Careca9

cant believe there are people still putting connor brown in their first team at left back. he has absolutley no left foot and has to play near his best just to produce an average display. if mills is fit or elokobi they should play in front of him all the time although i agree mills was dire when he came on but offers much better balance and is a far better prospect. id also play kusinga at right back if we play diamond as he's got more going forward than wilson

on the forte topic he is best on the wing but cant see any probs with him being up front. in a different league in terms of finishing ability compared to majority of strikers we've had over the last decade

kelly isnt going to pull any trees up but he plays a key role and i thought he was really good tonight. nice and steady. doesnt need to dive in as he can read the game and he can pass so a major improvement on wesolowski from last year

best player in front of goal we've had for a long time. from tapping in at the back post like at peterborough to just passing it into the net tonight from a through ball he will do really well all year and he's a good age so knows what its all about. if we keep him fit he could get and awful lot this year

usual negativity on here. the club has again signed basically a new team and we've just been to a team who will likely be top 4 and have a steady team. if people think we are going to produce slick displays against the top teams then they need a massive reality check. we are obv going to be bottom half as we have next to no striking options and clearly no money to buy anyone that will improve us so its going to be tough against the better teams

the team def needs to be given 10/12 games to find form and come together. even kelly who has been total tripe but has a decent pedigree and people have paid money for him so he must have something needs time. we should be judging them when we are at home against the teams we are fighting it out with in bottom half like gillingham/crewe/colchester ect and not orient/middlesbrough/preston

winchester is a passing midfielder not someone who's going to run past the striker and be furthest man forward and philiskirk isnt a striker. we have next to no attack so 4-5-1 and win 1-0 is our best option.

needs to be the same team as v orient. no point changing as we are a new team, he needs to pick same team so they get used to playing together especially the back 4 until lockwood comes back. chopping and changing will only produce more disjointed performances. it will be 10 games in at least until we start to look half decent i rec.

was thinking about replying to the port vale thread below but then after reading Q1 on history as a fan started to think about my career record watching latics since late 80s

with our dire league record generally being around pl 46, w 12, d 12, l 22 .....and me watching roughly 20 games a season, to which i usually seem to pick the losses quite well, i rec my career watching record must be something close to

w 90, d 115, l 225

that means a loss rate of 50% or just higher. wondering if anyone on here recs they may have a lower than 50% loss rate for career games watched. and if so if you could message me the games ur planning to go to this yr that would help!!

top - preston, peterborough, sheff u, mk dons

bottom - crawley, crewe, colchester, chesterfield

would love to say jch scores the goals and latics do an orient this yr and finish top half but realistically

latics - 18th bad start as team get to know each other and we have no reg scorer. good xmas and new year start to show promise, gel as team and move up to half way, best players get sniff of move and form fades, poor players get agents to look for clubs next year and loose interest, form drops and we fall to lower middle/just above bottom. lj left with about 5/6 regulars for next year and we have to recruit again

ohh and ill hold this post and use it again this time next year

automatic promotion, you must have money to burn. would love to think we can but we have no one to put the ball in net and lost our best mid in smith. unless we get a loan striker or two our only hope is we are watertight and win loads of games 1-0. bottom 6 is a much more realistic bet im afraid (although returns wont be good at least yoru likely to get one)

this has to be the best article Ive read in ages http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28157510 my fav comments have to be

'the big thing for me was I was loosing my edge as a player'

'they were slowing me down and people were going past me'

'I always said to myself that whatever happens, don't be one of those footballers that dwindles down the leagues'

hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. think he must view his career different to what I saw from his spell at latics 7/8 yrs ago

the difference between most team in lg 1 and 2 is who is up front. most teams are about the same at back and midfield. look at orient or rotherham when moore took them through lg 1. naf teams but had goalscorers.

wes is no real loss. plenty of league 1 mids who work hard and tackle about. dont see why we should break the bank to offer him a top deal. if he wont take what we offered have to believe johnson can find simialr for that price. hopefully he'll be saving the bigger wages (about £25/month more!!) for our strikers

i cant see what all the fuss is about from majority of people on here. wes worked hard but lacked ability for centre mid, can replace someone to run about and tackle easily. no major loss for me

surprised he's gone lg 2 but thats prob his level or bottom lg 1. as for people putting money on them getting promotion because they've signed wes. u must be kidding! he wont make that much diff just run round and tackle as he did for us. its all about having a goalscorer, rest of team can be average if you have a 20 goal a season man

a good friend went to an appartment in manchester to do some kitchen designs and found out it belonged to fabian barthez whist he was at man u...... but better than that was when he went back a week later to finalise a few things his supermodel girlfriend opened the door and was in with her model friends drinking champagne at 10am. we asked if he'd had any banter or got any pics but he didnt manage to build up the confidence to even say hi to any of them!!

