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Post by BWFCTILIDIE on Oct 3, 2015 17:23:18 GMT
They've just lost Mackie and Austin to long term injuries which improves our chances. 4-3 defeat WOW BTiD What price for your prediction??? 600,000/1 I've just retired !
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Post by andyl on Oct 3, 2015 17:39:14 GMT
Well done. Great prediction. Infinite pleasure in that compared to suffering of poor b****s at the match?
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Post by OohMac on Oct 3, 2015 18:01:49 GMT
"Last Edit: about an hour ago by BWFCTILIDIE "
Hmm.
Anyway thats 10 conceded goals in 3 games. back to back 4 in a row(which happened fairly recently with Derby and Rotherham last season) and we have Burnley away next. Whatever positives you throw at Lennon, and i've thrown many in the past, you cannot hide the fact that he is clueless at setting teams up to play away from home. His record is simple shambolic. Another late first half goal, just like Huddersfield and another 94th minute goal. Shocking!
As for many years this team seems to be like spinning plates you fix one problem and the next problem quickly arises. Firstly we can't score and then we score 3 and still lose. It cannot be about the personnel at this point it must surely be the system. Our 4-4-2 isn't really a that, its 9 players in our half and a guy trying to win a header up front.
Lennon blames the referee again. Common theme. No penalties, no red cards but all the refs fault. Wake up Neil, how many away games have you had? How many points? The buck stops with you. Wonder what the odds are on Neil taking a permanent manager job in the premiership now?
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Post by BWFCTILIDIE on Oct 3, 2015 18:31:17 GMT
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Post by thekraken on Oct 3, 2015 18:31:47 GMT
First live game for nearly a year and very enjoyable until the 95th minute. Had the pleasure of sitting with AndyL who I thought was going to have a heart attack at the end. As he said it's your first game of the season; I have to watch this every week.
But despite the excitement it was poor fare. We struggled to create anything after the first two goals. Gave the ball away too much and didn't move off the ball at all. On that showing it's mainly a lack of ability that's the problem plus the NL team selections. Throwing in Pratley without a game under his belt didn't work. Not playing Wheater against JET from the start was a mistake. But moving Prince to right back didn't work as he is inclined to edge to the centre rather than the wing which let in Chery for their third goal. The best of the seven but would like to see it again to see if Amos could have fot anything on it.
As for the others I was impressed by Madine. He won a lot in the air and has that ability to jump and then hang in the air but there was no one to take advantage of his flick ons. Clayton didn't seem able to take on a man and beat him and didn't make a mark on the game. Davies appeared and then disappeared as usual. I was a bit disappointed in Amos who whilst Feeney did give the ball away he had two bites at the cherry. You could say that Silva lost us the game. he scored a well taken goal but then went for glory instead of holding the ball up in the corner put a shot in and they went up the field and scored.
Andy hates Feeney with a passion but he did put a great cross in for Madine's goal and was on the spot to net the second.
Notice NL criticised the ref in his post match rant. I thought he had a reasonable game. NL needs to improve his tactics rather than blame the ref.
On this showing, even though we let in four, and seeing how any team in the championship is capable of an upset or unexpected defeat I think that we should avoid relegation but nothing more. The starting line up had only four of the starting line up that I saw lose 2-1 at Charlton twelve months ago but the overall quality is about the same (except for Chungy). We might be rebuilding but we are not improving.
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Post by riochforthereebok on Oct 3, 2015 19:01:05 GMT
Good shout Kraken but it's not NL I can trust any longer to do the rebuilding. I can't dislike him like I did DF as he talks the talk better and relates to the fans frustrations , but all this blaming the ref business is cheap. Cloughie refused to ever take a swipe at the ref having once exclaimed "the referee makes a decision in 5 seconds, 3 seconds, one second" and they are obviously even more in the spotlight with 3rd/4th referee's, goal line technology and tv replays. What ever happened to the referees decision is final and no correspondence can be entered into?? The old adage that decisions even themselves out over a season!! So stop blaming ref's Neil and get on with your task in hand. We stole defeat from the jaws of victory by our inept and poorly advised/coached or trained, call it what you will, defensive display and for that, NL and that new geezer Steve Somethingorother should take full responsibility for. Not the ref Rant over
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Post by OohMac on Oct 3, 2015 19:35:11 GMT
Some refs change the game. Barry Knight and Mike Riley for example. But too many times now i've heard Lennon say thats the worst performance he's seen.
Rate your own performance Neil? 10 goals in 3 games. How many away wins? How many away points? First challenge of Lennons Managerial career and so far he has no answers. (For the record this is not a "Lennon out" message. We just need him to be better though, if he can't then walk away. I couldn't blame him.
