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Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton 15:00 - Oct 4 with 3016 views

Boring, boring Rangers...

1. JET. Let's start with a big positive. Before the game kicked off there were a lot of sage voices around me. 'Well, don't expect him to run around like Charlie.' 'He won't be putting himself about much.' 'He's not really a striker.' A lot of preconceptions and misconceptions and bullconceptions flying about there. I'm not saying I expected what I saw, but at the same time I haven't seen enough of JET to know what to expect. A goal whenever he's started seemed decent, although many people were still castigating him for the miss v Cardiff.

So how refreshing was this performance? I assume Clive will probably give him an 8, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an extremely rare 9 from the parsimonious northern one. This was simply a great display. He won the ball in the air. He shielded it. He chased down defenders. He laid the ball off well. He dribbled. He took his chances (if you can even call his second goal a 'chance' - it certainly wasn't when he received it). And he scored a beautiful winner.

But I was also impressed with his attitude and his leadership in the game. Because not only was he effective up front, he was influential at the back too, on at least three occasions it was his head clearing away dangerous balls into the area. And when we went 2-0 down, it was JET demanding the bench get a new ball out for a kick off (the other one had disappeared) while the rest of the team either looked sorry for themselves or were arguing amongst themselves.

His first goal came from a well-timed run and a confident header, but the second was sublime. While the crowd were clearing their throats to boo the defence off for yet another defensive horror show, he kept his head, dribbled past one, hoodwinked a second with a beautifully tight turn Messi would have been proud of, and then finished with a stupendous curled shot inside the post. Reminiscent of Taarabt in his pomp.

Ramsey seemed certain to haul him off for Polti at some stage, but he just played too well. Let's hope for more of the same. Maybe we should have taken that £12m for Austin after all? (only joking).

2. Subs. I mentioned Polti warming up for about 44 minutes of the second 45 there - he was clearly desperate to get on. You have to feel for him. Bought as a probable Austin replacement, then Austin stays and when he does get injured, Polti's not fully fit. JET comes in and takes his chance.

But on the broader subject of subs: I've given Ramsey the benefit of the doubt several times this season with his subs and their timing. Sometimes the criticism he's received I felt was unjustified when you look at the choices he had, other times I could see his reasoning, even if things didn't quite work out how he wanted. But it is now a pattern that (Fulham apart!) he does not use his subs early enough. He's not utilising all the weapons at his disposal. It was bad enough when he left Faurlin on for 10 minutes too long when the game was effectively over v Rotherham, but Saturday was worse.

First of all, Henry had another shocker. It's at the stage now where his own confidence is looking shot. After one particularly poor pass he spent seconds on end apologising or explaining himself to Onuoha while Bolton played on. He looked lost. People keep telling me his job is to win the ball and be some kind of enforcer, but he's not even doing that anymore. He's off the pace, unsure of his positioning and his passing is just as bad as it ever was. Ramsey's trying to build this quick-tempo passing side, so I don't understand how he keeps his place. Four players paid the price for the Fulham disgrace, but Henry, arguably the worst of the lot, still retained his position. It's starting to get suspicious.

So Henry should have been hooked by the hour mark. Especially when we had no less than four centre midfielders who could have taken his place on the bench. But even worse was what happened when Sandro did come on for the tiring Fer. He ran on and then told Henry to take Fer's position behind JET. Karl Henry. In the number ten role. Seriously. If he was there to sprint about and win the ball high up the pitch, then, well, OK - weird, but let's go with it - but he didn't do that. He seemed to be in the way more than anything. And we had Luongo on the bench who's played that position ALL SEASON! Or Doughty, with fresh legs and energy to play that sort of nuisance role (I wouldn't advocate it, mind).

The team was tiring. You have subs - and on Saturday we had a very strong bench indeed - USE THEM! HELP the team! But if you could somehow explain away all those decisions, the one that you couldn't was after Bolton equalised. 5 minutes left. A game we should have won comfortably. A team with a defence as bas as our own. We need a goal and Karl Henry is playing almost up front. Luongo could come on. You could go 4-4-2 and chuck Polti up there to cause some havoc and maybe win the game - and he's going to do as much chasing, if not more than Henry. But nothing. Nothing. It was flabbergasting.

This isn't just an attack on Henry, who badly needs to sit out a few games, but on Ramsey's unwillingness to use his resources. He has to do better on this. JET or Austin won't bail him out every time.

