Caldwell: We need more new faces

With less than two weeks to go befo re Wigan kick off their season at Bristol City, they were shown up as they put in a terrible performance at Spotland going down 4-1.

With very little clicking, Caldwell says the defeat highlighted how he needs to be on the hunt for new players.

“When you see that, there’s a massive need for it in terms of squad size and quality and I’m sure the club will do everything they can to make the signings and improve the squad,” he said.

“There’ll be a lot of hard work, it was a wake up call for everyone.

“We’ve got a massive challenge in two weeks’ time and we need to be better than that if we want to achieve our goals.”

Wigan were well beaten with a defensive show to give Caldwell nightmares.

New recruit Dan Burn put in a performance to forget with a number of errors, including one which led to Rochdale’s second goal.

Up front, Latics offered very little. The usual livewire Yanic Wildschut was ineffective while Nick Powell managed just one effort on goal before coming off and heading straight down the tunnel.

Will Grigg was thrown on at half-time but couldn’t produce anything of note to inspire a fightback.

One ray of light was youngster Luke Burke who showed his team-mates up with a battling performance.

While Wildschut’s name went on the scoresheet, it’s the teenager who will receive the plaudits for Wigan’s only goal.

Burke, who won last season’s Michael Millett award for academy player of the season, put in a pin-point cross which landed perfectly at the Dutchman’s feet.

“He was outstanding all game,” said Caldwell.

“He showed bravery on the ball, he showed great composure, he was positive in his passing and I was delighted to see him do that well and take his opportunity.

“I said at half-time, he was the one player who was showing the rest how it should be done and to be fair in the second half I thought he was even better.

“He grew into the game even more and was by far our best player.

“I thought Adam Bogdan did well as well considering whe couldn’t do anything about all four goals.

“The players put him under a tremendous amount of pressure by constantly playing the ball back to him but he dealt with it very well.”