Wigan v Rovers: 10th September 2022

[tonygreenbank]

This is beyond embarrassing. There must be a football team in there trying to get out. It’s like torture by football. Why do we look so crap? I’m totally lost for words. Just think we’re on again next Tuesday! Sky must be dreading it. I can’t think of one redeeming feature tonight. The players looked clueless and talentless.

 

[khmerblue]

Young Wharton must start Saturday.

 

[Husky]

Soft lads again.

1 down. Heads down. .

It's always Game over when we go behind.

Zero shots on target is pretty grim too. A typical (Tottenham) away performance.

 

[Husky]

Did anyone else find the timing of a 53min substitution a bit bizarre?

I mean. Surely JDT didn't think "I'll give this guy 8 minutes of the 2nd half to see if he is still utter dross"?

Indian betting ring?

 

[tonygreenbank]

My team for Boro:
Kaminski
Brittain Hyam Wharton Pickering
Travis Morton Wharton
Gallagher BBD Hedges

 

[Barmitzvah Boy]

I needed to have two decent glasses of Barolo after returning home before I posted.

That was the pits. Hirst would not get in a Witton Park side; a player that Rovers had been chasing for months

BBD spending most of the game hugging the left touch line. Smzodics rolling over quicker than an Essex girl. As for that JDT tactic of passing at the back sh!t - it is a joke of a tactic.

After that game Wigan joins my list of no go places in the World never to set foot in alongside Islamabad, Kabul and Baghdad.

JDT out…..Mogga back.

That was truly pathetic stuff.

JDT apparently said post-match: “vee wer gaught out bye sumz pour passin. Boot remumba thus is stull un pwojuct.”

BB says back to JDT: “Get unt arse int gear Jun unt show sum leadership Mistur Smiley”.

3,427 naffed off Rovers fans.

 

[Barmitzvah Boy]

Did anyone else find the timing of a 53min substitution a bit bizarre?

I mean. Surely JDT didn't think "I'll give this guy 8 minutes of the 2nd half to see if he is still utter dross"?

Indian betting ring?

It was weird. It was as if he had given specific instructions to Hirst for the 2nd half and he had immediately failed to follow them. Also worrying was our first corner was on 90 minutes and we had 0 shots on target

 

[Drog]

Another abject display, another defeat to a team that we really should be good enough to beat. If you don’t buy a ticket you won’t win the lottery’ is an old truism. The football equivalent is that if you don’t have a shot on target you won’t score. So after 94 minutes the fact remains that Wigan could have dispensed with the services of goalkeeper Amos from the first whistle and beaten us with 10 men because we did not have one bloody shot on target he entire match! Shades of Steve Kean and White Hart Lane or what? Does anyone think JDT will have kicked the tea tray over in the dressing room and delivered a bollocking to his team for such an abject performance that would have stripped the paint off the walls? I certainly don’t. My guess based on what I have heard is that he will have quietly asked them where they think they could have improved their game.

Make no mistake any team going to Wigan past, present or future has to bloody well turn up and match them in aggression. As it was we were bloody kittens! Even Trav has seemingly forgotten how to snap into a tackle and leave a foot in. Sure there is a decent argument to suggest that Tyler Morton was in order pushed, pulled and tripped before they scored but the lad needs to learn that in the Championship we don’t have VAR and that safety first row bloody Z is the rule to follow at all times, also that ‘play to the whistle’ is the best advice for teams not in the top six of the Prem. Without that incident this match would have petered out 0-0 but the salient point is that Wigan made the goal happen through basic aggression knowing full well that the Ref was on the lenient side of lenient. They’ll no doubt have talked about that at HT whilst JDT was probably extolling the virtues of a relaxing Sauna before a roll in the snow and a couple of hours meditation. I have to confess that I have no idea which direction our club is going in under this Manager. Why do we play unnecessary tight triangles at the back and then end up with either losing possession, passing back or lumping it long after giving the opposing defence plenty of time to organise and get tight on out strikers?

Question now to Greg Broughton......... who advised you to spew 2 million on Sammy Szmodic? Who advised you to sign George Hirst? I know it’s early days but I don’t see top Championship quality in either of them.

Kaminsky.... 7 No chance with the goal but coped well with everything else.

Hyam.... 6 A rather anonymous figure most of the time but played a part in a tight back 3.

Ayala.. 7 A solid display in the centre of defence.

Wharton...7 A decent performance despite once losing the ball in a dangerous area. Kaminsky spared his blushes but pratting about in deep defence is never a sound idea.

