Marriot Ram99

Wildsmith 4
 Ward 7
 Nelson 6
 Bradley 3- should have scored and obviously gifted a goal.
 Cashin 6- some decent defending but looked poor when trying to act as a faux winger which isn't his game.
 Forsyth-7.5 Motm scored a good goal and was main outlet in attack. Got done for pace a few times though. 
Smith 6.5- few decent attacking contributions first half and was okay 
Bird 5
Hourihane 4.5 -didn't do much defensively and also offered little in attack apart from set peices. Hit a howler of a shot when Collins was open.
NML-6 ineffective mostly  and don't think the position suits him, hit a good shot 1st half and played in Collins which was why he got a 6 over a 5.
Collins 4-  Should have scored 1st half ,there was no need to snatch at it he had time. Some donkey touches and a shanked shot into the south stand on his left foot, worked hard as usual but that isn't good enough when we are relying on him heavily. 
Subs- Wilson 6.5 looked promising but lacked end product 
Washington ,Elder and Thompson didn't have enough time to make an impact really so feels harsh rating them. 
 
 
 

Watched live on TV, closely. If ranking the manager, he would lose marks by being far, far too slow with the subs. 
 

When Warne was first appointed I posted on here that, given the state of the squad at the time and the financial restrictions etc, we were basically writing off at least 2 seasons.  He was going to have to replace the majority of the squad with players that could play his way, and I didn't think it was worth doing that, given his record in the Championship etc.  A lot of people were not happy with me posting that - "Warne guarantees promotion" they told me.  Nothing I have seen in the nearly a year since then has changed my mind.

I agree he has to play deeper instead of Smith or don’t play him he just couldn’t get on the ball yesterday and when he did he had his back to goal absolutely nuts and if Warne thinks he’s better further up the pitch then I am worried.

If it wasn't Chris Martin, and you just looked at the data, you'd say he was one of the best available out there in terms of free agents. If he's dropping down to L1 anyway, why not? We lack his sort of intelligence up top. He would have buried that chance Collins had early on. 

So it’s impossible to do a good job with players you didn’t bring in? We should just ignore last season? I know Warne is like your dad, but come on, that’s b*******.
FWIW, I’m not calling for his head, that would be stupid at this time of the season (though imo he should’ve gone at the end of last season). But concerns about the continuing tactical suicide are not without basis.

Also a bit concerned with this idea that our main attacking threat is ‘give it to Ward and hope for the best’. It’s absolutely fine as one part of the game plan but you can’t become 1 dimensional. 
 
 
I think they need to be coached better in pressing too - I mentioned this before (pre season) but we’re just not very good at pressing. I don’t mean the players don’t have the energy or the willing to do it but there has to be patterns to the press. Certain triggers for when players know when to go and players further behind know to go with them and cover the options. It felt like our pressing at times was just one person be it Collins, Ward or Smith chasing people down aimlessly on their own. 

it is very early days, but lets not beat around the bush there are red flags there as there has been all summer.
 
we have not strengthened our squad & today was the worst possible start we could have had.
 
time will tell  but we cant just put our hands over our eyes and hope for the best, actually that sounds like a good idea i may well do that

It's one game, and it's important not to overreact, but that was fu**ing abject at every level. We were one-dimensional, slow, unfit, and worst of all we didn't even execute our own plan well. We gifted Wigan two goals, but every time they broke through the midfield screen, they looked dangerous and could have scored 3 or more today. Nelson looked uncomfortable on the ball, he isn't a WCB in a million years, constantly passing back, making us lose the initiative, and Bradley doesn't have the legs to cover the ground needed in the role he played today. That's what led to the mistake for the first goal, a negative pass which put pressure on Bradley which then led to a Wyke rounding Wildsmith. 
Wigan killed us in the transitions, and there were gaping holes in the middle of the park, which any half-decent team would thread through. Seen towards the end of the first half but also early in the first half, which was an end-to-end show. But it wasn't just in defence and transition where we were poor. The attack was absolutely woeful. The lack of positive forward passing combined with the slow tempo and static movement made the crosses so so easy to defend against. I can't remember more than 2 times we actually tested their goalkeeper seriously. 
It isn't just the performance that lacked passion, creativity, or decisiveness, but the tactics that led us to our downfall, failing to create any clear-cut chances and, at times, leaving us wide open. The lack of urgency towards the end and the dearth of options from the bench make it clear we're in no state to be challenging for promotion if this is the tenor of things to come. Warne said he wouldn't just copy what he did at Rotherham, but this style of football reeks of low percentage chuck it in the box and see what happens nonsense i.e., precisely what he did at Rotherham. 
I don't think I've seen an opening day performance this bad since Paul Jewell's 08-09 opener against Doncaster. Warne needs to improve and fast if he wants to stay in this job. 
 

Fortunately, I'm old enough to know that the early season games are usually not an indication of how the season  develops. Today doesn't mean very much at all.
The worry is though, there were some really troubling signs there.
The back three are painfully slow. It won't have gone unnoticed that Wigan just kicked the ball past them and got through with ease.
The midfield three were too static and offered very little. They were neither aggressive nor creative. I can't see those three being the right blend. 
The bright side was both of our right sided wing backs created a lot of chances. Unfortunately, we didn’t have strikers in the right place to convert them, or midfielders bursting into the box to pick up the 2nd balls
Wildsmith was also quite poor. Back to the nervy keeper he looked when he first signed, rather than the confident, consistent player who finished the season.
I'm glad it was the first game of the season. They are often anomalous to what follows, so not too worried. If that was the 10th game, I'd be seriously concerned though.
Not completely comfortable with the captain. It makes him difficult to drop, and I'm not convinced that he's better than Smith and Bird, and we can't play all three together 
On that showing, we need 2 strikers and creative midfielder if we're going to compete.

