The simple fact of the matter is that you need a goalscorer in your ranks to survive in the top flight. Wigan have suffered ever since the departure of Charles N’Zogbia in the summer as the Frenchman single handedly kept them up last season before moving to Aston Villa and his source of goals has yet to be replaced. Di Santo, Moses and Rodallega have three between them and with backup in the shape of the relatively unknown Connor Sammon staying up is going to be a tough ask.
The same goes for a defence which has been breached on 20 occasions already this season and has shown no signs of tightening up. The once ingredient that is missing from the Wigan back line is pace with players like Gary Caldwell, Antonio Alcaraz and Maynor Figueroa hardly blessed with natural speed. Heading, tackling and booting the ball away from danger are their main attributes but when it comes to a simple foot race they get beaten each and every time. At times it can be too easy for teams to saunter through a defence that appears to lack little or no structure with players constantly out of position giving teams the opportunity to break the offside trap.
Steve Gohouri has to be the worst culprit and I don’t know how many times i’ve seen him make a mistake that has proved costly to his team. A lack of quality, discipline and structure in the back four is giving teams an easy ride and three home defeats in a row is a worrying sign for the DW fans.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that they will be playing Championship football next season. Despite possessing a good set of midfield players its those in front and behind that are under performing and in the cut and thrust of the Premier League it’s not enough to keep your head above water. Relegation could be a blessing in disguise for Martinez and his men and as much as I hate making assumptions at such an early stage of the campaign the writing is on the wall for Wigan.
Written by Jak Penny for FootballFancast.com
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