A Disasterous Start To The Season

Today was the dog turd on the top of the cake, confirming the start of the season as an absolute disaster: one win from four games, and that slightly fortuitous away to newly promoted and evidently hopeless Wolves, and just three goals scored, at a rate of less than one a game. Add in an inept performance at home to Third Division Millwall, having to come from behind and requiring extra time to secure a victory, and it all adds up to a depressing and deeply worrying start to the season.

Away to Wolves we looked OK but, as I said at the time, a better team would have scored from the numerous crossing opportunities we allowed. The Tottenham game exposed how little punch we possess up front. Cole scored a brilliant goal but, apart from that, we looked ordinary in the final third. The Millwall game was embarrassing full stop and would be best forgotten for so many reasons. Against Blackburn, we didn't seem to understand that the pitch had a final third. And now, pathetically, we have surrendered against a Wigan team who have lost their last four games and were there for the taking.

I blogged on the eve of the game that Diamanti had to start but Zola and Clarke opted for a safety first appoach and we got our just deserts as a result. If you wait until you go behind before you try harder to score than to not concede, then you hand the initiative to the opposition and invite defeat. We were guilty of that at Blackburn and even more culpable of it today. Diamanti had his tail up after a stunning start for the reserves so the decision to go with Kovac and Hines rather than Collison and Diamanti was beyond negative and bordering on the perverse. The fact that Diamanti came closest to scoring simply proves the point. A positive, go for the throat approach, would probably have secured victory. Instead, we cowered in front of a toothless opponent and ended up savaged by a sheep. That is unacceptable.

Is Zola to blame? Yes for his team selection today but that was probably based on the late arrival of Diamanti. I warned that the points lost at the start of the season due to a failure to score could never be recovered, and I am being proved right. It was pathetic that we kicked off the season with just one recognised striker and it is a disgrace that our "salvation" comes in the form of an injury prone Mexican who has managed to score at a rate of less than 1 goal in every 5 games in Spain. Who is to blame for that? Well who kept telling us that Ashton would be ready and who fannied around for months without signing a striker?

Step forward Scotty Duxbury!