Wigan vs Hull City

After our new manager recently took charge of an impressive win in his seventh game as manager, I thought it would be good to look at the impact he’s made since taking over at the beginning of November. I’ll be comparing Rosenior’s first 7 games as manager against Shota’s last 7 and also Andy Dawson’s 7 games as interim head coach (not including the game against Luton as Shota was sacked just before the game). All stats courtesy of infogol.net

The most important stat: Points. Rosenior 10. Shota 4. Dawson 9. Daws steadied the ship after Shota left after the Swansea defeat and Rosenior is continuing to pick up steady points whilst awaiting his first transfer window.
Average Possession: Rosenior 54%. Shota 44%. Dawson 53%. A similar story. We couldn’t keep the ball well under Shota, but things have changed since he left.
Average Shots per game: No point in having the ball if you don’t create chances, right? Rosenior 7. Shota 7, Dawson 9. This doesn’t necessarily say much. What you really need is the football hipster’s key stat….
Average xG: Just to clarify, this is used to measure the quality of chances created. A penalty, for example, would generate an xG of around 0.77 – demonstrating the fact that you’d expect them to be scored 3 times out of 4. Rosenior 1.34. Shota 1.17. Dawson 1.10. So we’re creating better chances as you’d hope if we’re seeing more of the ball.

So, things certainly seem more positive, especially when you consider the fact that Liam is working with another manager’s squad and hasn’t had many matches to imprint his style. Of course, defensive errors have been evident in recent weeks which has led to criticism of the persistence in trying to play out from the back. I’d like to turn to my old friend xG again, this time to examine the quality of chances we’re giving up: Rosenior 1.23. Shota 2.05. Dawson 1.35. This shows a big improvement. If we could cut out the silly errors, then we’d be expecting to concede less than a goal a game compared to the 2+ under Shota.

With lots of reasons to start the new year with positivity, City will be hoping a match against the league’s bottom side will result in a journey home with 3 points. Without wishing to bore you with even more stats, I will just mention that Wigan have now overtaken us as the Championship’s most leaky defence with the worst goal difference. The Latics have lost their last 2 matches by a score of 4-1, picking up only 1 point since the restart. Former Tiger Will Keane has been in decent form however and will likely provide the main threat playing in the number 10 role. Winless boss Kolo Toure does face an injury crisis in defence, so even if Keane comes back to haunt the Tigers like he did in the reverse fixture, I’d be confident of us getting more goals than them for a comfortable victory.

Score Prediction: Wigan 1-3 Hull City

It looks like it’s still too soon for Tetteh, so expect to see a similar line-up again. I wouldn’t imagine the Chelsea loanees will feature as it looks like they’re on their way back to the bench will be freshened up.

Hull City possible starting lineup: Ingram; Christie, Jones, McLoughlin, Greaves; Docherty, Seri; Longman, Tufan, Sayyadmanesh; Oscar.

Jason Harrison in continued partnership with Hull City OSC.