I just can't understand what is going wrong this season, please can somebody help me get my head around it?
Keeper: At the start of the season, the keeping situation was dire, Jussi was playing like a man with zero confidence. When Bogdan came in, he was Conference standard at best. Fortunately Jussi seems to have turned it around and playing at 75% like his old self, which might just be enough til the end of the season. Why on earth we sold Al Habsi is a mystery. We could have sold Jussi and Bogdan to save the £3m or so we got for Ali, and then stuck with the reserve keeper. Make no mistake, (unlike our keepers), this has cost us and will cost us several priceless points this season.
Defence: Fullbacks: have cost us a goal each per game on average. Absolutely terrible, give the ball away, ball watch, let their man go, fail to block shots, offer absolutely nothing up front, and generally league 2 standard at best. Robinson, Steinnson and Boyata absolutely atrocious. If we can get Reilly back at RB and Gardner at LB that will help. Reilly and Gardner are our only current hope unless we can get two decent ones in January. Isn't Jimmy Phillips still on our books? He'd do a better job than Robinson and he was sh!te when he was here!
Centre halves: Wheater, Cahill and Knight have been average, cost us games by getting sent off, distribution generally poor, offer nothing in attach at corners, low on confidence, however have the potential to keep us up if they are supported by good keeping and midfield. I don't think we'll miss Cahill that much if he goes, if we can get £5m or above, then go for it. We should have taken this amount in the summer (if we were ever offered it of course). Best combo would be Wheater (if he can avoid red cards, the to$$er) and Knight / Ricketts.
Midfield: Too many average players with poor performances. Pratley, absolutely useless player, no desire, commitment, skill. I never could see the point of signing him, average championship player at best. Reo-Coker is a squad player at best and if you have to reply on him then you're in trouble. Muamba is useful when used at the right time and can break up play and shore up the midfield, distrubution terrible. Eagles has had good and bad games, he gives the ball away way too much however, if he can be consistent he could be ok for us. A City fan told me we'd get one good game in 5 from Petrov when we signed him, and he wasn't wrong. Robinson and Petrov are a lethal combination together (in the wrong way) and Petrov needs to be used in the right way. M Davies has been a decent player recently and deserves to start if he can keep up his form, along with him, CYL and Stu Holden our our only hope. If we can get those two back asap, I'd have Lee on the right, Holden and Muamba in Midfield and Petrov or Kakuta on the left, as it stands now, I'd have Eagles on the right, Muamba and Mavies in the middle with Petrov or Kakuta on the left. They'd need to give 110% or be off.
Forwards: Ngog is a total waste of time, money, air. No skill, desire, commitment, eye for goal. Just a total over paid journeyman. I'd sell him for whatever we could in January and call it a bad deal. KDavies isn't having his best season but he's 10x better than Ngog. KDavies seems to have lost a yard of pace (not that he had much) and seems to be on a downer which is unacceptable at this level. If he can get some commitment back he might be able to go on a run of games and be useful. Coyle doesn't like long ball which is why Davies isn't getting any action. However I think most Bolton fans would take long ball right now if it helped us get out of the sh!t. Klasnic can get goals as he's proved but is getting poor service and even when the ball eventually breaks for him he seems to have a bad attitude which isn't helping.
Manager / Tactics: People were saying Megson was tactically inept. Coyle makes him look like Alex Ferguson. Very one dimensional, thinks by trying to be 100% positive all the time is enough... it isn't. Anyone can be positive and encourage everyone all the time but it isn't enough when things aren't going well. When you've had a bad run of injuries / decisions / fixtures you need more in your locker and he has been found out. His backroom staff don't seem to be of much help. He needs a top class defensive coach. Getting rid of Fred Barber was a bad decision as goalkeeping coach. This definitely has had an impact on the keeping situation. We have been getting beat time and time again from the same positions. It took him 6 games before he tried something different at left back. He doesn't seem to learn from any mistakes. His tactics and team selections have been bizarre. Taking off Muamba for Eagles against NUFC was a classic example. Better to have ground out a boring 0-0 draw than gamble for Eagles (who probably gives the ball away more than any other player) for Muamba who at least can defend. With our full backs as they are, you can't afford to take any risks as they will backfire 90% of the time as proved with the sib decision. All that happened was Eagles gave the ball away (surprise) and we got caught out at right back (surprise) allowed a cross to come in (surprise) and then couldn't defend it in the middle (surprise). One minute later Robinson gave the ball away (surprise), refused to tackle and allowed the attacker inside the box (surprise and basic mistake), allowed the cross (surprise) and we couldn't defend in the middle (surprise). This was Coyle's fault. We could have ground out a 0-0 draw which would have been boring, but would allowed us to have built on the win against the Dingles and maybe gave us another ounce of confidence going in to the Wolves game. Instead we're right back in the sh!te, thanks to Coyle, his tactics and team selections. If you're going to drop KDavies, then fine, but don't replace him with someone who's not even good enough for the reserves.
I don't buy the conspiracy theory that we're deliberately trying to go down for the finance situation. Everyone wants to stay in the Premiership, we gambled on Coyle and it's failed. The club always try to have contingency in going down. We can only hope that Coyle learns very quickly from this but the signs aren't good.
He needs to pull a few rabbits out of the hat in January, starting with two strong fullbacks, and someone who can score. If we need to sell Cahill to fund it, then fine.
Oh, and if he starts with Robinson and / or Boyata against Wolves, then it proves he is as thick as pig sh!t.
Our only hope is if all the players play to their potential and we start with a half decent team:
Jussi
Ricketts Wheater Cahill Anyone other than Robinson
Muamba
Eagles Mavies Petrov / Kakuta
Klasnic Davies (Tuncay and Ngog are worse)
Muamba needs to stay back, cover for the shaky defence and give the ball to Mavies at every opportunity.
We need to go long when necessary.
