So it all begins again. Today we're home against Fulham, I'll post the team news when it becomes available. I think it'll be a scrappy game with little quality and few goals. I'll take a win or a draw thanks!
No surprises * 22 Jaaskelainen * 02 Steinsson * 04 Robinson * 05 Cahill * 12 Knight * 06 Muamba * 08 Holden * 10 Petrov * 27 Lee Chung-Yong * 09 Elmander * 14 Davies Subs: * 01 Bogdan, * 18 Ricketts, * 31 O'Brien, * 07 Taylor, * 16 Davies, * 17 Klasnic, * 20 Blake
Highlighted our need for another pacey striker, as well as the time to start phasing Davies out. He is a bad influence on our play and provides an 'easy option' to get the ball out of defence, resulting in a long ball instead of some nice pass and move. Every attack was killed when it went near Davies, and for once he was outshone by the impressive Elmander. Let's start again up front.
West Ham Vs Bolton I love playing West Ham because we always get three easy points I've done a Prenn special haven't I, the jinx is on Anyway, the team be: * 22 Jaaskelainen * 02 Steinsson * 04 Robinson * 05 Cahill * 12 Knight * 06 Muamba * 08 Holden * 10 Petrov * 27 Lee Chung-Yong * 09 Elmander * 14 Davies So no changes. Subs be: Substitutes * 01 Bogdan, * 18 Ricketts, * 31 O'Brien, * 07 Taylor, * 16 Davies, * 17 Klasnic, * 20 Blake
0-0 at half time and how it is I'll never know, they've battered us! We started well with Elmander having a good chance but uncharacteristically hitting it wide. Since then it's been poor, Jussi has made several very good saves including a penalty save. Good so far: Jussi Shite so far: Robinson, Cahill, Knight, Steinsson, Petrov, Holden, Muamba, Lee, Davies and Elmander. I'd get Davies off and bring Klasnic on.
It's a game of two halves apparently! Elmander was fantastic in the second half and generally an all round solid performance from the team. One note of concern is Lee, he set up Elmander for the first goal but aside from that looked completely out of it. That's two games in a row now.
I was at the game today and the first half was terrible, we just didn't want the ball. West Ham though were equally bad, apart from Berrera they were pretty terrible and they only really threatened when they lofted balls in to the box Bolton style. I'm glad to see our play has clearly changed, mixing up good passing moves with long ball into the box when we want to pressure and push back a team, as soon as we stop forcing passes that don't exist (Holden was a big culprit of this) then I am confident we will get some very handy results. Knight and Cahill look incredibly solid, and they were unlucky to concede both penalties.
What? Don't you know he's our best player by far and the only reason the passes went nowhere is because our strikers are crap? What we need up front is someone better, someone who can read what Holden's going to do. Maybe the former Hull one goal a season wonder? Yes I did go to Yanks Abroad, I regret it now I had an intermittent stream but after watching the highlights I think the first pen was deserved but not the second. I also think we should have gotten one for the Lee 'foul' and then the 'handball'. It's funny how the game changed in the second half though and while I think the goal had something to do with it we were clearly playing better. Here's to more Elmander goals!
Elmander has looked very tidy, all I am disappointed about is seeing fellow Bolton fans whining about us still using route 1 football on occasion. Literally every single team in the league now uses 'route 1' football for spells in matches as they try to push back pressure or recover. The only teams that don't are United, Arsenal and O'Neill's Villa. Thing is I can't really have a dig at the Americans for that because I've seen some really mind blowing stuff from Bolton fans recently, but the misplaced passes were not forwards ones to strikers, they were sideways, pointless passes, all he needed to do was keep possession and look for a pass instead of assuming one is there. He was very wasteful, but when he did get his head up we had some nice inter play in the final third. I can't believe MotD haven't given Muamba his own 'analysis' yet, he's been absolutely immense for us so far, I kept my eyes on him for a good 15 minutes straight yesterday, and he just destroyed attack after attack, and was the main reason their best player - Berrera, never got anything of any quality into the box. Berrera would rip Robinson one and there would be Muamba saying ******** off, intercepting a pass or tackling him.
