No words needed, not even the great Halfy needs to add comments today !
Let’s finish it Wolves
Live @ http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/388838
One match ban enabled
Bolton have an unchanged squad to choose from as they bid to move clear of the Championship relegation zone when they face already-promoted Wolves.
The hosts will start two points above third-from-bottom Barnsley.
Wolves were promoted on 14 April and require one point from their final three games to be crowned champions.
Benik Afobe and Leo Bonatini are on standby to start in place of Ivan Cavaleiro, who injured his hamstring against Birmingham City on Sunday.
SAM's prediction
Home win 24% Draw 25% Away win 51%
SAM, the Sports Analytics Machine, is a super-computer built by @ProfIanMcHale of the University of Liverpool.
Match facts
Bolton are unbeaten in their last 10 home matches against Wolves in all competitions since a 2-1 defeat in the FA Cup in January 1999 (W6 D4).
Wolves are looking to complete an English Football League double over the Trotters for the first time since the 1993-94 season.
Zach Clough scored three goals in two Championship appearances against Wolves for Bolton, with all three goals coming at the Macron Stadium.
Wolves need just five points from their last three games to become the seventh second-tier side to win 100+ points in a single season (adjusting 3 points/win). In only one previous season have the Black Country side won 100+ points in a single season (103 in 2013-14 in the third tier).
Phil Parkinson has lost his last four league matches against Wolves, last beating them in his first meeting against them in November 2006 as Hull manager.
Two of the five Championship players to provide 10+ assists this season play for Wolves (Barry Douglas 14, Ivan Cavaleiro 12).
🔥Bolton v Wolves🔥[LiVE]
posted on 25/4/18
comment by Wulfrunnut (U17298)
posted about an hour ago
Fancy Fulham to get 2 more wins and Cardiff should beat Reading, so the fate of Cardiff may well be in the hands of Hull on Saturday. A draw might be enough to leave Cardiff in 3rd place, and then lose in the playoffs again to Derby
Come on you Tigers.
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Hull are resurgent right now. That was an amazing result by Derby, who have been weak lately. I'd like to see Fulham go up automatically, and Cardiff squirm through the play-offs.
posted on 25/4/18
The loan market is only beneficial to our youngsters if they're getting game time. Right now that's not the case and many of the 24 are with non league clubs in lower divisions. The other use of the loan market is to 'farm' players out that are not going to feature much for us and they include the likes of Iorfa, Gladon, Zyro and others.
It's no use loaning players out to lower league opposition if they're not getting game time and that appears to be the case with many of the 24.
How many of these players are realistically going to get a chance in the first team after the summer signings have been completed?
The loan market can be a joke at times as this season has proved for us. Vinagre can't get in the squad because of the loan signings we have made. He's a far better prospect than the likes of Afobe, who hasn't proved himself against the better teams he's been up against. He was 4th choice or so at Bournemouth and I sincerely hope we have better ambitions than they had when they took him from us for 10m quid.
posted on 25/4/18
Reality is that other than the few young players we have out on loan with high expectations the rest have zero chance of playing for us again and are basically playing for their future careers.
As for Afobe, he isn't anywhere near as bad as some make out and wasn't even whilst in the premier league, Bournemouth's best run last season was when he and King paired together up front.
That said i suspect we WILL be targeting better than he or Bonatini but i wouldn't be upset if we signed him as a handy back up in what is a squad game.
Shame for Vinagre though i agree but we had to sign a striker in January and unfortunately somebody had to miss out, i just hope we get to sign Vinagre in the summer or that he even wants to stay.
posted on 25/4/18
I think as usual you miss the point completely wolfie. The judgement of the coaching staff at Wolves and at most other clubs is that some players reach the point where they aren't learning much new from the U23s and as they aren't ready for the first team they go out on loan to lower status clubs to make them more ready. If then they cant get into the teams they are loaned to, then that's a message in itself about their future careers. If Deslandes can't get into the Portsmouth team then he will almost certainly never play for Wolves first team. So we need to sell him, if anyone wants him, or loan him out for the remainder of his contract. The loan helps the player and the club arrive at the decision about the player's future career.
