Coyle Plans Shake-Up

[Little Green Man]

Ridiculous! Drop Muamba, possibly the only player who looked anywhere near a footballer on Sunday, and play Gary "Too big for Bolton" Cahill in Midfield.

Glad to read that someone else thought that Muamba was the only one who didn't fall short of expectations. Perhaps that's because he's lowered them for us this season, but he was about the only one who seemed not to be cowed by the whole thing (perhaps LCY and Mark Davies excepted).

I'd have to watch it again to get a feel of how poor Cahill was. (Sitting in the gods didn't give the greatest view of the action at the far end in the second half.) However there was a sense of detachment about his performance. For a 15-20 million quid player I'd expect a bit of leadership too. I didn't see any in the first half.

Maybe only he'll know, but my feeling was Jussi should have saved the second goal. As for the first, he may well have been unsighted but he seemed to take an age to get across to it (perhaps that was down to the unusually elevated view though).

[Il Pirate]

Did he pick those names out of a hat?

To watch the game on Sunday and reach the conclusion that the problem was that Jussi didn't pull out what would've been a bunch of excellent saves, is quite staggering. It wasn't like he was Gomes chucking them in.

Robinson made a clear error, but that doesn't wipe out a season's worth of consistent performances (to the point where we were so terrified of losing him for the semi we forbid him playing for weeks). It also doesn't change the fact Alonso currently is, to use a Coyle-ism, 'nowhere near where he needs to be' (literally, when we're defending he's almost never where he needs to be).


well said that man

[officer_dibble]

Glad to read that someone else thought that Muamba was the only one who didn't fall short of expectations. Perhaps that's because he's lowered them for us this season, but he was about the only one who seemed not to be cowed by the whole thing (perhaps LCY and Mark Davies excepted).

I'd have to watch it again to get a feel of how poor Cahill was. (Sitting in the gods didn't give the greatest view of the action at the far end in the second half.) However there was a sense of detachment about his performance. For a 15-20 million quid player I'd expect a bit of leadership too. I didn't see any in the first half.

Maybe only he'll know, but my feeling was Jussi should have saved the second goal. As for the first, he may well have been unsighted but he seemed to take an age to get across to it (perhaps that was down to the unusually elevated view though).

Why what did LCY do?
He was f*cking woeful as well, but he isn't 'experienced' so he's easier to let off than, say, Petrov, Elmander, Davies.

[Little Green Man]

Why what did LCY do?
He was f*cking woeful as well, but he isn't 'experienced' so he's easier to let off than, say, Petrov, Elmander, Davies.

Well quite, which is why I hedged it with perhaps.

[irie Cee Bee]

The only players I would change from the starting team against Stoke would be Klasnic (for Sturridge), Knight (for Wheater) and Lee (for Mark Davies) Play Elmander or Sturridge wide.

Other than that, Robinson and Jussi should remain. We need to beat a top 4 team before the season ends and the are both our top players in their respective positions at this time. Petrov had a good couple games before Stoke, and I would give him another chance. LCY is a great player, but with Elmander, Sturridge and KD, its hard to find balance with him starting since unless Elmander plays on the left.

OCs comments are just a wake up call for them all as we need to stay 8th or above as we need the transfer funds.

[TANGODANCER]

Long ball won't work all game. If we're going to play football, drop Petrov and put Lee left wing.

Jussi.
Steinsson, Cahill, Wheater,Robinson
Elmander,Muamba,M.Davies, Lee.
Sturridge. Davies.

[Tombwfc]

However, the game on Sunday has focussed my mind, and without going all Hoboh about this there is no sentimentality anymore. Coyle is ambitious and will be ruthless so the club and he can achieve as much as possible. In the article it states that the "mistakes" or I suspect more accurately "shots that should maybe have been saved but weren't" have been stacking up.

Keepers are the hardest to judge because for any goal some can always make a case for why it should've been saved and some can make a case for why it can't be. Its not like outfield players where you have that overall performance to judge. A keeper can be ruined with one moment or made with the same.

