With England crashing out of The World Cup a great majority of fans thoughts will now turn to their domestic clubs and here at TNS that would be the 2013 FA Cup winners Wigan Athletic.
(I will never tire of typing/reading that fact.)
Last Wednesday was fixture release day and it didn’t have it’s usual impact because of events over in Brazil, less so the Capital Cup draw the day before, Latics were paired away against The Brewers incidentally.
The two new signings caused a ripple of a stir but the whole gossip drums are strangely quiet, everyone it seems is waiting until July13th has been & gone before really gearing up on the home front.
So Uwe’s first full season in charge, although it won’t be his squad he will be able to have installed his idea’s, thoughts & rules during a pre-season to the Wigan squad, some who will be late back because of, yes you’ve guessed it Brazil WC14.
Opinions will vary greatly, hence the reason for sites/forums like this & the rise of the ubiquitous “social media” side of communications.
For what it’s worth my “hope’s” are for a settled side, especially at the back & goalkeeper, I am a great believer in playing your best team in their natural positions not necessarily the best eleven players who are not comfortable in alien positions to them and a formation not suitable to their talents.
Look at the teams down the years that have won trophies and you will find not a team of individual superstars 1 to 11 but the best 11 to suit their needs, however Real Madrid are seriously trying to prove me wrong on that score !
Uwe does like to tinker and for a while it worked but I assume the players who performed admirably and were on a winning side, although not publicly admitting it must have been well and truly peeved when they weren’t even on the bench the next match.
We never will know the in’s & out’s at TheDW or what goes on exactly behind the Home dressing room door but pulling your guts out ( & yes I know they are well reimbursed to do so) one match then banished to the stands the next does not quite sit easy with me.
A settled side to me also means keeping the same XI injuries permitting after a win, “never change a winning team” is an old cliché’ I know but is still relevant even in the modern game.
And don’t get me started on playing a shadow team in the early rounds of the Cup competition’s.
Keeping the hope’s going, attractive football, now that can mean lot’s & lot’s of different things, tiki-taki, long ball, pressing game but really what the method all we want is a winning team.
Be honest ,winning comes first & foremost with style along way behind, of course free flowing football, 40 yard screamers, diving headers etc but the important stat is the win.
Me, I like to/hope we get men forward quicker & have more attempts ON target, how we actually get to that position should be a combination of all aspects of the game, play to the strengths of the players on the park.
The global success of the game we all love is its simplicity and its range of movement of the ball.
No other sport can you go, backwards, forwards and sideways at pace or a gentle trot, you can hit the ball long, medium or short, you can head it, chest it and obviously kick it.
Attack is as important as defence and even with the bureaucraticmeddling’s of The FA, UEFA & FIFA the game is as simple in rules as it was back in the olden days.
As for aspirations, is that just another “posh” name for hope?
1- Old Chestnut, the marketing department sort themselves out, we are hopeless at promoting the club, the season ticket packs haven’t gone out yet. They should be ready to roll & delivered on fixture day announcement, start the momentum & keep it going.
2- The New Kit announcement and keep ‘em affordable, the club should be drip feeding the fans something new weekly until the season starts, start the momentum & keep it going.
3- Get promoted as soon as possible to concentrate on The Cups then you can experiment when the main job’s are done.
4- The crowd are a bit more tolerant of genuine mistakes, the players don’t do it on purpose to annoy us, it happens, deal with it. (I’m sure a vast majority around me have never even kicked a beach-ball in their life let alone a proper casey.
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