Yeah, I was at the match as well and we were totally crap in the first half. We overpassed our way to the final third and then stopped in our tracks because we had nowhere to go. It improved in the second half because our movement off the ball was better and we were a lot more freeform. Martin Petrov needs to improve, at the moment I would by far rather have Gardner on the left or even Blake (whom Coyle put on the left from the bench on Saturday). Incidentally, I met Martin Peters while I was there who was really nice. He manages to remember a hell of a lot more about football than I can.
Oh, and in my opinion, if we want to get better, we desperately have to get rid of Steinsson and Robinson if we want to get any better. Petrov couldn't attack as much as he would've wanted to because he kept having to cover Robinson who is to slow to keep in position. They were both as crap as ever against West Ham. We also need to find a better formation that involves Chungy in the game a lot more.
Robinson was against Bererra the entire match though, he would have been difficult for anyone to cope with. To me it feels like Chung-Yong has been sussed by a lot of defences, last season they didn't really know what he was about, and what tricks he had, but now they realise that he's not very strong, so they are just cutting him out of the game with ease.
Well for the left back position we have Marcos Alonso, I wonder how long it'll be before he gets his chance?
Sadly that's true, we have some right numbnuts who follow the team. I usually dread hearing Bolton fans on national radio shows because it's nearly always the ones with thick Peter Kay accents and insightfulness on a par with a dead weasel. But but but....
While I am more interested in Bolton now because a Yank is playing for them I have always watched them because a Sunday league teammate is from there and it is easy to like anything from Manchester not United or City. I watched the game and may need to re-watch it as I can't recall but maybe three or four errant passes from Stu and only one that WH were able to make anything out of. I thought the midfield played pretty well when they had the ball and it wasn't going over their head. If not for Stu, Bolton is down 1-0 and the game is totally different. The two strikers don't look to be pushed aside by anybody soon but I do think the forward passes to them are a bit limited because they are both not really mobile forwards. I think in some matches starting a smaller, quicker striker that can stretch the back line a bit, come back for balls to the feet, etc. could help. As some have previously mentioned, I think Lee and Steinsson did not have good matches and not having some consistent play out wide makes things difficult. Petrov was "okay" but seems to want to show off his cross even if nobody is there.
We focused like 70% of our play down the left to Petrov, which meant that Chung-Yong and Steinsson had pretty quiet games, but Chung-Yong did well to stay out wide for most of the game instead of searching for the ball which I think helped us in the second half. It's obvious to most people that we need a pacey striker, but I just can't see us replacing Davies for a long time yet, when we have him we have to play to his strengths, and those do not include making runs through defence and stretching the other team. As for Holden he didn't have a bad game by any means, but he wasn't our best player and he wasn't made to look worse by immobile strikers, he has to get the job to Petrov and Chung-Yong, hence he was making a lot of sideways nothing passes, but he really shouldn't be giving these 10 yard passes away.
Without Muamba it's 1-0, without Jussi it's 1-0, without Robinson it's 1-0. See where I'm going with this? Holden's shown that he's a neat and tidy player so far but we need more than that from him, he has to start creating chances and getting into positions to put them away. At the moment his only competition for the place next to Muamba is M. Davies and Cohen. Cohen is crap and Davies is a perpetual injury worry so he's getting the position somewhat by default. If we'd managed to get Wilshere back he wouldn't be in the team.
Are you certain OC has directed him to do that? Nobody should be giving the ball away but every player does now and again and if OC is truly trying to change to a more possession-oriented style there will be some errarnt passes and lots of sideways balls to maintain possession rather than try to play a hopeful through ball, etc. On one of the other Botlon boards he and Muamba were pretty universally praised.