In my opinion and I haven't been able to bear watching the goals after the game but Jussi should have had Huth's. Folk can go on all they like about him slicing it and it spinning/curving away, bouncing in front of him etc, but for me it was still a save. And thats my opinion. Someone near me at the game felt he should have had the first one too. I would disagree.

But Coyle needs to make a decision. Whether he's letting too many in that in Coyle and the coaches opinions could be saved.

What I would say is that rarely does Jussi keep us in games these days by making save after save, and in the past I certainly remember him doing that on occassion.

I think its time to be ruthless and get the best we can get. I'll leave that up to Coyle to judge. But we can't go on with the "well he's been here a long time and done a good job and he's not chucking em in is he?" mentality. Ferguson has built his Man Utd success by moving players on at the right time even when others thought he was mad. Coyle has to do the same here, admittedly on a different scale. But we should not accept for anyone just because "they've done ok, or been here for ages and never let us down". We should only settle for the best 11 winners we can get. If that includes Jussi then fine, but if Coyle thinks it does not anymore, then he should go for it.

End of the day that team had the chance to make history. To achieve something. And it failed, miserably. It might only be one game, but thats football, you need a team that performs when the big day comes around. We didn't so there is certainly massive room for improvement.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 70,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jussi has made the third highest amount of saves in the League this year, saving 74% of the shots hit at him. It only shows the top 5 there, but Al Habsi doesn't feature. He's also played less games than the other 'keepers on that list (albeit one more than Ali).

I've watched it back, and perhaps Jussi might've done better with Huth's, but it's a fairly minor fault to pick. It would absolutely stagger me if Coyle looked at that and decided "That's it, can't have him in my team of winners. Get me Nixon...". If Jussi (and Robinson of course) was the man last week, there's no reason why that should have changed.

As an aside, football fans are the first to complain about a lack of loyalty from players, but when it's the other way round it's 'there's no room for sentiment'. Even if Jussi was finished (and he obviously isn't), making him the scapegoat for Sunday and bombing him out of the side, never to be seen again, would be a disgraceful way to treat a player who's achieved what he has here.

[officer_dibble]

Why what did LCY do?
He was f*cking woeful as well, but he isn't 'experienced' so he's easier to let off than, say, Petrov, Elmander, Davies.

Well quite, which is why I hedged it with perhaps.

Ah, misread, sorry!

[TANGODANCER]

Jussi has made the third highest amount of saves in the League this year,

The clue to why he had to might be found amongst one or two of the players in front of him.

[LiOC]

Did he pick those names out of a hat?

To watch the game on Sunday and reach the conclusion that the problem was that Jussi didn't pull out what would've been a bunch of excellent saves, is quite staggering. It wasn't like he was Gomes chucking them in

Got to agree with this. Seems jussi's been made the scapegoat for this season. There was little, if anything he could have done on Sunday and yet he seems to be shouldering the blame. I think, as a bare minimum after watching other keepers mistakes, rob green for England, Gomes, arsenals league cup fiasco and ali's vs man city, I'm glad to have a keeper who doesn't toss the ball in the back of his net some weeks... That said, al habsi, while a massive improvement on Kirkland has looked a bit tentative and inexperienced at wigan and while he's a great keeper, I think he'd do no better.

The blame should go to the defense who put him under so much pressure for 90 mins he was bound to let some in.

[elfil76]

To put the blame squarely on Jussi is unfair. My take is if, he seems to have a fair share of mistakes as second or third choice keepers who are younger than put the younger ones on. At least they have a longer future ahead.

[Armchair Wanderer]

I did a bit of maths on the back of a fag packet and I worked out that we'd be mathematically safe on about 48pts. With 43pts I'd say we're pretty much safe with 5 games to go. Perfect time to see what some of the reserves can do if they're doing all right in training and in reserve matches. That's something that has been spoken of by OC this season, the academy needing to work, so why not test it out a bit now?

