unsworthlatic

So your ball winner would be Gardner? Because last season I barely saw Byrne win the ball, albeit he can be absolutely brilliant on it. Baxter behind the front man is a good idea, hopefully that will start to happen. I think Fane could offer this side enough especially at L2 level. Undoubtedly he needs to learn and be coached but still think he could and will have a part to play once back fit

The ball winning midfielder role is lost on some people. I agree he does give it away too much but ultimately that's why he plays 3rd or 4th division. Technical players meaning Byrne potentially? Byrne in a midfield 2 I think is a recipe for disaster. Could possibly play Baxter back in with Gardner but then wasting Baxter's talent behind the front man

As I have stated the 'stupid comparison' is obviously relative to the level you are playing at. Fane when we played Peterborough at home and won 2-0 season before last, a coach at Bury that I know came and said how wonderfully Fane did. All he did that night was dispossess the opposition and pass it 4/5 yards to a player who wanted to go forward (bit limited within that team I know!) When going forward with the ball he loses all sense of what he is supposed to do. When he does stick in the midfield though he wins his fair share of possession. Just out of interest, last season, who would you have played instead of Fane? Byrne in a 2? Maouche? Omrani? And again, this season, would you have Fane over Coke? Fane over Missilou?

Byrne often dropped deep last year to pick the ball up from the centre halves, perhaps because he didn't trust Fane getting it to him. Undoubtedly he has to learn and be coached to be better on the ball but the persistence with him last year was not the reason or a main reason why we got relegated. The main reasons were the following: 1) Players within the ranks did not get on (clear to see) and as such morale wasn't the best and there was little cohesion. 2) Stupid mistakes from a variety of players throughout the season 3) Having Nazon and Byrne on the pitch at the same time when required to battle wasn't a good idea. Byrne was like playing with 10 men (Rochdale away, prime example albeit playing woefully out of position? I'm not that big lover of Fane, he has plenty of flaws within his game but I do see potential. I also believe he could become a good player for Latics, of course I may be wrong. What Fane does have that certain other players seemingly don't is a good attitude, a willingness to learn and is determined (this isn't my opinion but has been stated by 4 separate managers since he signed)

The comparison was not a direct one from Fane to Makelele obviously. It was relative to the level they are playing at. Makelele did a fantastic job doing what he did, very rarely did he pass 20/30 yards, very rarely did he drive forward. His main attributes was spotting danger, being in the right position to eradicate the danger, brilliant and guiding the back 4 and sitting in to make a back 3 when full backs ventured forward. On the ball however, Makelele offered a simple job of getting it and playing it to Ballack or Lampard (the more creative footballers) he didn't score many at all (2 in 144 for Chelsea) but he was an integral part of Chelsea's midfield success and domination. Fane, once again relative comparison does what he does to an adequate standard that he was/is playing at. On the ball he isn't very good but got better from the year prior. He has eradicated the stupid booking/amount of bookings he picks up and is improving as a footballer. To summarise, there is blatantly no comparison between those two individually but there is with their respective roles within their respective levels of football

If you respected what Fane's role was for Latics last season, you would think that he could potentially be very effective. Fane wasn't great most of last season but his job is underestimated. His job was/is to dispossess opposition and play it to a better passer of the ball/more creative player i.e Dan Gardner, Jack Byrne etc. Look at teams, even towards the top level of English football, Claude Makelele was a prime example at Chelsea, he broke up play and played it simple to Lampard or Ballack. Rarely went forward, rarely drove with the ball, rarely passed it 15/20 yards. His job was done until the ball needed to be won again. Now, Fane has a lot to learn granted. He is very erratic and bless him, he could do absolutely anything. However, Fane gets a lot of stick from Latics fans when in reality he doesn't do his job too badly.

Can’t make it tomorrow due to work. Never used IFollow as I usually get to 40+ games a season so not a clue what to expect. However it is my only chance of watching the game so I’ve decided to pay a tenner and give it a whirl! We’ll see how this one pans out

Like I said in the previous post, albeit they weren’t great ability wise, they will cause defences no end of problems due to their height. Especially off set pieces and I actually thought their delivery at times was pretty decent which give us a stern test in character and togetherness to see the game out. Dont forget, first game they got beat away at Swindon due to 2 penalties in 93 and 96 mins. We had to battle granted but we saw it out a lot easier than Swindon beat them and certainly after the last league performance at Forest Green it was a welcome 3 points and result against a side who may like quality but are quite effective in what they do

Slightly baffled following reading some of the posts on here. 3 points and a deserved 3 points at that. Great individual goal from Surridge after Clarke should have put us ahead then looked comfortable. Branger’s goal carried a slight bit of luck but I’m a believer in you create your own luck. Branger has consistently hit it from 25 yards over the last few games so one was bound to fly in and take a nick in his favour. Now Macc might not have been very good quality wise but they had some massive players. Both centre halves towered above our strikers yet Surridge is 6ft3! They also had Smith and Blisset up top who were a handful albeit poor ability wise so we were always going to struggle with set pieces. Onto Bunn’s tactics that some have eluded to as being ‘baffling/naive’ - I sat there at 2-1 and feared the worst however I can see what he was doing. He tried to match up the height for set pieces, resulting in replacing Nepo who did okay but nothing more and replaced him with Graham. Thought this worked to be honest as we weathered the direct football they played at 2-1. Then Surridge had to come off as he was flagging, perhaps still not fully fit. Instead of bringing Baxter or Lang on he decided to go for Miller. Again useful in the defending areas when defending set pieces. Also took his goal very well! All in all, 3 very welcomed points and looked more solid having Clarke and Taylor back in the defensive 4 Onto Tuesday we go