Bird was absolutely dreadful, heads been turned.
Mendez Laing still nowhere near fit enough to last an hour let alone the full game.
Poor 

Rubbish
 

Think we’re way off where we need to be. The only positive is that at least 20 of the other teams in this league won’t be as good as that Wigan team.
Midfield is awful. Bird really needs to be stepping up and running games otherwise take what we can get and replace him.
The recruitment team need to pull their finger out otherwise I can’t see how we better last year. 

@BaaLocks I think technology will help tackle climate change but we can't rely on some miracle invention to solve everything because I think that is very unlikely. 
Over consumption in general and the environmental impacts of food production are some of the main issues. If people demand more environmentally friendly products companies will provide them as companies follow the trends and demand.
I don't think it's a binary thing where we are either doomed with climate change or we will be saved and all okay. I think the minimum impact even if everything was done perfectly now would already be bad but I don't think we will have a doomsday hell on earth scenario where most humans die and everything is horrible. We need to try and minimise the impacts as much as possible and not let temperatures increase by say more than 2.5 or 3 degrees compared to pre industrial levels (is 1.5 now). Climate Scientists have the target set as 1.5 degrees but we are already screwed on that target I think but we definitely can't let things get completely out of control with 4 or 5 degree or even higher warming. 
There's alot more environmental issues than just global warming as well, general environmental destruction and abuse of the natural environment needs to be reduced as much as possible as well.
 

It's Wigan not a top quality side we are playing,  they aren't in great shape themselves so we should still be favourites at home.

It's Wigan not a top quality side we are playing,  they aren't in great shape themselves so we should still be favourites at home.

Waggy went home with a triple pack of condoms, some deodorant, and a rather confident swagger!     

Would be okay with him going if we get about 2.5 million for him and we reinvest the money on a quality box to box player or number 10 and get another for depth. 
He's a good player but overrated imo, he doesn't score many, isn't physical or athletic and doesn't play well enough in the big games when we are up against it  or have the ability to run games and turn the tide of matches even at league 1 level. He is a good,tidy technical player and could be a good championship player as part of a good possession based side but I'd rather have 2 good league 1 players if we were going to reinvest the fee, maybe could help us sign a better striker. 
If we don't reinvest properly then I wouldn't be as keen on selling .We are lacking in central midfield as it is.
If we sell I'd put Robinson in until we get a replacement,  and register Johnson for the bench. 

Would be okay with him going if we get about 2.5 million for him and we reinvest the money on a quality box to box player or number 10 and get another for depth. 
He's a good player but overrated imo, he doesn't score many, isn't physical or athletic and doesn't play well enough in the big games when we are up against it  or have the ability to run games and turn the tide of matches even at league 1 level. He is a good,tidy technical player and could be a good championship player as part of a good possession based side but I'd rather have 2 good league 1 players if we were going to reinvest the fee, maybe could help us sign a better striker. 
If we don't reinvest properly then I wouldn't be as keen on selling .We are lacking in central midfield as it is.
If we sell I'd put Robinson in until we get a replacement,  and register Johnson for the bench. 

If selling him enabled us to sign 2/3 replacements, Wood, Forshaw, Tunicliffe then I’m all for it. I feel like for too long we’ve been saying this is his year and he has never really improved for me. People are quick to say Thommo isn’t progressive enough but Bird, barring the rare worldie pass, isn’t much better. I thought him and Knight would dominate L1 but neither did. If letting them go enables us to get players to get us out this division then let’s crack on. 

Would be okay with him going if we get about 2.5 million for him and we reinvest the money on a quality box to box player or number 10 and get another for depth. 
He's a good player but overrated imo, he doesn't score many, isn't physical or athletic and doesn't play well enough in the big games when we are up against it  or have the ability to run games and turn the tide of matches even at league 1 level. He is a good,tidy technical player and could be a good championship player as part of a good possession based side but I'd rather have 2 good league 1 players if we were going to reinvest the fee, maybe could help us sign a better striker. 
If we don't reinvest properly then I wouldn't be as keen on selling .We are lacking in central midfield as it is.
If we sell I'd put Robinson in until we get a replacement,  and register Johnson for the bench. 

Can go for me. Over rated amongst a few on here without truely delivering over a sustained period. A few good passes here and there is about it really. Not good enough defensively or in an attacking sense. Need a bit a grit in this team for our midfield and he doesn't possess that. Thanks for your time and effort Birdy. 

It’s not a crazy idea that Collins and mcgoldrick could both get injuries. Even if slight. Would literally leave us with dobbin as a lone striker?
really think we need another body.

I understand the fans saying to move on from ex players and Martin isnt a Warne type....but surely Martin on a free is better than having no 3rd choice striker at all. If he joins another top end League 1 club I reckon we will regret it

You are entitled to your opinion of course.
I think Collins is making Waghorn look like Pele.