High Fives for United as Wigan crumble

Latics’ pitiful capitualtion in the second half,gave United a much needed boost, follwing their shock defeat to Burnley in midweek.

Martinez opted to keep faith with the majority of the team who played poorly in the defeat to Wolves, replacing only Brown with the debutant Diame in centre midfield.

The first half was an even affair, both sides showed a willingess to play a passing game which was pretty on the eye if somewhat ineffective.

Too often Wigan opted for the pass back, when in the United half and it was left to the wingers N’Zogbia and espicially Koumas to try and create something. Both went close, N’Zogbia should have shot when he broke into the area but tried to beat the final defender and Vidic easily cleared the ball and Koumas produced a superb shot, cutting in from the left leaving Neville in his wake and hitting a superb shot which Foster did well to keep out.

At the other end, Kirkland pulled off two world class saves from Berbatov and Rooney.

Rodellaga once again was left to plow a lone furrow up front and when he did receive the ball, the lack of support from midfield meant he was left with little option but to go it alone and was easily dealt with.

The secopnd half started in a similar vein to the first half, with once again the Latics back four looking more shaky then I have seen them for a long time.

The first goal was simple in its execution but questions have to be asked about the man marking, Valencia easily finding the head of Rooney who rose unmarked to head past Kirkland.

Latics’ heads visibly dropped and with a lack on an on field leader to gee them up re-started the game as if in a daze. Within two minutes the drama became a crisis as the ineffective Berbatov who hadn’t scored for six months, raced onto a through ball from Fletcher past a static Wigan defence to lob Kirkland to make it two nil.

Martinez reacted by making three quick substitutions replacing Koumas, Diame and N’Zogbia with Sinclair , Scotland and Mc Carthy.

Latics seemed to play with more purpose going forward in a 4-4-2 formation and Rodellaga began to see more of the ball.

United, with Vidic in his usual aggresive form, dealt with everything Wigan had to offer and then Rooney seemed to have all the time in the world, when he recieved the ball on the left hand side of the penalty area and slotted the ball past Kirkland to make it three. This sparked a mass exodus of the Wigan fans and after witnessing the teams total collapse inside of ten minutes who could blame them?

Worse was to come as both Owen and Nani opened their accounts for the season to give United their biggest victory over Wigan and to leave Martinez with some serious questions regarding motivation leadership and tactics.

Whatever the answers are he needs to find them soon, as there is no time in the Premier League to play yourself in.

Player Ratings

Chris Kirkland…6/10
Some good saves in the first half but left tiotally exposed by a jittery defence all too often.

Mario Melchiot…5/10
Didn’t play all that badly but as on field captain he is responsibel for motivating the team on the pitch and in this he was sadly lacking

Titus Bramble…4/10
Awful

Paul Scharner…4/10
Ditto Bramble

Maynor Figueroa…6/10
The only one of the back four of last season playing anything like his normal form.

Jordi Gomez…5/10
Cretaed little going forward , content to pass back or sideways and reluctant to push up in support of the striker.

Mohammed Diame…6/10
Worked hard and look s a very good player, tired as the game went on and was replaced.

Hendry Thomas…6/10
A good first half but faded badly after the break

Jason Koumas…7/10
The best Latics player on the field but in truth there was little competition.

Charles N’Zogbia…6.5/10
Along with Koumas our sole creative outlet. Should have doen better with his one real chance int he first half.

Hugo Rodellaga…6/10
Once again stareved of any quality ball.Looked more dangerous in the last twenty minutes when we switched to a 4-4-2 formation.

Scott Sinclair…6/10
Looks a dangerous player and deserves a more central role.

Jason Scotland…5.5./10
At least he tried to push the ball forward to Rodellaga.
Seemed incapable of controlling the ball

Manager Rating
Roberto Martinez….5/10

Surely a wake up call. Fancy football played between the two penalty areas wins you nothing.

Lack of attacking bite, a defence who look uneasy witht he foprmation,lack of an onfield leader and tactical naiviety means Roberto has some serious questions to answer.

The boos were muted but were heard again today and they will grow unless he address the defeciences withitn the squad and soon

The Fans
Once again a poor crowd, whether it is due to school holidays, the recession or a sale at netto, the fact that our crowd against United has dropped by 6,000 from last season is cause for concern.

The crowds will continue to drop with any more toothless performances like that