Bolton Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

[matp]

Happy with a point personally. This was always going to be very hard.

On THudd - someone needs to tell him his passing isn't as good as he thinks it is. Too ambitious and part of being a good player is knowing your limits.

(While they're at it they can tell Bentley his shooting isn't as good as he thinks)

 

[theShiznit]

seems to me that Harry is accommodating players to avoid putting some noses out of joint... he knows that Pav, Dawson, Bale are all fairly amiable characters so doesn't have a problem leaving those out. and what's the point in not having Pav around and putting not 1, not 2, but 3 Full backs on the bench, and a centre half for good measure...

big risk putting Huddles up against someone like Davies who experienced centre halves have enough problems with, but saying that he stood up quite well.

Dawson should have played today, but Harry didn't want to make the call between Jeans and Huddles in midfield. Same last week with Keane, Defoe and Crouch, also using convenient injuries to leave players out (Pav firstly and then Defoe today)

Barring injury to others i don't think the Comolli/Ramos signed Pavlyuchenko will play again, which is a real shame, would like to see him sold to a prem team (if at all) to show what he can really do in this league.

With probably Modric and King back for our next game, he will have to upset some people or will he play...

------------------------Cudicini

-------------King-------Huddles--------Bassong

Lennon-----Jenas--------Palacios------Kranjcar-----Modric

---------------Keane(*)---Crouch(*)----Defoe(*)

*Delete conveniently injured as applicable.

 

[met was god]

I dont trust cudicini in goal. Does anyone else feel this way?

everyone should feel that way. Gomes back next please.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Very good advert for the premiership, and we showed today that we can go direct when we need to as well, not just rely on the pretty stuff. A defence lacking our two main centre backs still didn't convince, but all in all I thought it coped against a team who often.

Cudicini: well what can I say. The second goal I'll cut him some slack, he'd have ben expecting the whipped cross in front of him, not the looped cross over him, it was brilliant play from Bolton. But the first goal was awful by him. Why did he not palm it outwards, as we're forever being told is the way to do things. Straight into the danger zone. On top of this, the man can't catch without dropping, and he mimicked his fluffed easy catch of last week onto the post. I have no idea why he's ahead of Gomes.

Corluka: Much improved. His distribution was a bit shaky but I felt he got closer to his man than he has been, he brought the ball out well and he bagged a goal too. Fair play to him, he's ridden a rought patch and I think he's come out the other end.

Ekotto: Not his best today, but I never expected it to be. He's always struggled against physicality, he always will. Every player has their weaknesses, this is his, and why he decided to stop running when he was in front of Davies and allow us to concede a second is beyond me. Love Disco Benny but he's not on form at all.

Bassong: I didn't notice a mistake from him and he was playing with a midfielder as his partner. Got us out of jail once or twice, did well in the air and was generally solid.

Huddlestone: I thought he played well again. A couple of times I feared his lack of experience in the position was about to let him down, but he seemed to rescue things and then bring the ball out every time. Some unexpectedly wayward passing, but a good performace on the whole.

Lennon: Second week running that he doesn't play brilliantly, and no assist to gloss over things this time, but he still looks our most dangerous player whenever he has the ball. Did better today from the left than the right I felt, and played better when they took off Taylor. I have no doubt that wihtout Taylor there, he'd have murdered Samuel, but they did their job well more than Lennon did it badly. Still, I hope for better in the next couple of games.

Kranjcar: The more I see him, the more I like him. His passing is crisp and intelligent, he takes a mean set piece and he looks a goal threat. £2.5m? What a bargain. A goal and an assist. I still reckon he's a central player, but that's not to say he isn't bloody good on the left.

Jenas: I liked what I saw in what has traditionally been a Jenas disappearing act game. He drove us forward when we looked like going into our shell, he passed the ball nicely and often with ambition, and but for some lack of nouse from other attackers, he may have had a goal as he was often in the area at the right time.

Palacios: Wonderful player. Passed it nicely at points, but for a great block he'd have had a goal, picked out Crouches head well enough for our first leveller, and that's just the bonus stuff. He put in how many tackles today? Brilliant stuff. He goes to ground all the time, but he comes out with a fair challenge winning the ball most of the time. As long as he's fit, we'll go far.

