Now this is my first post in over 3 months and the club has been through a hell of a lot in that time. My New Year's resolution didn't last past the first game to get back up to date on here, but that's life. Really it has often come down to sheer frustration to not bother talking about the Latics. More and more now I look back and wish we had it as good when we first reached the Premier League, but times change.
Since I last post the club at one point another has managed to drag themselves up and down the league and yet when it game to winning games we seem in capable. Playing
Newcastle, Bolton and Fulham in recent weeks has shown that, I’ll get to the Villa game later on. The team looks to work well and the defence somewhat holding strong, but without Gary Caldwell it seems to start to fall apart. Our strikers I don't think can overly critizised in some ways. Rodallega has been working on scrapes to some degree, while Di Santo and Boselli haven't really played.
So what has Martinez down about it in January? First off he brought in a former Under-21 in Lopez and from what I have seen he looks a decent player, may take a while to settle, but he is far better than our last Spanish defender (Amaya). Secondly our other major deal was to loan out Boselli! Why do this? He needs games for us, Boselli for me has the ability to bring this club a light with his talents, but he hasn't been given the chance. While loaning him out when we needed a striker to me seems absurd.
So the Aston Villa game. When I heard the team I thought finally two centre forwards playing, and James McCarthy is back. Okay so we still played 4-5-1 but it is a start. We looked confident and sharp.
So when our chances started to come I felt this could be our day, the amount of times
one of our players missed opportunities was dreadful. However second half I felt
confident about our chances. It took all of ten minutes for that confidence to be shattered,
when they were allowed to tap the ball in after a great save by Al Habsi.
Then the stupid foul by Thomas giving them the penalty lost us the game. So 2-0 down Martinez brings on a defender and a midfielder. Great tactically change. Then suddenly in the 80th minute the team came to life and threw what they had at Villa. Too little too late, and James McCarthy's deflected goal was just a consolation in the end.
I am not saying we played badly just the team has no spirit; they are stubborn enough to continuously slow the game down. Martinez wants to play passing football, well look at Manchester United and Arsenal when do they ever stop and let the opposition get behind the ball? I didn't think so
Rant over, now to look ahead to 'happier' times. I am hoping that we manage to pull something in the transfer window. We need at the very least a striker who knows the English Premier League. One thing that does let Martinez down is his transfer naivety.
Tomorrow we play West Brom, another so called 'six-pointer'. As far as I am concerned we have to win, another way about it. Lose and we drift further away from everyone else, the club needs more points and we have to start getting them now. West Brom aren’t the easiest of teams to beat, but they aren't the hardest either.
Till next week.
Loading comments...