Bolton Vs Chelsea

[ohjimmyjimmy]

This 'need pace up front' mantra is a bit of a puzzler...what exactly are we going to do when we have it?

[Worthy4England]

There was a bit of a to do at one point between Taylor and a bloke on the front row of the Lofthouse Stand - he said something and Taylor shouted along the lines of 'fack owf, you kant' - which was nice!

Good for Taylor - again, one of our marginally better players last night, but we shouldn't let what's happening on the pitch affect the really witty comment you were about to make, based on the fact "All me mates agree with me"

Aye agreed. It took Taylor playing on the wrong side to show Petrov that its a good idea to beat your first man with a cross, the first (and probably only) really good delivery we got into the box.

Its got to the point where I don't think anyone can justify not starting Taylor if Petrov is the alternative.

I recall the great debate about how we needed to piggy back Taylor to any Club willing to offer more than a fiver, based on the fact that Taylor couldn't even get a corner past the first man and scored most of his goals from pengies. Wonder how many goes Petrov had at that last night? That said, our one decent effort on goal, I think came from a Petrov cross to Taylor.

[Lofthouse Lower]

Those corners were a shambles. I'd forgotten about those - thanks for reminding me!

[Peter Thompson]

This 'need pace up front' mantra is a bit of a puzzler...what exactly are we going to do when we have it?

It would give us a plan B, another option instead of pinging aimless balls to the heads of davies & elmander when they are being marked by top defenders who are decent in the air. It would enable us to play balls in behind the opposition defence and break quicker - saying that we would then need midfield players who could make said passes in behind defences and it would also render Zak 'hoof' Knight useless as his stock out ball is a sky high aimless hoof.

But its not just pace....we need players with better overall movement around the pitch

We had a brief spell when we played with said pace & movement (Wolves away / Newcastle home etc....) when Holden & Elmander were playing well, but for whatever reason that was too brief a spell and on current form doesn't look like being repeated anytime soon.

[ohjimmyjimmy]

i know, but unless we know how to use it then it would be even worse than Plan A !

Whats worse than pinging a high ball up to KD or Elmander is pinging a high ball towards someone who's fast and not much else. The end result is an even less effective set-up.

[TKIZ!]

i know, but unless we know how to use it then it would be even worse than Plan A !

Whats worse than pinging a high ball up to KD or Elmander is pinging a high ball towards someone who's fast and not much else. The end result is an even less effective set-up.

Never stopped Darren Bent at Sunderland, Jimmy. When they had him and Kenwyne Jones upfront, they pretty much lobbed it forward for him and Jones to chase down

[ohjimmyjimmy]

Ok then problem solved lets sign one of them two

Note i said 'fast and not much else', which is what one or two seem to think is the answer, 'pace' !

[boltonboris]

Aye but when we played 4-5-1 and had slumps exactly like this everyone called for 4-4-2 to change it. We never did and got back on track be re-doing the things we'd done earlier in the season.

For me same applies here at the minute. Its not the "system" but more a combination or a tricky run of games, a stretched squad, a few tired legs and a loss of confidence. I'm not sure switching to a 4-5-1 that wouldn't necessarily suit us would be the magic switch that changes our fortunes.

I think had we played 4-5-1 last night the result would have been exactly the same!

The 4-5-1 we played under Megson, would be nothing like the one under Coyle.

As daft as it sounds, I think we'd have had more chance of scoring with a 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 hybrid than our 4-4-2. We couldn't keep the ball for more than 10 seconds without losing it in the middle of the park

[boltonboris]

First person to mention signing Gary O'Neil gets a slap

It's okay, he's gone to the 'Ammers!

[Lofthouse Lower]

First person to mention signing Gary O'Neil gets a slap

It's okay, he's gone to the 'Ammers!

Phew!

[boltonboris]

2.5 year deal worth (apparently) £25K per week

[Lofthouse Lower]

now he IS shite

[BWFC_Insane]

Aye but when we played 4-5-1 and had slumps exactly like this everyone called for 4-4-2 to change it. We never did and got back on track be re-doing the things we'd done earlier in the season.

For me same applies here at the minute. Its not the "system" but more a combination or a tricky run of games, a stretched squad, a few tired legs and a loss of confidence. I'm not sure switching to a 4-5-1 that wouldn't necessarily suit us would be the magic switch that changes our fortunes.

