A change …

It’s amazing to see the change in attitude in the fan base in just over a week. Ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Luton it really felt like Latics were staring down the barrel, three consecutive 4-1 defeats – each one worse than the last. Coupled with an expectation that the squad wouldn’t be strengthened in any meaningful way in January.

A week later and after a decent performance, one that should really have seen us through to the fourth round and some transfer activity and it’s all change again.

Now let’s not get carried away, Latics are still in dire straits. The league position is as bad as could be, we’re rock bottom for a reason and that’s an awful run of form that started in the autumn under Leam Richardson and has only gathered pace under Kolo Toure but there are reasons to be hopeful if we look hard enough.

The performance on Saturday was much improved, certainly in the first half. We look much better when we press sides and although we haven’t returned to the long ball game that we saw at times earlier in the season it seems a more pragmatic approach has been adopted by the defence.

If we try to wilfully play our way out of trouble all of the time sides will simply pick us off and destroy us as shown in the festive horror show. Playing the ‘right way’ is definitely something to aspire to but there needs to be a balance in when we try to do that.

If Kolo Toure has been guilty of anything I would say it’s an understanding or lack of understanding about his players limitations, for the best will in the world players who have been coached a certain way for eighteen months aren’t going to be able to switch to a new philosophy and implement that philosophy fully after a few short weeks in mid-season.

If there was a re-set ahead of Luton it would have been a welcome one, where Latics work towards becoming the side that we want to be – as oppose to expecting us to be there already.

Although Saturday didn’t result in a win it resulted in a change of attitude, that old phrase ‘stopping the rot’ was in evidence post match Saturday evening and although Tom Naylor’s second goal was ruled out it should show the lads that they can and always have been able to mix it up with the division’s leading lights.

So on to the transfer market, two already in in the form of Miguel Azeez and Steven Caulker with more to follow. The squad clearly needs a boost after the under investment in the summer and the hammering we’ve had to confidence over the last few weeks but it’s difficult for a bottom of the table side to do that in January.

Let’s take a look at the lads that have arrived so far, Steven Caulker is one of those classic players whose career has gone somewhat awry but is still young enough to make an impact. Caulker started off at Spurs before successful spells with Swansea, Cardiff, QPR and Liverpool where he played alongside one Kolo Toure. He has international experience with England, Team GB at the London Olympics and is the current captain of Sierra Leone.

To get him on a free transfer is quite the coup, yes he’s had a difficult couple of years but has played regularly in Turkey and should bring some much needed experience to a back line that had been shipping goals like the Titanic over the last few games.

Also new in is Arsenal prodigy Miguel Azeez, fresh from a loan spell at UD Ibiza in Spain’s Segunda division. You have to feel for the poor lad, leaving the sunshine island and arriving in Wigan in January. Arsenal fans will tell you he’s one of their most exciting talents others will say he’s shown nothing in his two loan spells to date at Portsmouth and the aforementioned Ibiza.

Kevin Betsy will know Azeez well, coaching him for both England and Arsenal he will be crucial in ensuring that Azeez makes the step up. He’s described as a dynamic midfielder with an eye for goal and that’s just what we need currently.

There’s seemingly more to come as well, at the time of writing Christ Tiehi is poised to arrive from Czech side Slovan Liberec along with Burton striker Victor Adeboyejo will they improve on what we have? Who knows but we need them to and we need all the new lads to hit the ground running and start turning this ship around.

Very few people grow up wanting to play for Wigan Athletic, and with our financial position we need to be clever when it comes to signings. We’ve had great success in taking rough diamonds and polishing them up. If we can do the same with these young lads we’ll be back on the right track.

Cardiff represents the perfect opportunity to get our season back on track on Saturday afternoon, let’s hope the boost of new faces helps the lads to get a huge three points.

Sean Livesey

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PIE AT NIGHT PODCAST
We promise you that it’s easier to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t have to rely on us to remind you when a new episode comes out.

Apple sorts can find it on iTunes here – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-pie-at-night-podcast/id1097853442?mt=2

If you prefer a different podcast app then just search for “The Pie at Night Podcast”.

You can also find us on Stitcher, here – http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-pie-at-night-pocast/the-pie-at-night-podcast

If you’re that way out, you can find and subscribe to our RSS feed here – http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepieatnight

And if you just want to take pot luck then you can find all our episodes on our Soundcloud page