Latics Assistant: We Must Look At Ourselves
Wigan Athletic assistant manager Eric Black has said that the team must pick themselves up quickly after last night's defeat to Arsenal's youngsters in the Carling Cup...
12 Nov 2008 21:20:34
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Eric Black knows something about winning trophies. As a player he was part of the early-1980's Aberdeen team that dominated Scottish football under Alex Ferguson. Black even scored against Real Madrid, his goal coming in the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup final that Aberdeen won.
Last night, however, he experienced the other side of the cup coin as his Wigan team were taken apart at the Emirates by Arsenal's rising stars.
There were few positives that the assistant manager could take from the defeat, either.
"It's been a poor performance from us, really poor. I don't want to take anything from Arsenal because I though they were very good, but I think first and foremost we need to look at ourselves," the Scotsman told the club's official website after last night's game.
"We've still got good players who can perform well, we know that. But I think there are too many who are not performing at their level at the moment.
"It's something we'll have to work on to find the reasons why there's alack of confidence. We need to get back to being hard to beat and looking like we're going to score because tonight we did have opportunites but we didn't really look like we were going to score and that's a worry."
The Latics' assistant did take some solace from the performances of goalkeeper Chris Kirkland, who made some fine saves, and Daniel de Ridder (pictured), the Dutch winger, about whom Black said:
"Dan kept at it tonight, and to be fair, it wwas a diffcult position to play. He wants to get on the ball and he wants to take people on.
"He did a lot of decent things tonight but I just thought it was a poor performance overall. We didn't rise to the challenge and we need to hold our hands up and look at ourselves."
Zack Wilson, Goal.com
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