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Latics v Exeter


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Another frustrating afternoon and failure to put away another poor side.

 

Hope the injuries aren't too serious,always seems to be our key players.

 

Thought our approach play was ok but look pretty toothless in front of goal, no threat really from kuqi again and smith should have buried that late header!

 

We actually got some crosses in today but need someone to be brave and get in there on the end of them.

 

We've got a 9 day break now....plenty to work on on the training ground methinks.

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Cisak made some good saves, but no mention for Taylor? Playing out of position he continually offered himself for the ball, tracked back, got forward when he could and in general played very well.

 

Tarkowski's alright, but he needs to keep improving as a defender. Still looks a bit too much like a mistake is just around the corner at times. Mvoto played well.

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Cisak, Lee, Mvoto, Tarkowski, Adeyemi deserved their wages today. Smith also did o.k. when he came on. The others should be brought back tomorrow for extra training. We certainly need a striker up front with a bit of speed. I think mid table will now be where we will finish. Let's be right we should have beaten Exeter, and a few other teams this year, but as usual we only seem to play our best football when we play the so called bigger teams. Noticed the usual first rate fans attended again today, while the armchair brigade will await their hopeful chance of getting a ticket for Wembley when we beat Chesterfield.

Edited by OLDHAM4ALWAYS
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Cisak MOM by a mile! :applause1: Exeter keeper not tested. :disappointed:

The tip onto the bar in the 1st half? Not tested anywhere near enough though!

 

Its nice to have a keeper that im not constantly on edge with in cisak, best keeper we've had in a while!

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Cisak, Lee, Mvoto, Tarkowski, Adeyemi deserved their wages today. Smith also did o.k. when he came on. The others should be brought back tomorrow for extra training. We certainly need a striker up front with a bit of speed. I think mid table will now be where we will finish. Let's be right we should have beaten Exeter, and a few other teams this year, but as usual we only seem to play our best football when we play the so called bigger teams. Noticed the usual first rate fans attended again today, while the armchair brigade will await their hopeful chance of getting a ticket for Wembley when we beat Chesterfield.

 

Agree that they were amongst our better players today but can't believe you didn't mention Filipe Morais in the same breath. He's had his critics of late but I thought he was excellent from start to finish today, my man of the match with the possible exception of Cisak...

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Today was very pleasing on many fronts,

Black back in as left back and Lee back as right back,

Both full backs got forward very well and helped with the attacking play ( something that hasnt happened whilst Lee has been LB )

Kuqi ran his socks off without any really end product

sad to see Simpson leave the field, Parker and Smith just aint good enough on many accounts.

Morias seems to have a new hunger and looked decent again, much better than Luca

Taylor settled into centre mid really well with Tom, even though we are missing Furman big style.

 

it is obvious for me that our season now hinges on the chesterfield game, furman and diamond will both be back,

hopefully Simpson will be fit again and Reid will be sub that day but will play a big part.

time to rest our injured warriors, KTF and kick some Chesterfield arse..

 

it'll come if Dickov sticks with Lee and Black in their true positions

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Kuqi ran his socks off without any really end product

 

 

Kuqi is ploughing a lonely furrow up front with no one beside him. Simpson, as good as he is, is playing behind him and Kuqi is too often isolated. Not an easy role at the best of times but at his age ?

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Disappointed not to get the win today but three key injuries really stifled us. With Furman and Wes in centre mid we would have won comfortably, with one of them we still dominated the midfield but with neither of them we really lost a lot of bite and our play suffered. I'll make it clear that this isn't a dig at Adeyemi who had a good game today especially when he was the only recognised centre midfielder. Simpson going off badly affected any clinical edge that we had and I seriously hope that all three are back for Chesterfield as they will make the difference. The fourth injury is Diamond who has played well recently and was missed on Wednesday, but he wasn't missed today as Mvoto and Tarkowski were very good. I'd bring Diamond back in for next Monday but Tarky deserves a run in the side in the league afterwards.

 

Barring a great double save from Cisak early on we dominated the first half with the wind but needed to put our chances away, second half was fairly even thanks to the wind and our injuries but we still had the opportunities to create chances. As has been said by others we didn't play too badly as a team but we lacked the finishing touch. Exeter were similar to how they've been when I've seen them on other occasions this season: poor. They've lost key players from last season but their style is a shadow of their former self, woeful distribution in the 1st half and only a bit better in the 2nd. They'll struggle to stay up and were lucky that we were hamstrung by the injuries during the game.

 

Cisak was excellent and is definitely the most solid 'keeper we've had in years, destined for a higher level, as is Lee who was much better today at right back. Black did OK and I'd not be too disappointed if he stays in at left-back, but we could do better. Kuqi worked hard and led the line well but is badly out of form in front of goal. Listening to Dickov on BBC he sounds like he's going to stick with him through this bad patch and I'm OK with that. Taylor was dangerous on the right and put in a shift in the middle as well as providing the moment of the match with his fantastic goal saving block. Smith can certainly win flick on's but needs to work on his heading in front of goal, not sure whether a run in the side is required for him yet.

 

The three players who didn't impress me were Morais, Scapuzzi and Parker. Dickov talked about improving decision making and that should apply to those three strongest of all. Parker was slightly unlucky as was seemingly asked to drop deep in the Simpson role when putting him on the last defender to chase through balls would've been the simple thing to do, but still could've been better when on the ball. Morais and Scapuzzi got into good positions but often frustratingly slowed the tempo around the edge of the box. These are players who in the team to make the right decisions to break teams down, they simply aren't doing this.

