v Wigan (H) Match Thread

[DCFC1388]

Over reactions exactly what I was expecting when coming on here, along with Collins being targetted as usual.

For the majority of the game we were the better team but we gifted them 2 soft goals. They hardly got in our half in 2nd half, it was all us.

Collins was full of effort as always, ended up running out wide due to lack of support up front which hopefully he will get when Washington is fit. He had 1 chance and forced a save from the keeper.

For me Smith was our best player, particularly 1st half, only midfielder who was trying to play forward. Bird put alot of work in but no great creativity in a position that requires it.

Biggest disappointments for me were Wildsmith, NML & Hourihane. Why Hourihane went back to Bradley for their 1st I dont know, got the ball in the middle of the pitch with loads of space in front of him & he passes back to Bradley.

Some of Wards deliveries were brilliant, Wilson looked a bright spark but will frustrate fans. Our main issue today was the bench, no attakcing options other than Washington.

Ref gave them everything 1st half, how we didnt get a penalty on Bradley I dont know, the lino was looking right at it. The booking for Smith was a joke too.

Get Sibley & Barkhuizen back plus 2 or 3 more attacking players in & we will be right up there come the end of the season.

[IlsonDerby]

You cannot, repeat cannot, legislate for your marquee cb signing and 2nd place in last seasons POTY making those two mistakes. They let their team mates down today. 
 

Going down 1-0 in a gritty game makes everything seem more forced and lumbered as they can sit and hit us on the break. They didn’t lay a glove on us in the second half until their second goal. 
 

A really bad day at the office and the bench looked very light on game changing options. It’s clear Bird isn’t the 10 Warne thinks he can be but I’d rather have Bird and Smith in the middle. How does that happen now Hourihane is captain? A difficult one. 

[Leeds Ram]

1 minute ago, jameso said:

I'm trying to reconcile the first two statements (?!)

 

0-2 at home to Reading in 2020?

I'm not saying it's season over or Warne needs to go but that we also need to be honest about that performance which was shocking.

Perhaps Reading at home in 2020 or the first game we had with Pearson which i think was bad as well? 

[IlsonDerby]

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. 

[Srg]

2 minutes ago, IlsonDerby said:

You cannot, repeat cannot, legislate for your marquee cb signing and 2nd place in last seasons POTY making those two mistakes. They let their team mates down today. 
 

Going down 1-0 in a gritty game makes everything seem more forced and lumbered as they can sit and hit us on the break. They didn’t lay a glove on us in the second half until their second goal. 
 

A really bad day at the office and the bench looked very light on game changing options. It’s clear Bird isn’t the 10 Warne thinks he can be but I’d rather have Bird and Smith in the middle. How does that happen now Hourihane is captain? A difficult one. 

I’m hoping Bradley was just nervous but that was a concerning performance from him. Lack of communication, really tentative at attacking the ball. He’s 6ft 5 and wanted the ball the bounce every time. It was bizarre. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

Over reactions exactly what I was expecting when coming on here, along with Collins being targetted as usual.

For the majority of the game we were the better team but we gifted them 2 soft goals. They hardly got in our half in 2nd half, it was all us.

Collins was full of effort as always, ended up running out wide due to lack of support up front which hopefully he will get when Washington is fit. He had 1 chance and forced a save from the keeper.

For me Smith was our best player, particularly 1st half, only midfielder who was trying to play forward. Bird put alot of work in but no great creativity in a position that requires it.

Biggest disappointments for me were Wildsmith, NML & Hourihane. Why Hourihane went back to Bradley for their 1st I dont know, got the ball in the middle of the pitch with loads of space in front of him & he passes back to Bradley.

Some of Wards deliveries were brilliant, Wilson looked a bright spark but will frustrate fans. Our main issue today was the bench, no attakcing options other than Washington.

Ref gave them everything 1st half, how we didnt get a penalty on Bradley I dont know, the lino was looking right at it. The booking for Smith was a joke too.

Get Sibley & Barkhuizen back plus 2 or 3 more attacking players in & we will be right up there come the end of the season.

Agree with most of this except Smith, who had a great first 10 minutes and then was up and down after that.

Surely Ward, even if only Ward, had a better game than Smith?

[Mr Tibbs]

7 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:On that showing, we need 2 strikers and creative midfielder if we're going to compete.

When you say compete do you mean for top 2? Top 6? Because I think we’ll slap a lot of the poorer teams in this division with that kind of performance, errors avoided obviously.

I can see a similar finish to last season unless we improve the squad (which I think we will). Let’s not pretend this division is stacked with great teams, after about 10th there’s a lot of crap, without trying to be too harsh/entitled. 

 

[strawhillram]

4 minutes ago, alram said:

yes the fitness and speed at which we play is a real real concern.

 

i have said it for ages to get out this league you need athletic young players not old slow players it just doesnt work. its going to be a slog of a season thats for sure hopefully it will get better but it is a real concern for me we looked so under prepared compared to wigan

But they had a lovely holiday (training, bonding session) in Spain. 

[DCFC1388]

Just now, jameso said:

Agree with most of this except Smith, who had a great first 10 minutes and then was up and down after that.

Surely Ward, even if only Ward, had a better game than Smith?

Yeh tbf Ward had a really good game although some of his crossing 1st half was poor. I picked Smoth as to me out of our midfield he was the only one trying to be progressive. He made a number of really good passes through the lines as well as a couple of good runs, in particular the 1st half. He did quiten down 2nd half although I think the soft yellow hampered him a little.

