Everyone seems to have forgotten about the defence amongst all the transfer speculation.
I'm worried that the current defence is no better, and maybe a bit worse than last year's. As far as I'm concerned, Alonso was our best defender and technically probably our best player last season. He's gone and been replaced with Tierney. Fine. But let's not pretend that that's an improvement.
I can't claim to know so much about Baptiste and to be honest haven't seen him play too much. I also doubt many other White's fans have seen much more than we.
It's as if we've banked on him being the great answer to our right-back problems...
Something I am happy about is a fully fit Wheater. That's like a new signing and exactly the kind of player you need in this division.
I simply don't have much to say about our Zat, bless him.
I feel like I had made myself happy about our defence and got comfortable, but these pre-season games, which may or may not be important to a lot of people and it's easy to say 'it's just pre-season', have made me think about it and I don't think I'm particularly happy with the defence. I think we're likely to concede pretty much every game like last season.
Someone reassure me please...
Also, last year's pre-season showed clearly what our season was going to be like. Carried on very much into the season. You could see we were struggling to score and conceding to poor teams. Looking like a poor start again. Hopefully Dougie will take these games more seriously than Coyle and a lot of our fans did last season.
Hope everyone is well by the way haha. I haven't been a regular on here for years now. Miss the old crack. I was always so positive...!
Any Bolton fans on Twitter btw, follow me @navbani , I've usually got something to say about us.
Worried about defence
posted on 22/7/13
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posted on 23/7/13
benny, one of our laziest strikers was John Byrom but he knew how to put the ball in the back of the net.
I'm not worried about him being lazy but he does need the service to be able to put the ball in the back of the net.
posted on 23/7/13
SWIE - Its important that if you have a lazy striker, who is a goalscorer, that you have a team to back him up, and i dont think we have, so i believe hardworking players is key to our success.
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Can I just point out, every goal we conceded at Shrewsbury was entirely the defender's problems. They all highlighted problems with defenders rather than fantastic build up from midfield.
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If we had the ball, they couldnt have scored. We gave it away at some point, of course, Zats error was Zats error, however the point still stands, retain the ball, and the other team cant score.
CEF - i agree with what you say, but the players being attack minded is, not irrelevant, but not the key point. The key point is Mavies, and holdens ability to retain the ball - i.e pass to a white shirt. Which we have been hopeless at since campo left
posted on 23/7/13
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posted on 23/7/13
I agree, the midfield, and even the strikers, have a part to play in defending, but ultimately it's the responsibility of the back 5.
We're not Barca though, we are going to give the ball away and the better the defensive unit - the less goals we'll concede.
And like a couple of other people, I'm a bit worried about it at the moment. I'm even more worried that Zat Knight will be captain and therefore the first choice centre half.
posted on 23/7/13
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posted on 23/7/13
The defence needs time, with it being very likely that our defence will have 3 new players in there. Relationships need to form, players need to get back fit who have been injured. Hopefully Dougie can get it to click like he did when he came in. Would probably still like to add another centre back who will add some real quality to the squad. Knight/Wheater/Mills too similar also.
That aside, not bothered about Spearing. Would rather use money elsewhere first.
posted on 23/7/13
I'm worried our likely back 4 to start at burnley-baptiste,knight,wheater,Tierney have only played together one pre season game. Presume our best team will line up against betis but it seems our defence has not been given the time to get to know each other yet.
posted on 25/7/13
More good news regarding Holden. He completed another 90 mins for USA who won 3-1.
Looks like he is going to return match-fit and in form
posted on 25/7/13
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