Dougie Freedman - Ten Months On

[Lord Kangana]

How could anyone hate you Dan?

[bwfcdan94]

I am sure there are some people although I think the majority of you just see me as a comedy character.

[Peter Thompson]

Not convinced at all - our passing, ball retention & movement is not much better than under the last man, and we still play it aimlessly long far to often.

However, like others have said I would certainly like him to be successful.

[Chrisfu]

Not convinced at all - our passing, ball retention & movement is not much better than under the last man, and we still play it aimlessly long far to often.

However, like others have said I would certainly like him to be successful.

I disagree with a large part of that. If I recall correctly, our possession was much improved in the second half of the season. It wasn't perfect, but near-parity in games we were chasing and we had a good few games where we bossed it. I'm hoping that with the return of Spearing, some new wide players and the injection of youth, we should step up a gear this year in the league.

[PC1978]

Not convinced at all - our passing, ball retention & movement is not much better than under the last man, and we still play it aimlessly long far to often.

However, like others have said I would certainly like him to be successful.

I disagree with a large part of that. If I recall correctly, our possession was much improved in the second half of the season. It wasn't perfect, but near-parity in games we were chasing and we had a good few games where we bossed it. I'm hoping that with the return of Spearing, some new wide players and the injection of youth, we should step up a gear this year in the league.

Is that an articulated version of we will p!ss it? I like it!

[StaffsTrotter]

I don't want to put a downer on things BUT don't forget Owen Coyle was fantastic for the first 14 months.

My personal opinion is he has done a good job on both the transfer and results front. He has stabilised the club that was in sharp decline under Coyle. Hopefully now he can turn us around and get us back up to the table.

Fingers crossed because I do like what he is doing.

He had a stabilised 14 months, with including a ~5 month period of performing well, and 1 fantastic month with that Newcastle result. Then our decline.

think it was as much about approach and ethos - OC's famous going toe to toe. Remember watching Villa away and we were still going at them in last 10 minutes with scores level - all very exciting, - hoping for the winner but half expecting the sucker punch

as everyone else has said, DF seems more Allardyce like in his approach (which is strange for an ex attacker). just hope that in similar vein the better structure then allows the football to come out as results improve/ confidence grows

[SmokinFrazier]

Every time I hear Freedman talk about the future of the club as a whole or hear his plans on how we can improve on the pitch, I'm very impressed. I think he talks a good game but unfortunately, I don't think we are playing that well as a side, especially going forward. I think we should be able to keep hold of the ball much better than we do and we should certainly create more threatening chances. At the moment though, we're such a scrappy side going forward and not enough of our goals come from good teamwork. Of the teams I've watched for 90 minutes in the Championship, I think we have some of the least threatening attacking play. It's just poor, honestly.

Freedman is the opposite to Coyle in some senses but I'm not convinced he's a much better manager - if at all. I doubt Freedman would have got the Burnley side Coyle had promoted. Coyle's sides can't defend but Freedman's sides are incapable of battering a team like Wigan did last weak, having 63% of possession resulting in 15 shots, 9 of which were on target. Both of them have flaws but Coyle is the more proven, successful manager. I think the current Bolton and Wigan squads are evenly matched, so we'll see at the end of the season who can get the most out of their players.

[PC1978]

Every time I hear Freedman talk about the future of the club as a whole or hear his plans on how we can improve on the pitch, I'm very impressed. I think he talks a good game but unfortunately, I don't think we are playing that well as a side, especially going forward. I think we should be able to keep hold of the ball much better than we do and we should certainly create more threatening chances. At the moment though, we're such a scrappy side going forward and not enough of our goals come from good teamwork. Of the teams I've watched for 90 minutes in the Championship, I think we have some of the least threatening attacking play. It's just poor, honestly.

Freedman is the opposite to Coyle in some senses but I'm not convinced he's a much better manager - if at all. I doubt Freedman would have got the Burnley side Coyle had promoted. Coyle's sides can't defend but Freedman's sides are incapable of battering a team like Wigan did last weak, having 63% of possession resulting in 15 shots, 9 of which were on target. Both of them have flaws but Coyle is the more proven, successful manager. I think the current Bolton and Wigan squads are evenly matched, so we'll see at the end of the season who can get the most out of their players.

In summary then, Coyle >> Freedman?????

[YtarmyYtarmy]

I am sure there are some people although I think the majority of you just see me as a comedy character.

That's the most sensible thing you've said Dan LOL

[BWFC_Insane]

Every time I hear Freedman talk about the future of the club as a whole or hear his plans on how we can improve on the pitch, I'm very impressed. I think he talks a good game but unfortunately, I don't think we are playing that well as a side, especially going forward. I think we should be able to keep hold of the ball much better than we do and we should certainly create more threatening chances. At the moment though, we're such a scrappy side going forward and not enough of our goals come from good teamwork. Of the teams I've watched for 90 minutes in the Championship, I think we have some of the least threatening attacking play. It's just poor, honestly.

