king_dezeeuw06
Vital Champions League
The thing i think that is most interesting is look at the Hull post match - Cook looked like a defeated man, out of ideas who seemed like even he no faith left and the response he delivered was polar opposite. Cook has said a few times this season that he'd do one thing in press confrences and deliver something totally different often his words were more positive than his negative actions but in this instance his actions were ultra positive and while his words were so negative.
Cook said that he felt there was nothing was wrong with the tactics and implied they weren't changing yet he changed the team significantly in a way no one would've predicted and approached the game in a hugely postive way with a higher press and more attack minded against the top 2 teams in the division that have been free scoring.
He said that the personnel were letting him down and he couldn't get anymore out of them - yet he somehow managed to inspire them to give more than ever before against Norwich and Leeds - even during out good run at the start of the season we weren't showing that much intenity and desire - it was a new level.
He seemed to suggest that the away form was what it was and it wasn't going to change between now and the end of the season but we went into the Leeds game bravely and even after losing the man and going behind he was fearless with his approach when it would've perfectly understandable to just try and do damage limitation under the circumstances.
It was a truley remarkable turn around, and all of the things we've been calling for; bravery, positivity, battle, work ethic were there in spades from both the manage and his players. Cook has deserved a lot of critasism this season for some of the things he's done but you have to give credit where it's due and deserves immense credit for the Norwich and Leeds games (and to a lesser extent Preston) they were excellent managerial performances from him. The players also deserve huge credit but you can tell when players are carrying a dodgy managment display and when the players are carrying out a good managers game plan properly and they did just that - this brave, attack minded Cook is the one we all loved at the start of the season and i thought we'd lost - only popping up every now and then before going missing again - i have no idea what happened but i hope this version is back for good now.
You hear stories about teams who at times of crisis have some type of clear the air meeting where they pull together and move forward differently. We may never know if there was anything like that but something felt tangibly different - it seemed like after the Hull game Cook and the players seemed to collectively or individually say to themselves 'there's nothing to lose - let's go for it' and they really turned everything on it's head. It was back to the start of the season bravery - it wasn't neceserily sexy football and there were a fair few long balls in but the intensity, belief and positivity were back from out of nowhere and that is what made it all work. Football isn't half a funny old game - and especially Wigan Athletic it so often seems when all hope has genuinely gone that we pull out something completely unexpected boardering on a miracle.
I don't know if the last 2 / 3 games are the signs that the penny has dropped and the way we will move forward in every game or if this is a great escape and once the adrenalin and fear are gone if we will regress again and if it is questions will still need to be asked and maybe changes made. But if they are the new normal there is no debate on if Cook and if all the players are good enough. As most things in football it's educated guess and a prediction - you can make a case either way but i think the next 2 games could give us a bit of clue to that.
I felt for most of the season 4th bottom skin of our teeth above Rotherham was most likely the outcome and needing points on the final day, but i had less and less confidence over the past few weeks and felt that our chances of finishing above Rotherham were diminishing to the point i thought Rotherham had edged ahead of us as the most likely to get 4th bottom. I knew on our day we could do the business, but our day just wasn't coming round enough, we didn't seem like we had the fire in our bellies or the bottle to swing for the fences to cause an upset. We were so bad away from home and at managing a lead and had a horrible habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory that i couldn't see us generating the 2 or 3 wins required to get us over the line - so i'm delighted to be proven wrong. All of those who kept faith in Cook turning the corner through all of the horrible times have had their faith repayed - including IEC. There is no such thing as a safe bet in football - backing Cook to keep us up was I think arguably a bigger gamble than changing him when you looked at the stats along the way but they they got the call right, so fair play to them and hopefully this is the first of many good decisions. If Cook stays remains to be seen but I think IEC have earned a little respect and benefit of the doubt with whatever they decide.
I dont think people quite realise how important survival this year could be - it's always vital for the financial stability of the club to be in at least the Championship but with this being IEC's first summer in charge it will be massively beneficial to have the extra income. IEC need to heavily invest in the academy set up and get the recruitment model rebuilt and do to that with 5-6m less revenue in the league below while trying to likely carry a big budget squad for L1 and bounce back again would seriously hamper some if not all of those ambitions due to the lack of revenue / increase in loses. IEC have a good plan on paper and to do that they need to get the new infrastructure in place and it will be drastically easier to make those investments in the Championship while stabalising rather than potentially having to divert more limited funds into trying to get promotion back there.