I think had we played 4-5-1 last night the result would have been exactly the same!

The 4-5-1 we played under Megson, would be nothing like the one under Coyle.

As daft as it sounds, I think we'd have had more chance of scoring with a 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 hybrid than our 4-4-2. We couldn't keep the ball for more than 10 seconds without losing it in the middle of the park

We saw the Coyle 4-5-1 at Stoke last season.

It were bobbins.

Switched to 4-4-2 for the second half, scored twice and won the game.

[boltonboris]

Okay.. Let's just leave this 4-4-2 as it is then.. Surely we'll get lucky and it'll all just suddenly click into place again.

Chelsea and Stoke are a different proposition altogether. Stoke look for nil-nil and hope for one-nil. Chelsea go out to win the game by dominating the midfield.

We let them. We let everybody.

[Raven]

Toothless spineless performance from us, usual cheating from Chelsea, Drogba scores an incredible goal then ruins it with this stupid antics, sums up everything wrong with the game, other Cheatsea players were as bad, falling over at the slightest touch and doesn't Cashley know you are meant to take the throw in from where the ball went out not 15 foot in front of it. I can't knock SKD too much, when the ref gives everything against him what do you expect as for Petrov please...enough is enough

[BWFC_Insane]

Okay.. Let's just leave this 4-4-2 as it is then.. Surely we'll get lucky and it'll all just suddenly click into place again.

Chelsea and Stoke are a different proposition altogether. Stoke look for nil-nil and hope for one-nil. Chelsea go out to win the game by dominating the midfield.

We let them. We let everybody.

What did we do under Allardyce when we lost 6 on the bounce? Or 5 the next season?

Did we change system, radically overhaul the team? No we kept trying to do what we'd done earlier that had brought us success and eventually refound our form.

[Hoboh]

I had/still have faith in Coyle to deliver a better season than we ever had under Megson but having said that I am getting a bit concearned at the way our form has dipped awfully.
We really need to sort the defence out, it was an all out assult down our right flank last night and I wonder if we really need to look at a right back now we seem to have the centre sorted (hopefully) along with this I hope to hell we can get a decent striker on loan Mandy is playing the banjo again and Davo looks well out of sorts. Mavis should have a run, Benfica boy looks he could be tasty when polished a bit, Petrov should pick splinters for the rest of the season and Korea should be knocked out of the Asia cup asap!!!
What the hell is Jussi up to? saves some blinders then cocks up with the simpler things!
With tomorrow in mind I'm trying not to explode over this result but hey boys you need to wake up!!!!

[jimbo]

Okay.. Let's just leave this 4-4-2 as it is then.. Surely we'll get lucky and it'll all just suddenly click into place again.

Chelsea and Stoke are a different proposition altogether. Stoke look for nil-nil and hope for one-nil. Chelsea go out to win the game by dominating the midfield.

We let them. We let everybody.

Agreed. We've been consistently overrun in midfield for 2 months. Maybe it's time to have a rethink with that in mind. It's not as though the front two are forging a brilliant partnership at the moment either which we would have to break up. Got to be worth it for trying something differenbt.

[boltonboris]

We tweaked things and 'went back to basics'. We went from 4-3-3 to a rigid 4-5-1 and went even uglier than normal. We ground out a few results and the rest is histrory.

We need to be more solid to get back on track. With this 4-4-2, we're anything BUT solid

[BWFC_Insane]

We tweaked things and 'went back to basics'. We went from 4-3-3 to a rigid 4-5-1 and went even uglier than normal. We ground out a few results and the rest is histrory.

We need to be more solid to get back on track. With this 4-4-2, we're anything BUT solid

Absolutely agree with the needing to be more "solid".

I'm not sure that chucking Mark Davies in and playing 1 up top will achieve that, but I suppose its worth a try. I just get worried though when during a bad run a manager tries to change things too much, because you end up in a cycle of changing something every time it doesn't work.

For me Coyle is clearly an attacking positive coach. We need to be more solid yes, but I'd suggest with Coyle we might never be as solid as we'd all like, so perhaps the way forward is to get back onto the front foot in games and start creating some chances. When we got at Chelsea for all of 10 minutes we looked ok, too often these days we play a lot on the back foot. I know you'll say its because we're stretched in midfield but I think its as much that our one wide player yesterday was so bobbins that Chelsea weren't stretched at all and it allowed them to stay tight and compact!