Good morning.
Well we won despite ourselves. And if you listen to Owen Coyle, against adversity. As previously on ER, I’m bored now. Nobody died and Bolton fans need to look at themselves reviving the Muamba chant late in the game to rouse their players. By the same logic maybe we could have got more out of our lot last season by flashing up images of Wilson Palacios’ relatives on the Jumbotron?
So in a football context…
The positives were certainly Bale who looked like a man restored. Modric planted in front of PNB and Livermore worked excellently. Adebayor and Rafa looked like the mature and talented chaps they undoubtedly are. The most positive positive of all is Arry managing us again.
There, I said it. We have a manager who for the second time in only a few days appears to have grasped what needed doing and acted accordingly. This underlines of course how he went AWOL on us, but it’s refreshing to see him back and taking an interest.
Negatives?
Well we kept making chances and missing them will be the cry. All I can say is I would rather we did that made just 3 chances all game. So no call for anyone out or anyone in from me.
One niggle is I have to question the sanity of these long rang shots unless they’re thunderbolts of eloquently placed. Have you too noticed the increasing, ‘Whaaaat?’ from every guy that misses to his frustrated team mates after missing? Hopefully this can be ironed out by Arry encouraging them to occasionally think of others when in a shooting position.
6.814 No complaints
7.878 Genuinely mmense.
7.444 Sound and a super goal.
6.488 Jury’s still out.
7.456 Free as a bird
7.565 Considered performance.
7.000 Less pressure
7.000 Dipped in and out
8.001 Needs to share more?
8.000 Always wonderfully creative.
8.000 He’s good stuff.
7.003 Super goal.
7.999 Wonderfully selfish
Good to see redknapp take parker off and leave more creative players on the pitch to get the goal,something redknapp has got wrong on plenty of occasions if you ask me,great to have the chelsea game,should be a good afternoon,COYS
on the game we should have been 2-0 up at the break at least,what exactly is wrong with them,it is so strange,adebayor and vdv are the number one frontline easily in my opinion,livermore is coming along nicely,peach of a pass,looks like we might have a decent all rounder in the middle,could have opened the scoring easily
Bolton aren’t very good,we had a 1000 chances and were still hanging on in the last 5min,but won 3-1,i’m hoping we have broken this jinx,thats what it felt like when nelsen scored,great goal from him and released everbody at the lane,the pressure was certainly building
tough game against swansea,no doubt
I think the frustration with Ade (and there was some with VDV also) in the crowd was a reflection of trillions of attempts with nothing to show, and they both spurned good chances….you know the feeling…. “it’s one of those games etc”. Overall both made a good contribution but VDV tires and I think Ade gets a bit down (i.e. doesn’t smile as much when he falls over). Should be looking to get Defoe on earlier however … but to be fair to Arry the build up/chance creation was working almost from the off…so what’s to change ? would be in his minf I’d guess ( along with Rosie’s account, the England job, what to say to the press / Talkshite etc).
As some have said on here previously you need that threat from set pieces to make the difference. As soon as we got that Bolton had to open up which gave us more space. If Nelsen doesn’t score that goal it probably finishes 0-0 and we are all moaning again.
Bit worried about HR saying we should offer Nelsen a contract though. We can only keep one from Nelsen, Gallas and King if we are going to bring back Caulker and sign a replacement for Bassong.
Walker is not the finished article and is still improving but there are times when he seems to be playing RB,RM and RW. Incredible speed and fitness and will only get better.
Anyone else notice Defoe and Bale’s little tiff late on. Found it quite funny :) other than that, great game from the lads. Coys
yes! – dunno why- he actually passed the ball once last night!
The tiff was because Bale did a very Defoe-esque thing, by running down the channel and hitting the ball as hard as possible at the near post with not much to aim at, when there was probably a pass on that would lead to a certain goal.
Bale laughed at him though. Lol.
Bit hypocrital of Defoe, as this is something he is the most guilty of (resulting in his “what, me!?” face).
I love Defoe, but his attitude is starting to frustrate me. I know he must be annoyed being stuck on the bench, but he could do with not being such a cock on occasions.
It is not Defoe’s attitude that frustrates me, it is his complete inability to make a good decision up front or to be a team player. I am sick of him.
He is NEVER going to score from 20-25 yards out at the angles he gets himself into (often because his first touch is shite and forces him out too wide). He can complain about Bale, but when Bale gets into perfect wide positions to deliver passes, he always has his head up looking for a teammate.
Another massive difference is the shots from 30-35 up the middle. Defoe will have runners out wide and three defenders in front of him and will just blast the ball straight at the defenders – every f’n time. Watch Bale play under the same situation and you will see he rarely takes a shot that is blasted straight into a defender.
One last point – I loved Sam’s comments on Ade earlier. He is the complete polar opposite of Defoe as a team player. He truly understands the criticality of being able to occupy defenders and also to pull them out of position to open up space for his mates. I don’t think there is a better hold up striker on the planet right now.
Daytripper,
He’s also our top scorer despite spending most of the season on the bench. He must be doing something right.
There was I thinking he’d laid Bales on a plate, as he’s done before,but you see what you want to see I guess? Livermore =Jenas Mk11?…total BS
Yes, and its healthy. shows passion, desire to win and do well. If it wasn’t there id be worried.
Agreed; shows they both want to score, which is fine by me.
Oh yeh, not to come across as I don’t like to see a bit of passion – but more frustrated with the irony of it all.