In, Out, Shake It All About: January 2025 Transfer Window

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

If our midfielders are technical, how is it they can't pass the ball for shit?

We've tried to transition into more combative players (Thommo, Matete, etc) and yeah, it's been an issue at times.

Sheehan very obviously can pass. As can Morley.

Yes, but one was shipped out and the other was being asked to do more than he can. Thommo is a funny one. Great or fairly shit and the latter has shone more than the former if you take out chunks of last season.

It's a proper balls-up of a season.

You're being a bit understated there

[GhostoftheBok]

I suppose the question is, can we get back to the "not quite good enough, but pretty good" system of a year ago in this window?

We tried to play a more aggressive system and have gone back to the old one with the wrong pieces to make the midfield work.

Is the confidence of the group now so shot that it's done with, or an we recover enough to have some hope at going up via the play-offs? Do the players still believe in what the manager is saying?

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

I don't think many will be happy improving to still not good enough. A proper functioning midfield will help both defence and attack and has to be a priority. Just bringing back Morley isn't going to fix it, only give us a decent option.

[GhostoftheBok]

I don't think many will be happy improving to still not good enough.

Nor will I, but realistically we're trying to get into the play-offs and hoping we can put some form together to have a crack.

After that we either have a miraculous recovery to tell the grandkids about or a new manager.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Ordinarily that play off hope might be just enough, but not one of us believes we'd do enough in those 3 games to even fluke it. So, I ask "what is the point?"

[dave the minion]

And we only play 5 at the back because Evatt doesn’t want to move santos on or get a grip of him and teach him how to defend properly.

Just what is it that Rico has done to you personally or your family to justify your constant tirade of abuse against him????

It's clear you don't like him, but as we've said before, over recent performances he's been our best player by some distance (low bar again...). Over the last few seasons opposition managers have frequently referred to him as the best defender in the division, but I guess none of this seems to matter as you don't like him.

It's getting a little boring now.....

[GhostoftheBok]

"what is the point?"

Vague hope, innit.

If football only had a point when we were winning and successful none of us would be Bolton fans.

Decades of watching, following and working for BWFC and I've never seen us actually win a meaningful trophy. I live off the hope it might one day happen, though.

The point today will be the one fixture. I want to watch my team win this specific game. If we were bottom of the league I'd still want to watch my team win the next game.

If we aren't going to get into the play-offs I'd rather we did it winning 7 games than only 6, or 8 than only 7. If the season is going to falter I'd rather it did so with us winning enough games to get to Wembley and then losing there than not making it at all.

I'll enjoy every win and mourn every defeat. Regardless of the competition. Some will mean more and some less, but every game is worth it.

[BWFC_Insane]

And we only play 5 at the back because Evatt doesn’t want to move santos on or get a grip of him and teach him how to defend properly.

Just what is it that Rico has done to you personally or your family to justify your constant tirade of abuse against him????

It's clear you don't like him, but as we've said before, over recent performances he's been our best player by some distance (low bar again...). Over the last few seasons opposition managers have frequently referred to him as the best defender in the division, but I guess none of this seems to matter as you don't like him.

It's getting a little boring now.....

Abuse? Dear me. Suggesting a player has been criminally overrated by his manager is not abuse it’s football discussion.

Which opposition managers have said he’s the best in the league? Evatt has said that though it was demonstrably not true. He also said we were the best team in the league and we finished well outside the top 6 which maybe suggests whatever Evatt says is going to be wrong.

Santos should be much better than he is. Should being the operative word.

I prefer defenders who can defend consistently not give a goal away because they got bored and switched off.

[dave the minion]

Abuse - yes. Re-read your post of a day of so....

I've heard several managers call him the best in the division - can't remember who (which admittedly weekend my argument somewhat!!) - I think one might have been mousinho and the fact he's been in teams of the season suggests anything other than him being crap
...

[Bertie Wooster]

Abuse - yes. Re-read your post of a day of so....

I've heard several managers call him the best in the division - can't remember who (which admittedly weekend my argument somewhat!!) - I think one might have been mousinho and the fact he's been in teams of the season suggests anything other than him being crap
...

He is one of the best in the division when he's just defending which is what he's supposed to do first and foremost, he gets let down by the mediocre players around him (Jones, Johnston, Williams, Schon, Cogley etc.) and a non existent midfield ahead of him and a shite manager.

Put him in a well managed 'settled' team and he'd be the best in the division by some distance.

