On so many occasions Wigan play attractive good to watch football, Roberto Martinez is respected by all for his brand of football.  He sticks to his beliefs of playing attacking football even with a unfashionable team like Wigan.   He refuses to play defensive survival type football many managers would adopt if  they had a club like Wigan.    Martinez was very brave to defend mostly without his 3 forwards.  The previous game v Man city had seen Wigan lose 1 nil but they completely outplayed Man city but fell to a late goal.  Mancini showed great respect for Martinez after this game stating the brand of football played gave his team many issues.

I want to look at Wigans shape when Man city have the ball, playing with a back 3 means the wingbacks 18.Espinoza and 16.McArthur need to work hard to get up and down the park.  Whats was really interesting to me was Wigan most defended without the 3 forwards 15.McManaman, 10.Maloney and 2.Kone.  The two central midfielders 14.Gomez and 4.McCarthy did a very good job of protecting the back 3 and supporting the attack, surprisingly 14.Gomez maybe not playing in his preferred role worked hard and did the task that the manager set him.  The 3 forward players staying high gave Man city something to think about on the Wigan counter, 2 Kone is blessed with great pace, and strength.  15. McManaman runs with the ball well and his excellent attacking in 1v1 situations, 10.Maloney is a tricky creative player that also sticks to the tactical plan and as proven to be a very important player to Wigan.

Below is the Starting line up for Wigan

Below is the Shape of  Wigan when the forwards press

Below is the general Wigan shape when Man city had the ball

Below we look at the shape of Wigan when defending