3. Defending. I don't really know what to say anymore. I'm not a coach. I wouldn't have the first idea how to organise a defence. But something needs to be done. It might be the signing of an experienced additional coach, I don't know. How old is Don Howe now? I mean, yesterday was criminal. Yet another goal shipped before we've even got started, and watching it again doesn't get any prettier.

Onuoha not close enough to the crosser. Angella for some reason standing right next to Onuoha. Hall absolutely nowhere near the only danger man in the box, who's stolen in behind him. Konchesky hasn't spotted that danger. And Green watches the ball drop past him in much the same motionless way as he did for Fulham's opener a week ago. Awful.

Then Green fails to hold or adequately push away a bobbler from Pratley for the second. And then the third? Clownish. Green dropping yet another one in the build up. Angella not bothering to challenge an extremely dangerous and yet very winnable high ball, Onuoha beaten easily by Wellington Silva (thank God he wasn't on from the start) and the ball's in the net like a rabbit in a hole. Pathetic, everywhere. We seem almost completely unable to deal with lofted balls down the centre, and our inability to stop crosses is compounded by a keeper who almost never claims them (although Green did make a very fine stop from a dangerous low cross in the second half).

But why is it this bad? I always say defending is about organisation. Individuals are less important than the collective. I mean, look: the year we won the league partly off the back of 24 clean sheets, our back five was often: Kenny, Orr, Hill, Connolly, Gorkss. Individually, this back five is at least on a par with that back five. And yet it is useless in comparison. Part of it is what looks like Green's collapse in confidence and more importantly the back four's collapse in confidence of him. But it's at least two goals a game in just about every game.

We can blame Ramsey for not being able to organise a defence, as many do. But in the league this season, Chelsea have conceded: 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 0, 2, 3. And I suspect even those of us who despise Mourinho would acknowledge that if there's one thing he does everywhere it's build a miserly defence - so what's the answer there? I'm not absolving Ramsey and his team of blame, of course I'm not, but some of these goals are down to frankly terrible decision-making. It must improve, and Ramsey needs to find an answer. Fast.

4. Chery. Onto happier things now. I was highly critical of the decision to sub Chery so early v Fulham and I worried about the morale in the team following that debacle. But Chery showed his mettle yesterday. Whether there was a come to Jesus meeting with Ramsey last week, I don't know. But he publicly apologised and then yesterday turned in what was probably his best performance of the season. He was lively, tricky and dangerous in attack (with a frequently immaculate first touch): set up the first, helped Fer score the second and then scored a phenomenal goal himself, an absolute treat. More importantly, he was disciplined. He played deeper, he helped out Konchesky and didn't take silly risks. I think this is what Ramsey wants from him. If JET hadn't scored that last minute winner, he might have sneaked man of the match. Much, much better and the best possible response to last week's personal humiliation. The sign of a good character.

5. Konchesky. Heavily criticised by many early on this season (I'm not exempt there). But he's been getting steadily better and, like Chery, had his best game for us yesterday. He absolutely flew up and down that wing like a man ten years younger. He looks lean and fit and determined. And that is what this formation really needs - full backs being able to exploit spaces further forward and to work well with the winger in front of them. Not Perch's or Onuoha's forte on the other side, sadly. But a great performance from Konchesky. I think we all hope that Yun or Robinson will take that spot at some point this season, but if he keeps on like this, it won't be easy.

6. Set pieces. I've seen a few grumblings on here about Toszer's performance yesterday, but I thought it was a marked improvement on his last two starts. He looked fitter, he got higher up the pitch and most importantly his passing was much cleaner and crisper. Didn't have many problems at all with him. What I particularly liked was his free kick delivery. Along with a couple of great corners from Phillips, our set pieces yesterday were the best I've seen in some time. We created at least three genuine opportunities, possibly four or even five, from free kicks and corners. Toszer's trio of teasers in the first half that forced two saves from Onuoha headers and saw one Angella effort go over were particularly good. Encouraging. If only we could defend them as well as we attack them.

Bonus Feature
Players You Haven't Thought About For Ages, No.1.
Carl Cort.

Bare bones.

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 15:29 - Oct 4 with 2941 views

francisbowles

Thanks Anti. Some interesting observations unseen/not thought about by many. I especially liked the defensive rationalisation and the positive parts of Tozser's performance which I hadn't previously processed.

