Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'I feel Shaun Maloney has been let down badly...'

Caddy from the 5:

Well there's not much to shout about at the Danson Dome at the moment is there? From an owner with deep pockets and short arms, a chairman that's virtually non existent, no board as such, no full-time CEO, a manager that doesn't seem to know his first team even with a very limited pool of players, and fans drifting away in their numbers...times are tough at the Tics at the moment, and that's a major worry. Starting at the top...how much longer can we just keep churning out ‘at least we've got a club’ with Mr Danson at the helm? Whether he wanted to buy us or not, he did, so at least give us a fighting chance, eh? Yes we know what he had to fork out to keep us going, and that's all well and good, but is a slow lingering death better than a quick one? I'm not the only fan who thinks for all the smiles and talk of 'we're all one' is smoke and mirrors, as his beloved rugby walk on water in their tinpot league, while we tread very deep water in ours. Now the chairman...in that letter sent out with the season tickets, he promised 'free flowing attacking football', with the end game hopefully being a return to the Premier League. His words, not mine. Now I'm not daft enough to think they'd just say 'we saved you, now look after yourself with a few crumbs', but that'd be more like the truth. The investment on the playing side is virtually non-existent, and selling our assets is going to be be the norm. Okay, that's fine, but how are you getting back the Premier League then? With loans and kids? Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen. I feel Shaun Maloney has been let down badly by them above him. You can't go into the season with two loan signings as main strikers along with an unproven couple of Academy lads...and that’s on the fella signing the cheques.

Maloney’s hands have been tied right from the start, but that's not letting him off the hook. Some of the decisions he's made are simply baffling...using four substitutes at half-time against Mansfield shows he picked the wrong team. We're at the back end of October, he must know his best XI by now. Albeit we've been hampered by injuries that haven't helped. And the football is simply not good enough. Ask any level headed fan, it's pedestrian, and the final third is virtually non-existent. Fans are voting with their feet, crowds are well down, and folk are very disillusioned with it all.

So where do we go from here then? Well nowhere til at least January, when the window opens again, when Shaun – if he's still here, and by that I mean that he might just think enough is enough and walk away...and could you blame him, really? – goes back to Danson for some investment in the playing squad. Because without that, we're simply moonwalking into the oblivion. It's time for Danson to at least give us a chance, or I really do fear for our club. Anyway on the plus side I'd like to wish my daughter Emily and Matt a happy life together after their wedding last week...and you wonder why I drink!! Keep the faith Tics x

Matt Auffrey:

For the first time in what feels like a long time, we have experienced the bitter taste of defeat. A flat performance and 2-0 defeat at Cambridge was followed up by an improved effort against Mansfield on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the match came down to a few select scoring opportunities, and Mansfield converted one more chance than we did. They left the Brick as deserved 2-1 winners. If there were any positive takeaways from the match, one of the primary ones would be that we are one step closer to knowing our best XI. The quadruple substitution made at half-time of the Mansfield match resulted in a fairly encouraging second-half performance that ended our goal drought spanning the last five halves of league play. I don’t think many fans would have an issue with the XI who were on the pitch when we scored on Tuesday also starting the Blackpool match next Monday. Our prospects seemed promising after Thelo Aasgaard’s second-half goal on Tuesday evening, but we would go on to concede off a set piece just nine minutes later and fail to create any clear-cut chances over the final half hour of the match. As a result, our lack of attacking impetus reemerged as one of the primary talking points on social media after the match. Only Stevenage have a worse goals-per-game average than us in the division. We have fallen down the league table to 18th position. Our impenetrable defense of several weeks ago has looked quite vulnerable over the past two matches. In addition, we have hardly created more chances at the other end of the pitch. We had every reason to take that next step forward in our return from the international break, yet, we did a 180-degree turn in the opposite direction.

The club has clearly mismanaged several major components of this past summer’s player recruitment. Our playing style has left our players looking bereft of ideas in the attacking third for large stretches of games. Some of our issues can be corrected within a short period of time, while others may not be sufficiently addressed until the January transfer window opens. Nonetheless, it needs to be understood this is a results-based business. If the minimum threshold for satisfactory results is not being met, changes need to be made. We have had an average of 57 per cent possession during league matches we have lost this season, an average of 55 per cent possession during our draws, and an average of 38 per cent possession during our wins. Correlation does not equal causation, but the statistics show that holding the ball for more time than our opponents has not led to us winning a single league match this season.

We’ll have the weekend to get our bearings together before traveling to Blackpool for one of the most anticipated away trips of the season. The Seasiders have had a frustrating start to their season as well and have lost three league matches on the bounce. One problem they have not had is scoring goals as they have nearly doubled our scoring tally through 12 matches (19 vs 10). A win at Blackpool would go a long way towards regaining favour with the fanbase. It doesn’t have to be pretty nor easy, but it has to happen. Let us hope Maloney and the lads can get on the same page and put together a winning performance for the traveling support.

