Not a Leap Year, who says so? Away to Reading , Sat, Feb 1st 3-0'clock.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

imo someone with a bit of bustle about them and real pace

The problem is we now want someone with Dion's pressing and goals, Jerome's aerial strength, and pace to burn. That's Prime Drogba, which was the ill-advised joke Evatt made.

From what I could see - small data set - Etete has good ball control and awareness. But he showed no pressing prowess and not much aerial ability – his one connected attempt at a header from a cross was described by a bystander as "a good clearance".

So can anyone tell me what the rationale was behind Markham signing Etete if he doesn't press & has little aerial ability for a very tall player - Evatt mentioned 'Prime Drogba' but that was reportedly regarding a James Collins type so why has Markham signed someone completely different.

If Evatt & Markham had agreed that we needed a prime Drogba type, then why sign someone who doesn't fit that profile just because he 6ft 6.

Yes my view is that we sold Charles and ideally need a replacement so it’s not all on Collins. That looks challenging to say the least.

But I think that is a separate thing from a big lad of some sort. Basically we need a Vic replacement and a Collins replacement. If they are top two we need two others to do those roles.

Will try to answer both of these at once (not necessarily disagreeing with them)

I've carefully contextualised and broken down the full "prime Drogba" quote before - as I say IMO it was a stupid joke rather than say a "new Ivan Toney" comparison.

Many fans wanted a target man. Collins turned us down to avoid the toxicity. Etete is not a target man as we used to know them; he could theoretically link play with his feet but he's got a long way to improve from yesterday - and as noted, he's also (1) coming back from injury (2) contracted to 2027 so yes, to me it seems a strange decision, that I hope comes good.

This isn't just about selling Dion (who I noted got hooked at 0-3 yesterday) but also replacing Jerome/Bod. A few chickens coming home to roost at once.

[Prufrock]

It goes back to not pulling the trigger quick enough for me.

Given Schumacher changed from a 352 to a 343 very quickly yesterday, I assume that's where he wants to get to. For the front three that gives you Collins (CMG) Vic (Etete) and Randall/McAtee. That's the squad places, so in theory you're set, but two have no football and Vic picks up knocks. You'd defo want another in there, but there isn't any time. My best guess is they thought if the right player comes in great, but if not we'll go with what we have and look again in summer. We still *could* go up.

Looks like Williams will be off, but if not you *could* throw him into the above.

Think we'll see a fair bit of McAtee at 9. That could work well in games we're on top, he can do a little bit of everything and Collins can pop up into that space.

It also leaves 4 midfielders for those two spaces. We're about to find out if Sheehan can do it in there when it goes more transitional! (I think he can, but I worry for his knee!)

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

It goes back to not pulling the trigger quick enough for me.

Given Schumacher changed from a 352 to a 343 very quickly yesterday, I assume that's where he wants to get to. For the front three that gives you Collins (CMG) Vic (Etete) and Randall/McAtee. That's the squad places, so in theory you're set, but two have no football and Vic picks up knocks. You'd defo want another in there, but there isn't any time. My best guess is they thought if the right player comes in great, but if not we'll go with what we have and look again in summer. We still *could* go up.

Looks like Williams will be off, but if not you *could* throw him into the above.

Think we'll see a fair bit of McAtee at 9. That could work well in games we're on top, he can do a little bit of everything and Collins can pop up into that space.

It also leaves 4 midfielders for those two spaces. We're about to find out if Sheehan can do it in there when it goes more transitional! (I think he can, but I worry for his knee!)

Yeah on all that. As noted, Schuey – not my favourite nickname, but it's better than SS - got Plymouth promoted playing a 3421 with two "hybrid 10s" playing in what used to be called the inside-forward positions. That's a similar system to what Evatt tried to implement this season, with far worse results.

Now, maybe Schuey had/has a better grasp of how to implement the system, or just had more suitable players – particularly, I would have thought, in central midfield?

But I do think it's notable that he's quite openly said we have the sort of players he can work with, and that system can make the most of the 10s we have in abundance. On the other hand, a 4-2-3-1 (which I believe Schuey used at Stoke) can theoretically fit three of them in... but then you're arguably asking even more of your midfield 2, who effectively have one fewer defender than in a back five, unless the 10s dig seep when out of possession - and I have to say yesterday both Collins and Randall certainly tracked back to get in the way, if not exactly being Karl Henry when they got there.

