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| Culture |
I dunno if other people did this, but one of the highlights of my youth was when me and my mates used to put together scratch teams to play unofficial but highly anticipated games of football against another group of lads. Where I grew up there were two field. The park, which contained a war memorial, a few trees and kids play area and the rec, which had the advantage of goal posts but less places to sit around.
We were the park, they were the rec. We'd meet in advance and settle on how many players were going to be allowed to play (usually the number of the smaller group) and then from then on, we'd spend a few days working out where everyone should play. With us being the smaller group, we basically had to shuffle the same people round, trying to hide the shit players and highlight the good ones. We'd talk different formation and have complex ideas like 'what if Kev plays just behind John so he can stop Griff cos he's fast as fuck' and 'If we play Banxy up front then he'll create a pocket of space that midfield can exploit.' like we were managing at a high level with a squad of elite players, not a ragtag bunch of lads and a few of their younger brothers.
When it came down to it though, all that happened was 30 of us (games were usually about 15 a side) legged it round after the ball, two people on either side got bored and wandered off to have a fag and talk to girls and generally, we lost cos the other side were better than than us.
I think that's a long winded way of saying, that's a bit like where we are now. Critch has got enough players to put out a side, but he's not got many choices. I kind of like that. There's something quite old fashioned about it, it harks back to the days when squads were much smaller, you might get through a season with 15 or 16 players and no one talked about 'the art of squad rotation' or 'tactical flexibility.' Football seemed a bit simpler. You got the best players you could, usually played them in a 4-4-2 and either passed your way to the front or launched it there as quickly as you could. You worked with what you had. I quite like the idea that necessity might be the mother of invention for our Neil.
Should we even play this match?
I think on the surface, yes we should. The issue of whether we're harshly dealt with in terms of other clubs or could call it off to our advantage is a relevant one, but to me, if the league has designs on finishing, then a club in our state, who can put out more or less and 18 of fully signed up professional footballers (albeit including some young and out of favour ones) should be playing. Would we better waiting till everyone was fit? Maybe - but if everyone thinks like that, then we'll end up with a stupid backlog of fixtures all across the division that means we'll end up tired and unfit anyway. If we all put our own needs first, then there'll be no league to question the integrity of or we'll be playing a game a day in July instead.
The question of whether it's right or wrong morally to play or whether the EFL are again letting us down with their laissez faire approach to governance and protocol. Lets just not go there. Just close your eyes and think of...er... Wigan.
Now, as I've written before, this fixture is complex for me. I grew up in Wigan and yet, I want to beat them more than almost anyone. That's easy enough but I'm equally concerned at the moment that the club keeps going. Ideally in a lower division so I don't have to think about them cos when we lose badly to them (like when we lost 5-1 the year we went down under Worthington and Macca or at some time I can't recall when they did us 3-0 and it was freezing and I had to go home on the local bus surrounded by Latics fans with my shirt hidden or any of the other times they ever win against us to be honest...)
Losing to them is grim to me cos they're a non league club in a rugby town who got lucky and gained a load of hangers on as a result. That said, the current state of affairs in terms of their takeover (does anyone on earth actually know what is going on?) illustrates how fucking lucky we are in the grand scheme of things with buyers, administrators and our rare luck of landing on our feet after all we've been through. I think it also shows dangerous it can be for a club who loses their benefactor. The good times always seem to cost the clubs from towns, whilst there's a city elite who just seem to be able to borrow, lend and squander till the debt becomes meaningless and there's no consequences. Maybe one day Chelsea (the greatest loss makers in English football) will go 'pop' when Roman pops his clogs, but somehow you feel that they'll survive whereas Wigan are in more of a perilous position. When all is said and done, I'll always be more for the Wigan's than Chelsea's* even if battering them tonight is my main desire for the week.
I think on the surface, yes we should. The issue of whether we're harshly dealt with in terms of other clubs or could call it off to our advantage is a relevant one, but to me, if the league has designs on finishing, then a club in our state, who can put out more or less and 18 of fully signed up professional footballers (albeit including some young and out of favour ones) should be playing. Would we better waiting till everyone was fit? Maybe - but if everyone thinks like that, then we'll end up with a stupid backlog of fixtures all across the division that means we'll end up tired and unfit anyway. If we all put our own needs first, then there'll be no league to question the integrity of or we'll be playing a game a day in July instead.
The question of whether it's right or wrong morally to play or whether the EFL are again letting us down with their laissez faire approach to governance and protocol. Lets just not go there. Just close your eyes and think of...er... Wigan.
