Evening all,
Hope your all keeping well.
Just a quicky tonight before I go out, just thought I'd take a positive from Saturday which was that I thought David Wheater had a top game again.
He won every battle, looked comfortable alongside Cahill and was easily our best player.
I noticed 5/10 mins before their first goal he picked up a knock and was hobbling about. Maybe on another day, this might not have happened and we wouldn't be all here moaning and groaning...
All if's and but's I know, but the lad is a true pro and gave his all and always will, plus he's a proper defender which I like to see; none of this tip tap charlie stuff, just head, kick the ball away and job done.
Shame this can't be said for some of the others...
Keep it up David Wheater! We'll be needing and relying on you a lot I feel for the rest of the season.
That's all for now. Keep the faith people. 29 games to go remember.
Wheater the battering ram
posted on 24/10/11
Well said LeighWanderer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZQyVUTcpM4&ob=av2n
posted on 24/10/11
I second that WF
posted on 24/10/11
Others have been saying on different threads that we need to get back to ' Battling Bolton ' instead of ' Tippy-tappy Bolton, if we're to get out of this mess. Wheater is definitely in the former category ...we just need a few more with the same attribute
posted on 24/10/11
Maybe time to see muamba again
posted on 24/10/11
There is no reason we can't have tippy-tappy football and be in teams faces.
Look at Barca, they play the nicest football in the world, but when they lose the ball they are in the oppositions faces, hounding them and not given them any time on the ball until they get possession back.
We need some of the work ethic back in our side. Attack as a team and defend as a team. More importantly still defend from the front from where ever you lost the ball. Don't wait until the opposition are on the edge of our 18 yard box before we close them down like we were doing far too often with David Luiz when we played Chelsea.
Bring back our physical aggressive edge, but combine it with not simply lumping the ball long.
posted on 24/10/11
WF absolutely perfectly 100% spot on mate! Nail on head! Work ethic!!!!
posted on 24/10/11
Look at Barca, they play the nicest football in the world
****
But that's the whole point ...to play successfully that way, you have to have the necessary quality squad of players to pull it off. Sure, Barca can play it anyway they choose .... half a billions worth of talent on their books demands that they be the best, in whatever system they choose. But you can't play like Barca when you've only got a ten bob squad (comparatively)
The same applies in the Prem .... try to play like Arsenal, when you haven't got Arsenal-quality players, and it's 'good night nurse' ...BSA understood that, and that's why he created ' Battling Bolton ' and gave us a level of success ..and pride ... that's impossible to emulate ..especially if you try to play teams ' at their own game '
posted on 25/10/11
We seem to have lost our spark. Everything we were good at, we are now poor at and get outdone by other teams who play the same way. Set pieces used to be our strongest asset, both defensively and attacking. Now we look like conceding off every corner and freekick and rarely look like scoring off any of our own. Allardyce was able to combine the rough and the smooth. Kevin Davies was our focal point and the likes of Faye and Campo added extra steel. Then we had Diouf, Anelka, Stelios, okocha and Djorkaeff who were capable of the sublime and contrary to popular belief did just that.
We have the players now to play that way but Owen is too obsessed with playing the beautiful way when clearly not all our players are geared up for that. We need our fighting spirit back and a captain who is going to be in the team every week and who is able to fire the lads up. If we start to play to our strengths as a team again iv no doubt we can finish in the top 12. As fans we need to play our part too and get behind them!
COYWM!!!
posted on 25/10/11
The lynch-pin of our long ball game was KD - and clearly he is now reaching the twilight of his career.
Look back at the comments from fans of clubs like Hammers and Aresenal, how much they hated playing us with our boring, horrible football. It had nothing to do with spectacle, and everything to do with being hard to play and defend against.
But as has been said - you need both the right players and a manager, prepared to do it. Sadly we have neither at the moment, so we HAVE to try to play our way out of trouble.
I hope that we can, but can't help fearing the worst.
Have you noticed how well our rejects are doing in the championship? Maybe we should get 'em back!