Well I’d say it’s crunch time again. In October, we had two home games on the bounce versus Brentford and Millwall which were set to define Rosler’s future and we mustered up two 0-0 draws whilst grasping on to the last throes of a doomed promotion push.
This time we face Blackburn and Huddersfield at home and the task ahead is an altogether different one. Perversely, a pair of 0-0 draws would not be disastrous in normal circumstances and using my logic of last week. Turn narrow defeats into draws and clean sheets and then ultimately narrow victories.
However, I’m not sure we have that luxury any more. We face a Blackburn team who have lost a bit of form but still have the kind of attacking prowess to score a panful of goals against a team who is leaking them freely.
In that sense, I’d accept not winning on the basis they are a good team – but unfortunately we need a win due to all those games we have lost against poor teams.
For those of you whose sarcasm detector failed them last week, it’s safe to say I’m not Malky Mackay’s biggest fan thus far. Yet his praise for the efforts of McClean and Waghorn perhaps leave a clue that things may well be out of his control.
By singling those two out for praise, he alludes to a distinct lack of effort elsewhere in the squad and worryingly, a suggestion that those who aren’t in the team are displaying even less effort than those lucky beggars who get to pull on the famous Wigan Athletic shirt at the weekend.
If that is the case, then maybe those who are pointing the finger at the manager are doing so erroneously and it is the players who are wholly culpable for this mess. In reality, I suspect it’s a combination of lots of things and the only solution is to put it right by winning a football match. Saturday would be a good time to start.
First published in the Wigan Evening Post’s 12th Man column Friday 16th January 2015
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