Ramarena

Peno What was Wildsmith thinking

Civilian targets again

I missed yesterdays declaration by Ukraine that they had withdrawn from Marinka. Russia had declared it captured on Christmas Day but they’ve declared victories before that are just some guy planting a flag then withdrawing. Sounds like the now standard situation at the front. Ukraine take out the meat waves for as long as they can, until their ratio of losses drops, they then withdraw if the area isn’t strategically important. Marinka was pretty much completely destroyed by late 2022 and no one lived there, it used to be home to 10,000 people. Watching the footage of the Russians celebrating the “liberation” shows an absolute hell scape.

Nelson probably followed by NML

TV Wildsmith 6.5 Nyambe 7 Nelson 8.5 Cashin 8.5 Forsyth 7 Wilson 7.5 Fornah 6 Bird 6.5 Hourihane 7 Bradley 6 Elder 6 Barkhuizen 7 Sibley 6 Mendez-Laing 6 Collins 6

I’d agree, but it’s a difficult and expensive position to recruit for in January. Hopefully we get the player we’re looking for, but buying for the sake of buying is what we need to avoid. Maybe the loan market will offer the best option for a striker.

We don’t need to do too much this window. Defence doesn’t really need anything unless we get injuries or Cashin leaves. Midfield/wingers we could probably do with another player, preferably with pace to add some depth and a different option. Up front is where we can make the most difference, Collins works hard but is limited and TJJ is talented, but we can’t be sure of his fitness. We need a goal scorer, it’s the area we are weakest, we’re creating a good number of chances, but failing to capitalise on them, we haven’t suffered too much as yet, but some games are tighter than they need to be. All that said, if we can’t really find a quality improvement and the option is bringing in someone like Lee Gregory (as mentioned in the tranfer thread) then we should just stick with what we’ve already got.

Good performance and great result, that shouldn’t have been anywhere near as close as it was in the end. We created a number good chances, but didn’t capitalise, hopefully we can address this problem in the next window and that will take us to the next level. Defence was solid as usual and Nelson helped out our attackers with a nice header (what a signing he’s been). Defence is certainly the grounding for our recent success and long may that continue.!

Important tackle from Bird there

Wildsmith doing a bit of poo housing here

Thought it was the correct call

Sibs coming on

Such good work from NML in the corner there

First close call, luckily it hit the side netting

There are games that suit Collins and games, (like this one) that will probably suit TJJ better.

Decent save from Wildsmith there. That whole passage of play for Wigan came Bird having the conviction to get to a ball he was favourite to get and then Hourihane trying and failing to buy a foul. Need to do the basics right.

Hourihane has been quietly effective.

He had a spell last season where he actually looked like a decent goalscorer he was calm and ruthless in front of goal. As you say his positioning is good, but he seems low on confidence with his shooting

Fluffed another one. barks this time

HT Good performance both individually and tactically. We should be 2 or 3 up, we’ve created some good openings and limited them with some solid defending. We really need to get another goal as I don’t see them being as poor in the second half.

Poor from Hourihane there. Decent cross from Foz but he couldn’t get hold of it in a great position. One thing I’m liking here is we’ve clearly been working on getting midfielders and wingers into good positions in the box for these crosses. We’ve been putting crosses in for a number of games but no one has been taking advantage

He lost it when he let the awful challenge on Wilson, go but booked Hourihane a couple of mins later

The ref has made a rod for his own back here. Hes missed so many late challenges and now it’s boiled over.

Lovely play between NML and Wilson, poor final touch let’s Wilson down in a good position.