[Archived] Bolton (Home) Preview

[roverblue]

Great result, good performance. For me the upturn in fortunes is down to a few things:

1. The dynamic formation (4-5-1 without the ball, 4-3-3 with it) is working for us
   
2. The return to form of our more 'talented' players as there reptuations would have us believe. Diouf, Pederson and Robinson have all massively imrpoved in the last month or so.
   
3. Good substitutions (although some make you think wtf?!?), Sam is making the right choices.
   

Lets kick on now and look up the table. Hopefully with that relegation thoughts are gone and we can play some more attractive football if possible.

[mellison24]

If you want to delude yourselves then go ahead.

Yeh, celebrating a 3-0 win, which actually involved some football AS well as hoofball (which is what I would aim for from our team) I'm happy as Larry! Mixing up is how we are meant to play. We are NOT frigging Arsenal. Methinks it is YOU who's deluded. CELEBRATE A WIN you miserable get!

[Montfort]

Say what you like about Blackburn, this season we have shown at home that we are better than the other relegation teams and have usually translated this superiority into points. The frustrating thing is that we usually make it harder and less convincing than it should have been. Therefore I ( nervously ) expect Blackburn to win.

Very nervously, until the second goal went in, I listened to a Blackburn win. This is a massive result for us. Delighted.

[unluckymorton]

Yes, very weird. I watched the match in my underpants with the fan on full blast. Sorry if that image is a bit too much for the feint hearted.

Everything possitive from my afternoon on the cold cold Blackburn End has just been blown out of the window by your fan. Unless of course you are not male.

I think it was a good display by all. I'm still not too sure about Diouf but they all won it for us today. Good to see 2 strikers on the score sheet too. Roberts 1 on 1, who'd have though it?

[RIML]

Bolton haven't scored a single goal against us this season.

[philipl]

I set the marker at getting to 32 points before we faced Liverpool after the miserable rub against supposedly inferior opposition up to Christmas.

Well we have beaten it by 2 points and it is not deluded to say that there will be Premier League football at Ewood again next season.

The thing which struck me today was it didn't look like there were 22 players on the pitch, such was the space between players and the distance the ball was flying. If Opta run a distance on the ball, I wouldn't mind betting it went further today than in most Prem games even in this season.

It is a good time to be a Rover again, now let's get in amongst the "Big Boys". I believe we have the players to be able to disrupt the Premier League's races at the top- come on, let's do it!

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

The people who are complaining about hoofball only have a point when it fails. I, like most people on here, do not particularly mind watching 'unnattractive' football when it works. Today it did.

[bigbrandjohn]

Oh and 5-1 to Villa against our other neighbours

[Tom]

Great win and some nice football played at times a lot of it started by good runs from olsson.

It wasn't great at times but i couldn't care less there are always going to be sloppy periods in any performance

hoilett was unlucky to come off but the substitution paid off in full

- niko was great again

- Keith did really well out if position

- givet and robbo both immense

- did anyone fear it may be called off at one stage in the second half?

anyone know what happened with the bloke in no1 he seemed totally out of it

[Darwen Rover]

Things are definitely looking UP:

Some observations from today's game:

When samba and Nelson are both fit, Givet still should be playing CB. He's a far superior / reliable CB.

Kalinic was outstanding, really impressed with him, just hope we can keep hold of him for the next few years!

Robinson was very good, deserves an england call up and made crucial saves at crucial times!

Was shocked / worried like most people when I saw Andrews at CB, but on the whole well done; bit of a kick in the teeth to Chimbonda tho!!

Oh and Roberts scored, although it was straight at the keeper?! The guy can be a handful when hes not being a big girls blouse!!

[philipl]

Well done to the 23,888 who braved the elements today!

[RIML]

Big Sam's celebration after Givet's goal, arms swinging everywhere, the man IS a genius.

[MarkBRFC71]

Good, we look far better playing that formation than 4-4-2, our midfielders aren't mobile enough to play that formation.

Think again, we only actually started playing anything resembling football today when we switched to 4-4-2. The first half was just, dire, boring, one-dimensional, percentage-based hoofball in its purest and ugliest form. The second half was much better, the players looked far more comfortable playing an orthodox 4-4-2, and Roberts took some of the pressure off Niko and allowed him to show there's more to his game than just chasing after aimless punts upfield.

First half, 2 out of 10 - second half 7 out of 10.

[unluckymorton]

The people who are complaining about hoofball only have a point when it fails. I, like most people on here, do not particularly mind watching 'unnattractive' football when it works. Today it did.

I've said that for years. I'd rather watch crap football and win that pretty football and get beat.

Look where it's got the mighty dingles, doing well today aren't they? Also, ask any West Brom fan.

Anyone seen the Man City Liverpool line ups? 5 accross the midfield.

[Sysagent]

Great result in what was at one stage whiteout conditions...

Thought overall the team played competently, was shocked to see Roberts getting one in, was great that Givet got a goal, Niko is beginning to look worth the £6 million we paid for him every game he is improving.

If Robo isn't on that coach with the rest of the World Cup squad then something is very wrong he was superb today.

Need to maintain this momentum and push onwards and upwards.

