Wigan Athletic chief cites 'a huge positive' in survival battle

Latics are without a game on Saturday because of the fourth round of the FA Cup, while the following weekend's trip to Blackburn has been put back to the Monday night for television purposes.

That means Toure and his squad have half a month to work out what's going wrong and implement a plan to put things right - which the manager says has come at the perfect time.

"We are seeing it as a big positive," he said.

"We have 16 days to work with the players, and find that connection between the players.

"We need to work on being better in both boxes, keeping the ball out at one end and finding the net at the other."

Latics are without a win in the nine matches since Toure took charge.

And while a sizeable section of the home support vented their anger with booing during and after the latest defeat to Luton, Toure insists there are green shoots of recovery to be found.

"I think if people look only at the results, they will only see we are losing games," he said.

"But if you follow the team, you come to the stadium, you can see the margins are not really that big.

"We could have won that game on Saturday, because we put them under pressure, and they were suffering at one point.

"It's not like we are getting dominated, or killed, and for me that's important.

"It's a process, the play is getting better, and the players still have that fighting spirit.

"We need to work on our link-up play in the final third, and be more ruthless with our defending, but they are the hardest things to do in football."

Toure will also push ahead with his plans to further bolster the squad before next week’s transfer deadline.

He remains hopeful of landing Leeds United forward Joe Gelhardt – who came through the Latics Academy – on loan for the rest of the campaign.