S
Salopian
New Member
I heard all sorts of descriptions about the omission of Redmond, (was he suffering a slight illness?), and playing without a winger.
To me it made sense. Wigan have one or two very effective and creative midfielders, surprisingly still with them perhaps, and they threatened our normal fairly weak two-man defending midfield. It was not pretty, but it was effective. What they managed to create required Ruddy at his best, but I think that if we had tried a more attacking shape we could have been overrun in the midfield.
The corollary was that that we tended to attack more directly, and with Lafftery's misses we could have found it difficult to score at all.
I don't know whether the decision on shape was that of Adams or Adams with Phelan, but on a horses for courses conviction it was proved to be right. We could have lost even so, with Whittaker having got lost and needing Martin to bale him out, and with the run to the byline and Ruddy needing to be alert.
It may not have converted many of the critics of Adams, and the jury is perhaps still out, but it was a thoughtful and creative start to recovery and may have given some confidence. The other pluses were surely Cuellar, Tettey, the quiet but effective work by O'Neill and another goal for Howson., besides a much better Ruddy .
To me it made sense. Wigan have one or two very effective and creative midfielders, surprisingly still with them perhaps, and they threatened our normal fairly weak two-man defending midfield. It was not pretty, but it was effective. What they managed to create required Ruddy at his best, but I think that if we had tried a more attacking shape we could have been overrun in the midfield.
The corollary was that that we tended to attack more directly, and with Lafftery's misses we could have found it difficult to score at all.
I don't know whether the decision on shape was that of Adams or Adams with Phelan, but on a horses for courses conviction it was proved to be right. We could have lost even so, with Whittaker having got lost and needing Martin to bale him out, and with the run to the byline and Ruddy needing to be alert.
It may not have converted many of the critics of Adams, and the jury is perhaps still out, but it was a thoughtful and creative start to recovery and may have given some confidence. The other pluses were surely Cuellar, Tettey, the quiet but effective work by O'Neill and another goal for Howson., besides a much better Ruddy .
