Chapter 659: Wigan’s Alternatives!

The defeat at Anfield did little to dampen the mood around Wigan.

By Monday morning, attention had already shifted to the FA Cup.

Manchester City were coming to the DW Stadium, and the prospect of another meeting between the two sides had given the supporters plenty to talk about.

Their previous encounter had ended in a loss for Wigan, granted they hadn’t had two of their most vital players in Leo and Carlo, but it was different today.

Now, with a place in the quarter-finals at stake, Wigan would have their chance to respond.

Around the town, the conversation had moved from Liverpool’s tactical approach to whether Dawson could find a way to beat Pep Guardiola again.

The supporters had their opinions, their predictions, and their favourite moments from the previous final.

Some were confident.

Others knew better than to underestimate a team like Manchester City with Pep Guardiola at the helm.

At the Wigan training ground, however, Dawson had no interest in entertaining either mood.

He stood before his players on the pitch, waiting until the conversations died down.

And when it did, he began to speak.

"What happened at Anfield cannot happen again," he said in a manner that carried across the whole squad without sounding too loud.

"We lost because Liverpool prepared for us better than we prepared for them.

They knew where we wanted to play, they blocked those routes, and we kept trying to force our way through.

When we lost the ball, we were too slow to recover. When we had it, we didn’t give the player in possession enough options."

A few players glanced towards Leo, who noticed, but said nothing.

Dawson noticed too and then shook his head.

"And before anyone decides this is about one player, it isn’t. We have become too reliant on certain individuals to solve problems for us.

When they’re given space, they’re capable of changing a match. But when an opponent takes that space away, the rest of us cannot stand around waiting for them to invent something."

He let that settle before continuing.

"Liverpool exposed it. We still had time to react, and we didn’t do enough. That’s on me as much as anyone. I should have found a solution sooner."

The admission drew the players’ attention back to him.

Dawson rarely wasted time making excuses, but he wasn’t in the habit of taking responsibility in front of the entire squad unless he meant it.

"Now we’re playing City. Guardiola won’t need much encouragement to exploit the same weaknesses.

If we give his players the time and space we gave Liverpool, we’ll be punished. We need to think quicker, support each other, and be prepared to change how we play because they’ll definitely be looking to do us just like Liverpool did."

After that, he stepped back and clapped his hands.

"Let’s get to work."

The players spread across the pitch as the coaching staff began setting up the session.

Over the following days, Dawson made his intentions clear.

The training sessions became more demanding, with exercises designed to force the players to make decisions under pressure.

Possession drills were tightened into smaller areas.

Players were given little time on the ball, and losing it meant an immediate fight to win it back.

Dawson wanted them to recognise the traps before they walked into them, and that wasn’t the only thing.

He also wanted them to learn how to function without Leo.

On some days, Leo trained separately while the rest of the squad worked through their tactical patterns.

It wasn’t a punishment, nor was Dawson trying to diminish his importance.

The opposite was true.

Wigan had become so accustomed to Leo finding an answer that they sometimes neglected to find one themselves.

That habit had to end, and Leo understood the reasoning.

He had seen the same problem at Anfield, and a while back when Wolves had crowded him out using a similar variation of Liverpool’s game.

And in that, Wigan had struggled to create anything without his involvement.

If City did the same with the amount of quality they had in their squad, the team needed alternatives.

So he spent those sessions working one-on-one with Dawson.

They went over the footage from Liverpool, stopping at moments when Leo had received the ball with his back to goal or found himself trapped near the touchline.

Dawson challenged him to identify the options he had missed, while Leo questioned the movements of the players around him.

They weren’t looking for a single solution but were looking for several.

"If they close the middle again," Dawson said during one session, pointing at a frozen frame, "what do we do?"

"Draw them in while hoping my teammates make the run into the space that has created."

"And if they don’t make the run or City don’t follow?"

"Then it’s on me to find the pass or just not lose it."

"Good. It’s going to be hard, but the next man has to know where the ball is going before it arrives."

Leo nodded, studying the screen.

The Liverpool match had given every opponent a reference point.

Other teams would watch the footage and look for ways to restrict his influence.

City certainly would, but a plan only worked if Wigan kept responding in the same predictable way, and Leo intended to make sure they didn’t.

By the time matchday arrived, the defeat at Anfield had been reviewed, discussed, and put aside.

There was still work to do, but Wigan had little time to dwell on the past, and Manchester City were on their way.

The City team bus travelled towards Wigan with a calmness that reflected the experience of its passengers.

Inside, the players followed their familiar routines.

Some wore headphones, others spoke quietly across the aisle, and a few sat with their eyes closed.

The more familiar faces, like Erling Haaland, were among those keeping to themselves, while Rodri glanced through his phone before putting it away.

There was no shortage of respect for Wigan, but neither was there any visible anxiety.

They had played in bigger stadiums and faced more hostile crowds.

A cup tie at the DW Stadium was a challenge to prepare for, not a reason to lose their composure.