Match Thread Vertu Trophy - Bolton Wanderers (A)

A few worse than others but nobody comes out of tonight with any positives at all

GA included.

 

This one is on GA for me but that doesn't mean the players are blameless.

They felt over matched and thus quit.

 

I think what grates most about this performance is that it gives us a taste of what is to come in the second half of the season as our honeymoon period wears off and we slide into midtable. This isn’t a one off bad showing. Due to squad limitations we’re gonna see more stinkers like this.

Our big players are not performing at the minute (Neufville, Pointon), we were lucky to beat Exeter thanks to Sam Walker’s heroics/bad Exeter finishing, and most positions in the XI are up for grabs based on player form.

after two MOM displays, just when he looked back to form, Wright is crocked again. Patto seemingly injured again.

Sorry to be all doom and gloom. Not an enjoyable night.

 

I said it the other day


We have a number of players who are L1 borderline standard
We have a number of players who are L 2 standard


Metcalf was our best tonight , everyone else …….?

We know standards have to improve .

 

Ha ha. I love Cooky. Who doesn’t. But i can’t remember him being involved in any of his recent appearances.

Leading the press in our system isn’t for him.

 

GA has to be the main culprit. Players out of position and not for the first time recently but his subs made us worse. After he’s had a go at the players he needs to go home and reflect on what he needs to do better himself.

 

3-0 has flattered us. Back to back away matches coming up against relegation fodder which will tell us a lot more about where we are at.
Im personally worried, and fear the worst when I think of what our central defence is going to look like.

 

Drop the five at the back. We can't afford to play the likes of Byrne and Kelly. We need to settle with Baldwin and Pennington/Wright until Tilt is back, then we can go to a back five again.

But surely, we would be better going 4-2-2-2 based on the players we have. I think we've been found out and it's too predictable for the opposition

 

Tough watch that. And I only turned on at 3-0. Running rings round us. Appalling.

 

Think he won 2 headers that went to Bolton players. Non of these results are on him, but he’s certainly not coming on and making an impact. In fact we are getting worse. We’d actually had more shots than Bolton when he came on, can’t remember getting into the box after. People will run and jump to his defence, as like with Hanson, he’s a club legend. But sadly it’s looking like he’s had his day just like Hanson had done by the end. We need a couple of forwards to freshen things up and bring in genuine league 1 quality and mobility.

 

The last couple of months have been a strong lesson that the technical ability of this squad needs a massive upgrade. We've got decent enough runners but the technical quality is very low from back to front. As others have said, there are still too many L2 players in this squad who are nowhere near this level.

 

Pretty awful that. Really not sure why we are insisting on playing people out of position, it makes no sense. Sad to see them giving up towards the end, Bolton were head and shoulders better tonight, no need to make them look better still

Hopefully J Wright just taken off out of caution and back at it Saturday. 3 points against Plymouth and all will be forgiven!

 

Plymouth won tonight!

 

Has he has any service at all?

 

We seem to have a squad (again) made of weetabix. Sick to death of the injuries. Time to change our focus and pay that little bit more for players that arent crocks.

 

And boom… crash back down to earth! The signs have been there since September.. one flukey win vs Exeter and reading the forums you’d think we were champions league material.. if we want to maintain our push we really need a finisher.. we’re creating chances but nothing comes from them.. offload Cook in Jan and see if we can get a proper finisher on loan

 

DF: Halliday, Byrne, Kelly
MF: Pattison, Sarcevic, Lapslie
ST: Cook, Kavanagh

All could go this summer. Half not good enough, other half are crocks. Sadly time has caught up with Sarc and Cook IMO.

 

keep saying it its not the strikers,they are left chasing shadows. Exeter last Saturday ran rings around us,
tonight a bunch of reserves ran rings around us.we are proving that we are just a second div team.