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| A skyline of dreams |
Now, as I've written before, this fixture is complex for me. I grew up in Wigan and yet, I want to beat them more than almost anyone. That's easy enough but I'm equally concerned at the moment that the club keeps going. Ideally in a lower division so I don't have to think about them cos when we lose badly to them (like when we lost 5-1 the year we went down under Worthington and Macca or at some time I can't recall when they did us 3-0 and it was freezing and I had to go home on the local bus surrounded by Latics fans with my shirt hidden or any of the other times they ever win against us to be honest...)
Losing to them is grim to me cos they're a non league club in a rugby town who got lucky and gained a load of hangers on as a result. That said, the current state of affairs in terms of their takeover (does anyone on earth actually know what is going on?) illustrates how fucking lucky we are in the grand scheme of things with buyers, administrators and our rare luck of landing on our feet after all we've been through. I think it also shows dangerous it can be for a club who loses their benefactor. The good times always seem to cost the clubs from towns, whilst there's a city elite who just seem to be able to borrow, lend and squander till the debt becomes meaningless and there's no consequences. Maybe one day Chelsea (the greatest loss makers in English football) will go 'pop' when Roman pops his clogs, but somehow you feel that they'll survive whereas Wigan are in more of a perilous position. When all is said and done, I'll always be more for the Wigan's than Chelsea's* even if battering them tonight is my main desire for the week.
(*note, I fucking hate the use of teams and players as plurals so I'm going to beat myself to a pulp when I've finished writing this, cos if I ever write 'the Lampards and the Gerrards and the Rooneys of this world might one to think about starting out at one of the smaller clubs, y'know the Grimsby Towns or Rochdales of this world cos the Chelsea's and the Arsenals are a big challenge for anyone then that is literally it for me. No desire to continue breathing if I'm going to talk like that)
Anyway... Wigan. They're clearly on their uppers but they're in ok-ish form. It's about the same as ours. Not great, not completely awful but with our relative ambitions being somewhat divergent, you'd have to think they weren't too unhappy at only losing 1 in 6. They've only won 1 either mind...
Last time out, Joe Garner was their key man and apple of Chissy's eye. There'll be no Chissy tonight (boo!) thanks to Covid travel restrictions but no Joe Garner he can miss either thanks to him now playing in Cyprus. There's something strange about how BBC Radio Lancashire aren't allowed to go to Wigan (which actually IS Lancashire by the real maps) but Joe Garner can go all the way to Apoel in Nicosia. The world is strange though at the moment so it pays not to think too much on anything.
How will they play without him? I have no idea. They've got Kyle Joseph who is that good we're kidding ourselves that we could get him, Zach Clough who was good ages ago but doesn't seem to be any more, Will Keane similarly and in the ex Pool corner, Viv Saloman Otobar who must be the only player to have played for Blackpool and CSKA Sofia with just one season in between. Curtis Tilt has gone back to the Merry Millers and even a full strength Wigan looks a bit cobbled together. Even their choices of manager seems to have been borrowed from about 2009 cos really, who expected Shezza to turn up at this level again? Leam Richardson replaced him in the long run and It'd expect a high energy, hard work no frills terrier like style if he's like he was as a player.
I'm more concerned with what we do. We did ok against Brighton. Some huffed a bit about the lack of attacking intent, but I think we tried both twatting it at Gaz from miles away and trying to pass out and neither really worked cos Brighton are quite good really, even if we like to say 'them, they were nothing!' to make ourselves feel better. They were fit, pressed very well, handled everyone but Madine with a professional quality that spoke of their level and got better as they brought better players on from their luxurious Premier League bench.
I think this is a different matter. Yes, you make noises about respecting the opposition and there being no easy games, but even with a depleted side, Critch should be looking to get at them cos they can be got at. I watched the Wigan/Chorley game and Chorley didn't defer to them, so why should we? Brighton might have held us at arms length but Wigan aren't them and we need to learn to get at sides. Why not tonight?
I think our first Xl could actually be decent. Yates/Madine is no problem. Then you could put Sullay behind them with Virtue and Robson sitting (who are both competent if not in the 'world beating' category.) Wide, you'd struggle to find better wing backs than Garbutt and Gabriel. Husband, Thorniley and Marvin is an adequate defence with some clear pedigree in there. Ok, it's not how we usually play but all the inverting in the world hasn't brought us many goals. Wigan have scored more. Only Northampton have scored less in the division.
That should be a solid enough side, with pace, a bit of guile and a bit of balance. It should be able to mix it up a bit. Short into Sullay, or Jerry and Sullay swapping to play off Madine, crosses from the flanks, Madine in the mix, Virtue coming late etc. It's a side where the intent is obvious. It might not work, but it's the only side I can come up with where I feel it looks set up to win first and foremost.
