Thursday 30 July 2009

10/10

If there's one thing we should be truly grateful to Elano for, it's for sucking the fear out of penalties. He was the best penalty taker I have ever seen in blue, and the ten out of ten record he left with is something of real note.

Those ten, from the start: Bolton, Birmingham, Sunderland, Villa, Brighton, Villa, Aalborg, Hamburg, West Brom, Blackburn.

Even if Gareth Barry takes over next year (rather him than Robinho), I won't be as confident.

3 comments:

john said...

Franny Lee won them and then banged them in.

satis said...

Penalty taking always seems to me straightforward: pagger it a foot inside either post at any height and you'll score 7 out of 10 times. Add in a stuttering approach with your head up, as Elano did, and the goalie has to move late. That'll get you 9 out of 10. Ralph was as good as the best in the Premier League.

The next penalty for City should see a good scuffle for the ball: Robi, Manu and Gareth will be first in line and I'm sure El Apache and Rocky won't be shy.

Wigan Blue said...

Been on holiday, and only just heard about the Elano debacle. That's all the positives of the close season taken away with one stupid transaction. The guy was magic. All he needed was for a manager to create the conditions around him for him to play, and he turned a mediocre team into contenders.

I look forward to the future with a heavy heart. I have no doubt that we are going to win trophies (not in the year or so that I once thought possible, but undoubtedly in a few years), but with the wrong sort of players - heavy and tall crunchers instead of playmakers like Bojinov and Elano.

Doubtless I'll be slagged for being negative, but whatever. Our manager is as negative as any we've ever had...