[unluckymorton]

Think again, we only actually started playing anything resembling football today when we switched to 4-4-2. The first half was just, dire, boring, one-dimensional, percentage-based hoofball in its purest and ugliest form. The second half was much better, the players looked far more comfortable playing an orthodox 4-4-2, and Roberts took some of the pressure off Niko and allowed him to show there's more to his game than just chasing after aimless punts upfield.

First half, 2 out of 10 - second half 7 out of 10.

So you'll give us 9 out of 20 for beating our local rivals 3-0?

What more do people want? We give bolton a good beating and the dingles are getting well and truely hammered at Villa Park.

[RovertheHill]

Enjoyed today a lot!

We must be due to make the final payment to Agent Coyle soon, now that he has successfully sabotaged our nearest (location-wise) rivals!

Nzonzi neutralised Davies by standing in front of him at set pieces - clearly a tactic they'd worked on. Givet was Hendry-esque and Nico is getting better with each game. If we'd had some ambition about us away from home in the winnable games we could be easily looking at Europe. Let's hope we give it a go at our remaining winnable away games - especially the Dingles.

A good day

[bubblerrovers]

That win was MASSIVE!!

I don't see many more coming this season. if we pick up more than 6 points now i'll be delighted. I'm very happy today but there will lots to worry about before the end of the season we really have a tuff run in.

[Paul]

Fine win, I'm betting that if we had a few more 3-0 wins like this this season then there would be far less moaning than there is. People can say we got lucky with 1-0 wins, but I'm not sure what they can cook up with a 3-0 win without sounding ridiculous.

Givet definitely MOM for me - a goal, an assist and a clean sheet. He has been a truly quality signing along with Kalinic.

Andrews has shown his value to the team today. No one can deny the fact that he gives 100% for the club and today he showed the willingness to play in any position to help out the team and I applaud him for that. But then again, he's always had my respect.

If you need an answer to your highlighted statement read your first sentence. Talk about stating the bleedin' obvious.

Anyway Rovers played very well today. I said weeks ago we need 12 / 12 points from these games and the manager and team have delivered and with some style. I thought we played some very nice football today, created plenty of excellent chances from open play and occassionally mixed up the set pieces - did anyone else notice Niko pointing to the ground as MGP set up to take the low hard free kick that both Kalinic and Diouff missed by a fraction? Only thanks to Bolton's keeper that we didn't get six.

I felt very uncomfortable with Andrews at centre-half but he and the magnificent Givet did everything that was needed. It seemed to take an age for Allardyce to decide what to do about Nelsen's injury.

Fall marks all round today. An entertaining game, good football, loads of chances and three goals. can't ask for much more

[philipl]

From the way the TV showed it, they expected Chimbonda to come on when Nelsen was struggling but he was anbling around under numerous layers showing no inclination to get ready. I suspect it was a tad too cold...

[MarkBRFC71]

So you'll give us 9 out of 20 for beating our local rivals 3-0?

What more do people want? We give bolton a good beating and the dingles are getting well and truely hammered at Villa Park.

Don't get me wrong, I'm over the moon with both results - but still a little frustrated that the players are not allowed to play FOOTBALL from the get go, when they showed in the second half they obviously can and look far more effective when doing so than when being made to play hoofball. The first half was dire, except for Niko's goal, the second half we pegged Bolton back and looked good for long spells and could have easily had 4 or 5.

More of the second half-type football Sam, and much less of the dross from the first, please!!

[AggyBlue]

Just what we needed.

I see the usual non attendees are having their weekly match day moan. It's time we had a list of shame.

Well done to Andrews who slipped seamlessly into central defence (Sam knew he had played there before for Wolves).

Strange that the local was empty when we got back to Aggy:lol:

[CrazyIvan]

Andrews- oh no!!!!

...and only one in the last 17 meetings between these two has been won by the home team. Sam going for a continuation of this sequence with that selection.

OH REALLY?????

I can't fault anyone on today's performance. It was a game that we needed to win and I was nervous as hell before it and especially after going up 1 - 0 and having Andrews at CB. Andrews at CB was a stroke of genius to be honest though. He was excellent in the second half. A well deserved and well won three points. The pitch looks bloody awful though and I don't think many teams will be able to play passing/flowing football all match with the pitch looking like it does.

Kalinic looks like he's got some confidence and is looking like a proper player. How often do we celebrate a win with two strikers scoring btw?

[mellison24]

Don't get me wrong, I'm over the moon with both results - but still a little frustrated that the players are not allowed to play FOOTBALL from the get go, when they showed in the second half they obviously can and look far more effective when doing so than when being made to play hoofball. The first half was dire, except for Niko's goal, the second half we pegged Bolton back and looked good for long spells and could have easily had 4 or 5.

More of the second half-type football Sam, and much less of the dross from the first, please!!

Was the goal not dross having come from a cushioned header from Pedersen after a Hoilett long-ball? I agree that we need to play football.....but we ARE and we are mixing it up absolutely fine. It was good, hard, effective football and as good as some of Hughes' stuff too. If you expect us to be arsenal, then go and support the frenchies (altho to be fair, we have many french speakers in our squad haha).

[DannyKeg]

One player who hasn't been mentioned so far is Salgado. He looked to me to have a solid game, seems to have adjusted to the PL now and certainly deserves to be in the team ahead of Chimbonda.