Overall a huge relief to get over the line, it's completely arguable we shouldn't have ever been anywhere near this low in the league when you look at the points we dropped in the manner we did after the start we had - but after the season with so many lows it does feel a bit like a happy ending. So whatever it was it's done with now and hopefully we can enjoy a summer of building up from a degree of success rather than rebuilding after another failure.
Cook said that he felt there was nothing was wrong with the tactics and implied they weren't changing yet he changed the team significantly in a way no one would've predicted and approached the game in a hugely postive way with a higher press and more attack minded against the top 2 teams in the division that have been free scoring.
He said that the personnel were letting him down and he couldn't get anymore out of them - yet he somehow managed to inspire them to give more than ever before against Norwich and Leeds - even during out good run at the start of the season we weren't showing that much intenity and desire - it was a new level.
He seemed to suggest that the away form was what it was and it wasn't going to change between now and the end of the season but we went into the Leeds game bravely and even after losing the man and going behind he was fearless with his approach when it would've perfectly understandable to just try and do damage limitation under the circumstances.
It was a truley remarkable turn around, and all of the things we've been calling for; bravery, positivity, battle, work ethic were there in spades from both the manage and his players. Cook has deserved a lot of critasism this season for some of the things he's done but you have to give credit where it's due and deserves immense credit for the Norwich and Leeds games (and to a lesser extent Preston) they were excellent managerial performances from him. The players also deserve huge credit but you can tell when players are carrying a dodgy managment display and when the players are carrying out a good managers game plan properly and they did just that - this brave, attack minded Cook is the one we all loved at the start of the season and i thought we'd lost - only popping up every now and then before going missing again - i have no idea what happened but i hope this version is back for good now.
You hear stories about teams who at times of crisis have some type of clear the air meeting where they pull together and move forward differently. We may never know if there was anything like that but something felt tangibly different - it seemed like after the Hull game Cook and the players seemed to collectively or individually say to themselves 'there's nothing to lose - let's go for it' and they really turned everything on it's head. It was back to the start of the season bravery - it wasn't neceserily sexy football and there were a fair few long balls in but the intensity, belief and positivity were back from out of nowhere and that is what made it all work. Football isn't half a funny old game - and especially Wigan Athletic it so often seems when all hope has genuinely gone that we pull out something completely unexpected boardering on a miracle.
I don't know if the last 2 / 3 games are the signs that the penny has dropped and the way we will move forward in every game or if this is a great escape and once the adrenalin and fear are gone if we will regress again and if it is questions will still need to be asked and maybe changes made. But if they are the new normal there is no debate on if Cook and if all the players are good enough. As most things in football it's educated guess and a prediction - you can make a case either way but i think the next 2 games could give us a bit of clue to that.
I felt for most of the season 4th bottom skin of our teeth above Rotherham was most likely the outcome and needing points on the final day, but i had less and less confidence over the past few weeks and felt that our chances of finishing above Rotherham were diminishing to the point i thought Rotherham had edged ahead of us as the most likely to get 4th bottom. I knew on our day we could do the business, but our day just wasn't coming round enough, we didn't seem like we had the fire in our bellies or the bottle to swing for the fences to cause an upset. We were so bad away from home and at managing a lead and had a horrible habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory that i couldn't see us generating the 2 or 3 wins required to get us over the line - so i'm delighted to be proven wrong. All of those who kept faith in Cook turning the corner through all of the horrible times have had their faith repayed - including IEC. There is no such thing as a safe bet in football - backing Cook to keep us up was I think arguably a bigger gamble than changing him when you looked at the stats along the way but they they got the call right, so fair play to them and hopefully this is the first of many good decisions. If Cook stays remains to be seen but I think IEC have earned a little respect and benefit of the doubt with whatever they decide.
I dont think people quite realise how important survival this year could be - it's always vital for the financial stability of the club to be in at least the Championship but with this being IEC's first summer in charge it will be massively beneficial to have the extra income. IEC need to heavily invest in the academy set up and get the recruitment model rebuilt and do to that with 5-6m less revenue in the league below while trying to likely carry a big budget squad for L1 and bounce back again would seriously hamper some if not all of those ambitions due to the lack of revenue / increase in loses. IEC have a good plan on paper and to do that they need to get the new infrastructure in place and it will be drastically easier to make those investments in the Championship while stabalising rather than potentially having to divert more limited funds into trying to get promotion back there.
Overall a huge relief to get over the line, it's completely arguable we shouldn't have ever been anywhere near this low in the league when you look at the points we dropped in the manner we did after the start we had - but after the season with so many lows it does feel a bit like a happy ending. So whatever it was it's done with now and hopefully we can enjoy a summer of building up from a degree of success rather than rebuilding after another failure.
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