A trip to the JJB Stadium is this weeks highlight for us Boro fans. We will be hoping that our team can fair better against Wigan than against Sunderland and West Brom in recent weeks.
Gareth Southgate has some important decisions to make ahead of the game. Who will he play up top? And who will he play in the midfield?
The Boro boss has got plenty of options if he feels the need to freshen up the team. He has Mido, Alves, Aliadiere and Emnes to choose from to construct some sort of strike pairing.
Mido and Alves have only been given a couple of games to find their feet together so I would think Southgate will go with the same front pairing that started against West Brom last Saturday.
I feel the problem of not scoring lies in midfield. Ok, of course, if our strikers don’t put away chances, then we are obviously going to struggle. I think if one or two of our midfielder’s started to find the net then a whole load of pressure will be lifted from the entire team.
At the moment we are relying too much on our strikers to do the business when our midfielder’s are missing good opportunities themselves.
Southgate will have the task of choosing the right midfield to cope with likes of Valencia and Cattermole on Saturday.
We will need a bit of bite in there to stop our little orphan and also a bit of quality on the ball. Looking at the last couple of games we have not been too bad in midfield so I would stick with O’Neill because I think this will be the sort of game you need him for his experience and running.
The bit of ‘quality’, well that would be Didier Digard if I was choosing the side. He has shown he can pass a ball through the eye of a needle and is a good competitor in the centre of the park. We have been lacking someone like him for a while now and if he can last a good 75 minutes on the pitch, then I’m sure Southgate can rely on him.
The defence and goalkeeper picks itself. The same back-four and keeper as last week. Concentration is key this weekend for the guys at the back. Mido’s Egyptian friend, Zaki, will be lively.
Prediction: Wigan 1 Boro 2
We need 3 points before the two week International break.
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Here you are. First clean sheet of the season with a makeshift defence. First away win since — when was it January? — You guys don’t have a manager, you have a miracle worker!! It’s likely you will still be a Premiership side next season. If that happens Gareth Southgate is the most under-rated manager in the Premiership.
First away win since december 07 actually, its about time too. i had voted for a loss for us on this one.
People call our attendances bad, 16000 is laughable, glad to get 3 points its just a shame it was a suprise coz wigan really are a tiny club
The only game so far this season we didnt deserve to win but we still got the 3 points. Great result and good to see us keep strong under the constant pressure.
very good result for you….as Wigan are a good solid team…..not many teams will take all 3 points at the JJB this season…
Waiting for U for the next game>Chelsea Fan
TimBoro- don’t get dragged into this ‘bigclub / small club / tiny club’ debate. It bugs me when a club like Newcastle, (which is the only club in a large city), has a go at Boro about its crowd (which is a world record for a town club) and then see you slag off Wigan for their crowd. Get this into perspective, Wigans crowd is in the top ten in the world for a town club and would be seen as a great attendance for most clubs in Spain, Italy, Holland, Portusgal, France etc.
Could the ‘site Journalists’ please write more articles?
Yeah admins must be more active
i have 4 new news so important about tuncay and MIdo and shawky in world cup qual etc….