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 15:30 - Oct 4 with 2939 views

GetMeRangers

Another great and reasoned Knee Jerk. Question... is Green a confidence player. It looks to me that his fear of past mistakes are making him even more uncertain and insecure. The shots of him walking off post Fulham made me, more inclined than ever, to think that Smithies needs a run for three or so between the posts. While Smithies has his faults too, his ball distribution is excellent and seems to fit in better with the way CR wants us to play

Listening to Andy Impey, you get the impression that there is plenty of coaching going on for the back four, yet inexplicably they take to the pitch as if they have never played together before

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 15:43 - Oct 4 with 2902 views

francisbowles

Btw according to wiki Don Howe is 79. A mere young man when compared to our former player, whose name escapes me but was in his nineties, when he was coaching the university of Bath. Might be worth an approach. Probably fit within our pay structure too.

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 16:09 - Oct 4 with 2832 views

Neil_SI

I'm still watching the match at the moment, as I've had to wait for it to be put up on QPR player and I've just got to the opening goal of the game.

Here are some quick observations I've made.

Bolton started by immediately suffocating Matt Phillips. He had two players around him early doors.

The first delivery in by Bolton came from a diagonal ball from the full-back area, which invited Tozser out of the pocket to challenge a 50-50 ball and leaving a gap behind. He lost that header and we momentarily lost shape, but it came to nothing.

Bolton have been patient around the back, inviting both JET and Fer to try and chase and close them down. They've been patient enough to pull the top end of our midfield forwards to make a gap in behind them. The ball has then been fired directly into the area behind, where they have put more numbers into midfield and have players supporting the first and second ball, exposing Tozser and Henry and forcing one of them to come forward and challenge a 50-50 ball. Tozser conceded a free-kick on this occasion, which brings Bolton forward up the pitch and is decent probability play.

Bolton's team sat deep but pressed up to the base of our midfield, totally allowing our defence to have the ball if they wanted. I could clearly see them instructing each other not to press further or beyond Henry/Tozser. This left all 11 of their players in line or behind our midfield when the defence had the ball — so that narrows and limits passing options and at the same time, invites our defence more forward when not under pressure. A potential ploy to try and get them to advance out of position as well as play to their strengths and have our players play direct to JET where he is more likely going to be outnumbered. The defence can't pass into the midfield at this point as there are too many Bolton players in close proximity, making it high risk.

When we win the ball in midfield shortly afterwards, we appear to be in a diamond formation. Tozser picks up the ball, but within 5-10 yards he has Chery, Fer and Phillips all around him and all tucked in. This leaves the wides open to be exploited and hit on the counter should possession be lost cheaply.

As Bolton continue to pass the ball around the back, there are several occasions where our closing down is causing us or likely to cause us problems. Fer is chasing into the full-back positions and coming out of position, and oddly joined by Henry on one side, and in another instance, Tozser on the other side. JET is sometimes assisting as well, but it means on occasion, two of the midfielders are well out of position for a switch of play in behind them, especially with Bolton hanging very deep.

And now onto the goal. It comes from our own free-kick. Tozser delivers a great ball in and Onuoha pops up at the back post with a header. It's the first time we see their keeper in possession from one of our attacks, and he counters with blistering speed with a quick throw.

We have players scrambling back, but naively getting themselves out of position as they all become attracted to the ball, making the shape lopsided down one side the pitch. Bolton switch the play, spreading us out, and just as we think we've got ourselves re-organised and back into shape, they've fired the ball over and Madine finishes with a simple header.

This is a goal that is exactly from one of the scenarios I've talked about before in terms of temperament. In any changeover of possession, especially in dangerous scenarios, you need to know who is going to take responsibility and keep a sensible head in the heat of the moment.

In a scenario like this, when you're on the attack, it's easy to ease off mentally and relax. You're up the other end of the pitch and thankful that you're there, sometimes hoping that if something goes wrong that someone else has to deal with it. And it can be like herds, like it was here, that some chase around and do what they feel is 'just enough', hoping someone else will step in and take care of things.

Some of it is because they're new to each other, they're not all sure who is exactly going to take responsibility for what, at what particular moment, or who might take the law into their own hands and tactically foul someone, and so on. There's no doubt it's poor defending — but the issue is really the lack of collective and individual responsibility to take ownership. That's where gelling and getting to know one another takes time. It's also where some are just not good enough or don't care enough to do anythiing about it. I don't think that's the case here though, but time will tell.

