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If you look back over recent seasons it appears that there may be a new trend starting. Last season finished with no two adjacent teams between 12th and 18th position being separated by more than 3 points. This year the same can be said for 10th to 19th.
The last time a season was this tight in the bottom half of the table was 2002/03 where 10 points was the difference between 8th and 18th place!
So what does all this mean for the Latics? Well nobody wants to be perennial relegation dodgers. Everyone is looking to next season and hoping that the Latics will climb into the top half of the table, but what will that actually take?
The group of mediocre teams in the Premier League, of which Wigan is one, is getting bigger. Matches between teams in this group are going to be very nip and tuck because they all have similar abilities. What do Latics need to do if they are to escape the gravitational field of this group?
The bottom line is don't get beaten! If you look at the "big four", they have lost only 3 or 4 games all season. The next group of 5 teams have only lost 9 or 10 games. Below that, almost everyone has lost 15 games or more. So the target for next season should be not to get beaten more than 10 times, which would propel us into the group of UEFA hopefuls.
To achieve that we need to improve our dreadful away form. Since Bruce Almighty took over, the Latics have lost only 3 league games at home but 6 away matches have been lost out of 11. Even more depressing is the fact we have only won 1 match away from the JJB since Bruce arrived, and that was at Derby!
The other area that needs desperate attention is our goal scoring record. Marcus Bent is our top scorer in the league with just 7 goals, and 3 of those were his hat-trick against Blackburn. To put that into context, Joleon Lescott has also scored 7 premier league goals from defence and Martin Laursen has scored 6!
The pundits are always talking about 20 goal a season strikers but there are very few around. Currently only Ronaldo, Adebayor and Torres can claim that kind of record.
I think most teams would settle for a strike partnership that yields 20 goals a season, and in our first Premier League season, Camara and Roberts scored 20 league goals between them. We also finished 10th that year, no coincidence I'm sure.
After Bent, the next most prolific scorers this season are Sibierski and Scharner with 4 apiece! Every team down to Blackburn in 9th place has at least one player that has scored 10 league goals or more so far this season. If we want to be more than mediocre, we need a player with that scoring pedigree.
Fortunately Dave Whelan appears willing to break the clubs current transfer record to make that happen. The only problem for Messrs Bruce and Whelan now is finding players that fit the bill, who are keen to join our football club, without letting other key players slip out the door to more attractive clubs. Good luck in your quest gentlemen, make us proud.
Craig Aspinall
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