bigger club than us, although love slagging off people at the club on here they do an OK job. could be much worse

he doesnt seem to be able to beat a man. ok away when we are trying to be hard to beat but he's playing on wing so has to contribute more going forward. surely there's better available this summer

yeah i noticed that as well.....he was firing them in during the warm-up as well and i thought he'll be decent and he was pap all afternoon. he did have shinnies on though. a lot wear the sort of pads we all had when we were about 10 as its easier to control the ball

for 18/19 y/o turner to come out of the conference north and make any impact at all or be included in our striker options is asking an awful lot. if we are relying on him making an impact id be worried, experienced strikers like hume would be much better options as at least they have scored at that level and higher. macdonald missed two sitters at 1-0 down against rotherham plus spent the best of his years in the conference. i would admit though that i thought he did ok, held it up and made some decent runs which is more than ive seen from him in other games. i dont think he's he is good enough though, perhaps as a squad player or off the bench but no better and his goals record this year suggests that.

really?? perhaps you can point them out to me. clean sheets wont keep us up it will be by winning games and no-one can score apart from harkins. i can only see clarke-harris as someone who may be good enough to cut it at this level

dipresses me seeing someone like him go on loan to fleetwood when its exactly what we need. he may not be the best but has at least scored 75+ career goals and played at a higher level. anyone else thinking this is the sort of loan move we need rather than more midfielders and central defenders

anyone else wondering how we have sold players, had cup run last year yet still cant put together anything that you can call a team. you have to say when your over a year into the job that the below is pretty poor and shows no forward thinking. if we cant muster anything after last/this yrs FA cup cash plus transfer sales we are never going to put much better together in future. budget will be lower again next year. another clear out beckons if we are lucky to stay up

keeper - on loan and prob not that arsed if we go down

right back - temp deal

centre back - temp deal

centre back - has another year to go

left back - youngster struggling to break through

right wing - loan

left wing - loan

centre mids - only two signed up

centre forward - from nrth w counties (0 pro career goals)

centre forward - 1 yr deal (spent his peak yrs in the conference)

But struggling tonight.

 

I am generally an optimist, but looking at the last few weeks efforts, I worry.

 

I remember LJ coming in, telling us he preferred a skilful, energetic and fast side. Flying wingers. Croft, among others were shown the exit as a consequence.

 

I look at that team tonight.

 

Oxley - omg that was poor. Struggles with any shot straight at him. Struggles with crosses. Parries straight out in front of him. This is basic stuff.

 

Back 4 - very very poor tonight. The new signings? Have they really improved us?

 

Wes and smith - far too defensive minded. Haven't got a defence splitting pass between them.

 

Harkins - showed some flair, but one cog in a failing wheel sent going to cut it.

 

Munchkin - enjoyed his endeavour , but come on, seriously, has he improved us?

 

McDonald - missed 2 great chances

 

Turner - to early in his career to judge

 

There wasn't a way on this earth we were going to win that tonight.

 

I was hoping for a plan B, but in fairness, I don't really think we had a plan A.

 

Losing my faith in LJ. His judgement and taste in players seems to be questionable. I want to get behind him, but struggling to find any positivity.

 

Please...... Surely there must be some reasons to be cheerful?

thinking of the dire season we nearly dropped with beavers and agogo up front (an all time low in my latics career) but was sat there thinking tonight they'd walk into current side.

not been to game today so not in mood where i want to slit my wrists like most on here. think most of us know we have a decent enough team for the division and should have enough fire power in barnard, iwulemo, simpson, baxter, croft and obita to get us goals to win games. for me corney needs to pull his finger out and get a manager in who can make something of them

john ward at bristol rovers is a prime example of what can happen. for mcghee is just didnt work and they were second bottom, ward has come in and with nearly same team they are back in mid table and could poss try and make playoffs if they keep winning. if corney does his job then that can happen for us and we can stay up

philiskirk doesnt want it and should have gone after everton and winning a couple of games. cant think of any interim manager keeping a team up, we need an experieced manager on at least a 2 year deal where his wage will go down if we are relegated to change fortunes. if we act soon we can stay up with a bit to spare, keep philiskirk or appoint someone who hasnt managed at least a couple of teams like kuqi and we will go down.

Who said anything about staying up ;)

so would we be all happy with relegation and europa league group stage footy for a season? or settle for plain old league 1 survival?

davies/adkins/dowie. not a chance anyone of them would want it, these are guys who want prem/top champ jobs they wont risk a relegation on their cv. megson is dire football but knows what he's doing in this league, not sure i could put up with it though. brown wanted the hartlepool job and said so in the press he'll def want this one. ritchie did a decent job at hudds/ barnsley and kept us up in this division with beavers and agogo up front! that was a miracle in itself. mcinnis and jewell as long shots but doubt either would be keen.

i honestly dont no what games some of you watch on here. this post is spot on grounds is clearly the best left back we've owned in years and prob this year in our top 3 players. composed on the ball, joins in the attack, decent defender, played at higher level. we wont get any better than him with our budget