You can work on these things on the training ground, and have sessions that are based on switchover of possession with the other team countering quickly and then practicing on dealing with a variety of scenarios at different sides/depths of the pitch, but it still takes time to materialise when it comes to the real thing, because you cannot recreate the emotional and mental tension from competitive action.

Edit: update

Immediately after the goal, we work the ball wide to Phillips who puts in a good cross and it's Henry of all people, trying to get on the end of it around the six-yard box. It's never a penalty for me, but the keeper collects and the distribution is fast yet again, and Bolton load the ball back into the area where Hall now has to come out and try and deal with it, but loses possession. As Henry is so far forward, there is effectively no midfield protection, and already my impression is, all we need to do at the moment is hold our formation a little more rigidly. If the movement came from the sides, in the sense it was Chery or Phillips helping with the closing down at the various sides, then we'd be more stable centrally. But currently it's the three central midfielders doing all of the closing down and that's causing problems.

The second obvious spot, and is a minor but important detail, is both these scenarios the keeper has distributed fast and we haven't had an attacking player try to disrupt that opportunity to counter. It may or may not make a difference, but you cover as many eventualities as you can. Bolton eventually win a throw from this high up the pitch, allowing them to advance and take position further forward. It comes to nothing — but it's probability in numbers and if you continue to give the opposition a chance like that, then they're going to ask questions that you need to deal with.

...and for the second goal, it's the same again.

Fer comes all the way out to close down and it goes back to the keeper, and he trots all the way in. It's a rinse and repeat job at the moment, and all they're doing is sucking the midfield out to play the numbers game with a direct ball in behind.

Of course, you hope that the defensive players can deal with the ball in behind better, but when you leave it to 50-50, it's always going to lead to second balls and dangerous moments if you don't win those challenges.

The defence themselves need to be prepared and be braver for the first and second balls, however once it drops and falls to the opposition, often they have as many numbers forward as there are defenders, and when it's one on one in all areas, it's difficult at this kind of level to deal with it because no matter what anybody says, you're exposing players to those absolute key moments and at this kind of level they are better than you think they are (in terms of Bolton), no matter how crap you might feel the opposition are.

Ironically JET's goal comes from exactly the same scenario as how Bolton have tried to play so far. It's a diagonal ball into the middle part of the pitch, which tend to be more difficult to deal with than straight balls. We won our 50-50 and the ball eventually goes out wide and is crossed in for JET to score.

Previously and up until this point, the majority of our balls from the back line were quite straight, the easier types to deal with. There's work to be done here on the type of deliver we put in, we should try and do more diagonal balls, so in the cases when we feel we can pass and move it quickly — then the direct ball should at least be of this type to maximise the probability and chances of success.

We've got lulled into making a poor start with elementary mistakes with our collective shape at dealing with these specific phases of play. One way to deal with that was holding positions more firmly and changing the way they approach play to see what they do next, the other is holding possession and stopping them from applying themselves in the way that they want to.

Straight after our goal, they had another route one issue to deal with, but they've already lost so many that confidence is short. This one is really poor defending on our part and is simply individual confidence issues. Hall has now missed a few headers when exposed, and that shows you why he hasn't been a starter every week, it's to protect him and allow him to develop at a sensible pace.

By now they should be asking Henry or Tozser to sit and sandwich the attacking player when the ball comes in, whether that's Ramsey or someone on the pitch taking ownership. This is game management for everybody, and again, this is about players understanding the story of the game and knowing each other and when a team-mate needs some help.

The thing is here is we're behind and haven't really got on the ball properly yet, and usually you wait until you see how your team are when that happens and what they look like.

So it becomes tricky to decide how to play this out. The sandwich from this point would mean a period of just buckling down and seeing out 5-10 minutes and then seeing if you can progress your play from there, but often this can put the team into a defensive shell as well, and unwilling to take the chance to attack because at 3-1 down, it's check mate.

Probably because it was so early in the game, there was still time to find the goals to win the game, which I guess by the way the game went, eventually was the case.

[Post edited 4 Oct 2015 16:49]

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 16:24 - Oct 4 with 2775 views

enfieldargh

another observation re Jet.

