Back to basic for Caldwell and Latics

Gary Caldwell says his Wigan Athletic side will be going '˜back to basics' as they attempt to get back on track this afternoon against QPR.
Gary CaldwellGary Caldwell
Gary Caldwell

The Latics chief was scathing in his assessment of last weekend’s 4-3 defeat at Nottingham Forest, and in particular the four ‘ridiculous’ goals his side shipped.

However, he thinks the message has got through to his players ahead of Wigan’s final game before the international break.

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“When you concede four goals, it’s clear where the problem lies,” Caldwell told the Evening Post.

“And I don’t just mean the defence or the goalkeeper.

“I’m talking about the whole team in terms of how we defend and our desire to defend.

“I’ve spoken this week about strikers having the mentality of not letting the opposition into our half, the midfield not letting them in our box, and the defence not letting them get shots off. And that has to be our mentality from this day forward.

“When we lose the ball, everybody becomes a defender. When we win the ball, everybody becomes an attacker.

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“At the minute, we’re only playing one aspect of the game, and that’s when we have the ball.

“It’s not rocket science – it’s football.

“Every team that’s ever been successful has played that way, and everybody has to be a part of it.

“Forest had 23 shots at our goal, and that’s far too many.

“If you get that every week, you won’t win many games.

“We had to get back to basics, we had to get back to hard work, being confrontational and aggressive, and I want to see that come out on Saturday.”

Caldwell has been balancing his time between preparing for today’s game, while overseeing attempts to bring in new blood ahead of Wednesday night’s transfer deadline.

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“I still see quite a lot being done,” revealed Caldwell, who has already added 10 players this summer. “There’s key areas we need to strengthen, and we’re working extremely hard to do that.

“It is difficult to do that, with salary demands and agents’ demands, it is a difficult process. We have to make sure that, even at this late stage, we don’t panic and get the wrong player.

“But I’m pretty sure we’ll have a few new faces come Wednesday.”

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