BFTG Bolton(H)

[LWJ]

Orlando Sa is so shit

[ladida_gunner_graham]

No love for Lucas Piazon? From the highlights that I saw he looked like he was industrious and energetic. He has scored 3 goals now in ten league matches, almost none of which (if any) he's played a full 90+ minutes in, mostly being subbed on or off. That's not bad. And lately, he's been better than another Chelsea loanee (Hector) who has gone off the boil since October.

I haven't seen the highlights but having been at the game, I can tell you that the highlights must have been misleading. He took the goal well, and had a couple of decent touches (this must have been what you saw), but virtually everything else he did was simply poor. He lost the ball more times than I care to remember and looked rather frustrated with himself for much of the game. He did fight to win the ball back in an effort to make amends for his errors on a number of occasions, but that's rather damning with faint praise. I'd rather he stopped losing the ball in the first place.

[CountryRoyal]

How many times do we have to have the Piazon debate? He's simply not a oxf*rd left mid, either play him centrally or don't play him at all.

[Maneki Neko]

No love for Lucas Piazon? From the highlights that I saw he looked like he was industrious and energetic. He has scored 3 goals now in ten league matches, almost none of which (if any) he's played a full 90+ minutes in, mostly being subbed on or off. That's not bad. And lately, he's been better than another Chelsea loanee (Hector) who has gone off the boil since October.

3 goals and two assists in 502 league minutes, which is not bad at all

Flashes of good play, and three goals. He has some potential for sure, and the championship probably suits him less than the prem.
He is starting to pick up on the workrate, but still too lightweight and easily frustrated, for me.

[Rollerbob]

Apologies if this has already been brought up & I'm just repeating what others may have said BUT...

What the hell were those tactics about in the second half? So many questions.

1. Why did we take off both wingers? If you want to go 5 at the back (ridiculous at home against bottom of the league), it makes more sense to take off a striker? If we go 5 at the back, surely it's better to leave on someone like McCleary, who will run at players on the break, and will likely create something..

2. If you take off your wingers, why did we leave Sa on? With little support, his only chance of scoring would likely come from a cross.. but we'd taken off our wingers.. Plus he wasn't having a blinder. Don't understand why he wasn't taken off.

3. Why did we have John on the bench? Surely would be more beneficial to have Fernandez, A CM on the bench as we already have Hurtado on the bench. If we had Fernandez, we wouldn't have had to bring on Obita as a CM? Was he CM? Not that Obita did anything wrong, but.. he's not a midfielder.

To me, Clarke got it all wrong. Playing it into the corners and going 5 (even 6 at times) at the back at home, against a team who are bottom, have only won 1 game all season, at home, and who have scored the least goals in the league by FAR is just cringe worthy. Especially trying to do it with 10+ minutes of the game left.

Argh. Clarke, you've lost me. Far too negative. Deserved to lose.

[ZacNaloen]

Baffled by the subs, but we won.

Dunno if Norwood touched their player but that was a nice dive to make sure the Pen was won.

[Stabilo Boss]

Enjoy this weather, a chance to wrap up and enjoy some proper football weather.

The queue for Bovril was longer than usual.

There was a guy in Lower West in a t-shirt.

[Sutekh]

Baffled by the subs, but we won.

Dunno if Norwood touched their player but that was a nice dive to make sure the Pen was won.

Well won by Pratley who was their best player by a country mile but then Pratley always seems to be the best player by a country mile when he's on the pitch.

[CountryRoyal]

Baffled by the subs, but we won.

Dunno if Norwood touched their player but that was a nice dive to make sure the Pen was won.

Well won by Pratley who was their best player by a country mile but then Pratley always seems to be the best player by a country mile when he's on the pitch.

Comes across fairly well in interviews as well tbf. Probably a good player to have at a club, on and off the pitch.

[Silver Fox]

The subs were odd but it didn't backfire on us so not the end of the world

We were a bit of a shambles early doors, luckily Ali Al-Habsi did his bit for good muslims everywhere and pull off three cracking saves

Still not convinced by Piazon, he mesed up and gave possession away but the Bolton defender returned the favour immediately leading to the first goal, he won't get so lucky every week

Nice to see super Daniel Williams has learnt the whole "head over the ball" thing so his shots can now stay on target, loving his work generally on top of this facet of his game

We didn't even realise it was a pen for a bit so no on the spot opinion, but it looked fairly pen-ish on the telly, no real beef from Oli mind you

3 points innit?

