Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Where fellow sufferers gather to share the pain, longing and unrequited transfer requests that make being a Wanderer what it is...

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Armchair Wanderer » Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:06 am

truewhite15 wrote:We have a dearth of quality full backs, a proper defensive leader, and a proper set of wingers. I also wouldn't say no to a new captain in midfield (although, you never know, maybe Spearing and Medo might work their way back in). Plenty of work to do in the summer for Lennon.
One thing I reckon Lennon is fairly big on is "leaders on the pitch", so I'd imagine we'd be getting at least one in defence and midfield, if the budget stretches.
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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by jonnycooper » Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:22 am

I,ll be happy if Baptiste was to return next season,he seems to have been 1st choice for shiteburn pretty much all season and they have been threatening to join the play-offs most of this season.never understood freedman sending him out.He was prone to give away penalties but seems to have cut that out this season!!

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Vertigo » Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:30 am

Wow one poor game and suddenly Bannan is the anti christ? He's been our playmaker and most consistent player since he's come, then one quiet game and we should feck him off? I know nobody here likes to lose and I myself write things in anger after a loss, but I'd have Bannan back in a heartbeat if he was affordable.

Lennon is in a spot where there is nothing to gain and nothing to lose. If he's gonna test his shitty three at the back it may as well be now. Either way, hopefully Lennon and his management team have a good idea of who is worth keeping and who needs to be moved on.

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by jonnycooper » Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:24 am

I blame this Match thread Title!!!

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Abdoulaye's Twin » Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:22 am

jonnycooper wrote:I blame this Match thread Title!!!
I did warn them at the time :(

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by jetsetwilly » Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:51 am

I can't believe the crap Walker is getting.

Yes, he does get caught in possession, but he is a threat going forward (ok, not last night). We don't have money so the likes of Clough, Clayton and Walker are the immediate future and need support and good coaching to turn their potential into quality.

Feeney is hopeless, other than the odd pin point cross every few games he offer nothing. No passion and no fitness. Unless Eddie sells up, we have to accept that we are a million miles away from promotion and need to focus on staying in the division for the next few years. Eidur and Heskey, no thanks. Le Fondre, yes please but only if we plan tactics that suit. Almost every game I have seen of late sees him caught offside countless times with hopeful hoofs forward.

I always look forward to seeing how the squad will be reshaped in the summer but I am struggling to see anything positive other than the return of Clough and Clayton.

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by LeverEnd » Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:55 am

For me it should have been 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 with Coke's physical presence in midfield. Terrible team selection and coyle comparisons worryingly accurate.
We'd still have lost probably but might at least have out up a fight instead of spinelessly rolling over. Manager and players should be embarrassed with the honourable exception of Bogdan.
There's a lot to like about Lennon but it's fingers crossed rather than any real confidence fir next season.
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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by LeverEnd » Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:58 am

As for walker, jsw, I don't think anyone is really getting on his case, just describing an undeniably poor performance in a role he should never have been asked to play against a side like that.
He's in because of injuries, and I hope these games being his development on quicker, but he's not ready to be a regular starter. Not if we want to improve next season anyway.
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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Bruce Rioja » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:18 am

If someone teaches Walker how and when to release the ball rather than have him believe that it's his job to take the entire opposition on then we'll have a great player on our books. Liam Feeny is just another Stuart Storer/Michael Brown/Roger Walker - couldn't cross the fecking street accurately.
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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Riviman » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:22 am

Only one of the team last night, Bannan, was a loan player, so showed just how poor our squad is and how much work Lennon has to do to enable us to even challenge the top half next season.
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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Prufrock » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:28 am

And ALF, though he was one of the few to reach the gold standard of "OK" so it doesn't help.

Walker has a dream of a left foot, just needs time to grow up.
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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by thebish » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:30 am

ahh well - there you go - can someone make it stop now? please??

utter bag of shoite we were (except for Boggers) - for all his talk of character and passion on the pitch, Lennon has us playing like a bunch of absolute pussies. we'll be doing well to avoid another relegation scrap next season...

bournemouth happy - which you can't begrudge... twas amusing to see all 30 of the real coppers gathered in front of the bolton fans 5mins before the whistle went as if (what?) we were gonna invade the pitch OR (really?) they were gonna protect us from marauding Bournemouth fans! Meanwhile - behind them, a huge pitch invasion happens and they stand watching us!

good company - you'd never believe it, but Devon White is actually a nice bloke! :wink: Also joined up with Pisshead Dan :shock: and his minder whose name I forget but surely was actually Phil Tufnell??

was Mavis injured? it seemed a wee bit bizarre to me to take Mavis off and leave Heskey on - Heskey was 7 separate shades of useless... not that Mavis made a huge contribution...