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Post by whitesince63 on Oct 3, 2015 20:36:37 GMT
I still believe the squad is better Than the results we are seeing and as with most earlier posts I blame NL for poor team selection, tactics and substitutions. How on earth Wheater couldn't be in the starting line up just amazes me when he's clearly the best CH we have. Like others I don't for a minute want to lose Lennon but he's got to stop complaining and learn from his mistakes. I genuinely think he is experiencing a pivotal point in his career. Like Coyle who came here with only success on his Cv Lennon has to accept his own limitations and learn from them. Coyle couldn't do that still thinking he was the bees knees when he wasn't. Lennon has to learn from the negatives and hopefully improve himself before he can hope to get a PL job.
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Post by andyl on Oct 3, 2015 21:46:52 GMT
Some hours later I'm still fuming not with the injustice of defeat because the best team won nor against the referee who had a good game but with the predictable way we more or less defeated ourselves in a game we could have stolen and which was a contest between two very poor defences.
The kraken notes my dislike of Feeney and this is because he is a really frustrating player. Today he started really well with an assist after being released on the left by a delightfully incisive Mark Davies pass and he followed up Pratley's shot and Green's fumble to score. But for much of the game he stood square to his flank received passes and played them straight back. He passes poorly and just will not do the only thing he is good at I.e taking his full back on at pace and crossing. Nor will he run beyond him to open up a ball down the line.Once in the second half he did it and then hit an exocet of a cross that all but went out for a throw on the full when Madine was free on the far post. Grrr. He cut inside for their second goal lost control of the ball and we didn't get it back before they scored. Admittedly Amos was pathetic fumbling a weak header and then failing to retrieve his error but Feeney sent them through for about the zillion the time.
It was especially frustrating that at two up we went forward naively were caught on the break and our defenders went to sleep. Even before that they had won two headers they shouldn't have. This was too easy and at a time when we should have consolidated our lead. 2-0 up at half time and we'd have seen it out easily. QPR were weak but hey did pass and move. We did not. Time and time defenders and midfielders were caught on the ball. Or they were surrounded as it arrived slowly. Danns did a good job winning the ball back as did Pratley in the 30 minutes his body allowed but neither can pass for toffee. Spearing who came on and proved the point by zipping a few forward looking and crisp passes, Trotter who starred in the development squad in a midweek win as did Medo ; and Vela are all good players spurned by Neil. If Vela cannot break into midfield he did so well at full back last year why not put him in there again. And if we cannot move the ball in midfield use other players who can!!
Neil's emotional approach helps him to get fight from his players but too often today they were arguing with the referee or being lackadaisical. Dervite iis a poor defender, quite hopeless in the air ,slow to turn, move and block. He could have done better against the decisive goal. No way should he have started before Wheater or Derik( where was he?) Neil makes some very questionable decisions. In hindsight starting Pratley and Clayton was a mistake certainly together. But picking Dervite cost us the game. We got nowhere near their forwards. Prince too is a casual player. He surely should have played the ball out for a throw in for goal three but at least he got some blocks in. Unless and until Neil acquired some tactical acumen and improves his judgment of players we are steadily moving towards relegation
As I came out of the ground a fan spoke to me about the need for Neil to stop getting an easy ride. Dougie was heavily criticised after games. Neil does many of the same things but has a common touch. It's no good his blaming refs and assistants . Today a good effort was overturned by indiscipline, skill deficits and the fact that Neil just does not seem to be able to figure out and communicate to players a strategy to see out games or keep possession and he doesn't consistently pick some players whilst over playing others. Heart rules head too often . We are en route to relegation whilst playing at times quite well. Madine was terrific but too many others were not.
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Post by Pedro on Oct 4, 2015 5:00:16 GMT
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Post by Trotter on Oct 4, 2015 7:37:46 GMT
Great shout on prediction BWFCTILIDIE what is not great is being a Bolton fan at the moment apparently Amos had a mare.
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Post by realtrottersforever on Oct 4, 2015 8:49:08 GMT
Looking at the stats from yesterday's game there was a gap of 75 minutes between the third shot on target (goal 2) and the fourth shot on target (goal 3) what exactly were we doing in between?
Where were the changes to personnel or positions to fill spaces and address this?
We've now shipped 4 goals in 2 consecutive away games neither Huddersfield nor QPR are ( or were) in the top half of the table. QPR hadn't won a game at home since August.
How bad could this result have been if Austin had been playing?
So it's now 1 win in 10 this season (in league) and only 5 in 22 last season (Going back to start of 2015) that makes a grand total of 6 wins in 2015 a pathetic win percentage of 19% no wonder most of my predictions have been for a loss. Relegation is looming large and NL just doesn't seem to have any answers.
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Post by andyl on Oct 4, 2015 10:13:21 GMT
Yes a good point, rtf. Much above has focused on defence but we had nothing by way of a creative midfield until Spearing came on .
