Wanderers v Blackpool

[William the White]

OK - let's crank it up for this one. We are promised a full away end, we have visitors who really try to win their games - and have managed it to the confusion of all those - the vast majority - who wrote them off before a ball had been kicked. In Ian Holloway we have a manager who has earned his reputation for lovable - and laughable - eccentricity.

Can't see a goalless draw here.

4-3 to the Whites.

[Eire_Trotter]

The way we're playing lately we should stroll this but I have a bad feeling.

I also had this bad feeling against Newcastle, Wolves and Spurs .

[CarlosHernandez]

Yes there will be goals... but we should score more as our two up top have been unstoppable recently, although they will have an off match soon, but i don't think it will be against a team like Blackpool playing 442. Been looking forward to this fixture since the start of the season.

COYW!

[FaninOz]

Third Blackpool thread, so will repeat what I said on one of the others.

Blackpool are playing entertaining attacking football, particularly away from home and have been giving everyone a hard time, but they are due a heavy beating and if we can maintaing our current level of perfomance their defence will give us loads of goal scoring opportunities. Unfortunately I can't see us keeping a clean sheet anytime soon either so it will be a very open game with "he who dares" most winning.

And no one dares more than our Kevin and will Elmo on such great from we should manage an 4-2 win or we may even get another 5 if "lightning can strike" the same ground two weeks on the run!

[Lofthouse Lower]

Mike Dean refereeing

[bristol_Wanderer3]

I will not be there sadly, which makes it even more certain that this will be the third successive best game ever seen at the Reebok contender.

6-2 to us. 25758 in attendance, including 4893 tangerines.

[Gary the Enfield]

I saw this on Yahoo Sport and thought this was as good a place as any to post it.


Coyle good... or Megson bad?ShareretweetEmailPrintMon Nov 22 08:57AM

Is Owen Coyle a really, really good manager, or is Gary Megson a really, really bad one?
The Ginger Mourinho, you may remember, was sacked by Bolton (or rather, put on extended gardening leave), last year with the Trotters languishing in the relegation zone.

Coyle has taken them to fifth, and on Saturday they absolutely mullered (there is frankly no other word) Newcastle 5-1.

Megson's last game was a 2-2 draw against Hull on December 29 last year, and this is the starting XI:

Jaaskelainein, Steinsson, Knight, Cahill, Robinson, Chung-Yong Lee, Muamba, Cohen, Taylor, Davies, Klasnic.

And here's the starting XI Coyle picked for Saturday's game:

Jaaskelainen, Ricketts, Knight, Cahill, Robinson, Chung-Yong Lee, Muamba, Holden, Taylor, Davies, Elmander.

Eight of the side that beat Newcastle also started against Hull. Of the remaining three, Johan Elmander and Sam Ricketts were on the bench for Megson's last game, leaving Stuart Holden as the only newcomer - plucked from MLS obscurity for no fee.

Now you can spin this one of two ways, and in light of recent 'Damien Comolli was great for Tottenham' revisionism there is an easy pro-Megson argument.

On the face of it, he could justifiably point out that he deserves much of the credit for Bolton's present success, having brought most of the side to the Reebok - Elmander, Muamba, Ricketts, Knight, Robinson and Lee were all Megson signings.

But it is one thing signing good players; quite another getting them to play well. And it seems like Megson spent most of his time yelling until his face was redder than his hair.

Here's Elmander on Megson's man-management style versus Coyle's: "It doesn't help to stare and scream at me. I got tired the more of it I heard. Owen Coyle is a great coach, who I really enjoy working with. As soon as he came to the club I started to play well, even though the goals didn't come right away."

Gretar Steinsson, another Megson signing, had this to say on Saturday: "It's totally different from the first years when I was here, being in a team that actually believe they can get points against the strong sides instead of just hoping for a draw."

And skipper Kevin Davies added: "The confidence is high and I think the belief is starting to creep in among the players. The manager is doing a fantastic job keeping everybody happy."

Footballers are simple folk, by and large. Tell them they can't win, and they won't. Tell them they can, and they just might.

This is what so enraged Scottish fans about Craig Levein's infamous 4-6-0 formation against the Czech Republic.

It's not that a goalless draw in Prague wouldn't have been a decent result. 000It is that, by picking no strikers, Levein effectively informed his players that they could not score a goal so there was no point trying.

It was an attitude that not only ruled out the possibility of victory - it made defeat almost inevitable.

It seems Coyle has convinced his players they are not the prehistoric Bolton cloggers of cliche, but that they can actually play a bit. And low and behold, they can.