Freedman is the opposite to Coyle in some senses but I'm not convinced he's a much better manager - if at all. I doubt Freedman would have got the Burnley side Coyle had promoted. Coyle's sides can't defend but Freedman's sides are incapable of battering a team like Wigan did last weak, having 63% of possession resulting in 15 shots, 9 of which were on target. Both of them have flaws but Coyle is the more proven, successful manager. I think the current Bolton and Wigan squads are evenly matched, so we'll see at the end of the season who can get the most out of their players.

Perhaps you'd care to explain then why Coyle left this squad in 18th position in the championship and then Freedman managed to get us to 7th?

[Chrisfu]

Not convinced at all - our passing, ball retention & movement is not much better than under the last man, and we still play it aimlessly long far to often.

However, like others have said I would certainly like him to be successful.

I disagree with a large part of that. If I recall correctly, our possession was much improved in the second half of the season. It wasn't perfect, but near-parity in games we were chasing and we had a good few games where we bossed it. I'm hoping that with the return of Spearing, some new wide players and the injection of youth, we should step up a gear this year in the league.

Is that an articulated version of we will p!ss it? I like it!

F**k no. It'd be nice of course, but I reckon there are another 7-8 strong contenders this year (much like last season) that we'll struggle with. Winning games against the bottom-halfers are what we need to fix this year, over-running them and just putting them under pressure for a full 90 minutes. Grind out results there are we'll go up, but we certainly won't be walking it in my opinion.

[PC1978]

Not convinced at all - our passing, ball retention & movement is not much better than under the last man, and we still play it aimlessly long far to often.

However, like others have said I would certainly like him to be successful.

I disagree with a large part of that. If I recall correctly, our possession was much improved in the second half of the season. It wasn't perfect, but near-parity in games we were chasing and we had a good few games where we bossed it. I'm hoping that with the return of Spearing, some new wide players and the injection of youth, we should step up a gear this year in the league.

Is that an articulated version of we will p!ss it? I like it!

F**k no. It'd be nice of course, but I reckon there are another 7-8 strong contenders this year (much like last season) that we'll struggle with. Winning games against the bottom-halfers are what we need to fix this year, over-running them and just putting them under pressure for a full 90 minutes. Grind out results there are we'll go up, but we certainly won't be walking it in my opinion.

I wasn't being funny or having a pop. I was appreciating your optimism!

[Bruno3]

Every time I hear Freedman talk about the future of the club as a whole or hear his plans on how we can improve on the pitch, I'm very impressed. I think he talks a good game but unfortunately, I don't think we are playing that well as a side, especially going forward. I think we should be able to keep hold of the ball much better than we do and we should certainly create more threatening chances. At the moment though, we're such a scrappy side going forward and not enough of our goals come from good teamwork. Of the teams I've watched for 90 minutes in the Championship, I think we have some of the least threatening attacking play. It's just poor, honestly.

Freedman is the opposite to Coyle in some senses but I'm not convinced he's a much better manager - if at all. I doubt Freedman would have got the Burnley side Coyle had promoted. Coyle's sides can't defend but Freedman's sides are incapable of battering a team like Wigan did last weak, having 63% of possession resulting in 15 shots, 9 of which were on target. Both of them have flaws but Coyle is the more proven, successful manager. I think the current Bolton and Wigan squads are evenly matched, so we'll see at the end of the season who can get the most out of their players.

They were playing against 10 men

[Chrisfu]

Not convinced at all - our passing, ball retention & movement is not much better than under the last man, and we still play it aimlessly long far to often.

However, like others have said I would certainly like him to be successful.

I disagree with a large part of that. If I recall correctly, our possession was much improved in the second half of the season. It wasn't perfect, but near-parity in games we were chasing and we had a good few games where we bossed it. I'm hoping that with the return of Spearing, some new wide players and the injection of youth, we should step up a gear this year in the league.

Is that an articulated version of we will p!ss it? I like it!

F**k no. It'd be nice of course, but I reckon there are another 7-8 strong contenders this year (much like last season) that we'll struggle with. Winning games against the bottom-halfers are what we need to fix this year, over-running them and just putting them under pressure for a full 90 minutes. Grind out results there are we'll go up, but we certainly won't be walking it in my opinion.

I wasn't being funny or having a pop. I was appreciating your optimism!

It was taken the right way mate, no worries!

[IggyTheDawgster]

I've been very impressed by Freedman so far, Long may it continue too. He's very persistent, so it seems, regarding players and the whole club seems to have been revamped into a much better experience than it was under the former management.