 

Not much that needs changing for Chesterfield though, we just need to put the chances we'll inevitably create away. After that, we have a good run of home games in February to pick up lots of points to keep us well clear of the drop.

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Kuqi is ploughing a lonely furrow up front with no one beside him. Simpson, as good as he is, is playing behind him and Kuqi is too often isolated. Not an easy role at the best of times but at his age ?

Good point,can understand Simpson dropping deep when we have posession to find space but when we don't Kuqi at the mo is chasing down both centre halves,Simpson should help him out more in that respect.That way Kuqi wont look knackered after an hour and save some running for when we do have the ball.

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Disappointed not to get the win today but three key injuries really stifled us. With Furman and Wes in centre mid we would have won comfortably, with one of them we still dominated the midfield but with neither of them we really lost a lot of bite and our play suffered. I'll make it clear that this isn't a dig at Adeyemi who had a good game today especially when he was the only recognised centre midfielder. Simpson going off badly affected any clinical edge that we had and I seriously hope that all three are back for Chesterfield as they will make the difference. The fourth injury is Diamond who has played well recently and was missed on Wednesday, but he wasn't missed today as Mvoto and Tarkowski were very good. I'd bring Diamond back in for next Monday but Tarky deserves a run in the side in the league afterwards.

 

Barring a great double save from Cisak early on we dominated the first half with the wind but needed to put our chances away, second half was fairly even thanks to the wind and our injuries but we still had the opportunities to create chances. As has been said by others we didn't play too badly as a team but we lacked the finishing touch. Exeter were similar to how they've been when I've seen them on other occasions this season: poor. They've lost key players from last season but their style is a shadow of their former self, woeful distribution in the 1st half and only a bit better in the 2nd. They'll struggle to stay up and were lucky that we were hamstrung by the injuries during the game.

 

Cisak was excellent and is definitely the most solid 'keeper we've had in years, destined for a higher level, as is Lee who was much better today at right back. Black did OK and I'd not be too disappointed if he stays in at left-back, but we could do better. Kuqi worked hard and led the line well but is badly out of form in front of goal. Listening to Dickov on BBC he sounds like he's going to stick with him through this bad patch and I'm OK with that. Taylor was dangerous on the right and put in a shift in the middle as well as providing the moment of the match with his fantastic goal saving block. Smith can certainly win flick on's but needs to work on his heading in front of goal, not sure whether a run in the side is required for him yet.

 

The three players who didn't impress me were Morais, Scapuzzi and Parker. Dickov talked about improving decision making and that should apply to those three strongest of all. Parker was slightly unlucky as was seemingly asked to drop deep in the Simpson role when putting him on the last defender to chase through balls would've been the simple thing to do, but still could've been better when on the ball. Morais and Scapuzzi got into good positions but often frustratingly slowed the tempo around the edge of the box. These are players who in the team to make the right decisions to break teams down, they simply aren't doing this.

 

Not much that needs changing for Chesterfield though, we just need to put the chances we'll inevitably create away. After that, we have a good run of home games in February to pick up lots of points to keep us well clear of the drop.

Disagree today about Morais,thought he was the only one providing quality balls into the box particularly first half,must admit though it shows how out of form our players are that in the last two games Tarky,who has hardly played all season is contender for man of the match in both games.Also shows we would be better off spending Nathan Clarkes wage elsewhere,Tarky is good enough and has proved it.

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Disagree today about Morais,thought he was the only one providing quality balls into the box particularly first half,must admit though it shows how out of form our players are that in the last two games Tarky,who has hardly played all season is contender for man of the match in both games.Also shows we would be better off spending Nathan Clarkes wage elsewhere,Tarky is good enough and has proved it.

 

I think that sounds slightly harsh on Clarke, as IMO he was our best centre-half for a period during his loan spell. Tarky was good enough last season to be a back-up centre half and the last few games have demonstrated that, however, I'm not fully comfortable with a young 19 yo being our only recognised CB in reserve. As Dickov doesn't rate Black that much I'd like to think he will be looking to bring in a LB who could also play CB.

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Cisak, Lee, Mvoto, Tarkowski, Adeyemi deserved their wages today. Smith also did o.k. when he came on. The others should be brought back tomorrow for extra training. We certainly need a striker up front with a bit of speed. I think mid table will now be where we will finish. Let's be right we should have beaten Exeter, and a few other teams this year, but as usual we only seem to play our best football when we play the so called bigger teams. Noticed the usual first rate fans attended again today, while the armchair brigade will await their hopeful chance of getting a ticket for Wembley when we beat Chesterfield.

 

Taylor too? He was the best outfield player by some distance - and Morais gave a good account of himself too - I reckon you should be brought back tomorrow for some extra training in 'how to watch a game' :wink:

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Taylor too? He was the best outfield player by some distance - and Morais gave a good account of himself too - I reckon you should be brought back tomorrow for some extra training in 'how to watch a game' :wink:

Taylor in no way was the best outfield player. Morais did o.k. but is far from the player he was last season, however I must admit he did improve a little yesterday. Oh and by the way having watched Latics for over 50 years I reckon I can see alright. I think it's you who needs specs in relation to Taylor. He was never the December player of the month either !!!

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We're all entitled to our own opinions but I'm with the big dog on this one, Taylor was definately man of the match for me but it seems some on here have already made their minds up on Chris and can't wait to slag him off !!!

Yes you are right. Look at the topic Chrissy T and you will see that the majority of people appear to have similiar feelings.

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