This weeks fans player ratings by Vital member centrelink1 and nooney.
centrelink1’s ratings
Ali – Solid as always. Not at fault for either goal. 7.
Gohouri – What a stupid, stupid, stupid challenge. Has he never seen Bale play before? Wasn’t terrible before that, actually looked reasonable going forward, and did as well as can be expected on Bale, as well as playing in the centre of a back 5 and solidifying our defence, but rightly sent off for incredible stupidity. 3.
Caldwell – I don’t know what people have against him, he didn’t do anything wrong. Rough day for a centre back, but he did what he could, considering our play was poor. 5.
Figgy – Horrible, horrible back pass, but he played really well in the second half. Won challenges and positioned himself well. Was also at fault for the second goal, though. 5.
van Aanholt – He looks like a good player, did a solid job, and looked really effective with the back 5 giving him a little extra width. He knows when to close down and when to cover, something I can’t say about our midfield. 6
Diame – Great goal, but he was clearly the best of our midfield 3 before that, too. 7
McCarthy – Worst game he’s played. Offensive mentality, but poor touch and control. 4
Watson – Slightly better than McCarthy, but still poor. He did a little more defensively, and in covering, but it was a poor system for him to play in. 5
Gomez – Not as bad as McCarthy, but a scapegoat for Wigan fans. 4
Moses – Poor. Fed the ball in good positions, but allowed scrambling players to cover because of his lack of intent. 4
di Santo – Not much he could have done. I’ll give him a 5
SUBS:
Stam – What a great performance off the bench. I’ve been ringing his bell all season, and his energy, willingness to attack space and clever interplay were all key in our rejuvenated second half. His touch was responsible for Diame’s goal. If you could give a BOG to a player off the bench, I would. 7
McArthur – Good effort, good energy, typical sub cm performance. 5
Sammon – Couldn’t do much, and didn’t. Pass
Not a lot of content here, but that was typical of the match.
nooney’s ratings
Ali – Made some good saves and couldn’t of saved either goal, needs to sort out distribution, passing to the centre-backs aint going to work when everyone knows we are going to do it, glad he changed it in second half although still seemed hesitant. 7
Gohouri – Did as well as could be expected against Bale and kept him reasonably quiet and got forward very well. Obviously first game of the season I expected him to be a bit rusty and it showed in the sending off challenges, cost us chance of getting a draw, that was looking more and more likely. 5
Caldwell – Poor, poor game. Passing was woeful and far too stuck in his ways, looking to get the ball off the keeper all the time. Not quick enough and always seemingly giving away free-kicks around the box. 4
Figgy – At fault for both goals and lost us the game pretty much. Improved second half but it was too late. Not a centre-back and now not even the best left-back at the club. 3
van Aanholt – Only player who impressed me first half, looked like he might create something and was solid enough against a marauding Kyle Walker. Good left foot and will become a fixture in the team. 7
Diame – lovely turn and finish for the goal, wanted to get forward most of the time and had some terrific probing runs, one of the only players to be near his best. 8
McCarthy – Looks to me like he has lost some confidence. When he gets the ball he almost always looks for the simple 5 yard pass sideways or backwards, but he offers so much more, as shown last year, disappointing. 5
Watson – Don’t get why everyone thinks he is one of our better players. Everytime I’ve seen him he has been so/so. Couldn’t buy a pass and was far to slow on the ball. 4
Gomez – Insignificant, touched the ball about thrice, no energy or closing down, which went for most of the team in the first half to be fair. 3
Moses – Not a lot first half, second half he got the ball more and looked like he would create something, needs to get his head up earlier, as runs down a blind alley far too much, just lacking the final ball, but causing panic in opposition defences with his running, but looks like he could grow into a top class player. 6
di Santo – Not much he could have done. Ran hard on a few ocassions putting the defence under pressure, but really got no support at all. 6
SUBS:
Stam – Surely he has to start the next game, added something when he came on, set up the goal, direct running, energy, tackling back, can’t fault the lad. 8McArthur – Needs to start the next game as well, personally i would play him over Watson, again wanted to get involved, get forward, which was lacking in the first half, has a good eye for a pass and is composed on the ball, shame about the ball through to Stam, but still a good performance in the limited time he had. 7
Sammon – got a few glimpses of the ball but nothing to shout home about. 5
Worst performance I’ve ever seen from a Wigan team in the first half, no energy, no closing down and far too casual by the centre halves, improved second but the damage was done.
Latics and Proud
Fancy writing an article about the Latics? Why not get in touch, we are always looking for new contributors, after all we are all Latics fans here and want to get the Latics message to the world, so if you have a favourite match or Latics memory get it jotted down, or whatever you want to say put it into an email and send it to us here at Vital Wigan
To get your article published just click here and we will put it onto the site