Why would I drop MJ? Not cos he's done owt wrong other than be knackered after 50 mins last weekend, but because I just want to get in Kaikai for all the reasons Brighton was frustrating. He may flatter to decieve, he may drift out of games but there's an off chance he might light up the pitch. Playing MJ alongside Robson and Virtue is kind of setting up to first not lose and I think we should be looking to win before anything tonight. Alternatively, you could play MJ in the backline and therefore give us the option to flex to 4-4-2 but I'd not bother. Again, why defer to sides? Death or Glory. Not a useless point from a tepid 1-1 draw and praise for 'keeping the shape' and 'executing the plan'
We need to score more and win more. Draws won't get us where we want to be, so fuck it, have a go. Plans are only so useful. Instinct needs to take over sometimes...
Anyway... Wigan. They're clearly on their uppers but they're in ok-ish form. It's about the same as ours. Not great, not completely awful but with our relative ambitions being somewhat divergent, you'd have to think they weren't too unhappy at only losing 1 in 6. They've only won 1 either mind...
Last time out, Joe Garner was their key man and apple of Chissy's eye. There'll be no Chissy tonight (boo!) thanks to Covid travel restrictions but no Joe Garner he can miss either thanks to him now playing in Cyprus. There's something strange about how BBC Radio Lancashire aren't allowed to go to Wigan (which actually IS Lancashire by the real maps) but Joe Garner can go all the way to Apoel in Nicosia. The world is strange though at the moment so it pays not to think too much on anything.
How will they play without him? I have no idea. They've got Kyle Joseph who is that good we're kidding ourselves that we could get him, Zach Clough who was good ages ago but doesn't seem to be any more, Will Keane similarly and in the ex Pool corner, Viv Saloman Otobar who must be the only player to have played for Blackpool and CSKA Sofia with just one season in between. Curtis Tilt has gone back to the Merry Millers and even a full strength Wigan looks a bit cobbled together. Even their choices of manager seems to have been borrowed from about 2009 cos really, who expected Shezza to turn up at this level again? Leam Richardson replaced him in the long run and It'd expect a high energy, hard work no frills terrier like style if he's like he was as a player.
I'm more concerned with what we do. We did ok against Brighton. Some huffed a bit about the lack of attacking intent, but I think we tried both twatting it at Gaz from miles away and trying to pass out and neither really worked cos Brighton are quite good really, even if we like to say 'them, they were nothing!' to make ourselves feel better. They were fit, pressed very well, handled everyone but Madine with a professional quality that spoke of their level and got better as they brought better players on from their luxurious Premier League bench.
I think this is a different matter. Yes, you make noises about respecting the opposition and there being no easy games, but even with a depleted side, Critch should be looking to get at them cos they can be got at. I watched the Wigan/Chorley game and Chorley didn't defer to them, so why should we? Brighton might have held us at arms length but Wigan aren't them and we need to learn to get at sides. Why not tonight?
I think our first Xl could actually be decent. Yates/Madine is no problem. Then you could put Sullay behind them with Virtue and Robson sitting (who are both competent if not in the 'world beating' category.) Wide, you'd struggle to find better wing backs than Garbutt and Gabriel. Husband, Thorniley and Marvin is an adequate defence with some clear pedigree in there. Ok, it's not how we usually play but all the inverting in the world hasn't brought us many goals. Wigan have scored more. Only Northampton have scored less in the division.
That should be a solid enough side, with pace, a bit of guile and a bit of balance. It should be able to mix it up a bit. Short into Sullay, or Jerry and Sullay swapping to play off Madine, crosses from the flanks, Madine in the mix, Virtue coming late etc. It's a side where the intent is obvious. It might not work, but it's the only side I can come up with where I feel it looks set up to win first and foremost.
Why would I drop MJ? Not cos he's done owt wrong other than be knackered after 50 mins last weekend, but because I just want to get in Kaikai for all the reasons Brighton was frustrating. He may flatter to decieve, he may drift out of games but there's an off chance he might light up the pitch. Playing MJ alongside Robson and Virtue is kind of setting up to first not lose and I think we should be looking to win before anything tonight. Alternatively, you could play MJ in the backline and therefore give us the option to flex to 4-4-2 but I'd not bother. Again, why defer to sides? Death or Glory. Not a useless point from a tepid 1-1 draw and praise for 'keeping the shape' and 'executing the plan'
We need to score more and win more. Draws won't get us where we want to be, so fuck it, have a go. Plans are only so useful. Instinct needs to take over sometimes...
I leave you with one of them wacky Wiganers singing a tune about Wigan. It's not a patch on the Nolan Sisters mind...
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