Keane: Not so great today. His first touch abandoned him and as a result he had no chances when he should have had a couple. Shame, but that's why we have both him and Defoe.

Crouch: Mixed bag. Outside the box he was great, holding it up well, keeping us in possession, winning everything in the air, and he made a goal. In the box he seemed a bit fussy at times. His miss.. well c'est la vie, he nutmegged the goalie and it still bounced off the goalie, onto the ground and hit the bar, that's bad luck to the extreme. However, a couple of times, especially when Defoe crossed it to him after we'd levelled, I felt he could have done things a bit quicker in the box and we lost good opportunities. Still, he makes a difference and it's clear for all to see.

Defoe: Came on and did ok. Not his sharpest outing but got involved, looked threatening and linked things well. We have an international break now, and depending on his form and fitness I'd like to see him start with Crouch away to Pompy.

The ref denied us at least one clear pen from the Ricketts handball which totally took the ball away from Defoe, and for some reason if a Bolton player makes a rough challenge it's good honest manly play but if we make the same rough challenge it's a foul because soft southern poofs aren't allowed to get stuck in, but c'est la vie. This is my most hated fixture of the season, we've come out with a point and with our 2ppg still in tact after 8 matches. No complaints here, and even though I felt at the end we could have won when things opened up, in the grand scheme of things I am happy, glad we have an international break (did I just say that?) to let our players recover from a physical bombarment, and I'm looking forward to a hopeful 6 points, but surely at least 4 from our next two fixtures against Pompy (away) and Stoke (home)

COYS!

 

[RichieS]

Huddlestone had a terrible first half and a poor second. He is not good enough at centre=half for the Premiership. How someone his size gets pushed around so much I just don't know. Why was Dawson on the bench?
Until we learn to defend a lot better we are not going to make the top 4.
We got a point because even when we are second best, and we were definitely that in the first half, we have the ability to score goals. But we could easily have been 2 or 3 down at half-time the way we were defending.
We are going to be a team worth watching because we score and concede goals, but 12 conceded in 8 games is just not good enough.

Or 6 in 6 if you take away the 2 matches against 2 of the 3 best sides in the world.

 

[spursgirls]

I dont trust cudicini in goal. Does anyone else feel this way?

yes me

Same here.

Been impressed with Kranjcar in the two games that he's played.

Me too. We obviously see things from the same perspective............;-)

 

[kaz Hirai]

i thaught jenas was useless, typical jenas performance after he has had a good game.

really?:shrug:

i thought he was the better of our central two today, made some great tackles that didnt result in silly free kicks and looked composed, nothin spectacular but solid away from home.

lol uselss! some fans will never like him unless his mom every game

 

[NEVILLEB]

Jenas has unbalanced the team since his come back

He takes far too many touches before releasing a limp pass

Get Hudd back in there

 

[Bill_Oddie]

Good comments there, Bringers. Agree with pretty much all of that.

Simply can't get over the number of free kicks they had in the final third. By that alone they could have destroyed us. Criminal on our behalf but how the ref fell for the, err, falls, every time defies sense. Someone needs to address this or it will cost a better footballing side (like Pompey) their place in the league.

 

[Dr Know]

I don't think we should blame any one player as I feel we were poor as a team. We could not keep possession and our passing was shocking.I don't think Thudd works as a CB.
Overall Bolton had a game plan and stuck to it, they closed down very good IMO and looked like they were going to win from kick off

 

[Wsussexspur]

Probably our worst display of he season. Thought though after Bolton scored 2nd we did seem to play better and maybe could have actually nicked it. But all in all will take a point. Hope Dawson is going to be fit for next game was screaming for Harry to bring him on in the 2nd half Bolton looked a threat every time the ball went into our box!

 

[Bill_Oddie]

Yeah, true. I also think the way we managed to get back in the game after a pitiful first twenty minutes was hugely encouraging. A couple of times under Jol we went to the Reebok and went behind but couldn't get the goals to match our improving performance and then last season we battled back before throwing it away. With so many key figures missing, today does suggest our character is strong, even if we were not at our best and made several rudimentary errors.