Like you, I think Randell Williams could fit in, albeit probably more in the 4231 than the 3421, and obviously not if he's gone . And like you, I think McAtee could (should?) play 9 - he's probably the closest Dionalike we have for pressing and harrying - and he has a bromance with Collins.

Speaking of which, Lolos seems close to those two and I think he too could be a useful energy-injecting sub, possibly more at 9 than 10. He's keen, and keen to learn, so while I'm not convinced he's a world-beater, I think it'd be a shame if any hangover from his Plymouth exit affected his time here - especially as he's taking up a squad space.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Oh and perhaps notable that CMG was out of the 18 yesterday, for the fifth successive game (and the sixth successive league game - he was an unused sub in the cup at Lincoln) under three different managers. Another squad slot not being used, another presumably fairly high wage not being productive.

[Prufrock]

I'd forgotten about him! I'm far from convinced but he's another body while he's here.

I do think the 343 failure was a large part the manager. There were some ok performances in there at the start but some shockers, and I don't think he knew how to make it work and then fully lost confidence and changed back (after a, but not the last, hammering). Less "fannying" would help and I think we'll get that.

McAtee reminds me of Hierro (who dat?) describing Raul as "not ten out of ten at anything, but eight and a half at everything" which always made me laugh. Round up Fernando. If not for the same of the friend you're presumably trying to compliment, then for the poetry of the comparison.

There's deffo a player in there though.

[Prufrock]

Oh and perhaps notable that CMG was out of the 18 yesterday, for the fifth successive game (and the sixth successive league game - he was an unused sub in the cup at Lincoln) under three different managers. Another squad slot not being used, another presumably fairly high wage not being productive.

Yeah, he needs some football. We paid more for him than Vic I think! And he won't have been cheap on the weekly either. No idea what he's like physically after the big injury. Shame, as the player we'd started to see would be a great addition right now.

[BWFC_Insane]

It keeps being said by Bolton fans and has for years but we have a new head coach now who I’m sure knows that we are very unlikely to go up with this sort of a midfield. It is too soft and can’t cover enough ground. I don’t care what people say but Randall, Sheehan are players you need protection for. And I think we are lacking two really physical type midfield players. Thomason grafts but he’s the only runner and is not that combative beyond his fouls. Midfield yesterday was far too passive.

Morley I think is a 6. We need to decide what midfield shape is optimal and make sure we have the right balance. It’s hard in a two up front system to play Randall imo. He’s a forward in a front three if you are going to fit him in.

But the bottom line for me is that it’s not a debate - we are too soft in the middle of the park and need that sort of player or two adding in there who will give us a much stronger centre.

[The_Gun]

It keeps being said by Bolton fans and has for years but we have a new head coach now who I’m sure knows that we are very unlikely to go up with this sort of a midfield. It is too soft and can’t cover enough ground. I don’t care what people say but Randall, Sheehan are players you need protection for. And I think we are lacking two really physical type midfield players. Thomason grafts but he’s the only runner and is not that combative beyond his fouls. Midfield yesterday was far too passive.

Morley I think is a 6. We need to decide what midfield shape is optimal and make sure we have the right balance. It’s hard in a two up front system to play Randall imo. He’s a forward in a front three if you are going to fit him in.

But the bottom line for me is that it’s not a debate - we are too soft in the middle of the park and need that sort of player or two adding in there who will give us a much stronger centre.

I’d guess Matete will be given every chance by Schumacher. For me he has all of he attributes needed to be an effective defensive midfielder, he just needs to be instructed to use the ball more conservatively.

[Bertie Wooster]

It keeps being said by Bolton fans and has for years but we have a new head coach now who I’m sure knows that we are very unlikely to go up with this sort of a midfield. It is too soft and can’t cover enough ground. I don’t care what people say but Randall, Sheehan are players you need protection for. And I think we are lacking two really physical type midfield players. Thomason grafts but he’s the only runner and is not that combative beyond his fouls. Midfield yesterday was far too passive.

