Second-half of the season: Coyle Vs. Megson

[Craig-J]

Gary Megson was placed on gardening leave after Bolton surrendered a two goal lead to draw 2-2 with Hull City at home at the end of December 2009. In early January 2010, Owen Coyle was named the new Bolton Wanderers manager. Below is a list of the actual Bwfc results under Coyle and what I think the results would have been under Gary Megson's continued leadership. Will we still finish 14th on 39 points?

Our ACTUAL results under Owen Coyle are in Blue and our "what if?" results under Megson are in Red:

ARSENAL (H) L 0-2 - L 0-2
Arsenal (a) L 2-4 - L 0-4
BURNLEY (H) W 1-0 - D 1-1
Liverpool (a) L 0-2 - L 0-3

FULHAM (H) D 0-0 - D 0-0
Man City (a) L 0-2 - L 0-4
Wigan (a) D 0-0 - L 0-1
Blackburn (a) L 0-3 - L 0-4
WOLVES (H) W 1-0 - D 1-1

West Ham (a) W 2-1 - W 2-1
Sunderland (a) L 0-4 - L 0-4
WIGAN (H) W 4-0 - W 4-0
Everton (a) L 0-2 - L 0-2
MAN UTD (H) L 0-4 - L 0-4

A. VILLA (H) L 0-1 - L 0-2
Chelsea (a) L 0-1 - L 0-6
Stoke (a) W 2-1 - L 0-2
PORTSMOUTH (H) D 2-2 - D 2-2

Tottenham (a) L 0-1 - L 0-3
BIRMINGHAM (H) W 2-1 - D 1-1

Under Gary Megson, we would have been relegated from the Premier League, finishing the season in 19th place with 29 points.

Coyle: 39pts - 14th place
Megson: 29pts - 19th place

All I can say is thank goodness Phil Gartside & Eddie Davies made the managerial change when they did!

[Big_Sharps]

Is this what if in your opinion or have you used some sort of technique to predict the likeliest outcome?

[Craig-J]

Is this what if in your opinion or have you used some sort of technique to predict the likeliest outcome?

Opinion/technique, same thing!

Feel free to have a go at predicting the Meggo outcome yourself!

[Bwfc4eva]

I think he would have got us a win against Wolves/Burnley and won the Wigan game at home 2-1 Leaving us on 32 points. Owen is better, no question.

[Big_Sharps]

I do think Megson would have kept us up but it would have been by the skin of our teeth and due to the poorness of the other teams rather than our own quality.

The thing Megson lacks is the bottle to try and change a game and makes safe substitions and dosnt have it in him to try and take the game to the opposition.  I think the 2008/2009 season proved that when all we needed was a win with a few games left to secure survival and he opted to frustrate the opponent and avoid being defeated which was when I started to doubt him.

[Sluffy]

I think Megson would have kept us up too.

He did it twice before - the first season when I thought no one could!

Don't forget Megson had got 18 points when he was sacked - and as it turns out only needed a further 13 points from 20 games to have kept us up.

[Natasha Whittam]

Gary Megson was placed on gardening leave after Bolton surrendered a two goal lead to draw 2-2 with Hull City at home at the end of December 2009. In early January 2010, Owen Coyle was named the new Bolton Wanderers manager. Below is a list of the actual Bwfc results under Coyle and what I think the results would have been under Gary Megson's continued leadership. Will we still finish 14th on 39 points?

This is a good idea for a thread Craig but your assumptions are ridiculous.

[Howfen White]

This is a good idea for a thread Craig but your assumptions are ridiculous.

Agreed. If anyone can be arsed, maybe a comparison of Coyle this season against Megson's 2nd half last season?

[jimbo_bwfc]

Out of interest given our results at home against the teams around us since OC has come in, does anyone think we'd have lost/drawn the games against Sunderland, Blackburn Hull, Stoke.

We took 2pts from those games. I'd have expected Coyle would have had amassed anything from 8-12pts.