As for Afobe, and Bonatini, I cant see either of them being Wolves main centre forward next season. So do we get rid of them, bring in a new central striker, and have no cover at all for this position, as was the case all this season until Afobe was brought in at the end of January. How we do next season will depend on how strong our best 20 to 25 players are, not just the first 11. Unless we are going to go out and sign 3 or 4 centre forwards in the summer then Afobe and/or Bonatini are players we probably need in the squad. Afobe was 4th choice at Bournemouth where the club and fans were so desperate to offload him they pressured Wolves to take him at the end of Jan rather than the other way round. They wanted to sell but when Wolves said loan only, they wanted that rather than nothing just to release him. I suspect he will then become just cover if Wolves sign him. But then given how Nuno's coaching staff have improved the likes of Coady, Doherty, Saiss, Cavaleiro and Bennett who knows.
posted on 25/4/18
I don't think I am missing the point DJ. You yourself have mentioned Deslandes in the same context as I have with regard to Iorfa and others. Some of the 24 players we have out on loan haven't even played for the U23's, mainly those at non league clubs. Jack Ruddy is about the only one playing regularly with a first team and that's with Ayr United.
As for Afobe, we didn't buy him in January and I don't believe he's worth the 10m we paid for him. We actually bought a striker for 1m in January and although he played a little at first, we haven't seen him since. If Mir is one for the future, I would have thought he'd get more game time in the Championship.
My gut feeling is, we brought in Afobe to virtually guarantee our promotion, knowing he may get a few goals. But if we're sincere about progressing in the Premier League, then we need at least a couple of very good strikers.
It may seem I'm knocking Afobe, but in truth there are others on here that feel the same way towards him and that is, he can get goals against lower opposition, but against the top clubs in the Championship and even the lower teams in the Premier League, he falls short in terms of scoring goals.
posted on 25/4/18
For what it's worth, I would sign Afobe in the summer, with 2 provisos:
1. we can get him at the right price, £7-8M would seem OK to me,
2. we give him a medium term contract, say 2 years, so that if things don't work out in the first season we can sell and recap some of the money the following summer.
We certainly will need at least 1, and probably 2, more strikers next season in addition to Afobe, and I agree with many on here that he probably won't turn out to be the Premier League striker we need. However, I do think over the course of the season if he is say 3rd choice No. 9 and starts maybe a dozen games, and comes off the bench for maybe another fifteen, then he could easily contribute 8 - 10 goals, which could prove very useful.
I think since his return he has done well, OK against less than good defences, but given a pre-season with the likes of Neves, Costa and Jota Nuno will probably develop him. He's still only 25 and has time to improve.
Because he's currently on loan we would either have to move quickly or send him back to Bournemouth where anything could happen to him career-wise.
posted on 25/4/18
no doubt in my mind, sign him.
posted on 25/4/18
comment by Wulfrunnut (U17298)
posted about 3 hours ago
For what it's worth, I would sign Afobe in the summer, with 2 provisos:
1. we can get him at the right price, £7-8M would seem OK to me,
2. we give him a medium term contract, say 2 years, so that if things don't work out in the first season we can sell and recap some of the money the following summer.
We certainly will need at least 1, and probably 2, more strikers next season in addition to Afobe, and I agree with many on here that he probably won't turn out to be the Premier League striker we need. However, I do think over the course of the season if he is say 3rd choice No. 9 and starts maybe a dozen games, and comes off the bench for maybe another fifteen, then he could easily contribute 8 - 10 goals, which could prove very useful.
I think since his return he has done well, OK against less than good defences, but given a pre-season with the likes of Neves, Costa and Jota Nuno will probably develop him. He's still only 25 and has time to improve.
Because he's currently on loan we would either have to move quickly or send him back to Bournemouth where anything could happen to him career-wise.
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We haven't really seen Mir yet. Hopefully he will prove to be a decent signing. He did look as though he could cause problems for defences when he made his brief debut against Swansea.
posted on 25/4/18
Afobe is a natural finisher which is an asset that many so called strikers actually don't possess. At the moment he is still not playing fluidly within Nuno's system but he is not stupid and can be 're-calibrated' by Nuno and his coaches. If his natural ability can be channeled into linking effectively with Jota, Costa and Cavaleiro we could have one hell of a striker on our hands.
I say sign him and get to work on him in pre-season, at the very least we will have an effective back-up to the top class striker that we will almost certainly sign in the summer.
As far as Leo is concerned, I fear he will be returning to his parent club. His early season form has deserted him and I would be surprised if the club take the gamble on it returning.
posted on 25/4/18
We can’t just dismiss what Bonatini did in the first half of the season as some kind of fluke. His all round game is far better than Afobe and just because Afobe has scored his goals against weak opposition more recently, so fresher in the memory, doesn’t make him better. Not even sure Afobe is a better finisher than Leo. Bonatini has scored more goals than Afobe in 2017/18 and got more assists