Wigan Athletic Football Club vs Manchester City Football Club JJB Stadium Sunday, September 28th 2008 16:00 11:00 AM EST USA - Fox Soccer Channel LIVE 11:00 AM EST in the United States. Canada - Score LIVE 11:00 AM EST in Canada. League Table 5 Man City 3W 0D 2L +8GD 9PTS 15 Wigan 1W 2D 2L +3GD 5PTS Man City LWWLW Wigan LLWDD Perhaps we can get a Titus Bramble own goal again?
This Wigan team is going to be a tough team to beat for everyone this year. They are solid and their Egyptian striker Zaki looks the business so far.
This is like a derby, but one never knows with this team of ours. MH should field the same team that beat Portsmouth, take no chances with gaining a top league position. Are we still ahead of Man United?
I didn't know that SWP missed the defeat at Bristol through injury, anyone have an update? Robinho will play on Sunday - a real treat for the Wigan supporters. Here's the link - MH on Robinho: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/default.sps?pagegid={DBD12D53-8346-431D-A04F-5D0F8664DE80}&newsid=6619280
Lynne's contribution to the Man City vs Wigan stats (taken from Andy Hinchliffe's column on the mcfc web-site): "No time for the Blues to feel sorry for themselves as they face yet another Sunday game this time at the JJB and a Wigan side that we’ve recently been unable to beat." Meaning the Bristol match!
Err, yes. What was I thinking! And I'd not been drinking either, so no excuse. I won't be able to watch the match against Watford! I mean Wigan, I'll be working. I'll keep my fingers-crossed for a win, given that we have a poor record against them. Come on City!
Haha. Fox Sports have finally decided to show a city match, so i get to watch this one. Should be excellent .. Brawn vs Skill (No offence to Wigan, they do have plenty of skill but you know what i mean).
We have too much skill for my liking these days. Only really Cattermole in our starting XI who is going to bully anyone/ kick the shit out of these days. Bring back Bradshaw, Green, Kavanagh and Rogers i say !
That was, without a doubt the biggest ******* dive i have ever seen. Palacios, you are cheating, scum, diving, filth. He made equal contact with Garrido in the box, and looked like he was jumping on a trampoline, absolutely horribly decision from the ref. That said, we look decent. 2-1 down, Valencia scored a screamer from 30 metres out .. nothign we could do. Kompany equalised, Robinho, then the BS ref call. Ireland could of equalized, and so could of Robinho. Been a decent game.
Words cannot describe how angry i am at the moment. The umpire was hopeless all day, and Wigan, for a team with a reputation as "hard men' .... The umpire deserves to be demoted. That's all i'm going to say .. Otherwise i might get a ban for excessive language. Goodnight.
Woah, dude. Calling someone "scum" because they maybe, possibly, actually did fall over like an Olympic diver is surely a bit OTT. What next ? Wishing death on him ? Get a grip. It's 22 men booting a bag of wind around some grass at the end of the day.
Pretty terrible refereeing for sure. That was definitely not a penalty, by any means. Zaki stayed on the ground more than he was upright, that was a tad frustrating as well. That said, and all that bad refereeing, we should have done better. We had some opportunitites, but we really didnt keep posession like we should have. How many Wigan set pieces we're there, it seemed like there were in our half all day long. Not the team we saw against Portsmouth, up and down, we know the drill. Best thing to do is focus on our next tasks, Omonia and Liverpool. Wigan always given us trouble, they have our number, and the referee had ours today too.
why did Hughes switch the formation around? I don't think Elano should ever play holding midfielder. he is too valuable attacking. Jo was a non entity today and should have been subbed out going in to the 2nd. I would have liked to see Fernandes come in for Jo and move Ireland and Robinho up.
Easy for you to say, your team got the penalty as a result. And no, we would never wih death upon anyone.
