I likened Wigan to low hanging fruit in the preview, but we’re not going to pluck any today after “freak weather” has caused the game to be postponed. That’s a problem, we really could have done with sinking our teeth into that sweet, ripe flesh ahead of the Boxing Day fixture against Tottenham.
I hope no one asks Gerard Houllier for his opinion on the ability of the English to cope with inclement weather as his Gallic scoffs will surely
Continue Reading
Maybe I’m just being over sensitive, but it really seems that Gérard Houllier is having his words twisted more than I’m used to seeing. It may well be because he’s reputedly more forthcoming with journalists than many managers, certainly than his predecessor, but it would be a shame if he ended up being punished via the media for his candour.
MON was the master of talking and talking, but saying very little. Houllier gets to the point and his
Continue Reading
Just in case you missed it last weekend, as I did, BBC’s Football Focus Forum from Villa Park featuring Martin Keown, Dion Dublin, Cyrille Regis and Lawro, of course. Nice montage to music (Ocean Colour Scene) at the end which, if you can’t face the banality of the Q&A in the video embedded below, you can click here and jump right to it on YouTube, but then you’ll miss Dion Dublin sidestepping a question about Robbie Savage.
YouTube Video
I don’t know what to make of Wigan Athletic, they’re something of a Jekyll and Hyde team. I’ve all the time in the world for Roberto Martinez, he definitely knows his potatoes, but results and performances frequently betray the fact that he’s the youngest manager in the league.
Watching Wigan at home this season, the first thing that will strike the casual observer is the number of empty seats in the DW Stadium; they’re the worst supported team in the
Continue Reading
An all too typical last minute goal from Paul Scharner set up an extremely nervous four added minutes, but it wasn’t enough to cancel out Stewart Downing’s first half opener or what turned out to be the winning goal from Emile Heskey 10 minutes earlier. Not a classic performance, but spirited and determined at times, it’s an important three points, something to build on and hopefully a threshold game.
Houllier made the necessary, but not straightforward decision to drop Richard
Continue Reading
I may have spotted a Baggies fan or two playfully suggesting that their team could be responsible for the sacking of two Premier League managers in a week. I don’t think a loss would automatically lead there, but it would increase the pressure on Houllier exponentially. Beyond breaking point? Not quite, but close I’d imagine.
The good news is that this game is at home, all away fixtures leave me with a sense of foreboding these days.
I think we
Continue Reading
Gerard Houllier has stood on the touchline and overseen 11 Premier League games now and the table doesn’t lie, the stats are grim. His two wins represent an 18% win ratio and you can put that up against the records of his predecessors if you wish in the manager performance table I complied just before this season kicked off.
That particular table is sorted by percentage of available points won and Houllier would sit at the bottom of the pile
Continue Reading
I hate to sound like a broken record, but a consistent theme I’ve stressed in the Statshack series is the need to look at match statistics as a whole and to be suspicious of anyone attempting to leverage a point with the use of a single metric. Passing for example.
Last season, I read many times that the number of complete passes was an indication that our brand of football was dour and failing to improve, except when the statistics
Continue Reading
It started badly; the first five minutes littered with silly errors, soft free kicks and comical defending at set pieces, and it went down hill from there really.
Ngog opened the scoring in the 14th minute with an unchallenged diving header to send Skrtel’s knock down in, the corner coming from a typically poor piece of play from Stephen Warnock. Warnock was done for pace by Ngog, albeit blatantly offside, two minutes later and the Frenchman made no mistake with
Continue Reading