Early Doors spent Saturday afternoon looking at two monitors. On the left-hand side, Manchester United were stumbling to a deeply unconvincing win against the nine men of Wigan.

On the right hand side, Bolton were ripping Newcastle to shreds in gloriously swaggering fashion.

It would be a lie to say ED had trouble telling who was Manchester United and who was Bolton, as that would have required no knowledge of any players from either side, their kit, their stadium or their opposition. But you get the idea.

Suffice it to say Bolton were by far the more entertaining, ambitious and downright skilful team.

There is still a place in football for the well-organised side that seeks to nullify first, and considers scoring as an afterthought - think Otto Rehhagel's Greece or Ottmar Hitzfeld's Switzerland.

But it actually takes a huge amount of organisation and skill to keep a clean sheet against top-class opponents. The odd side will do it now and again, but it is not easy.

Ian Holloway quickly diagnosed this about his Blackpool side when they lost 6-0 at Arsenal in the second game of the season.

There is no point most teams trying to defend against the top teams in the Premier League, since they are not good enough to keep them at bay for 90 minutes.

Far better to roll the dice, hence Blackpool played the second half at Chelsea with four up front (yes, ED is aware they lost 4-0).

Holloway has realised all-out attack is not actually a risky strategy at all, but the best way of playing the percentages.

If the Seasiders won 13 games out of 38 this season and lost the rest, they would probably stay up. Play for draws, and you could take a point from every single game and be in a worse position.

There is method in Ollie's madness. And if he keeps it up, he could be managing Bolton one day.

[Bruce Rioja]

Who the Dickens is Damien Comolli?

[newboy]

we have to approach the Blackpool game as indeed every game with the same attitude that we showed against the spuds and barcodes. i'm sure Coyle will have that drummed into them close them down harry them don't give them a chance to settle and Bolton could rack up a cricket score.

[Worthy4England]

Who the Dickens is Damien Comolli?

The ex-Director of football (or something similar) at Spurs who bought that useless Spanish twunt in. Think he may also have been at Arsenal and has noe just started at Liverpool

[Lofthouse Lower]

Comolli also signed most of the current Spurs team including Bale - the best player ever, so he can't be all bad.

[Gary the Enfield]

Comolli also signed most of the current Spurs team including Bale - the best player ever, so he can't be all bad.

Bit like Voldemort?

[officer_dibble]

Isn't Commoli responsible for the signing of the great Gregor Rasiak?

Anyway onto our game.......big game for us - we haven't won 3 in a row since Alalrdyce days I believe....cementing ourselves as one of the form teams....winning OC manager of the month...

ITs home. Its v Blackpool. They are going to be right up for it for a number of reasons. So will we I think, and I'm not concerned about us being out battled or owt. Should be a cracker...I'll go 7 - 3 to the superwhites.

[Eire_Trotter]

Isn't Commoli responsible for the signing of the great Gregor Rasiak?

Anyway onto our game.......big game for us - we haven't won 3 in a row since Alalrdyce days I believe....cementing ourselves as one of the form teams....winning OC manager of the month...

ITs home. Its v Blackpool. They are going to be right up for it for a number of reasons. So will we I think, and I'm not concerned about us being out battled or owt. Should be a cracker...I'll go 7 - 3 to the superwhites.

I like your optimism

[Lofthouse Lower]

Got to keep the same starting XI as against Newcastle, for me.

[Prufrock]

Owen doesn't change things unless someone gets injured or suspended anyway!

[TKIZ!]

We're dooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddd

[Wandering Willy]

Got to keep the same starting XI as against Newcastle, for me.

Yes indeed. Pru is also right about the changes (or lack of) - don't fix something that isn't knackered.

[bobo the clown]

Megson's last game was a 2-2 draw against Hull on December 29 last year, and this is the starting XI:

Jaaskelainein, Steinsson, Knight, Cahill, Robinson, Chung-Yong Lee, Muamba, Cohen, Taylor, Davies, Klasnic.

And here's the starting XI Coyle picked for Saturday's game:

Jaaskelainen, Ricketts, Knight, Cahill, Robinson, Chung-Yong Lee, Muamba, Holden, Taylor, Davies, Elmander.

B-Hell. Cohen must be worse than we think !!

To be fair, we were good up to 2-0 ... it was that typical sitting back, letting them come back at us and then trying to consolidate rather than carry on playing the way we had to get us 2-0 in the first place that blew the fuse.

[Verbal]

Booked my ticket couldn't find anyone to go with though. Still COYWM.