[LiOC]

I did a bit of maths on the back of a fag packet and I worked out that we'd be mathematically safe on about 48pts. With 43pts I'd say we're pretty much safe with 5 games to go. Perfect time to see what some of the reserves can do if they're doing all right in training and in reserve matches. That's something that has been spoken of by OC this season, the academy needing to work, so why not test it out a bit now?

Would definitely like to see eaves make an appearance before the seasons end...
Nothing SO dramatic will happen though. Remember there are £££s on every place, owen's not exactly able to drop a few to blood some young uns in unready...
Gotta say wouldn't think finishing 17th but having a striker from the academy to show is in our plans

[ChrisC]

Jussi has made the third highest amount of saves in the League this year,

The clue to why he had to might be found amongst one or two of the players in front of him.

Exactly .. the fact that Rob Green is second on that list says alot.


Im not giving up on Jussi just yet personally.

[BWFC_Insane]

However, the game on Sunday has focussed my mind, and without going all Hoboh about this there is no sentimentality anymore. Coyle is ambitious and will be ruthless so the club and he can achieve as much as possible. In the article it states that the "mistakes" or I suspect more accurately "shots that should maybe have been saved but weren't" have been stacking up.

Keepers are the hardest to judge because for any goal some can always make a case for why it should've been saved and some can make a case for why it can't be. Its not like outfield players where you have that overall performance to judge. A keeper can be ruined with one moment or made with the same.

In my opinion and I haven't been able to bear watching the goals after the game but Jussi should have had Huth's. Folk can go on all they like about him slicing it and it spinning/curving away, bouncing in front of him etc, but for me it was still a save. And thats my opinion. Someone near me at the game felt he should have had the first one too. I would disagree.

But Coyle needs to make a decision. Whether he's letting too many in that in Coyle and the coaches opinions could be saved.

What I would say is that rarely does Jussi keep us in games these days by making save after save, and in the past I certainly remember him doing that on occassion.

I think its time to be ruthless and get the best we can get. I'll leave that up to Coyle to judge. But we can't go on with the "well he's been here a long time and done a good job and he's not chucking em in is he?" mentality. Ferguson has built his Man Utd success by moving players on at the right time even when others thought he was mad. Coyle has to do the same here, admittedly on a different scale. But we should not accept for anyone just because "they've done ok, or been here for ages and never let us down". We should only settle for the best 11 winners we can get. If that includes Jussi then fine, but if Coyle thinks it does not anymore, then he should go for it.

End of the day that team had the chance to make history. To achieve something. And it failed, miserably. It might only be one game, but thats football, you need a team that performs when the big day comes around. We didn't so there is certainly massive room for improvement.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 70,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jussi has made the third highest amount of saves in the League this year, saving 74% of the shots hit at him. It only shows the top 5 there, but Al Habsi doesn't feature. He's also played less games than the other 'keepers on that list (albeit one more than Ali).

I've watched it back, and perhaps Jussi might've done better with Huth's, but it's a fairly minor fault to pick. It would absolutely stagger me if Coyle looked at that and decided "That's it, can't have him in my team of winners. Get me Nixon...". If Jussi (and Robinson of course) was the man last week, there's no reason why that should have changed.

As an aside, football fans are the first to complain about a lack of loyalty from players, but when it's the other way round it's 'there's no room for sentiment'. Even if Jussi was finished (and he obviously isn't), making him the scapegoat for Sunday and bombing him out of the side, never to be seen again, would be a disgraceful way to treat a player who's achieved what he has here.

I'm not making a case for Jussi being dropped or not. I'll leave it up to Coyle to decide.

My point being is that if Coyle thinks we have a better option or there is a better one out there, then he should go for it and not worry about upsetting Jussi or any player we have here. We need to be the best we can be. Its not about making scapegoats its about getting ruthless. If we want to avoid a repeat of Sunday then its the only way to be.

