Posts Tagged ‘Wigan’

The majority of teams in England’s top flight utilise the same formation. Since December, Wigan have used a 3-4-3 system that has finally become coherent in recent weeks and seen them have the upper hand over the bigger teams. Salim usually doesn’t like to write about anything to do with the English Premier League as it’s well-covered, but the footprints of Wigan’s haven’t been so well-covered so, naturally, he has decided to write this.

The three-man defence has been ubiquitous with the Italian Serie A in recent times with relatively unfashionable teams, notably Napoli and Udinese, using wing-backs to take advantage of the lack of width in a league where the 4-3-1-2 system was king. Last season, Walter Mazzari’s Napoli finished third and qualified for the Champions League group stages using a 3-4-2-1 system, whilst Francesco Guidolin’s Udinese finished fourth after adopting a 3-5-1-1 system, notably scoring 4 goals at the San Siro in a 4-4 draw against eventual Champions AC Milan (who also had the best defensive record in the league). There was further relative success in the relegation fight, too, as Cesena’s adoption of three at the back  saw them finish seven points above the relegation zone.

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After Wigan’s shock defeats of Manchester United and Arsenal in the space of a week, this week’s Sandals For Goalpost’s Player of the Week award has to go to Wigan and Nigeria’s Victor Moses. Against the current champions, Moses’ swagger and explosive power on the ball troubled Phil Jones throughout as well as the rest of the backline as Wigan broke on the counter when he moved centrally. With Jones lacking the defensive solidity of Rafael da Silva, you could have said that it was Moses’ lucky day, but he was to round of an impressive week against Arsenal at The Emirates. Charged with the task of getting the better of Bacary Sagna, the best right-back in the Premiership, particularly defensively, the muscle-bound left winger-cum-attacking midfielder delivered an unstoppable performance. Despite showing some of the weaknesses of his game, such as his frustrating selfishness, Moses gave Sagna a torrid time as he regularly left him for dead with a combination of his streetwise skill and raw power and pace on the ball.

Last term, I wrote what was quite possibly the worst essay I had ever written. Needless to say, I was dreading the day that the essay was marked and handed back to me; that day was last Tuesday. I got 84%. Feel free to congratulate me in the comments section! Anyway, while footballing fans got their first fix of African Nations football last night, I’m here with my first blog. Master of Arts, I ain’t, so please consider my contributions a work in progress and hopefully in time, they’ll actually keep you awake for more than 2 minutes. Don’t forget to like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

Five months in, we’re roughly half-way through the 2011/12 Premier League season, so it would seem that now is as good a time as any to look at how the second-half of the campaign may pan out for some of the teams. Here I take a look at who, in my opinion, is better equiped to take the crown, which teams will be contending for Europe come May and who will have to look forward to away trips to Vicarage Road and Fratton Park respectively next season (pending both Watford and Portsmouth retain Championship status, of course). So far, the season has been one of the most entertaining and closely contested in recent memory with freak results and the return of footballing legends.

Do the champions have what it takes to retain the trophy?

Champagne bottles and avoiding Channel 5
As expected, Man City are right up there and, at the time of this post, currently top the table by 3 points. Yet again, they invested heavily in the summer and blockbuster signing Sergio Aguero has done well to blend into the team so quickly; however there are still reservations over Samir Nasri’s performances which can, arguably, be attributed to a lack of game time. City are hardly playing fantastic football as of late, but with the talent they have in their ranks, it’s difficult to see them dropping points on a regular basis. They have yet to play Tottenham, Chelsea and United at home and considering their form at the Etihad Stadium over the past year or so, they can be seen as winnable games. If City have any sort of weakness it’s at the back, where after Kompany, Toure and Lescott they don’t have quality cover in the centre of defense. Savic may prove to be a good buy in the long-term but he has looked out of sorts in the games he has played so far. Further defensive reinforcements in this month’s transfer window would not come as a surprise. Having said that, whether or not City decide to spend in January, this season looks to be a two-horse race between the blue half of Manchester and….

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