[GhostoftheBok]

Toal, Santos and Johnston would be (and were at one stage) absolutely fine as a back 3 at this level if they were all fit and firing. They're good enough to get promoted in a team where the other parts are working properly. Throw in Baxter as a keeper there too.

Injuries, especially the big one to Johnston, mean they're rarely at their levels at the same time.

Those defenders are three players the coaching staff have genuinely improved.

Forino is too injury prone to judge at the minute. Forrester is talented, but lacks experience and picks up knocks. Jones, for me, has no future here now. Southwood is a decent player.

Our defensive record has been dreadful, so we need to make changes; but today we had those first choice lads at the back (though not at the top of their game yet) and looked very comfortable. They had cover from two midfielders in front of them and we kept a clean sheet without Baxter doing anything heroic.

That section of the squad isn't a write-off. If we can add a quality defender who actually stays fit then we'll be good for the second half the season.

[Mar]

That's two clean sheets in two games.
Two first half goals in our last two games.

That's some good signs coming through.

A big plus is that all our defenders have managed a clean sheet against top half opposition:
Wycombe - Williams, JDC, Forrester, Jones, Schon
Lincoln - JDC, Toal, Santos, Johnston, Schon (Tutu off the bench)


Lovely to see that both sets of defenders can get a clean sheet, even if it isn't as consistent as we'd like. Today's a good platform for carrying on. I wanted the fortress Reebok to come back and decent first half performances, clean sheets, etc. all go some ways towards that.

[GhostoftheBok]

That's two clean sheets in two games.

I too have tried to delete the Barnsley game from my memory

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

That's two clean sheets in two games.
Two first half goals in our last two games.

That's some good signs coming through.

A big plus is that all our defenders have managed a clean sheet against top half opposition:
Wycombe - Williams, JDC, Forrester, Jones, Schon
Lincoln - JDC, Toal, Santos, Johnston, Schon (Tutu off the bench)


Lovely to see that both sets of defenders can get a clean sheet, even if it isn't as consistent as we'd like. Today's a good platform for carrying on. I wanted the fortress Reebok to come back and decent first half performances, clean sheets, etc. all go some ways towards that.

Just been crunching the numbers m'self.

None of our potential back threes are perfect but today's starting trio of Toal-Santos-Johnston seems to me the most balanced. So I had a little dig to see when they've played (league games only) and it's:

D 0-0 WREXHAM
L 0-2 Charlton
W 5-2 READING
W 2-0 Crawley
W 4-2 Northampton
D 2-2 SHREWSBURY
W 1-0 POSH
W 4-1 Stevenage (NB Toal subbed off injured on 31 mins, score 2-0)
W 3-0 LINCOLN (Toal subbed off 63, score 2-0)

That's 9 games in which we've collected 20pts, or 2.22ppg; over all 21 games thus far that extrapolates to 46.666pts, ie just fractionally behind Wycombe's 47. By a process of elimination we can calculate that in the 12 games those players didn't start together we've collected just 14pts, or 1.167ppg, which over 21 games would have us on 24.5pts, which would put us something like 17th (depending how many points we'd gifted to rivals down there).

Three of our four clean sheets have come with that starting trio (tip of the hat to the stand-ins at Wycombe). Without them we beat Burton, Blackpool and Mansfield (though we conceded in each), but we also lost to Huddersfield, to Stockport, to Wigan, to Barnsley - all the nightmares bar Charlton (which now barely ranks in the season's top five, to be honest).

Now, we have to be careful here with this minor mathematical trifle. The above list of opponents isn't the toughest, barring Wrexham and Reading; the above results contain come careless concessions, particularly at Charlton (a game memorably summarised by Prufrock saying we shot ourselves in the foot, crawled over the gun and shot ourselves in the face); and of course there's a lot more variables than just the three blokes at the back.

However, however. If we can keep those three fit, and look to add someone better to further bolster the back line, maybejustmaybe things will start to look up.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

today we had those first choice lads at the back (though not at the top of their game yet) and looked very comfortable. They had cover from two midfielders in front of them

So, humour me: did we shelve the recently-default 3-1-4-2 for a 3-4… 1-2? Or a 2-1 with his “box”? With lolos, Collins and McAtee it might be hard to tell… maybe that’s a good thing…

[truewhite15]

today we had those first choice lads at the back (though not at the top of their game yet) and looked very comfortable. They had cover from two midfielders in front of them

So, humour me: did we shelve the recently-default 3-1-4-2 for a 3-4… 1-2? Or a 2-1 with his “box”? With lolos, Collins and McAtee it might be hard to tell… maybe that’s a good thing…

It was most definitively Matete playing behind a duo of Thomason and Lolos. Thomason did drop back when necessary though.

