Latics v Wycombe | Page 4 | Vital Football

Latics v Wycombe

We sat back far too deep in the last ten and it cost us, there wasn't any need for it. Control the game like we had been, yes, but sitting back was playing into their hands. Totally avoidable in my eyes. Hopefully we learn from that and continue to progress as we have been.
 
From Wycombe Forum:

Didn't see that equaliser coming tonight.
Below par performance against a very useful Wigan team,
but an excellent point.


Hard to pick out out players who had a good game. Obita played well, Stewart was his usual self and a great header at the end.

Mehmeti was good in the 1st half, but really faded before his substitution.

Don't think we'll have many tougher matches this season.
A point would have been a good result had we played well, so to play poorly and get a point says plenty about the character of the squad.
 
Any chance turnstile operators can be offered a higher pay grade than security staff and then we can open up some additional gates.
 
Best I've seen us play in some time....shuda been 2/3 nil up at half time & thoroughly deserved our goal, such a shame we couldn't have got a second as that would have seen out the game. Unfortunately we sat back & had little possession the last 10 mins or so n it just seemed like they were gonna equalise....didn't think it was a corner n possibly a free kick to us beforehand. If we play like that for a good chunk of the season we won't be far off so long as we convert the chances. Disappointed coming away from the ground tonight but only because we should have been out of sight in 1st half.....UTBT
I was beginning to think I was the only one who saw a foul in the box before the corner. The ref certainly didn't!!!!
 
From Wycombe Forum:

Didn't see that equaliser coming tonight.
Below par performance against a very useful Wigan team,
but an excellent point.


Hard to pick out out players who had a good game. Obita played well, Stewart was his usual self and a great header at the end.

Mehmeti was good in the 1st half, but really faded before his substitution.

Don't think we'll have many tougher matches this season.
A point would have been a good result had we played well, so to play poorly and get a point says plenty about the character of the squad.
Can't see them being in the top six they where awful
We should have been out of sight before half time
 
Excellent,really encouraging performance last night!We should've been out of sight going into injury time,as we've created 4 or 5 great chances and hit the bar.But when you don't take them, you're always susceptible to an undeserved sucker punch at the end.

Thought Cousins and Jones both starting made a positive difference.Cousins controls the midfield well,which gives us a good base to build from to start the attacks and get us going on the front foot.Jones is a natural,pacy winger,with a decent cross on him.The team looked much better balanced with those 2 in it.

I thought the ref did ok in the 1st half,but I'm a bit frustrated he didn't give us a free kick for a foul by the big lad Akinfenwa,who imo,fouled our lad just before he gave Wycombe the corner that they scored from.On the whole we defended well again tonight,I was really impressed with Whatmough,but we have to do better for their goal.

Wyke put in a decent shift up top and Naylor did a lot of good defensive work in front of the back 4.The 2 full backs also played well,especially considering it's neithers natural position.Cracking strike from Lang for our goal(Jamie Jones would've been proud of that bullet strike😉)and he looked dangerous when he ran at their defence.

All in all,a shame we didn't get what would've no doubt been a deserved win,but plenty of positives to build on going into Charlton on Saturday!
 
Last edited:
Like others, I was really encouraged by that performance and thought we were excellent value for 3 points, so it was disappointing that Wycombe scored with possibly their only real attempt in the second half. We were solid but got the ball forward well, where it stuck with Keane and Wyke working well together. Going forward we perhaps lack a little bit of dynamism and aggression that I think Humphreys and McClean in time will help offer, but I'm happy with 4 points from a very tough opening set of fixtures, and we seem to be getting better with each match.
 
I have probably been Darikwa's biggest critic on here, but last night he was outstanding. I thought he had a good game on Saturday, but moving over to left back ! well, all I can say is he looks like he's played there all his career

How we see the game / players still surprises me....I thought Darikwa looked like our weak link Zakky, was caught out a few times, looked like he didn't want the ball & on his venture forward couldn't even hit the target or have the keeper having to make a save....having said that he did make 1 or 2 crucial tackles but every time he had the ball I was anxious and expecting a miss placed pass or a loss of possession....imo I might add.
 