Hedges.... 5 Poor first half saw him subbed at HT. He can’t have been happy with the Wales manager in the crowd but he can’t say he didn’t deserve the hook.

Travis...5 Covered a lot of ground but somehow missing the biting tackles and power play that we expect from him.

Morton...6 Played some nice football at times but nice football rarely finds a place at the DW Stadium. Despite being fouled was at fault for Wigan’s goal. Hero to zero after being MoM on Saturday.

Pickering... 5 Played an active part but with Wigan providing a stern test down his wing he needs to stand em up instead of committing himself and being found out. Too often his opponents got the better of him when he had had a rush of blood to the head.

BBD.... 4? or 7? Mixed some good attacking play with a display of poor touches, poor control and imo a frequent lack of commitment. Given that nothing materialised from his strike partners I guess he remains our great white hope. Fair to mention that Wigan had done their homework and did not let him cut inside from the left with the ball on his right foot.

Szmodics... 4 A poor game.

Hirst... 5 Plenty of effort but ultimately offered little no real threat to Wigan’s defence.

Subs

Dolan... (Szmodics 45) 5 No real improvement when he came on.

Brittain... (Hedges 45) 5 Came on did OK but infuriatingly too negative as he kept electing to pass back to the defence all second half.. even when we were 1-0 down. In that situation I expect our wide men to be trying to go for the by line every chance they get.

Gallagher... (Hirst 53) 4 Brought little or nothing to the party.

Dack... (Travis 83) 6 Last throw of JDT’s dice. Could have scored in the dying minutes with a better first touch but infuriatingly allowed the ball to bounce off him and run out of play.

Manager
JDT... 3 Sent out a side definitely not up for a battle at the DW. Playing triangles across our penalty box is always going to be dangerous over 90 minutes, and so it proved. The fact cannot be disguised that 0 shots on target against a team that were in League 1 last season is unforgiveable.

Referee Josh Smith... 5 Plonker .... But far from being a Ref on my Christmas card list because of past performances he didn’t have that poor a game despite missing lot’s of shirt pulls and sneaky trips etc.

 

[1SimonGarner]

I'll do my fan report tomorrow, it's not going to be pretty so if you're getting sick of me slagging off the support, maybe best not to even read it. On the actual football, I like everyone else, has opinions on which players I would select and which style of play I'd like us to adopt etc, but I don't for the most part think it's worth me voicing them because ultimately it's not like it's going to influence JDT's team selections.

One of the things that seems strange to everyone at the moment is the benching of a specialist RB/RWB in Brittain and instead using one of our most influential attackers in Hedges. This squad, although very talented is lacking a steely streak and that's showing up in the away games especially and any game we fall behind in.

Again for what's it's worth, for the immediate future in the away games I would like us to stick with a back 5, play 3 in the centre of the park - my 3 would be Morton, Travis and Wharton - and simply play 2 up front. No false 9, no wide left forward, wide right forward etc, just a simple 5-3-2 and let the wing backs offer the width. Strengthen up the middle of the park by getting an extra man in there and see if that helps us get more of a foot hold in games, in all honesty it can't be much worse than we've been in the majority of the away games this season.

I'm still convinced that this squad has the ability to get into the play offs this season, but this division isn't really one to play your way out of unless you're head and shoulders above the rest and we clearly aren't.

A bit more steel, whether that comes from signings in January or a formation change or whatever and we could still have a good season.

COYB.

 

[Barmitzvah Boy]

That was hard to take. A bit like 1SG I was naffed off with our support last night. Almost silent for the whole game except for some banalities about Burnley and a chorus of unhelpful boos at HT.

We need a leader in midfield, a Moran type figure. We need a centre forward rather than Gally and BBD out wide. The selection at RB was bizarre. We need to stop this tippy tappy = crappy at the back. Sadly the crowd are starting to turn on JDT; that will only end in tears.

 

[Dunnfc]

It's a shame this manager is still figuring out the league, because the league has figured him out. I'm still angry after last night.

 

[Drog]

Last season we lost 15 even after our spring slump. We are half way to that total now and it's not even half way through October!
players already disappointing from last season are Travis, Buckley who were so effective in the engine room last season. Certainly jdt doesn't have the mercurial ability of Joe rothwell to attack at pace and we look leaden footed and bereftof guile and ideas up top. 3 attempts and a big fat NONE on target says it all.

