The Coyle Revolution

[Lofthouse Lower]

It is just over a year since the Scot joined Bolton from Burnley and while he has been credited with bringing more entertaining football to the Reebok after the years under Gary Megson and Sam Allardyce, the result would have been disappointing given that he has also made them harder to beat.

Statistics show that Bolton have only reduced the percentage of their long passing (35 yards and over) by a small amount from 22% under Megson last season to about 18% with Coyle. They are the fourth in Premier League for long passes attempted, behind Birmingham, Blackpool and West Brom.

But more revealing is that in the first half of last season - when Megson was still in charge - Bolton were conceding an average of two league goals a game. Following Coyle's appointment that figure dropped to 1.55 goals a game.

That also coincided with a drop in goals scored for Bolton (0.8 goals per game), which suggests that the Scot's priority was defensive solidity, but this season they have restored this to an average of 1.4 league goals a game with strikers Johan Elmander and Kevin Davies grabbing 16 between them.

The quality of some of those strikes, including Elmander's effort against Wolves, Stuart Holden's sucker punch against Blackburn and Mark Davies's superb team goal against Blackpool show that it is not only statistically where Bolton have improved.

Mark Davies's ball-carrying from central midfield has been an apt portrayal of Coyle's shift in style. But against Chelsea he started on the bench with the more combative Fabrice Muamba alongside Holden.

That enabled Bolton to press Chelsea high up the pitch and they carved out several first-half openings when they got the ball wide to Martin Petrov who created headed chances for Kevin Davies and Matt Taylor.

[Lord Kangana]

Blackpool and West Brom?

Stats can't paint the whole picture, can tey?

[Worthy4England]

Blackpool and West Brom?

Stats can't paint the whole picture, can tey?

There's only usually one stat that counts for much, when all's said and done.