SAMMY LEE: A GUIDE TO POSITIVITY

[Jamster26]

If in future years, we may look back and remember Gary Megson as the man who reminded us 'we were below Derby when I took over' in the same vain (and same lack of oratory skills), Sammy Lee is often best remembered for 'taking the positives'.

Now at the time, Lee's verbal nonsense served as another reason to call for his immediate dismissal. Today, I shall attempt to use it to try and inject some hope into a set of fans that seem rather tired, bored and disillusioned.

Ok, time to find the positives...

I think it would be correct to say that a fair percentage of our fanbase are unhappy with the direction of the club. The style of football, lack of a cup-run and the safe defensive set-up seem to be the major qualms. I'd add the league position; however I do believe the majority of our fans would accept mid-table 'mediocrity' if the other three improved.

The style of football: Now I think the 'style of football' and the 'safe defensive set-up' often get mistaken as the same thing. The style of football I believe does need to improve, however it, at times, has not been THAT bad. Yes, we are still guilty of 'hoofing' the ball aimlessly from time to time. We often do look for the long ball when the short easy pass would suffice, however, I believe last season our build-up play in the opposition half, moving the ball around the pitch and working opportunities improved a lot. In odd games we even played with a style that has rarely been on offer at the Reebok Stadium. Portsmouth at home comes to mind here.

We are still lacking that one creative player, the likes of a Campo or an Okocha who can create abit of magic in the middle of the park. We will have to sit and hope before the end of the window that we bring one player in who can be our creative spark.

Gary Megson has stated the style of football will improve, now whilst he is hardly the 'people's choice' I believe that he has to be taken at his word on this occasion. I don't think he would make such a bold statement if he wasn't working towards doing something about it. Considering there are still plenty of floating voters (myself included), if he were not to make good on at least attempting to change the style of football, he would lose a lot more fans. I cannot see any gain in making such a statement if he did not have plans to do anything about it.
 

Positives:
Gary Megson says we'll change it.
We are only really one player away from having a good enough attack to change it.
Lack of a cup-run: We all love a good cup-run and the last proper go we had was over two years ago and ended in an entertaining match with Arsenal which we lost in extra-time.

Our cup form has been worrying bar a good UEFA Cup showing (which we appeared to try everything to get ourselves knocked out earlier!) You could argue that survival was more important and as we did stay up both seasons that the decision was justified. However, the fans are now craving some cup excitement, and losing to Northampton isn't going to win anyone over! (Coincidently that was the infamous "goalscoring midfielder" Kevin Nolan's last goal, he today scored in a pre-season friendly route vs Darlington)

Positives:

Well I guess it's all luck of the draw really and there can be no indication whether our cup fortunes will improve. Guess we just have to sit tight and hope.
Megson may not be a master tactician but if all this managerial hoopla goes to pot, he has a job on 'Chorley Market' any day of the week after he flogged Nolan for 4M! (Well actually not on Monday's, Wednesday's and Sunday's- as the market doesn’t run on those days!)
Defensive set-up: This, in my opinion is by far the worst crime Gary Megson has committed. In defence of Megson it is often said; "well he plays the exact same style Big Sam did." That is correct. However the whole different out-look is the defensive set-up. Under Sam, we'd have a go whether we were playing Arsenal or Derby.* We may have been on the end of a few 4-0 thrashings but the wins and the draws vs the top four certainly made up for it.

*Who I'd just like to remind everyone that we were below when Megson took over!

Now we not only seem to have adopted a mentality of sit deep against the top 4, but we witnessed those tactics when we played teams around us like Sunderland, West Brom and Hull. Worrying!

Now next season, my and I believe many others will be swayed over whether this issue is addressed and whether Megson can put aside his tentative tactics and let us have a go at teams.

It's certainly not all rosy in the Wanderers camp; however, it could be a lot worse, a few of the 'Megson Out-ists' seem to be so bleak on every single issue at the club. Once we get a few transfers in, I'm sure the next qualm will be the second we lose pre-season friendly, hands will be thrown in the air in disgust, "Boo, Megson out!" It is almost inevitable.

All that negativity is not needed nor is it going to help matters. The club is bigger than one man, let's not let it split the fans so readily, he is here for the foreseeable future, whether you like him or not, lets just get behind the players and hope for a better season!

As things stand, we are a safe mid-table Premier League team. Let's push on, show a little belief and positivity and hopefully we manage to turn ourselves into an entertaining Premier League team!

(http://www.voiceofbolton.com/latest-news/683-sammy-lee-a-guide-to-positivity)

I agree with pretty much all of that. The fact we need some creative flair is well documented and we need to have a go at teams more and not let them bombard our box for the entire 90 minutes!

And definitely a decent cup run!