or did Tettey stay in his own half more than in previous games? Genuine question.[/quote]

He seemed to be playing the holding role a bit more Ron. I would welcome that to be honest as he''s a good defensive screen for us.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Jim Smith"]Purple it sounds/looks as though he may have learnt a little from the Forest game based on the substitution to introduce Murphy at around the time we should have made a similar substitution at the City Ground. Not quite sure why Murphy seems to have temporarily moved about Redmond in the pecking order though, The latter;''s absence of involvement in this game makes me a little concerned about what might happen in january.

I think Saturday''s game showed progress of sorts, mainly fact that the work rate was good and we seemed to have for once cut out the silly mistakes. However before we get tool carried away I think we all need to see the team selections for the next two matches and how they pan put. That was not a team selection Tailored for Wigan. Adams put out the same team at Forest and (essentially) at Shef Wednesday as well so its clearly something he''s had in mind for certain away games this season. Whilst it may give us a certain "solidity" I still maintain it was not a good team selection and I very much hope we don;t see it again too often this season because it gives the opposition very little to worry about and against better sides (such as Derby in 2 weeks time - I fear however we will see the same line-up after this weekends result) they will punish us. Even Forest (who are not very good) worked that out as the game went on at the City Ground and pushed us back. had Adams made some sensible subs we could have countered that but on that occasion he didn''t.

It was also interesting to see Mackay talking about how they put approx 20 balls across our area during the course of the game. Wigan had nothing up front so did not get on the end of any but a better team will. What that, for me, shows is that for all its "solidity" this line up still leaves us a little exposed down the flanks which is perhaps unsurprising given we have 4 central midfielders playing and no wide attacking outlets meaning their full backs had little genuine pace to worry about. It is also perhaps not surprising given our full backs have been unconvincing defensively this season. All of which means i hope that once Ryan Bennett is back we see Martin restored to right back in place of Whitaker and that we don;t see too many more games with no wingers/genuine wide midfielders on the pitch. I think that if we have to then playing Howson there is ok but not Howson and Johnson.

Like the look of Cuellar and another promising outing from Hooper.[/quote]Thanks very much, Jim. That all makes sense to me.

[morty 0]

[quote user="Jim Smith"][quote user="morty"]Apparently Redmond was feeling unwell Jim.No conspiracy theories here, move along[;)][/quote]

That''s reassuring then Morty. Hopefully we will see him back starting next week.[/quote]Lets hope so[Y]

[Hairy Canary 668]

To answer your question Purple:

I went to the game and the Murphy/Hooper switch was a change in formation. We went to one up front (Jerome and later Lafferty) with Murphy wide offering pace. Howson tucked in to strengthen the midfield. Definitely not a position for position switch.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Hairy Canary"]To answer your question Purple:

I went to the game and the Murphy/Hooper switch was a change in formation. We went to one up front (Jerome and later Lafferty) with Murphy wide offering pace. Howson tucked in to strengthen the midfield. Definitely not a position for position switch.[/quote]Thanks very much, Hairy.That looked likely to be the case from the personnel involved but good to have it confirmed. And it seemed a sensible move, but also perhaps one we should have used in some previous games but did not...

[R Mellie 0]

[quote user="Jim Smith"]Apologies for my dreadful typing/spelling this morning![/quote]

 

I say to all dreadful spellers around the world:  Untie.