He is going to find it very difficult to find playing time, the current players have the team in relegation zone, so it would be impossible to take over any spot, since they have been impressive.
Ok, I am not saying he isnt better ( i think he is). He has to deal with Weise, Wilshere, Lee, Taylor, Muamba, maybe McCann and I am sure I am missing some. I dont think Coyle is just going to throw him in there. He has been the best player for Bolton today but I believe he will be getting sub minutes for a few games and depending on how he plays more time will come. Today for me helps his cause but wont force him in the starting 11 yet. I hope I am wrong.
There are a lot of positive comments about him on the one Bolton forum I know of.(the-wanderer.co.uk) They are disconsolate about the performance but see Holden as one of the only bright spots.
Based on this performance alone, Holden at least looked like a candidate to start on a mid-level Premier League team. And Bolton has looked far below that level this season. Very impressive for a debut especially from Stuart. Not that I'm surprised because he seemed to show no tentativeness in during his first real USMNT game also and he plays with such great energy. He's very mentally tough, possibly because of his first experience at Sunderland managed to motivate him. Technically: Offense- All the crosses were over the first defender but not beyond the last, and with some steam, so as always, he was an asset in that area. He reacted very quickly to the defense and thought ahead, resulting in maybe 1 or 2 turnovers all game. That's a pretty remarkable stat. Nearly had 2 assists so it wasn't because he was being passive with his passes. He ran off the ball quite a bit. My only issues offensively were he could run at the defense when given space instead of deferring to a teammate on a lateral pass, and sometimes he was too close to the player who possessed the ball. It's too bad that one shot was blocked because I think it was ticketed for the corner. Defense- His work rate was outstanding. He reacted very quickly to balls in his area as a result. I think he could have anticipated better when he was in position to get some steals, and he allowed a dangerous cross from his size. But overall in this area Coyle should be pleased also. I'd rate him about a 7.5 for this game. Arguably he was the best player on a bad Bolton squad.
Kinda disappointing to see Holden on this team. I don't see how Bolton can stay up if that's a typical performance from them. Anyway, good game from Holden. He's a premiership quality player, it seems, on a championship team. I'd say that he was Bolton's best player--though you could also give that to Riga, I guess. Those were the only two players who looked like they cared on this team. Did Taylor just walk off when it was supposed to be Gardner being subbed? Or did I miss something?
You can whine all you want, this thread was awesome to read. You can't get this type of intelligent enthusiasm anywhere else on US boards. I concur. This thread was awesome. It will live on. Hopefully Holden works some magic to always remind us of his first YA gameday thread.
Wow, he played ??!? There are only 200+ some posts. I thought he didn't play. Usually there are 300-400 posts if somebody makes his debut, and more than 500 if someone scores.
Fans on SkySports would agree with your assessment. http://www.skysports.com/football/user_ratings/0,19768,11065_3247961,00.html
Yeah, it's kind of weird, isn't it? It's like this with Edu, too. There's just less general interest for some reason. I don't know what the dynamics behind it are, exactly, but it definitely exists.
Some of your terms are debatable You'll note I sort of participated early - I was just being curmudgeonly as people were grasping for ANY little word-play they could come up with. I'm all for a dynamite drop-in here or there. But this trend is like eating candy as your main diet. At first it's awesomely sweet - eventually your stomach turns on you.
Nice, poisitive summary, Duke. I thought, like you did, that a couple of times in the first half he had a bit of time and space and passed back instead of agressively. Good observation on the defense too - sometimes too close or pursuing too quickly. I too was disappointed he didn't at least have an assist (if not a goal) but I thought he did well for an EPL debut. I thought the Spurs really came out and played a very fast first half. I also liked Lee, another hustler like Stu.
I don't think its weird at all. Midweek match for a bad team in a non-league game that was televised. Televised + 200 posts Good team + 100 posts Star power + 100 posts Stu lacks all of those right now. Donovan's matches are regularly on FSC or ESPN and his gameday threads get at least 600 posts (200 + 400 ).
I looked through a bunch of pages but didn't see full highlights so here they are: http://watchsocceronline.blogspot.com/2010/02/holden-makes-debut-for-bolton-and-other.html
It's over dude. Regarding the post count - I'm sure the lame puns accounted for at least a 50 post drop. I'm w/ HouseHead - I like a good (i.e. creative) pun as much as the next guy, but there was too much over reaching or just using the same pun over and over. It's already become tiresome in the thread titles. Doing it throughout a thread was just too much.