Meeting The Boss - Poor Performances

On Thursday I had another opportunity, along with Jay T (Cockney Latic), Migs (Mudhuts) and Farri (Wiganer.net) to spend some time in the company of Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez down at the clubs training facilitates at Christopher Park in the players canteen.

Following on from the last time we all met once again the atmosphere was very cordial, Roberto appeared very happy to be meeting the four of us and the discussion that followed was open, direct and once again very positive.

Once again Roberto re-emphasised his footballing philosophy and he said that he wouldn`t force play, when asked about the fans feeling frustrated at the inconsistency, especially with recent results against Liverpool followed by the Bolton game, then the Portsmouth game and then the Arsenal he was asked could he understand the fans frustration, the boss turned to the Portsmouth performance to say it was one of the most pleasing apart from the result.

"If you take the Portsmouth game the performance was very pleasing, we had over 20 goal attempts, if you score a goal that result ends up 5-0 but we didn`t and ended up getting frustrated but overall I was pleased with how we played"

"The Bolton game was poor but we had come off the back of the Liverpool result where the players had given everything and that is the problem, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool do it every week but they are big clubs with big squads but for us after that game the players mentally were drained"

"When we played Arsenal if that had been six months ago and we went 2-0 down I guarantee you that we would have ended up losing with 5 or 6 but we didn`t, the players kept working on what we have been telling them in training and when we got the goal for 2-1 you could see the lift"

"This is the transition that I have been talking about and we are getting there"

Roberto was questioned about some of the performances throughout the season and in particular the lack of effort that some fans say the players have shown, this seemed to hurt the gaffer a little and he retorted that there maybe a lack of knowledge but definitely no lack of will, though he did comment on one particular player and said he would never play for the club again, no names though.

"Lack of will? Sometimes lack of understanding or lack of knowledge on the pitch, I would take that but the players always give everything on the pitch"

"Probably we have had one player that I wasn`t happy with his will and he hasn`t played since for Wigan Athletic and he`ll never play again, where we are now and where we were 10 months ago is two worlds apart"

Roberto was questioned about and touched on many other matters, there will be more on this to follow

To be continued…




Vote for Vital Wigan Player of the Season

To vote just click here then enter the player of your choice and your name or username, also place Player of the Season 2009/10 in the email subject or email wigan@vitalfootball.co.uk at your leisure









You can listen to the Latics Speyk podcasts now by clicking on the player here:

Latics Speyk Car Stickers Have Arrived

Vital Wigan are pleased to announce that the Latics Speyk car stickers have arrived anyone who wants one follow the instructions in this link

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


Vital Latics - Bringing you the Latics Speyk car stickers and the podcasts

It's easy to join us at Vital Latics to register , simply click the link and enjoy getting involved

Seconds Out! Vital Boxing is here!

Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for Monaco

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.