[SmokinFrazier]

Every time I hear Freedman talk about the future of the club as a whole or hear his plans on how we can improve on the pitch, I'm very impressed. I think he talks a good game but unfortunately, I don't think we are playing that well as a side, especially going forward. I think we should be able to keep hold of the ball much better than we do and we should certainly create more threatening chances. At the moment though, we're such a scrappy side going forward and not enough of our goals come from good teamwork. Of the teams I've watched for 90 minutes in the Championship, I think we have some of the least threatening attacking play. It's just poor, honestly.

Freedman is the opposite to Coyle in some senses but I'm not convinced he's a much better manager - if at all. I doubt Freedman would have got the Burnley side Coyle had promoted. Coyle's sides can't defend but Freedman's sides are incapable of battering a team like Wigan did last weak, having 63% of possession resulting in 15 shots, 9 of which were on target. Both of them have flaws but Coyle is the more proven, successful manager. I think the current Bolton and Wigan squads are evenly matched, so we'll see at the end of the season who can get the most out of their players.

In summary then, Coyle >> Freedman?????

Maybe, yeah. He's certainly the more proven manager. Freedman got the Bolton job based of a win over United's third string team and a decent start to a season. Coyle had done well at Falkirk, St. Johnstone and then did incredibly well with Burnley.

They were playing against 10 men

True but they were already 2-0 up and dominating the game. You could look at the 4-0 win over QPR, the 5-0 win over Stoke, the 3-1 over Liverpool and numerous other examples of us winning and looking very threatening under Coyle. There's no doubt about it for me. Coyle knows far more about attacking football than Freedman does.

Perhaps you'd care to explain then why Coyle left this squad in 18th position in the championship and then Freedman managed to get us to 7th?

Coyle was incapable of turning things around for us.

[BWFC_Insane]

Perhaps you'd care to explain then why Coyle left this squad in 18th position in the championship and then Freedman managed to get us to 7th?

Coyle was incapable of turning things around for us.

So I'm genuinely interested in why that was? Coyle built the squad over 3 years. Had in his own words "the group of players he always wanted".

So why was he incapable of doing what Freedman did and at least turn our form round?

And if he was incapable of doing what Freedman did, then what basis do you have for your assessment of the pair?

[jmjhb]

We might have won 4-0 and 5-0 a couple of times under Coyle but we also got thrashed by 3 goals or more on a regular basis.

We still haven't lost a game by more than a single goal under Freedman.

I know which set of results I prefer.

[Peter Thompson]

Not convinced at all - our passing, ball retention & movement is not much better than under the last man, and we still play it aimlessly long far to often.

However, like others have said I would certainly like him to be successful.

I disagree with a large part of that. If I recall correctly, our possession was much improved in the second half of the season. It wasn't perfect, but near-parity in games we were chasing and we had a good few games where we bossed it. I'm hoping that with the return of Spearing, some new wide players and the injection of youth, we should step up a gear this year in the league.

We still need more fluency and tempo in possession, and need to move the ball quicker for me - at times we still don't play as a team and look like a team of strangers. His work in the transfer market is promising and I agree there is hope that the corner has been turned - but TBH any manager who keeps playing 'make a least one costly mistake a game' Knight (even worse making him captain) doesn't convince me that he's a top manager, add the fact the he thinks that Knight & Wheater can play together is also a little puzzling to me.

His No1 priority this summer really should have been to bring in a mobile, quicker CB - because until we start to keep regular clean sheets I don't think that we will be top 6.

Therefore I'm still yet to be convinced - however I do like him more than Coyle, he appears tactically astute & switched on and I can see what he's trying to do with the team.

[SmokinFrazier]

Perhaps you'd care to explain then why Coyle left this squad in 18th position in the championship and then Freedman managed to get us to 7th?

Coyle was incapable of turning things around for us.

So I'm genuinely interested in why that was? Coyle built the squad over 3 years. Had in his own words "the group of players he always wanted".

So why was he incapable of doing what Freedman did and at least turn our form round?

And if he was incapable of doing what Freedman did, then what basis do you have for your assessment of the pair?

I suspect it's because the players lost faith in Coyle due to his inability to make changes. If they're playing for someone and losing, and that manager doesn't change anything, the players are bound to lose faith in him. You get a new manager in, he has some fresh ideas and the players respond well, not to the changes themselves but the enthusiasm and optimism a new manager brings.

Coyle himself benefited from this when he took over at Bolton. The players were down, he came in with bundles of enthusiasm and the players reacted well to it. It's not a true reflection of a managers abilities but more about the change in mentality that a squad goes through when they've lost faith in a manager compared to when someone with a fresh mentality comes in.

I don't rate Coyle highly as a manager, by the way, but he deserves more credit for his abilities than a lot of Bolton fans are willing to give him. Like the players, the fans resort to hyperbole when a manager is sacked and another comes in and starts talking a good game. You should know this, by the way, seeing as you once said Coyle was too good for Liverpool and now you seem to view him as an awful manager.