Mate, It was all of 10 minutes after the incident happened. You don't think i was a bit angry ? Speaking of OTT, wishing death on someone is about 500 steps above calling someone scum for diving, and i would never do that. And at the end of the day, It'll never be "just a game" for me. It's the game i love, watching the team i love .. Of course emotions are going to be high and run overboard. Maybe scum or filth is too strong, but i have lost all respect for Palacios after his pathetic dive, and the referee .. You want respect ref, earn it by making the right calls ..
Dunnie was tripped in the box, no penalty. The ref had a bad day and as a result, another team lost in stead of.... It's always been the case, teams lose points because of poor ref decisions. If red cards can be rescinded by the FA, then maybe goals should be taken away when the video proves that the penalty was incorrectly given.
However, my fellow Citizens, we cannot leave anything up the the Referee (wanker). Just as in boxing or MMA, you cannot allow the refs to determine the game. Robinho should have scored on his chance in front of the net. Valencia should not have been given an empty path to the net (great strike however) from that distance. We DOMINATED in the open field with 66% possession and 82% passing success, but didn't create enough scoring chances (same number of shots as the Latics). What will happen when Petrov comes back? Robinho prefers to play on the left... we need to start talking formation.
The work of the defensive midfielders is going to be key in our success this season. Against scrapping teams such as Wigan we need to impose ourselves because the likes of Robinho can't out-muscle them - we can out-play them but to do that we need more of a physical presence, so I would go with Kompany and Gelson both as defensive midfielders and let the two wingers and two strikers to just go and attack. Playing Elano and Ireland deeper didn't work and not only did it create a gap between the midfield and attack, but it also wasted their creative talent. We can't go on like this and constantly underachieve against these strong, physical teams - we are superior technically but we will never match them at their own game, so we need to make the difference ourselves. Another season of inconsistent mediocrity can't happen, we got the least amount of points against the bottom four (excluding the bottom four) than any other team last season. We will be fine against the teams who play open, but when it comes to breaking down resilient teams then we need to change because our current tactics just don't work. The key to breaking the top four is equally dependent on beating the teams at the bottom than it is to beat those around us. At home we should stick with the same team, play a high-tempo passing game quickly so we out-play the opposition rather than trying to match them in a physical approach. It is going to be difficult to accomodate Petrov, SWP, Ireland, Elano, Johnson and Robinho in the same starting eleven - in fact its impossible because Jo would be an immediate starter as he is a natural striker. I can't even think of what formation I would use, but injuries, resting players and suspensions will probably help a starting eleven be selected. As for the other positions, Garrido isn't a Premiership-standard left back. He doesn't have the pace to cut it because whenever he is competing a against a pacey right-winger then they have an extra yard within seconds. The penalty wasn't the correct decision and it throws more fire into the technology and use of replays debate - still, I don't feel confident about Garrido's defensive capabilities. To his credit he is great going forward, a very good option offensively but he doesn't have the pace and defensive know-how so he would be better as backup to Petrov at left midfield. You need your defenders to be best at defending, anything else is an additional bonus so Ball is much better there.
great post Alan. But 2 defensive mids? I don't get it. Perhaps when we are looking to hold a lead or play for a draw away, but I want to MCFC play attacking football. ATTACKING: Jo, Elano, Robinho, Petrov, Ireland, SWP, Benjani, Sturridge, Evans, Bojinov, Castillo, Vassell, Etuhu HOLDING: Johnson, Fernandes, Hamann, Kompany DEFENDING: Ball, Richards, Dunne, Ben-Haim, Garrido, Zabaleta, Berti Looking at those regular players, it seems obvious to me we have fire power up front... now, if I only knew how to line them up on the pitch?? ......................JH........................ PZ...........RD...........MR............JG ......................VK....................... SWP........SI..............BE.........DSR ......................JAJ....................... or ......................JH........................ PZ...........RD...........MR............JG ......................VK....................... ..........SWP........BE...........MP....... .........................DSR................... ................JAJ.............................. or what?! DAMN! IT's HARD!! and only going to get harder