[TimRam]

We'd have won that easily with McGoldrick (or a striker with his knowledge of where the goal is). Had plenty of the ball without that final shot/header. Their first was (hopefully) a one-off. Keeper poor for their second.

[Jortat]

5 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

Over reactions exactly what I was expecting when coming on here, along with Collins being targetted as usual.

For the majority of the game we were the better team but we gifted them 2 soft goals. They hardly got in our half in 2nd half, it was all us.

Collins was full of effort as always, ended up running out wide due to lack of support up front which hopefully he will get when Washington is fit. He had 1 chance and forced a save from the keeper.

For me Smith was our best player, particularly 1st half, only midfielder who was trying to play forward. Bird put alot of work in but no great creativity in a position that requires it.

Biggest disappointments for me were Wildsmith, NML & Hourihane. Why Hourihane went back to Bradley for their 1st I dont know, got the ball in the middle of the pitch with loads of space in front of him & he passes back to Bradley.

Some of Wards deliveries were brilliant, Wilson looked a bright spark but will frustrate fans. Our main issue today was the bench, no attakcing options other than Washington.

Ref gave them everything 1st half, how we didnt get a penalty on Bradley I dont know, the lino was looking right at it. The booking for Smith was a joke too.

Get Sibley & Barkhuizen back plus 2 or 3 more attacking players in & we will be right up there come the end of the season.

That’s how I saw the game . I really don’t get a lot of the negativity on here but it’s all about opinions. I’m positive after the game and with a few additions I think we will do ok .

[R@M]

someone tell me which camp I should be in…

[CBRammette]

3 minutes ago, jameso said:

Agree with most of this except Smith, who had a great first 10 minutes and then was up and down after that.

Surely Ward, even if only Ward, had a better game than Smith?

Think smith was worse after booked

[EraniosSocks]

[Matchday Fred]

12 minutes ago, Somersall Ram said:

What a shambles. Wildsmith Cashin Bradley smith Bird and Collins were all embarrassing. If someone offers us 2 packets of crisps and a mars bar for Bird we should take it. He is going back. Poor control and passing and just goes missing in the game. Lightweight and just a waste of space. 

Spot on. bird is more sparrow than golden eagle. An exhibition player not willing to break a sweat. I’ll drive him to Hull myself.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Matchday Fred

[Leeds Ram]

13 minutes ago, alram said:

yes the fitness and speed at which we play is a real real concern.

 

i have said it for ages to get out this league you need athletic young players not old slow players it just doesnt work. its going to be a slog of a season thats for sure hopefully it will get better but it is a real concern for me we looked so under prepared compared to wigan

Especially with the game Warne insists on playing. You can't play that type of football with a squad of 19 who have the oldest average age in the division. 

[Jourdan]

That was desperately disappointing.

The Warne doubters will be in full voice and I can’t really blame them. It wasn’t a performance or a result that will get people excited about the season ahead.

I think the effort and application was there but the quality, cohesion, composure and decision making were all completely missing.

The system didn’t look very effective. The back three were wide open and vulnerable to pace. The midfield three were too safe. It didn’t bring the best out of Collins and Mendez-Laing. The attacking threat was too one-dimensional and predictable, and we were relying too much on hopeful crosses into the box.

Both goals were a disaster and completely self-inflicted, but Wigan sent a warning sign within the first minute when they opened us up and sent a cross rolling dangerously across the box and they also created some good openings in the first half before they eventually scored. We were too open and disjointed.

Of course, the new players will need time and we still clearly need 3-4 players to freshen things up and put ourselves in the best possible position.

On another day, it might have been a draw but a very worrying start but hopefully a huge learning exercise and wake up call.

[jono]

2 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

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. 

 

I think that’s a very one sided review. Yes you make some observations but if you took that game to pieces and consider the various phases. First 2/3 mins we hardly had the ball, then about 20 minutes where we ran the show and could have been 2 up  Then their goal and we were on the back foot which continued for about 5 minutes after half time when we got better for another 20 mins or so. We looked useful, dangerous and had them the back foot. 
 

Two stupid mistakes (one we got away with) plus one great cross from them, then consider 3 missed chances from us. It was an ebb and flow game of 4 quarters. Either team could have come out on top but they took their chances, very much as we did in the pre season V Stoke. 
 

That said, we were pedestrian far too often, the pace at which we moved the ball was grim. Wigan were very energetic with a good skill level and we didn’t match them often enough.

2 lovely bits of footwork from Smith, Ward looks consistent. Collins is a poacher and a worker but we need a striker who puts it up em. NML who has looked quite useful in his new roll was too easily disposed and wasn’t as incisive as usual. We got caught napping. 
 

We lacked fire and zip, we let them reset too easily because of this. They did all work hard but you got the feeling that they were “off it” today or maybe Wigan were “on it”

I am disappointed but have faith that we will bounce back. Wigan deserved something from that game but I am not sure they deserved all 3 points. 

[TomTom92]

One of our main issues is that neither Smith or Bird score goals. That’s 2 out of our 3 midfielders, I’m not saying Bird should be sold because we’re so light in there and if we do sign a creative midfielder I’ll be intrigued to see who gets dropped. 
 
Probably Smith to be fair, but until we sign a decent striker and midfielder then unfortunately we’ll fall the wrong side of even matches like today.

[Millenniumram]

43 minutes ago, Andicis said:

If some fans are giving him up on our manager after 1 game, they are s*** fans. Who cares what they think? 

It’s not just one game though is it? He’s had 46 in charge now.