Can't see them being in the top six they where awful
We should have been out of sight before half time

We can't afford to squander so many chances, we have done the same in
similar matches in the past, where we have lost the match as a result of
not taking our goal scoring opportunities.
 
I wasn’t happy with our skipper in the pre season and was gob smacked when he got role. However I am much happier now and as above think changing sides has improved him
 
How we see the game / players still surprises me....I thought Darikwa looked like our weak link Zakky, was caught out a few times, looked like he didn't want the ball & on his venture forward couldn't even hit the target or have the keeper having to make a save....having said that he did make 1 or 2 crucial tackles but every time he had the ball I was anxious and expecting a miss placed pass or a loss of possession....imo I might add.
I mean, both can be right, sort of? I agree that, even ignoring the sitter, going forward he was keeping it very simple (as it should be expected from a right back playing on the left) which probably went unnoticed as Jones was torching everyone, so there isn't much to highlight there... But his performance on the other end was outstanding. MotM may be a bit too much but overall he had a great game.
 
Obviously very frustrating to draw a game that we bossed. We played quite well last night but i still thought we played way too much long ball in the last 2 games and needlessly turned over possession to 2 teams who's only real threat came on the break when we had men up field.

I noticed so far 2 def mids sit really deep and were really static and the attacking mid were really high, so there was a huge gap in the middle of the pitch that someone needed to move into to create passing options and link up the play. A key part of our old play was Morsy / Williams / Evans moving into space to pick up the ball from defence and turn it over to the attacking players and we've not been doing enough of that.

When the defenders brought the ball out there was very few options and they just went long. Wyke did a lot better holding the ball and it made some of our long ball work but he's not a Kieffer Moore / Emile Heskey so many of the balls to him were lost and it too often didn't get the ball into the attacking midfielders feet where they threatened when they got the ball in those areas.

Against Rotherham and Sunderland we were pressed very high so being forced to go long was more understandable but Wycombe didn't really pressure us at the back and we often had time and space and still opted to go long. We need to get the ball down and play more to get the best out of our players and make the opposition have to work harder to win the ball back.

In the second half later in both games we started to get the attacking mids to drop into the central position and it allowed us to play through them more easily, but while Naylor and Cousins defended very well, i thought they didn't move into positions to receive the ball from the defence and link up the play - which we were crying out for. At times in the last few games it was almost like everyone from midfield was avoiding moving into the centre circle to recieve a pass at times and that is where the most effective link up play goes through.

The subs at the weekend against Rotherham changed the game for the better, unfortunately against Wycombe it did the opposite, Lang and Wyke were battling for everything and Jones was a constant threat with his direct running. Wycombe were pinned back, but when Humphrys, Asgaard and Massey came on we seemed to lose all presence and threat in the final third and Wycombe started to get more and more possession and push up the pitch. I don't think the subs were necessarily a bad idea in theory but they just didn't work at all. I've said a few time i do think we need a big target man so when you are defending a lead like that you can bring him on to just battle and keep the ball up pitch. Humphrys is a great player with so much to offer but he's not going to be the type to hold the ball or win the headers with big centre backs and i think we need that option.

Really poor from Watts on the marking for their equaliser - he's got to do better. Not really sure what he was doing, he never even jumped for the header - way too easy for their player to get that equaliser. Set piece marking over the last 2 games in general has been overall better but much like last season it seems to be our achilleas heel. We've conceded 2 set pieces now that would've been avoided if we had men on the posts - i know there is an argument for and against men on the post but might be something we need to look at.

Overall though we should've been out of sight with the chances we missed long before the equaliser, considering Wycombe are meant to be one of the teams expected to be at the top i thought they were pretty rubbish. Rotherham were typical Rotherham - completely one trick and if you can weather that storm they have no plan B. We were also all over Sunderland until we stopped playing - so we've played potentially 3 of the top side in the division and there's been very little to be afraid of so far. While i don't think we've been anywhere near our best yet and competed.

Considering we are a new team trying to work out how to play together we've done pretty well, and could've done even better. We certainly have a good set of players but understandably it's still a bit disjointed and rough round the edges. But it's been promising early signs - if we can get some movement going in midfield to remove that large gap in the middle of the park so the defenders have options when they carry the ball out i think we'll really start to bring it all together.