 

[Dunnfc]

Last season we lost 15 even after our spring slump. We are half way to that total now and it's not even half way through October!
players already disappointing from last season are Travis, Buckley who were so effective in the engine room last season. Certainly jdt doesn't have the mercurial ability of Joe rothwell to attack at pace and we look leaden footed and bereftof guile and ideas up top. 3 attempts and a big fat NONE on target says it all.

Id sack him this morning. The football is dire, it seems to get worse game by game. The positive press from Swansea has disappeared all together. I watched us last night and it was like glazing at some Euro B team like APOEL in the uefa cup, utterly boring. I'm not wasting my saturdays and wednesday evenings anymore, i've only got a few left before i go to OZ but i'm not wasting my time watching this turgid stuff.

 

[Drog]

Got it! I'm noticing the difference between this season and last. The players don't appear to be enjoying the game! Might sound nothing and it's difficult to explain unless one has played at a decent level but a player enjoying playing in a team v one not enjoying it makes about 10-20% of a difference to performance. "The first yard is in your head" truism applies.

 

[Drog]

Id sack him this morning. The football is dire, it seems to get worse game by game. The positive press from Swansea has disappeared all together. I watched us last night and it was like glazing at some Euro B team like APOEL in the uefa cup, utterly boring. I'm not wasting my saturdays and wednesday evenings anymore, i've only got a few left before i go to OZ but i'm not wasting my time watching this turgid stuff.

C 'mon DunnFc I've been watching the rovers alternate between turgid, decent and exhilarating football for the last 60 years. It's only watching the crap seasons that allows you to enjoy the good ones.

 

[Dunnfc]

C 'mon sun Dec I've been watching the rovers alternate between turgid, decent and exhilarating football for the last 60 years. It's only watching the crap seasons that allows you to enjoy the good ones.

I mean the Kean era was something else but this style of football isn't far of his. I need sticks to keep my eyes open watching it, it's absolutely atrocious.

The experiment with Hedges as a RWB needs to stop. Play the lad in his proper position or not at all, it dosent say much about Brittain a lad we've paid a decent fee for if he can't get in the side ahead of a makeshift RWB. Hirst, he grafts/runs unlike BBD when he first came but unlike BBD there is zero promise from this lad, he looks horrific.

Move the ball quicker, stop farting about with it at the back allowing the opposition to constantly get men behind the ball and making us go sideways or in pointless triangles.

JDT's tactic are utterly baffling, his substitutions even more so. It's this slow ponderous crap what you seen on the continent and switch off!

We seem to have restricted the wide forwards from getting into the box, the amount of times we constantly pick the worst pass or give the ball away on the attack is something else.

The football last season was far more entertaining and better IMO. We have regressed. Get Dack back in the 11! Two shots on target in two away games, one was a Hirst penalty.

 

[tonygreenbank]

I totally agree with posters highlighting how weak we are in character and aggression. There is no one in our squad who could be classed as a hard man and the opposition must find us easy to play against especially when we go a goal down.
I hate to single out a player from last night but I can’t understand how we chased after Hirst. I don’t know what his strengths are and even the commentators made reference to when he was at Rotherham a couple of seasons back and didn’t get many games!
It worries me that GB/JDT partnership could decide that he was the answer.
Yet another downer waking up this morning, It’s only another week to the Sunderland game!

 

[Dunnfc]

I totally agree with posters highlighting how weak we are in character and aggression. There is no one in our squad who could be classed as a hard man and the opposition must find us easy to play against especially when we go a goal down.
I hate to single out a player from last night but I can’t understand how we chased after Hirst. I don’t know what his strengths are and even the commentators made reference to when he was at Rotherham a couple of seasons back and didn’t get many games!
It worries me that GB/JDT partnership could decide that he was the answer.
Yet another downer waking up this morning, It’s only another week to the Sunderland game!

Totally agree, Power and co. harrased, bullied Rovers last night. We are the wettest of lettuces.

Hirst, has Zero about him. Write this one off and send back in January.

 

[Dunnfc]

On a side note, Where is Dilan Markanaday? He hasn't played in the 21s recently and hasnt been on the bench?

 

[Barmitzvah Boy]

On a side note, Where is Dilan Markanaday? He hasn't played in the 21s recently and hasnt been on the bench?

Number 19 in the squad. He turns up to games and will make the starting squad of 18 if any of the players are injured in the run up to kick off. You never know that one of the players may get the sniffles and Markanday can then officially warm the bench.