Stephen Unsworth:

Anybody who thinks balancing the books is how football works is in cloud cuckoo land. It is about being a wealthy blokes’ hobby. Play money to burn. If we were that club, we’d have a proper manager in charge, Steve Bruce or Paul Cook maybe. Loved by their fans. We have Shaun Maloney and, like a good catholic boy, he says sorry and the board forgive him. This time it was because of Cambridge United. Without a win until us, this season. We can’t blame SM. Someone chose him. We can’t blame the kids. They’re kids. In all gut instinct, I want our club to exist and, if there’s no sugar daddy, there’s no sugar daddy. It is what it is, and we ALL need to stop moaning. If it wasn’t SM, who would it be on £24k a year. My vote goes to Kevin Towey. He’d do it pro-bono. I wrote this before Mansfield because, with endless more squad changes, I didn’t want to be telling the moaners to shut up, only to moan myself. I see Charlie Hughes made his home debut and the Hull fans love him. Some kid that.

So, on from my previous weeks’ assertions. The reality is our kids thought they were going to coast it. They didn’t, and the lesson learned? Hard work before ability and always put a shift in. Don’t have Pope Maloney saying sorry before he is anointed by Danson’s holy water. Now Luke out until Easter Eggs and no alternative experiences, class strikerism in the hood means we’re all pretty fed up. Bickering with each other, young v old; wokes v realists. Now we’re onto Blackpool away and that man Brucie. Last saw him in his local, The Dog, and a nicer bloke you won’t meet. I’m not moaning, but I fear the worst. Let’s hope I’m wrong, the kids run their feet off and we take our chances to make us feel better on these darker nights. One poignant thought. Slow Horses. Apple TV. You can’t beat experience.

Tony Moon:

Watch it Shaun, the knives are out. Your back’s the target without a doubt. Th’ unbeaten run is gone you see, and them two losses? Well, it can’t be three! But then again, it can’t be nil-nil. Cos a goal-less draw will have t’ knives out still. And it may well be that a win isn’t enough, unless it’s with flair and panache and such guff. Cos our fans have become entitled you see, and a loss against Mansfield is just not meant to be. The likes of such teams are beneath our status (and views such as this is why other fans hate us). We’re meant to be up there, and challenging for t’ top, not scrapping in bottom half, fighting the drop. So extract that forefinger get yer ducks in a row, put the wheels back on t’ bus, and let free football flow. Failing that, half a dozen scrappy wins ‘d do before Christmas. Ta.

Sean Livesey:

I'm not sure anyone would have expected the first two games back after the international break to go the way they have. Traditionally we've not been at our best post international break, and there was no clearer example of that than Saturday's performance, or lack of it. Everything that had got us in to such a good position pre-international break had gone out of the window. The aggression in defence, the aggression in our pressing all gone as a Cambridge side without a win all season dominated and eventually came out on top. Those hoping for a reaction on Tuesday certainly got one. We were much better on Tuesday, but two mistakes were our undoing. One coming from Baba Adeeko, and another the referee. Mansfield scored against the run of play, just as Latics were beginning to get a foot hold in the game. Adeeko turned straight in to the path of a Mansfield midfielder, and his pass intercepted by the Stags found its way straight to their attack and in to the back of the net. The second mistake didn't lead to a Mansfield goal, but definitely managed to chalk off a certain goal for us. A Latics effort was blocked on the line and the rebound fell to Joe Hugill, who shaped to shoot in to the empty net, only for a Mansfield defender to pull on Hugill's shirt, seeing the striker pulled to the ground. The referee ignored the decision, even with seven Latics players remonstrating with him. It was a ridiculous decision, similar to the non-existent handball awarded against Latics at Stockport earlier this month that denied us the opening goal.

It's difficult enough up top for Shaun Maloney's men at the minute, but near impossible when you're up against XI men and the referee. Latics did well to get back level with Mansfield, and it looked like there would only be one winner at that point. But Latics’ inability to convert chances to goals, and the sudden lack of defensive steel, meant Mansfield got back in front, where they would stay. Oh how you'd have given your right arm for someone like Josh Magennis to play against Mansfield (and most games this season for that). He may have missed some glaring sitters over his two years with us, big Josh, but with the amount of chances we created from our wingers on Tuesday night, you'd like to think he'd have managed one.

The usual criticism towards the club came out of the woodwork on Tuesday. How Mike Danson is at fault for a young player like Adeeko making a mistake, I'm unsure, but at fault he is. I'm being flippant of course. There's lots to question the club on, and the continued lack of a full-time CEO can't be anything but damaging. But the constant slating of Danson etc every time we lose gets a bit tiresome. The fact that nobody mentions the real culprits for our current malaise anymore tells you all you need to know. A bit like the Labour government, why blame those in power for 14 years when you can blame those in power for 14 weeks? Alongside the criticism of the ownership comes the calls for a change of manager, conveniently ignoring the fact the manager they want replacing is working with two hands tied behind his back. If you can find someone else to put up with what Shaun Maloney has since he walked in the door in January 2023, good luck to you. Yes, the manager quickly needs to settle on his best XI, and yes there's questions around how far we can go under the gaffer. But to even think of saying we need a change completely ignores the very real circumstances that led us to this situation in the first place. It's been a disappointing week, no doubt about it. Blackpool feels a million miles away at the moment, but there must be a reaction and we must go all out for a win at the seaside.