Tonight

[Baggiejacko]

I think one of our problems is Phillips,he is doing his usual disappearing act ,think we need another wide player and an attacking midfield player

Our league position suggests there isn't a problem.

There’s no room for complacency in football ,Fulham with their forward line could well go on a good run like villa did last season ,things can change over a few games

OK

[Bloke who lives abroad]

I'm giving Austin a 7.5

He tried but didnt get service. And he hammered in our goal. Very many others would have missed that.

[WorcBaggie]

Strange one last night. Very few positives, wrong starting line up (IMO) and 1 or 2 players not doing themselves justice in the roles/time on pitch that they had. However, points total and distance between us and 3rd are fantastic and last night was a minor blip on another wise fantastic few months in charge for Slav and clearly nothing to be upset about. I've said a few times we need at least 1 striker in as the squad stands and depending on outgoings (and what Slaven does with Kenneth) a possible attacking/wide player too. Cuzer hit the nail on the head re: Austin. His biggest problem is not suiting the way we play and therefore he really shouldn't be starting. No problem with his attitude and his positivity seems to be what we need. Have to look past him for staring places though. 

A big issue for me last night was the balance in full back areas. Virtually all season we have had one that likes to attack more and one a little more defensive who can tuck in a little nearer to Semi and Bartley. We've even see Semi and Bartley change their starting positions when we had Ferguson at RB and Gibbs at LB to allow Gibbs to bomb on. Playing Ferguson and Townsend didn't work last night and despite their efforts in trying to get forward nothing worked. Clearly hampered by not having HRK on the pitch to stretch the game we were very congested and lacked any fluency. if Gibbs isn't read on Saturday it needs to be Furlong at RB and either Ferguson or Townsend at LB.

[SW4Baggie]

Strange one last night. Very few positives, wrong starting line up (IMO) and 1 or 2 players not doing themselves justice in the roles/time on pitch that they had. However, points total and distance between us and 3rd are fantastic and last night was a minor blip on another wise fantastic few months in charge for Slav and clearly nothing to be upset about. I've said a few times we need at least 1 striker in as the squad stands and depending on outgoings (and what Slaven does with Kenneth) a possible attacking/wide player too. Cuzer hit the nail on the head re: Austin. His biggest problem is not suiting the way we play and therefore he really shouldn't be starting. No problem with his attitude and his positivity seems to be what we need. Have to look past him for staring places though. 

A big issue for me last night was the balance in full back areas. Virtually all season we have had one that likes to attack more and one a little more defensive who can tuck in a little nearer to Semi and Bartley. We've even see Semi and Bartley change their starting positions when we had Ferguson at RB and Gibbs at LB to allow Gibbs to bomb on. Playing Ferguson and Townsend didn't work last night and despite their efforts in trying to get forward nothing worked. Clearly hampered by not having HRK on the pitch to stretch the game we were very congested and lacked any fluency. if Gibbs isn't read on Saturday it needs to be Furlong at RB and either Ferguson or Townsend at LB.

Agreed.... Austin will score goals in any side at this level providing they pump early balls into the box and play the percentages... unfortunately we do not play that way and the striker's main role is to create space for our "second wave" to exploit - this is either by coming deep and moving the ball quickly into space for the onrunning player, moving quickly forward with the ball, or taking the freekick to move us up the field... these are three things HRK does brilliantly, but none of these are Austin's strengths. He has tried to adapt his game, and his hold-up play is markedly better now than it was when he arrived, but he's just not fast enough nor has the movement to play that role. 

Edwards and Phillips were selected last night to play as more traditional wingers, hugging the touchline and putting balls into the box, however they had little change out of Wigan's fullbacks, and with Charlie being isolated and easily defended, their makeshift CB pairing couldn't have wished for an easier night. We also lacked the attacking threat at fullback with Fergie and Townsend being far more traditional defensive players, neither overlapped and as Wigan grew in confidence they peppered a lot of balls in behind both meaning they struggled to balance when to attack and when to stay back. 

Finally the biggest breakdown in our play was Krovinovic's reluctance to get beyond his striker (when you have someone who isn't naturally blessed with pace, you have to have a number 10 that breaks into space ahead - one of the key things Mourinho has had Dele Alli doing at Spurs), and as a result we had no real threat in and around the box. Livermore, Saywers and Krov were all getting in each other's way and when Periera came on he was shunted out wide where he's never really looked threatening. 

For the first time this season Slav has got his tactics completely wrong, and with such a make shift back 4, I think we should have gone all guns blazing at Wigan and potentially saved this set up for a Blues team which will try and play through the midfield and have a very slow back line that will sit deep regardless of Charlie or HRK starting.

The absence of both Willock and Zohore really surprised me last night. Willock has looked very good in the reserves recently, and with 3 games in 6 days, I expected some rotation, particularly out wide and at no.10 and thought last night would have been a great opportunity to give them a run out. 

The positive is we got an absolute gift for their goal and due to other results grew the gap to 3rd, but I do have a couple concerns around Slav's blinkers around Krov at no.10 with Periera out wide, and his continued hard-on for Charlie as a starter over big Ken!