When he scored our first he started to do a celebration then changed his mind, grabbed the ball and ran back to he centre spot encouraging the rest of the lads back

thats class, thats what I expect from a hungry, keen , committed Ranger and not someone whose up his own &rse

	captains fantastic
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Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 16:27 - Oct 4 with 2768 views

Hoop_Du_Jour

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 16:09 - Oct 4 by Neil_SI

[Post edited 4 Oct 2015 16:49]

Can you apply for the defensive coach position please?

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 18:45 - Oct 4 with 2546 views

VancouverHoop

Has anyone ever publicly asked CR about his policy on substitutes? It's clear that he has one, it's also clear that it's not conventional. Injuries aside, they're usually late in the game and frequently he doesn't use them all. Be good to know his reasoning.

[Post edited 4 Oct 2015 19:07]

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 18:48 - Oct 4 with 2538 views

daveB

Excellent as ever Antti, really helpful for those of us who didn't go yesterday. Taking away the moans and groans on the defence and subs, which sound fair, it did sound like a bloody entertaining game.

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 19:04 - Oct 4 with 2499 views

baz_qpr

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 18:48 - Oct 4 by daveB
Excellent as ever Antti, really helpful for those of us who didn't go yesterday. Taking away the moans and groans on the defence and subs, which sound fair, it did sound like a bloody entertaining game.

As a QPR fan I would not necessarily call it entertaining, more exhausting

-1

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 19:07 - Oct 4 with 2492 views

Match82

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 18:48 - Oct 4 by daveB
Excellent as ever Antti, really helpful for those of us who didn't go yesterday. Taking away the moans and groans on the defence and subs, which sound fair, it did sound like a bloody entertaining game.

I have a feeling that Sandro will start next game. With any luck Henry has simply been keeping his spot warm while Sandro was out. Would have put doughty in myself, but still...

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 19:24 - Oct 4 with 2454 views

YorkRanger

Enjoyed that summary Antti

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 20:12 - Oct 4 with 2384 views

CamberleyR

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 15:43 - Oct 4 by francisbowles
Btw according to wiki Don Howe is 79. A mere young man when compared to our former player, whose name escapes me but was in his nineties, when he was coaching the university of Bath. Might be worth an approach. Probably fit within our pay structure too.

Ivor Powell

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Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 20:50 - Oct 4 with 2296 views

Marshy

Very good summary indeed, and agree with almost everything you've said. Toszer's set pieces were on the whole very good, but I thought he was actually really poor apart from that. Like everyone else I was screaming for substitutions, and would have been very happy for Henry and Toszer to be replaced with Doughty and Faurlin.

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 22:06 - Oct 4 with 2174 views

bosh67

Very good Antti.

I didn't think Henry was that bad. He just does the break up job but is constantly alone in doing so. Then he got asked to play in the number 10 position. I am surprised he didn't finish the game in goal. Henry is clearly Ramsey's golden boy and that is probably because he is the most mature person in the squad, but even he looked lost when Ramsey pushed him forward. I think we all need to lay off Henry. He does the job Derry did and whether or not he does it as well, we need to give the guy a break. He may not be great but he is an honest player who does his best. We have had a lot of players who don't give a sh*t and I honestly think he does.

Anyway, the thing about JET is that he has spent his career being wasted as a left winger. He's still only 24. We forget that. He is a young player, not a journeyman and I think we saw a performance by a very talented player deployed finally in his best role. He's big, strong, he puts himself about. He bulldozes through players, he tackles back and he has excellent first control. Most importantly, he know where the goal is. Play Chery in a free role around him, Fer just behind them and we will score a lot of goals.

	Never knowingly right.
Poll:	How long before new signings become quivering wrecks of the players they were?

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 06:00 - Oct 5 with 1998 views

Neil_SI

I've watched the whole match now.

It's great to see JET take his chance and play well. I've always seen potential in him that can be worked on to help him flourish. Clive has never been a fan, and feels he doesn't have the work-rate, and clearly that's what Ramsey is looking for him to improve on and that he's responded in this way is a positive. It's good to hear that he'd been working hard in training and asking what he should be working on in a bid to improve his chances of making the team.

I also liked in his own interview how he assessed his winning goal, because one trait JET has is his abiity to cut inside from the right and shoot with his left. It's a strength of his, but he recognised that other players were potentially aware of that and that's why he dummied his shot and switched the ball onto his right foot in order to get it away. Pleasing. And if I were his manager I'd worked on exactly that scenario when he gets on the ball, which includes his normal left for shot, to what he did with his goal here and also through balls and passes, to keep the opposition guessing.