 

[dontcallme]

I thought Bolton were excellent first half. They didn't give us an inch of space and at times they put some nice moves together and I felt we were fortunate to go in at half time level. 2nd half was poor by both teams and some sloppy defending allowed both teams to get a goal each.

We didn'y play with enough width today and I thought if we had got the ball down to Lennon more we could have punished them.

Not a great display but happy with a point.

 

[Green Valley]

Jenas has unbalanced the team since his come back

He takes far too many touches before releasing a limp pass

Get Hudd back in there

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Have you been in prison/coma for our last 3 matches?

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Good comments there, Bringers. Agree with pretty much all of that.

Simply can't get over the number of free kicks they had in the final third. By that alone they could have destroyed us. Criminal on our behalf but how the ref fell for the, err, falls, every time defies sense. Someone needs to address this or it will cost a better footballing side (like Pompey) their place in the league.

I would love Bolton to go down, I dread this fixture every year.

I think people are being a bit too down on todays performance. The stats showed we had as much possession, as many shots on target, 3 times as many shorts off target, more corners and equal on the fouls count pretty much. This in an away game where we traditionally do badly. There were a couple of below par performances but I think that but for a poor first 20 minutes where we were admittedly poor, we matched Bolton for everything afterwards and bettered them for the final spell of the game. Last season we lost this game need I remind people, in Wilsons first game for us.

I reckon with better goalkeeper (i.e Gomes in goal) and one of King or Woodgate available, we'd have won this game with pretty much the same performance.

 

[ziggy]

Trevor Francis was getting on my tits, he said something about Capello was there to watch two poss England centre halves, one of which was Hudd as if that's his normal position to play.

 

[TonyWant]

No one has mentioned the windy conditions
We didnt play well but it is hard to play our passing game with the wind howling across the field and a physical team like Bolton coming at you.
In the circumstances it was not such a disappointing pereformance

Having said that prefer Gomes in goals and we should not have Hudd at centre back - he is too slow

 

[Fergus]

The ref denied us at least one clear pen from the Ricketts handball which totally took the ball away from Defoe, and for some reason if a Bolton player makes a rough challenge it's good honest manly play but if we make the same rough challenge it's a foul because soft southern poofs aren't allowed to get stuck in, but c'est la vie. This is my most hated fixture of the season, we've come out with a point and with our 2ppg still in tact after 8 matches. No complaints here, and even though I felt at the end we could have won when things opened up, in the grand scheme of things I am happy, glad we have an international break (did I just say that?) to let our players recover from a physical bombarment, and I'm looking forward to a hopeful 6 points, but surely at least 4 from our next two fixtures against Pompy (away) and Stoke (home)

COYS!

Excellent and honest summary. Do you think you could drag yourself over to the Front Page Forum match thread and help DM inject a dose of insight? I know it's more fun here but SC's public (viewable to non-members) reputation is at stake.

 

[Krafty]

Its a good point away from home. Typically a game we would have lost 2-0, nevermind had a chance of winning. Some good 'character', but still some areas to improve, especially defensively.

We should remmeber Bolton have been on a little run recently, and to have 16 points from 8 games is fantastic.

Go to Portsmouth and get three points, with Gomes and Dawson back, then take on Stoke at home with Ledders and Luka, and the crowd behind us. Everton in the cup and then the derby.

Still think we need to sort out the defence a little, get them a lot tighter and harder to break down.

 

[spurs mental]

Its a good point away from home. Typically a game we would have lost 2-0, nevermind had a chance of winning. Some good 'character', but still some areas to improve, especially defensively.

We should remmeber Bolton have been on a little run recently, and to have 16 points from 8 games is fantastic.

Go to Portsmouth and get three points, with Gomes and Dawson back, then take on Stoke at home with Ledders and Luka, and the crowd behind us. Everton in the cup and then the derby.

Still think we need to sort out the defence a little, get them a lot tighter and harder to break down.

It really is, considering we had 2 points this time last season.

We've not had our full strength defence for one game this season though. Once Woody and King are back I think we'll see an improvement.