John Sheridan appointed Peter Shirtliff as his new assistant manager last week and he has settled well into his role since starting on Tuesday night.
After meeting the players in the afternoon, he was on the bench with the manager on Tuesday night to oversee the victory against Shrewsbury Town.
A defender in his playing career, Sheridan cited the appointment as helping to add stability to the back line but Shirtliff sees his role as more.
"I bring a bit of experience and composure, which is important. Anthony Gerrard does that. If you are going to win games, there are times you need to just take a step back and calm things down.
"We need to get organised and pull people in certain areas to do that. I am what I am. I played like that myself so I’ve continued that in my coaching role.
"I will bring a general organisation. I will organise little minor details that are important in aspects of the game. We can get out of this. I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think we could.”
With the January transfer window shutting on Monday night, Shirtliff will be helping the manager identify players to strengthen the squad.
“We’ve got a lot of contacts in the game,” he admitted. “We’ve both been in football for a long time so we’ll be using every single one of them to try and strengthen the team."
Watch the full interview on Latics PlayerHD.