Morley I think is a 6. We need to decide what midfield shape is optimal and make sure we have the right balance. It’s hard in a two up front system to play Randall imo. He’s a forward in a front three if you are going to fit him in.

But the bottom line for me is that it’s not a debate - we are too soft in the middle of the park and need that sort of player or two adding in there who will give us a much stronger centre.

Hallelujah - nail on head, this has been totally ignored by Markham / Evatt over the years. We are too soft as a collective / team in regards to in game physicality, tackling, running etc. Thomason for all his graft, honesty & determination isn't good enough for a top 6 team going off his displays this season. Also, I don't think that you can play Randall & Sheehan in the same team without totally weakening the midfield, we do need a couple of in your face physical, combative players (1 in CM & 1 central striker) to improve enough to go up next season.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I don’t care what people say

it’s not a debate

Let us know when you're ready to converse, and on which topics; I'll assume the rest are just parish notices

[Armchair Wanderer]

Here's a question, or an internal debate I'm having with myself...

I think maybe I'm a bit harsh on some of the players in midfield/attack. They run around and harry but they maybe don't tackle or get more physical than that in bits I've seen. So one part of me wants the players to get stuck in a bit more. Then, the other side of me sees someone like McAtee who does a bit more of that in the bits I've seen, and I've also seen him get a yellow card for doing almost nothing. So maybe my idea of what a football player should be doing is out of date.

Is it about being physical and tackling, or is it about closing off a certain area and forcing the opposition to go where they don't want to go, or what should the team be doing?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Here's a question, or an internal debate I'm having with myself...

I think maybe I'm a bit harsh on some of the players in midfield/attack. They run around and harry but they maybe don't tackle or get more physical than that in bits I've seen. So one part of me wants the players to get stuck in a bit more. Then, the other side of me sees someone like McAtee who does a bit more of that in the bits I've seen, and I've also seen him get a yellow card for doing almost nothing. So maybe my idea of what a football player should be doing is out of date.

Is it about being physical and tackling, or is it about closing off a certain area and forcing the opposition to go where they don't want to go, or what should the team be doing?

It's a fair debate. With some honourable exceptions like David Reeves, attackers traditionally weren't renowned for chasing and harrying - and you still get that in phrases like "a forward's tackle" (which Paul Scholes knowingly hid behind while fouling...).

Gradually, more all-round duties have evolved, to a greater or lesser extent – Allardyce told Okocha to stand in the way even if he wasn't going to tackle. However, the pressing revolution of the last, say, 20 years has demanded an all-team energy (when deployed; judging by the reactions around me yesterday, some fans think you either press all the time or you don't), which suits some players better than others.

20 years ago Charles could have been a "penalty-box poacher" (subtext: does nowt else) like Le Fondre, but instead he chases hard; conversely, a 20-goal striker like Tony Philliskirk would find it very hard to find work now. (The death of the poacher hastened Michael Owen's downfall too, from England to Stoke via the Stretford abbatoir.)

Often, the press is designed to target a specific weak link (eg Luton targeting a Toal told to be Beckenbauer at LCB) in order to regain possession. That led to teams literally trying to tempt the press - that's the "put your foot on the ball" thing, evangelised by De Zerbi and hated by many fans. So whether a striker should press and close down is a far more complicated, technical, tactical, nuanced issue than the old "get into em and f*ck em up" chant might suggest - although obviously at some point you literally have to stop the opposition.

[DJBlu]

I did like the "It doesn't take 20/30 passes to get it into the box" comment from our newly aquired Cobbler in his post match comments.

[Armchair Wanderer]

Often, the press is designed to target a specific weak link (eg Luton targeting a Toal told to be Beckenbauer at LCB) in order to regain possession. That led to teams literally trying to tempt the press - that's the "put your foot on the ball" thing, evangelised by De Zerbi and hated by many fans. So whether a striker should press and close down is a far more complicated, technical, tactical, nuanced issue than the old "get into em and f*ck em up" chant might suggest - although obviously at some point you literally have to stop the opposition.

Thanks for coming down to my level.