I’m in two minds sadly about this one. Despite a poor start to the season, I still remain slightly optimistic that once our players are back we will start to improve (mid table/top half finish) but sadly they don’t seem to be coming back as quickly as I and others would like. The signing of Lang I think could be a good bit of business. He will give us another option than the two that played last night and possibly could work well alongside O’Grady until Surridge and/or Miller come back into the fold. I feel we need Clarke back as soon as possible and Taylor. Nothing against the young back 4, they have done as well as could be asked and stick at it but a more experienced couple of players and I think we will become more solid. Macclesfield however, is a sticky one. Undoubtedly one I expect to win, especially at home but I remember in my first season watching Latics we lost to Macclesfield both home and away. A lad called Woods scored 2 at the home game and got beat to an Efe Sodje header away 1-0 so I am sceptical to say the least.

Gardner is fit but he’s gone with Coke over Missilou

Team training in shape yesterday was: Iversen, Hamer, Graham, Edmundson, Hunt, Branger, Missilou, Gardner (if fit, didn’t take part in training yesterday but told a fan he was fit to play, Coke if not :() Nepomuceno, Benteke, O’Grady was right for Saturday so could be again

2 up top but no Lang, Benteke and COG

2 up top tonight, no players back though. Gardner missed training as precaution.

To be fair, I'm going off somebody who has walked past training and had a watch for 2/3 minutes so that could well be experimental. We discuss how we would line up week in week out and especially if 'going well' which we rarely are doing over the last 5 years it would be pretty easy to see what we would be lining up with. I never really got all the analysis stuff, didn't used to make much difference. Concern yourself with your own side and play to the maximum you can and you shouldn't go far wrong.

Apparently in training this looked like the side training in shape of 451 (not on a wind up here by the way. I have my ticket and hope to god it isn't this!) Iversen, Hamer, Graham, Edmundson, Hunt, Nepomuceno, Missilou, Gardner, Coke, Branger, O'Grady. Don't ask me anything else, not sure where Surridge or Miller were. Baxter not quite ready apparently and guessing Clarke is still ill.

I have absolutely no idea what to expect this season in terms of performance, results or where we will finish. Generally, we all knew what to expect especially in the recent past but this year there's so many variables which could effect how we do. Things such as HMRC raid outcome (potential points deducted/heavy fine), Squad harmony (will we get Byrne back involved or will he and anymore potential troublemakers upset the apple cart) Momentum (could happen both ways, start well, confidence grows, results keep on coming vice versa however, start badly, end up in a rut) AL involvement (he admitted mistakes were made on his part last year, how will he learn from them?) All these could end up effecting our season. So far I have seen pundits tip us for releagtion, fine, their choice. However, for the life of me, I cannot see us finishing below certain teams (excuse my partial arrogance) I go into this season with hope and slight excitement, purely because we're not guaranteed a relegation battle for the first time in donkey's. I reckon 14th

Wasn't there this morning but David Cotterill trained and so did Devonte Redmond (Manchester United Under 23 midfielder)

Apparently, Sam Surridge to join on loan as reported by Pete O'Rourke. Is this who you recommended BP?

Cannot disagree. Certainly comes with a decent past, like Pringle. Couldn't believe he was only 30! Seems to have been around for ages. Hopefully he can add a bit of quality like you say as we don't have a natural right sided midfielder.

Another rumour to add, apparently David Cotterill was seen walking into Latics this morning past people queuing for Forest Green tickets. Not quite sure which one sounds a more far fetched rumour, people queuing for Forest Green tickets or David Cotterill walking into the club...

Problem is, he didn't do much 'talking on the pitch' during the second half of the season. In fact, at times it was like playing with 10 men. I appreciate he was played ridiculously out of position but sulking, not tracking back, not putting in a shift and standing there arguing with fellow teammates has nothing to do with being played out of position. If....and that's a big if...there is a taker for him, fire him off and reinvest the 6k a week in somebody who maybe isn't Byrne's quality but a person with the right attitude, application and endeavour can be every bit as creative and important to the side. Should we not have any takers and it gets to the window then we do, I accept have to try and get him back involved but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Or maybe we might do better than we have in 28 years too? Always like to go back to 1990 don't Latics

My take on Gerrard is a mixed one. Over the last few seasons he has helped massively in keeping us in League One, that said due to injuries last year he didn't. As a defender in the bottom two divisions he is worth a punt however for me he lacks professionalism. Not only with his outbursts on twitter, 'calling fans out' so to speak but with his lack of self-discipline in getting in shape and keeping in shape (I had the same gripe with Crofty) His twitter rants may well be justified, giving it back to fans who are giving it out etc and going public about not receiving his pay cheque from the club. Now I accept that it is completely our (the club) fault but there are ways about going about it so for me I wouldn't be fussed if he does go especially with the amount of defenders and good enough ones already in place. Good luck to him finally and certainly thanks for his efforts, can't help but think a Q+A in time to come may be set up with him, seems like he will have a whole host of stories.

For what it’s worth I cannot for the life of me see us wanting to terminate his contract, however the bit about injuring Fane on purpose wouldn’t surprise me too much sadly. Interesting debate about Byrne, certainly see both sides. If he does end up staying let’s hope we can get him firing