Neil, rightly in my opinion, opted for an extra man in midfield, Pratley over a second flanker and the three began well enough until QPR adjusted and Pratley faded. But whereas these last few games Mark D has been a deep lying central midfielder here Neil chose to move him to the left and Pratley took the stage deep and slightly right of Danns although they interchanged. Some of Pratley's best games last season were in the left channel where he can be disruptive and disciplined. Here we were reliant on Danns and Pratley to feed the one flanker and for the most part they could not.
to be effective Feeney needs a midfield service not to his feet when marked but ahead of him to run on to or indeed over the full back to space. That ought to have been an option here. Remember how teams used to exploit Paul Robinson. QPr had a small left back who was allowed to push Feeney too far back and ultimately to attack us! But we set up with a midfield unable to supply to his strengths. It might have helped if Clayton had run right sided channels to create space but he didn't. A ball to Feeney's feet is a ball lost or passed slowly back. To his credit Feeney did chase back well but we were ever on the back foot on that flank. Vela might have helped but the root problem was the isolation of Davies and the lack of a midfielder to zip the right passes or a full back to chip it down the lines.
We will all perhaps remember the skills of Frandsen, Campo, Okocha and others at that sort of pass and the at feet skills of a slower but more skilfu flanker of note, Michael Johansen. Feeney though is more of a David Lee. If he hits 4 bad crosses out of 5 he nevertheless can move us up the pitch and both assist and score goals. If he's to play we must set up to his strengths. If not then we could string other players in midfield and do some bus parking eg Vela in front of Pisano or Wilson or Moxey and Casado perhaps in harness. At present Feeney was unused for those seventy minutes as was Clayton. It is a recurring feature of Neil's selections that he achieves in employment jargon constructive redundancy of one or more players each match
So what else will boost midfield?. Firstly I rather think Osede might step forward? He has shown that he can pass. Secondly although I'm not a Spearing fan his inclusion is a no brainier currently although I like him best when he's a bit more advanced and zipping forward passes. More contentiously I know but Trotter has the potential to be our best midfielder and he can certainly pass head and shoot. I understand he was outstanding in a recent development squad game. I feel it's up to Neil to get the best out of him and silence his detractors. With Medo there are fitness issues but again we have all seen him have good games. More left field in more than one way I was impressed by Twardzik who holds a left sided position, is left footed, can pass and is a good header of a ball. For me he should be ahead of Walker! But whether these or other solutions attract-- and we ought to be able to asume that Neil knows his players' fitness and skills best from day to day management, we have a creative problem in midfield which absents us from long phases of control as yesterday. Neil has to resolve this. We are in a relegation position and it's not just the defence, keeper or Feeney to blame. Neil has to find a formation or two for home and away, find the players to make cohesive, forward movement a possibility and to act now. OK Dervite is perhaps the poorest central defender seen in 30 years , Cid and Thome notwithstanding, but he's just a visible problem to be resolved by deselection. But the whole team needs a reboot?
The daft thing is that we are down amongst the dead in the twilight zone yet the team has at times shown good spirit and played well- better than at this time last year? But results are all . Fans yesterday left fuming at Silva's naïveté but he's an easy scapegoat as for that matter to my own self detriment is Feeney. But it's about more than heart, emotion and passion. There has to be some science applied. Rtf's post above statistically illuminates this by focusing on the missing.data
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Post by riochforthereebok on Oct 4, 2015 11:26:42 GMT
And Neil comments... "Why we can't see the game out I don't know? We're mentally fragile I think. I'm fed up of talking about it." News Flash :: We're fed up of seeing it Neil... And this carried on from all those last season, last minute goals. You have different players now and we are still seeing the same 'last minute' mistakes, amongst all the others. Why can't we see a game out??? Neil, you're the boss along with that Walford bloke for the defence, he should be on it too, you, of all people should have the answers, don't be throwing out stupid commets like that ffs. Mentally fragile??? What on earth is that meant to mean?? We're not mentally fragile, we just don't have a winning mentality and that is from you Neil and the not so positive influence you have on the players. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink-You can pick a decent player and make him play better, if you coach him well and also play him in the right position... Sort it Neil, from your biggest fan Rioch
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Post by realtrottersforever on Oct 4, 2015 14:53:29 GMT
What gets me is, that NL was on SoccerAM on Saturday putting Jimmy Bullard through his paces on one of his (Lennon's) favourite drills. A shooting practice drill. NL said it was something they did regularly at Celtic! Does that mean he doesn't utilise it at Bolton?
JB was pitted against Dobbie who did very well and who NL said was a good finisher. If he's a good finisher why isn't he being used more, if only as an impact sub? On Saturday we had 4 shots that resulted in 3 goals, I know it was against Rob Green, all the more reason to have been peppering their goal with shots. Why are our players so reluctant to shoot??
The last 2 games, we have improved when Spearing has come on, why is NL so reluctant to play him instead of Danns, if only for the occasional game, especially when we have 2 games in a week? We have a surfeit of midfielders and yet you'd think we only had the two!!
Why has Vela suddenly dropped out of favour?
How can anyone prefer Dervite to Wheater?
Answers on a postcard please.
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