Fir what it's worth, I thought Tomo had a better game today than he's had for a few weeks.

[GhostoftheBok]

So, humour me: did we shelve the recently-default 3-1-4-2 for a 3-4… 1-2? Or a 2-1 with his “box”? With lolos, Collins and McAtee it might be hard to tell… maybe that’s a good thing…

We have tilted the team.

McAtee was tasked with covering basically anywhere he saw space. Collins and Lolos both pushed into the right channel to combine there.

We balanced it by using Schon as more of a left winger and Cogley as closer to a right back. Johnston played like a left back and we ended up with Santos, Toal and Baxter as a three in possession.

It was Thommo's job to be closer to an 8, to offer combinations with Schon.

It was interesting and closer to last season's system than the new one we wanted to implement in the summer.

Lolos as primarily a 10 dropping to an 8 out of possession and Thommo primarily as an 8 pushing to a 10 in possession works for those players. How it suits Morley is questionable.

[GhostoftheBok]

It's worth noting that we probably don't play that way in every game and a lot of it was about stopping JDC being the attacking outlet on the right, as he lacks the quality. If it's Tutu on that side then we probably want Morley or Sheehan in there, because Tutu would be up the wing and we'd not need Lolos in those advanced positions with Collins.

How Ian wants to play in an ideal world is up for debate. His signings will be informative.

[irie Cee Bee]

Our signings should be starters. So a new CB would replace Johnston, an new attacking midfielder would replace Lolos and a new striker would replace McAtee in our starting lineup. So Best Team would be:
Baxter

Toal
Santos
New signing

Tutu
Sheehan or Matete
Dempsey or Thomason
New Signing
Schoen

New signing
Collins

Very strong team in the making.

[Mar]

That's two clean sheets in two games.
Two first half goals in our last two games.

That's some good signs coming through.

A big plus is that all our defenders have managed a clean sheet against top half opposition:
Wycombe - Williams, JDC, Forrester, Jones, Schon
Lincoln - JDC, Toal, Santos, Johnston, Schon (Tutu off the bench)


Lovely to see that both sets of defenders can get a clean sheet, even if it isn't as consistent as we'd like. Today's a good platform for carrying on. I wanted the fortress Reebok to come back and decent first half performances, clean sheets, etc. all go some ways towards that.

Just been crunching the numbers m'self.

None of our potential back threes are perfect but today's starting trio of Toal-Santos-Johnston seems to me the most balanced. So I had a little dig to see when they've played (league games only) and it's:

D 0-0 WREXHAM
L 0-2 Charlton
W 5-2 READING
W 2-0 Crawley
W 4-2 Northampton
D 2-2 SHREWSBURY
W 1-0 POSH
W 4-1 Stevenage (NB Toal subbed off injured on 31 mins, score 2-0)
W 3-0 LINCOLN (Toal subbed off 63, score 2-0)

That's 9 games in which we've collected 20pts, or 2.22ppg; over all 21 games thus far that extrapolates to 46.666pts, ie just fractionally behind Wycombe's 47. By a process of elimination we can calculate that in the 12 games those players didn't start together we've collected just 14pts, or 1.167ppg, which over 21 games would have us on 24.5pts, which would put us something like 17th (depending how many points we'd gifted to rivals down there).

Three of our four clean sheets have come with that starting trio (tip of the hat to the stand-ins at Wycombe). Without them we beat Burton, Blackpool and Mansfield (though we conceded in each), but we also lost to Huddersfield, to Stockport, to Wigan, to Barnsley - all the nightmares bar Charlton (which now barely ranks in the season's top five, to be honest).

Now, we have to be careful here with this minor mathematical trifle. The above list of opponents isn't the toughest, barring Wrexham and Reading; the above results contain come careless concessions, particularly at Charlton (a game memorably summarised by Prufrock saying we shot ourselves in the foot, crawled over the gun and shot ourselves in the face); and of course there's a lot more variables than just the three blokes at the back.

However, however. If we can keep those three fit, and look to add someone better to further bolster the back line, maybejustmaybe things will start to look up.

That's some good number crunching right there. Just goes to show what having a fully fit squad would look like defensively.

From an individual player perspective they're looking shaky. From an ideal 11 perspective, not so much. If we're constantly having to adjust our back 3 then it's bound to cause problems. As is trying to find the ideal solution up top when we started the season out tactically problematic.

If we keep up the Lincoln-esque performance levels for both halves then we should be heading in the right direction.