Bruce misses attacking duo

24 February 2009 17:23
Wigan boss Steve Bruce has admitted his team are not the attacking force they were when Emile Heskey and Wilson Palacios still played for the club.[LNB] The Latics have scored only once since the duo left in the January transfer window, as an injury to winger Antonio Valencia compounded Bruce's woes.[LNB]The former Birmingham City manager fielded Amir Zaki as the lone front man in Saturday's goalless draw with Middlesbrough, with Oliver Kapo playing slightly deeper.[LNB]But Bruce soon realised this wasn't the solution to his striking problem.[LNB]Struggle"I don't think playing Kapo in the role we did really worked, and up front we have started to struggle a bit," he told the Wigan Evening Post.[LNB]"With Heskey and Palacios going, and Valencia injured, we've lost a little bit of the cutting edge we had.[LNB]"We have always been a difficult team to beat, but at the moment we're missing creativity in the final third of the pitch.[LNB]"But we'll keep working on that aspect of our play and hopefully we can get things right going forward."[LNB]On Saturday, Kapo and Zaki were replaced by Antoine Sibierski and new signing Hugo Rodallega respectively. Bruce claimed his side looked more likely to score after the substitutions had been made.[LNB]"At Boro we looked a bit more threatening when Rodallega came on, while Sibierski gave us composure," he added.[LNB]"I thought we had two or three good chances towards the end, but unfortunately we didn't take them.[LNB]"In the end I thought it was a decent result, especially when you consider all the changes we've had to make recently.[LNB]"As the second half went on, there was only one side who was going to win it and that was us."[LNB]

Source: SKY_Sports