Sheffield United face Kolo Toure’s Wigan Athletic on Monday evening.
The Blades are in great form; winning five of their last six games, and keeping five clean sheets in the process.
Wigan Athletic are in poor form; winning once in their last six games, including three defeats. Since the start of October, the Latics have lost eight out of thirteen matches which has left them in the drop zone and just 6pts above the foot of the table.
In Kolo Toure’s first game in charge against Millwall, Wigan fielded a 4-2-3-1 formation. I’m not 100% sure on if Toure will stick to this theme on Monday night, but here is my predicted starting XI for them anyway:
Will Keane has had a surprisingly impressive campaign thus far in terms of his goal output, contributing to 10 goals – scoring 8 of them. Keane is averaging 1.76 shots on target per 90 and he registers 0.39xG per 90, which isn’t exactly great.
The best creator amongst the Wigan players is Max Power. The midfielder averages 0.22 xA per 90. Power also averages 3.73 shot-creating actions per 90.
The Latics have scored the joint-fourth lowest number of goals this season, along with conceding the fourth-most goals in the league. Leaving them fourth-bottom in the table.
Creativity has been a big issue for Wigan all season, creating 27 big chances which ranks as the second-lowest total in the Championship. They are averaging 0.97xG per game when excluding penalties. Plus, Wigan have recorded the lowest number of shots on target per 90 in the whole of the Championship, with 2.73.
Thus far, they have attempted the fourth-least number of dribbles. To add, Wigan are the worst side in the league at progressing the football via a pass, averaging just 18 successful progressive passes per game.
Wigan Athletic are the second-best team in the division at competing in aerial duels, with a 54% win percentage. They are slightly below average at breaking up attacks, but they are performing at the league average in number of tackles won per game.
According to infogol, the Latics should be in 16th place rather than 22nd.
I think the Blades will win on Monday night, but they will have to battle hard for long periods.
If you look above, Wigan have conceded 15 goals between 60 minutes and the full-time whistle. With the Blades scoring 15 goals during the same time period. Maybe United will have to wait until the later stages of the game to break the deadlock on Monday night.