Woolery - he's the future!! who?? :D

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:33 am

After three undefeated trips this was reversion to the mean. The last 10 away league games: LLLLLLDWDL.

"Mean" is not an adjective one might apply to our back three. I see why Lennon wants to persevere: It's the easiest way to accommodate two strikers and a No.10, and unlike his predecessor the manager wants us to carry an attacking threat. And when played well, the 3-4-1-2 can give you more overloads in more areas of the pitch. But you need three spatially-aware defenders, at least two of whom should be good with the ball at their feet; you also need wingbacks, arguably football's most demanding skill-set (positioning, pace, passing, tackling, stamina, determination, communication). We seem to be asking that of tyros like Walker and Vela or tryers like Feeney. Credit to them for giving it a go, and to Lennon for having the belief in them, but as noted it's starting to smack of stubbornness and tactical paralysis.

This has long felt like a season petering into insignificance but we can't entirely rely on a summer slate-wipe: as noted above, seven of last night's starters are contracted beyond the summer, while the other four – Bogdan, ALF, Bannan and Heskey – would be high on most shopping lists, including Lennon's. He will find fresh faces but he also needs to revive some slumped shoulders. It's his job, and at the minute he's simply not doing it very well, with far more talking than walking. He said he wanted to spoil three promotion parties: we got one point from nine. He said he wanted to equal last season's 59-point total: we're eight short of it. Of his 13 wins, only two have come against opponents who were in the top half when we played them (Blackburn on Boxing Day, Wednesday in January). The wins against poor teams have been welcome, kept us up, and shown some promise – but let's not kid ourselves that this season has been impressive: Lennon's side has lost as many as they've won, and his 35.14% win ratio is spookily similar to Freedman's. (Usual caveat: Thank F*ck Freedman F*cked Off.)

The club could really do with a decent performance in the home closer against Birmingham. Our frequently hopelessness away was at least counterbalanced by an impressive home record, but we haven't won in the last three at the Macron – and if we don't again this weekend, that will be one victory in the last nine league games – hardly the sort of thing to start a season ticket renewal rush.

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Prufrock » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:53 am

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:After three undefeated trips this was reversion to the mean. The last 10 away league games: LLLLLLDWDL.

"Mean" is not an adjective one might apply to our back three. I see why Lennon wants to persevere: It's the easiest way to accommodate two strikers and a No.10, and unlike his predecessor the manager wants us to carry an attacking threat. And when played well, the 3-4-1-2 can give you more overloads in more areas of the pitch. But you need three spatially-aware defenders, at least two of whom should be good with the ball at their feet; you also need wingbacks, arguably football's most demanding skill-set (positioning, pace, passing, tackling, stamina, determination, communication). We seem to be asking that of tyros like Walker and Vela or tryers like Feeney. Credit to them for giving it a go, and to Lennon for having the belief in them, but as noted it's starting to smack of stubbornness and tactical paralysis.

This has long felt like a season petering into insignificance but we can't entirely rely on a summer slate-wipe: as noted above, seven of last night's starters are contracted beyond the summer, while the other four – Bogdan, ALF, Bannan and Heskey – would be high on most shopping lists, including Lennon's. He will find fresh faces but he also needs to revive some slumped shoulders. It's his job, and at the minute he's simply not doing it very well, with far more talking than walking. He said he wanted to spoil three promotion parties: we got one point from nine. He said he wanted to equal last season's 59-point total: we're eight short of it. Of his 13 wins, only two have come against opponents who were in the top half when we played them (Blackburn on Boxing Day, Wednesday in January). The wins against poor teams have been welcome, kept us up, and shown some promise – but let's not kid ourselves that this season has been impressive: Lennon's side has lost as many as they've won, and his 35.14% win ratio is spookily similar to Freedman's. (Usual caveat: Thank F*ck Freedman F*cked Off.)

The club could really do with a decent performance in the home closer against Birmingham. Our frequently hopelessness away was at least counterbalanced by an impressive home record, but we haven't won in the last three at the Macron – and if we don't again this weekend, that will be one victory in the last nine league games – hardly the sort of thing to start a season ticket renewal rush.
I'm glad someone other than Terry Venables can. I reckon we should try to catch teams off-guard with a W-M. Or Tim Ream the Libero!

