Opinion: Delusional Malky must go

Last updated : 26 February 2015 By Paul Farrington

Since taking over in November Malky Mackay has managed nine points from a possible forty-eight in the league, i.e. he has managed a return of less than 20% of the points on target. If this form is extrapolated over the course of a season we would earn less than twenty-six points and be rock bottom laughing stocks.

 

Following back-to-back home defeats our manager professed himself to be generally pleased with our overall dominance whilst waxing lyrical about his appreciation of the Cardiff City fans for their warm reception.

 

Charlton gave us a good hiding. The first fifteen minutes apart we were well and truly second best and the Addicks coasted to a comfortable win. The injuries to Clarke and Kvist were decisive factors in the game, but we have just come out of January and should have enough versatility in the squad to deal with injuries, after all we have let Ben Watson spend the rest of the season on loan with Watford and Roger Espinoza was given a free transfer to the MLS.

 

The 1-0 win for Cardiff City was their first win in eight games. For all the world they looked like a team short on confidence and labouring. We managed two ‘offside’ goals but the fact that we focussed our entire efforts post game on whinging about being downtrodden said it all. In football you make your own luck and too many of our team are waiting for their summer escape from this sinking ship rather than focussing on keeping the tempo up, scoring the first goal in a game, and working hard to win individual battles on the pitch. The substitution to put Don Cowie on for Jermaine Pennant must up there with the worst. At 1-0 down it is confusing to think how Mackay felt Cowie would turn the game in our favour.

 

Both of the above games were a superb chance to get some decent points under our belts on the  back of the away win at Reading. We could then have been approaching games with Blackpool and Leeds on a positive run of results and in touch with safety. Instead we’re battling with Blackpool as to who can be the most embarrassing team of the season and lie nine points away from safety (remember it has taken Malky sixteen games to amass nine points…).

 

As a season ticket holder for many a year it is getting difficult to motivate myself for games anymore. It is not the losing that is the problem, it is the fact that we are not competing in games. We are being rolled over with the opposition operating at 80% capacity to take all three points.

 

Mackay has been in charge for over three months now and that includes the journey through a transfer window. In that time our form has receded from that achieved under the sacked Uwe Rosler, we have picked up a record low number of points, our most influential players of the past few season have been sold and not replaced, and our on the field performances are admitting defeat even before a ball has been kicked.

 

The impact of new managers is normally heralded as a short term boost to results, see Neil Lennon at Bolton and Dougie Freedman at Forest. Instead Mackay has taken us further down hill.

 

What is more, there is no logic anymore behind many of his decisions and the inherent tactic of kick and run style direct football is not only dreary to watch but embarrassing. How comedic that Mackay should sign McKay, possibly the divisions smallest player, and then proceed to leave him on the bench because he doesn’t suit our style of play. Even Bo-kyung, who’s effort has been a delight to watch amongst the quagmire of recent weeks, seems confused as the ball sails over his head time after time.

 

Players seem uninterested in Mackay’s ideas and even less interested in implementing them as game after game we look like a team who has no coherent attacking strategy beyond a hopeful long ball whilst at the same time remain so frail in defence that any opposition attacking may well wander all the way through our back line for a free shot at Al-Habsi.

 

Of recent times we’re plumbing new depths under Malky Mackay and I would go so far as to say that even Owen Coyle wasn’t this bad. Given the FA charge over his head, the state of the football on show, and the near complete supporter apathy against him something needs to be done, and fast. Even if we are to go down he isn’t the man to lead us back up the league structure.

 

Our once great football club has endured enough of the racist escapade, and is now employing former prisoners as players. The moral high ground has been left alone and we’re dredging the bottom of the river with our policies at the moment. It is time to admit our mistake, and get the right man in charge to take this football club forward over the long term. That means getting a vision in place of the team we want to be and building around that. Until that happens we’re still just floating down river without a paddle.

 

In true Wigan Athletic fashion, our supporters, particularly the long term supporters who have suffered the pain of the non-league days and beyond, have turned away from the on-the-field antics and decided to spend Saturday singing ninety songs in ninety minutes. Given the state of the pitch at Bloomfield Road and the quality of the two teams that will be on display this is a terrific idea and one that makes the trip almost seem worth making.

 

Should we come away on the end of a defeat then we will be joint bottom of the Championship with a team who are run and organised in the manner of a circus or ITV soap drama. Perhaps fitting given all the hype about our well run club that we find ourselves in such a position. To reiterate my stance here; we are still living on Premier League parachute payments that are funding some overinflated wages whilst the transfer money from Moses, McCarthy, McArthur, Maloney, McManaman et al has been pumped into the bottomless pit of an academy whilst the first team flounders.

 

Things could be worse, we could be Bolton or Blackburn who, whilst maintaining solid(ish) Championship performances, are struggling under huge clouds of debt and may not be around as football clubs for much longer. Many clubs have plumbed new depths following relegation from the Premier League and a fair number have bounced back.

 

(@wiganerdotnet)

 

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