Wigan 2-1 U's: One of Those

United fell to their third League defeat of the season to Wigan on Saturday. @vinylperez watched it and gives us his thoughts.

It started off alright didn't it, this week? The club putting a picture of a rhino on their Instagram on Monday, then announcing the extension of Mark Bonner's contract on Thursday. So far so good. It all went downhill after that, with the decision to announce a new badge on Friday afternoon that hasn't gone down all that well with the fanbase.

You could say the same for the Wigan game really, couldn't you? We started off really well. For the first four or five minutes at least, we were relentless in our attacks with Kaikai, Brophy and Bennett all probing the Wigan box. Then it all started to go downhill again. Okay, Saturday's performance wasn't quite as catastrophic as the new badge, but it wasn't really a classic game. I'm not sure there's too much that needs dissecting from it if I'm honest, it was simply one of those games, against decent opposition that we've historically found tough.

Wigan set up with three at the back, a formation we've often struggled against. We had Ahadme leading the line, with Jack Lankester playing off him in his favoured #10 role. It's not unfair to say both of them had games to forget, with Lankester appearing particularly ineffective despite his "95% pass percentage, key passes and only one pass misplaced" (stats courtesy of Jack Lankesters dad, on Twitter).

Lankester is a good player, exciting, creative, hard-working. He's what we need in the side, but all too often he makes poor decisions, going for the Hollywood pass rather than the simpler option. I wasn't intending to make this all about JL, but it's something I've noticed for a while now, and it has become noticeable how we tend to change for the better when our subs come on, in particular Elias Kachunga who must surely be in line for a start soon. There's definitely an important role to play for Jack in the side, and I do genuinely rate him as a player but something isn't quite clicking there this season, maybe it's playing off someone like Ahadme or Fejiri, that's the issue and he needs a more advanced role to shine again? Anyway, I digress, Lankester wasn't the reason we lost yesterday, and by some measures he had a good game, so let's move on.

We've spoke about Danny Andrew a lot lately. For sure the jury is still out, and as Julian mentions on the latest UTAS podcast we haven't really seen the attacking attributes he's meant to possess.

But maybe the issue isn't purely one of Andrew's quality? Whereas Brophy and Bennett work as hard in defence as they do in attack on the right, Kaikai doesn't seem to be doing the same for Andrew on the other side. Janneh didn't either. Both of them are great going forward, but they leave Andrew little protection, so maybe he feels he's not able to get up the pitch as much as he'd like if he doesn't trust his winger to cover his position. This was noticeable especially on Saturday as Wigan pressed Andrew, and we've seen other teams do it successfully too.

It's worth saying, United weren't terrible. This wasn't a Leyton Orient performance, and we could have nicked a point if we'd have been a bit more assertive going forward. At half time the game was wide open and with some bravery we could have easily put ourselves in the driving seat, but defensive errors cost us, coupled with Wigan being one of those sides that possessed quality on their bench, able to change or see out games with a Plan B that we seem to lack.

What changes for the visit of Port Vale on Saturday then? As much as we all love Harrison Dunk I don't think Danny Andrew deserves to lose his place just yet - if I'm honest, no-one 'deserves' to lose their place, and knowing Mark Bonner they probably won't, but it would be nice to see the likes of Kachunga and Okenabirhie get a start. Ahadme does his job well, but you feel that Fejiri is the bigger goal threat.

All in all, it was one of those days, after one of those weeks. We go again next week (and hopefully the North design agency do too).

Man of the Match: No-one massively stood out, but Michael Morrison led from the back.

Soundtrack of the Match: The Verve - Space & Time

Unsung Hero: The Rhino