The midfield had their problems, as I mentioned above, however the one thing I did notice was Henry has way more legs than any of our midfield players, considering he was popping up in their box and getting on the end of crosses, to closing them down in the full-back area and a lot of other areas of the pitch.

Now, I'm not saying that's a good thing, because pressure has to be applied sensibly and in the correct places, and collectively. Some of it was dumb, but, he can certainly cover grass in a way the others can't. That's why he's in the side I'd imagine, because we've not really got a fit midfield yet when you think that Faurlin picked up a knock and we need to be careful with him, Tozser hasn't really had a pre-season and then we've got to get Fer and Sandro back up to speed too. That'll take time.

He was probably right to rest Luongo, that lad has put everything on the line for club and country and it's sensible, given it's a step up into the Championship for him, to take him off the cooker now and then. And let's not forget Gladwin has been injured too. But in the end, once everybody is at 100%, I think you won't see Henry in the side, for now, he's the only one that can be relied on to be able to run around for 90 minutes. Having said that, I'm not really seeing any of our midfielders tracking runners well enough still, so there is a question mark there that needs answering.

As for the moans and groans, there were a couple of occasions where Henry was played hospital passes, or the richochet of a skirmish sent the ball awkwardly in his direction. As he's not the most technical of players, it's hard for someone like him to adjust, and where his first-touch is obviously not in the class of Chery — it's always going to lead to those little moments where you think he might have a chance but actually doesn't. He played one dreadful ball out of touch, but apart from that, he didn't really do anything worse or better than many of the other players. I did see him trying to help lead and organising players off the ball as well, and that's perhaps another reason why he is still in the mix. Obviously not being at the match, it's always harder to tell with a lot of these things as you can't see the whole pitch and all of the players. Accept I could easily have had a different view had I been there.

And like you Antti, thought Tozser did okay apart from the obvious stuff I pointed out in my earlier post. He was decent enough on the ball when he needed to be, but it wasn't the sort of game to be intricate and play passing triangles around the base, because it was too dangeorus. But the devil is in the detail — he played a key role in Chery's goal, just the decision making when he got on the ball and the actual intiial pass out to the flank, started the opportunity for us to progress properly up the pitch. A Joey Barton or Henry would not have been able to play that kind of pass, great angle and weight, which allows the receiver to take the right touch in their stride and open their body out. Someone else may have slung that forward to a striker or just pumped it too far forward into the channel, reducing the receivers option to decide how to make that play. He also put in several great deliveries from free kicks, a definite improvement on the ball in from central positions.

Frustratingly for the Wellington Silva goal, Onouha let his man come on his inside, which is a risk. We've not been able to deal with that type of movement for a long time, if you go back to last season, it was why Maurizio Isla was dropped because he kept letting people take him on the inside (the Aston Villa game springs to mind for Christian Benteke's first goal, among others). That's the kind of indivual mistakes Ramsey is talkling about. They've definitely worked on trying to avoid that and informed the players not to show inside, but again, it's easy to train and say these things, but when you're up against a fast and tricky player, sometimes you just get done by their quality.

Overall in the second half, we did hold our position a little more and it helped, and we did get on the ball a bit more, and that helped. It stopped Bolton trying to play the way they wanted, and left them trying to pass and move it up the pitch, and they did that well in bursts but their lack of quality let them down in the end and gave us chances to pick up the ball again.

Easy to say Bolton are a poor side, they're just a typical Championship side, and they do actually have a lot of Premiership and Championship experience in their ranks. They essentially need a different style of play if that first approach breaks down for them. It looked like they didn't have enough in the locker in the wide areas until Silva came on for them and gave them a different option.

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 10:35 - Oct 5 with 1809 views

Antti_Heinola

Antti's 6 Knee Jerks - Bolton on 22:06 - Oct 4 by bosh67

Admire your sentiments Bosh, and I do support Henry at games, but call it as I see it on here. And I'm sorry, I just do not see him breaking up play and he's nowhere near as effective as Derry was doing it. I actually thought I'd count the number of time he intercepted or tackled on Saturday before the game, but I was still on 0 after 25 minutes and gave up after that.
He is honest, he does try. But so would Doughty. So does/would Ale. It's not like we have no alternatives.

Bare bones.

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