I've seen it argued that Brendan Rodgers has shown it's not a dead formation, except he hasn't. They've been playing a 5-2-3 thing (v similar to what Martinez was doing at Wigan when all the pundits were overcome with inexplicable lust for him). The crucial difference is two wide-players in front of the two wing backs (so Liverpool would play Coutinho and Sterling in front of Moreno and Markovic, say). I lost count of the number of times Mavies and Danns looked up last night facing off-screen to where you'd expect a winger to be, only to play what at the time looked like a bizarre square ball to no-one as a still off-screenFeeney came puffing up from tracking Pugh back to our corner flag and was now expected to be up near theirs crossing it in.

3-5-2 might have a shout when you're managing Celtic and the opposition stick 10 behind the ball, but if you're playing against a 3-5-2 all you have to do is pin the wing backs back and job done. When Bournemouth's first went in, Walker, the back three and Feeney were lined up along our six-yard box. Even if we'd managed to clear it, I think it was coming back!

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by thebish » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:59 am

Prufrock wrote:...as a still off-screenFeeney came puffing up from tracking Pugh back to our corner flag and was now expected to be up near theirs crossing it in.
believe me, you could count the times that Feeney tracked Pugh back to the corner flag on the fingers of one fingerless mitten.

also - Feeney - I can't remember him even ONCE taking on their left back on the outside...

we played like a bunch of pussies who either had never met and/or just didn't care and wanted to be off on holiday... (maybe that's why dervite tried so fecking hard to get himself sent off!)

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by boltonboris » Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:19 pm

officer_dibble wrote:I feel for walker. Exposed tonight. No help from his senior colleagues at all
The way his team 'mates' isolated him, was nothing short of disgraceful. I feel for the lad, but most of our know-nowts will be right on his back
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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Peter Thompson » Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:53 pm

boltonboris wrote:
officer_dibble wrote:I feel for walker. Exposed tonight. No help from his senior colleagues at all
The way his team 'mates' isolated him, was nothing short of disgraceful. I feel for the lad, but most of our know-nowts will be right on his back
Walker has got potential and a great left foot, but IMO he's not ready for the 1st team at this level. His decision making isn't great and no matter what position he plays he needs to learn to track back and not just leave runners.

He certainly isn't the worst by any means but if we are to improve at all next season, he should come off the bench not be starting games. We have too many rank bad, bog average journeymen players who shouldn't be anywhere near the starting eleven....Walker is far better than the likes of Feeney, Danns etc

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:03 pm

Pru: You're right. I was trying to recall if it was you with whom I was having a long-ago Twitter conversation about that failing of a back three, but it turns out it was Athers. As is so often the case, back three becomes back five becomes too defensive - in mindset if not in ability...

Can't agree that a back three's OK against bus-parkers though. Waste of a player, as Van Gaal found out earlier this season.

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:03 pm

Peter Thompson wrote:
boltonboris wrote:
officer_dibble wrote:I feel for walker. Exposed tonight. No help from his senior colleagues at all
The way his team 'mates' isolated him, was nothing short of disgraceful. I feel for the lad, but most of our know-nowts will be right on his back
Walker has got potential and a great left foot, but IMO he's not ready for the 1st team at this level. His decision making isn't great and no matter what position he plays he needs to learn to track back and not just leave runners.

He certainly isn't the worst by any means but if we are to improve at all next season, he should come off the bench not be starting games. We have too many rank bad, bog average journeymen players who shouldn't be anywhere near the starting eleven....Walker is far better than the likes of Feeney, Danns etc
Which of our current players would you keep?

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Re: Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries

Post by Peter Thompson » Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:11 pm

Dave Sutton's barnet wrote:
Peter Thompson wrote:
boltonboris wrote:
officer_dibble wrote:I feel for walker. Exposed tonight. No help from his senior colleagues at all
The way his team 'mates' isolated him, was nothing short of disgraceful. I feel for the lad, but most of our know-nowts will be right on his back
Walker has got potential and a great left foot, but IMO he's not ready for the 1st team at this level. His decision making isn't great and no matter what position he plays he needs to learn to track back and not just leave runners.

He certainly isn't the worst by any means but if we are to improve at all next season, he should come off the bench not be starting games. We have too many rank bad, bog average journeymen players who shouldn't be anywhere near the starting eleven....Walker is far better than the likes of Feeney, Danns etc
Which of our current players would you keep?
Probably only Bogdan, Clayton, Clough, Pratley, M Davies

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