To me, the defending and attacking issues all sounds like a tactical, i.e. manager thing, that can be worked on in training, etc. As such, I'm officially not worried for at least a week or two. I'm sure there are better people for the system who could come in but if that doesn't happen before Tuesday morning, just being a bit more direct and reacting to the opposition's tactics sounds like it'll be an improvement.

[Bertie Wooster]

I did like the "It doesn't take 20/30 passes to get it into the box" comment from our newly aquired Cobbler in his post match comments.

Yes so did I - very promising, however unless we bring in a powerful centre forward who can head the ball then everyone of those passes or crosses into the box will need to be on the floor otherwise they will be wasted.

Personally as well as a big physical midfielder - we either need a centre forward powerful enough to hold the ball up and bring others into play, or we need a quick pacy centre forward who the midfield can thread balls through to get behind the defence.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Often, the press is designed to target a specific weak link (eg Luton targeting a Toal told to be Beckenbauer at LCB) in order to regain possession. That led to teams literally trying to tempt the press - that's the "put your foot on the ball" thing, evangelised by De Zerbi and hated by many fans. So whether a striker should press and close down is a far more complicated, technical, tactical, nuanced issue than the old "get into em and f*ck em up" chant might suggest - although obviously at some point you literally have to stop the opposition.

Thanks for coming down to my level.

To me, the defending and attacking issues all sounds like a tactical, i.e. manager thing, that can be worked on in training, etc. As such, I'm officially not worried for at least a week or two. I'm sure there are better people for the system who could come in but if that doesn't happen before Tuesday morning, just being a bit more direct and reacting to the opposition's tactics sounds like it'll be an improvement.

Ha no problem, not sure who's up and down, it's not a competition, but I hope it helped.

I'm still on the idea that there's good players here that can be used better. There's a few I'd get shut of but it's not up to me. Whether we'll be good enough to go up is what we're here to find out.

[TANGODANCER]

Half our troubles would disappear if a few Pierluigi Collinas were around football. Like it or not, many a game is decided by dodgy officials. We're also not the best at defending set pieces. Just saying...

[BWFC_Insane]

Thing is the reason we need that physical presence is not just defensive reasons in fact it’s mainly not. It’s because for a long time we’ve cried out for greater ability to turn the ball over and/or pin teams in. Yesterday was there for the taking and I think we would have won with that ability in midfield. But even in the spells we got on top reading found getting out and playing through us too easy. If we’d been able to stop that happening more times and even winning the ball back higher up the pitch I think we might have won. To an extent the back three did this job under Darby which worked but we played a bit higher up the pitch against reading and that means you still need a midfield that can do that.

[BWFC_Insane]

When push came to shove, however, Reading were quicker for most of the afternoon. Considering their troubles this season, they have done well to retain a technically gifted midfield in Lewis Wing, Harvey Knibbs and Charlie Savage, but that is where the battle was won and lost.

With Aaron Morley dropped to the bench Randall and Josh Sheehan were picked to ‘out-football’ the Royals’ imperious trio, and they were second best on the day. Sheehan did hit the bar with one excellent free kick but was otherwise ineffective, and both found themselves chasing back more than they did asking questions on the ball.

Feel like Marc Iles sums it all up very well here. Squad is not quite right. Midfield and up front are lacking. We all know it but Schumacher probably has come in too late to really fix it for this season.

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... h-verdict/

[Worthy4England]

When push came to shove, however, Reading were quicker for most of the afternoon. Considering their troubles this season, they have done well to retain a technically gifted midfield in Lewis Wing, Harvey Knibbs and Charlie Savage, but that is where the battle was won and lost.

With Aaron Morley dropped to the bench Randall and Josh Sheehan were picked to ‘out-football’ the Royals’ imperious trio, and they were second best on the day. Sheehan did hit the bar with one excellent free kick but was otherwise ineffective, and both found themselves chasing back more than they did asking questions on the ball.

Feel like Marc Iles sums it all up very well here. Squad is not quite right. Midfield and up front are lacking. We all know it but Schumacher probably has come in too late to really fix it for this season.

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... h-verdict/

Not sure there's much "probably too late" about it, in a transfers sense. Think the squad is now full? So it would take a departure or a young loanee as additions. Question is whether he could do something with what we have, for me. Bit of luck, enough to jump into 6th and give it a die roll.