I'm convinced Coyle is thinking this way, he's a fairly determined bloke. If you take the whole attitude of "one bad game" or "they were right last week so one defeat doesn't change that" continually then you end up never improving. All those players let us down badly. As did the management. Perhaps those players don't have the right mentality, focus, desire or ability. I don't know, I hope Coyle does. But even more so I hope he doesn't care about showing loyalty over creating the best BWFC he possibly can!

[Lofthouse Lower]

You'll leave it to Coyle? Have you informed him of this?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

A few thoughts.

Loyalty is, as I've said before, an over-used concept which comes up so often because fans are by their very nature the definition of loyalty. And it's too simplistic to say that "all fans" use the word when it suits and ditch it when it doesn't. There's a variety of views on here, as there should be. But here's some names: Okocha, Djorkaeff, N'Gotty. Legends all; dumped all, at the end of a season, at the end of their perceived worth. Whatever their achievements, players get good wages until the club decide they're not worth them. Even Scholes and Giggs might not get "farewell tour" seasons.

I would not enjoy dropping Jussi. I would not enjoy seeing him leave. I'm not even saying either should happen. But I would understand it if it's for the good of the club – and as I've said earlier, it might not solely be because AAH or Bogdan are marginally better keepers or that Jussi is on the wane: it would be useful to allocate Jussi's wages elsewhere in our all too thin squad.

One other thing: Stuart Holden's still made the third-highest number of tackles, and he's been out for a month. There's your main problem, right there. Without Holden in central midfield (and especially with Elmander, bless him) there's simply too little cover and thus far too much pressure on our back four. Cahill wasn't detached, he was as determined as ever, but because he has ball control and wears white boots and doesn't look like he's head-butted a wall there's a perception that he doesn't work hard – a perception which has only increased since the rumours of his impending departure (rumours which were met with him singing a new contract, apparently purely for the good of the club). That perception, friends, is bollocks. Yet again he is the Bolton player with the most defensive blocks and rides high in the all-Premier list. We will, make no mistake, miss him when he's gone – yet, again, I would sell him if the price is right, and make the whole stronger.

[BL3]

Good signing if it happens: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... ck-2m.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[t_o_molloy]

McGeechan and Obadeyi were mauling him when we played Villa's reserves.

[seanworth]

I am mixed regarding this story. To be honest it is a story built around a couple of vague quotes. Jussi's departure has been a topic for most fans for a few years now, mostly because it looks like we have a couple back ups that are more than capable of taking over, and who happen to be a lot younger. I am sure a few players will be let go at the end of this season. A few are let go every season. Players like Gardner are getting on in years, and Samuel just hasn't developed, and Cohen seems not quite good enough for the Premier League. No big deal as they didn't even play in this game. Other players that need to be concerned are Matty Taylor, Petrov, Muamba, Klasnic. Robinson is only in danger if Alonso makes big strides or someone suitable is available and affordable to replace him. I just don't see much in this story as many felt the same before that game. If anything is to come out of this game I hope it results in a few of our younger players, who it appears have made big strides this season, getting a little bit of game time to better evaluate their development. Also I think Coyle has to rethink his strategy somewhat. We need a plan b to go along with plan a. We didn't have the healthy players that allowed an effective plan a (attack) to go against a Stoke side that is designed to thwart attacking teams. Aresenal have failed to succeed in winning things largely I feel because of Wenger's refusal to develop a plan b, and he has a wealth of talent to draw from. I feel Coyle is as much to blame for that loss as the players were. That doesn't mean I want rid of Coyle, as I feel he has been fantastic for us, but I feel he needs to change his strategies a bit depending upon the opposition we are facing. Putting Elmander in the central midfield for this game was very high risk that failed. Basically Coyle was so determined to put his strategy into effect that he tried to force it even though the players needed to make it work weren't available (a fit M. Davies, and Holden.

Not trying to take the responsibility off the players but it was a failure from top to bottom which all have to learn from and Coyle is no exception.