[DemonicBaggie]

Strange one last night. Very few positives, wrong starting line up (IMO) and 1 or 2 players not doing themselves justice in the roles/time on pitch that they had. However, points total and distance between us and 3rd are fantastic and last night was a minor blip on another wise fantastic few months in charge for Slav and clearly nothing to be upset about. I've said a few times we need at least 1 striker in as the squad stands and depending on outgoings (and what Slaven does with Kenneth) a possible attacking/wide player too. Cuzer hit the nail on the head re: Austin. His biggest problem is not suiting the way we play and therefore he really shouldn't be starting. No problem with his attitude and his positivity seems to be what we need. Have to look past him for staring places though. 

A big issue for me last night was the balance in full back areas. Virtually all season we have had one that likes to attack more and one a little more defensive who can tuck in a little nearer to Semi and Bartley. We've even see Semi and Bartley change their starting positions when we had Ferguson at RB and Gibbs at LB to allow Gibbs to bomb on. Playing Ferguson and Townsend didn't work last night and despite their efforts in trying to get forward nothing worked. Clearly hampered by not having HRK on the pitch to stretch the game we were very congested and lacked any fluency. if Gibbs isn't read on Saturday it needs to be Furlong at RB and either Ferguson or Townsend at LB.

Agreed.... Austin will score goals in any side at this level providing they pump early balls into the box and play the percentages... unfortunately we do not play that way and the striker's main role is to create space for our "second wave" to exploit - this is either by coming deep and moving the ball quickly into space for the onrunning player, moving quickly forward with the ball, or taking the freekick to move us up the field... these are three things HRK does brilliantly, but none of these are Austin's strengths. He has tried to adapt his game, and his hold-up play is markedly better now than it was when he arrived, but he's just not fast enough nor has the movement to play that role. 

Edwards and Phillips were selected last night to play as more traditional wingers, hugging the touchline and putting balls into the box, however they had little change out of Wigan's fullbacks, and with Charlie being isolated and easily defended, their makeshift CB pairing couldn't have wished for an easier night. We also lacked the attacking threat at fullback with Fergie and Townsend being far more traditional defensive players, neither overlapped and as Wigan grew in confidence they peppered a lot of balls in behind both meaning they struggled to balance when to attack and when to stay back. 

Finally the biggest breakdown in our play was Krovinovic's reluctance to get beyond his striker (when you have someone who isn't naturally blessed with pace, you have to have a number 10 that breaks into space ahead - one of the key things Mourinho has had Dele Alli doing at Spurs), and as a result we had no real threat in and around the box. Livermore, Saywers and Krov were all getting in each other's way and when Periera came on he was shunted out wide where he's never really looked threatening. 

For the first time this season Slav has got his tactics completely wrong, and with such a make shift back 4, I think we should have gone all guns blazing at Wigan and potentially saved this set up for a Blues team which will try and play through the midfield and have a very slow back line that will sit deep regardless of Charlie or HRK starting.

The absence of both Willock and Zohore really surprised me last night. Willock has looked very good in the reserves recently, and with 3 games in 6 days, I expected some rotation, particularly out wide and at no.10 and thought last night would have been a great opportunity to give them a run out. 

The positive is we got an absolute gift for their goal and due to other results grew the gap to 3rd, but I do have a couple concerns around Slav's blinkers around Krov at no.10 with Periera out wide, and his continued hard-on for Charlie as a starter over big Ken!

Excellent analyses, gentlemen. Wigan couldn't have had a better incentive before kick-off than seeing our team starved of our three most potent players up front, a tactic which also seemed rather dismissive of our opponents - there are no easy games in this division. My own take on these matters is (injuries permitting) always start with your strongest line-up, maintain momentum, take the game to the opposition, then make changes as and when necessary. We got away with it big time on Wednesday and were extremely lucky to gain the point. That said, Slav is intelligent and flexible enough to learn from his errors, and there's no arguing with what has been a fantastic season so far.

[Peachy]

The absence of both Willock and Zohore really surprised me last night. Willock has looked very good in the reserves recently, and with 3 games in 6 days, I expected some rotation, particularly out wide and at no.10 and thought last night would have been a great opportunity to give them a run out.  

Thought the same re Willock.

I'm convinced there's some weird political reason why we can't play him yet.

[scotbaggie]

Our 42 goals put us top in the league, 8 more than the second place squad. our distribution is Phillips 7, HRK 6, Austin and Periera 5. That is what you want, who does the defence focus on now? Since we play 1 striker, the combination of HRK and Austin have netted 11 goals, which would be 3rd in the league if they were 1. In fact put in Zahores 2 goals and our "striker" position would be #2 behind Mitrovic.

[Three Degrees]

Our 42 goals put us top in the league, 8 more than the second place squad. our distribution is Phillips 7, HRK 6, Austin and Periera 5. That is what you want, who does the defence focus on now? Since we play 1 striker, the combination of HRK and Austin have netted 11 goals, which would be 3rd in the league if they were 1. In fact put in Zahores 2 goals and our "striker" position would be #2 behind Mitrovic.

Said this before , better to have 3/4 players getting into double figures than just relying on one main striker which is a risk anyway .