[genome]

BTW I'd never realised how pfcuking hench Ameobi is until Saturday

[Maguire]

We didn't even realise it was a pen for a bit

Don't drag me into this - I saw it immediately.

Pretty forgettable match. Thought Reading were disjointed again and couldn't have complained if they'd gone a goal down. The early season fluidity appears to be a thing of the distant past.

Piazon I do nor rate at all. There isn't a single thing he does particularly well. Oh for the return of Quinn.

Sa I like as a player but he was totally off the boil on Saturday.

McCleary owed us a good game and finally had one so let's hope this is the start of something.

Substitutions were quite from the moment Obita came on and spent the first minute looking like he was trying to direct a 747 to its gate. More hand signals than an interpreter for the deaf. Totally threw us out of our stride.

[handbags_harris]

That twat in the East Stand that wears shorts still wore shorts.......

A bit harsh - away shirt, black shorts, vibrant yellow bottle of whatever as well? He sits just down from me.

Ref Piazon, simply doesn't cut the mustard for me, goals or assists aside. Yes, well done on scoring and creating, but as a left sided central midfielder you need so much more than just a fancy touch. Effectively he is given a free role to roam it seems, which invariably stems the flow of attack down our left particularly if he has vacated it. Defensively, as a midfielder he needs to do significantly more. I would feel much more secure with a more all-rounded midfielder in there. Piazon would be ideally suited to Spanish football but Championship football, he's a passenger in almost everything that happens.

[Coppelled_Streets]

Apologies if this has already been brought up & I'm just repeating what others may have said BUT...

What the hell were those tactics about in the second half? So many questions.

1. Why did we take off both wingers? If you want to go 5 at the back (ridiculous at home against bottom of the league), it makes more sense to take off a striker? If we go 5 at the back, surely it's better to leave on someone like McCleary, who will run at players on the break, and will likely create something..

2. If you take off your wingers, why did we leave Sa on? With little support, his only chance of scoring would likely come from a cross.. but we'd taken off our wingers.. Plus he wasn't having a blinder. Don't understand why he wasn't taken off.

3. Why did we have John on the bench? Surely would be more beneficial to have Fernandez, A CM on the bench as we already have Hurtado on the bench. If we had Fernandez, we wouldn't have had to bring on Obita as a CM? Was he CM? Not that Obita did anything wrong, but.. he's not a midfielder.

To me, Clarke got it all wrong. Playing it into the corners and going 5 (even 6 at times) at the back at home, against a team who are bottom, have only won 1 game all season, at home, and who have scored the least goals in the league by FAR is just cringe worthy. Especially trying to do it with 10+ minutes of the game left.

Argh. Clarke, you've lost me. Far too negative. Deserved to lose.

Clarke is tactically inept. We wont get away with it enough to finish top six. There are better sides in this league this season.

[Jano]

Couple of guys I normally go with attended their first game of the season for this one, they were all shocked at the apparent improvement from last season, which considering I thought it was the worst I've seen Reading play this season, shows how far we've come in a relatively short period of time. My personal views are that all is not well at the club, and haven't been for a month or so now. I can't see a way back from this for Clarke, as soon as we lose, or even start losing a game I can see the crowd turning massively on him. There were a few grumbles early on around me, and if Al-Habsi hadn't managed to keep us in the game I think it would have turned nasty. I thought Bolton looked by far the better side early on and if we hadn't scored I think it would have been a long day.

That said, once we did score, we looked good until half time. I actually said if we could get a third we could end up with a hat full. Piazon took his goal well and is obviously very good going forward. Just a shame the rest of his skill set is absolutely shocking. As for the rest of the team, Hector looked terrible and if Chelsea want him back from his loan early they are more than welcome. Williams doesn't look happy to me at all. He still loses his rag with the other players too often, so to me it looks like there is some friction there. McCleary did ok but still can't cross, Norwood was quieter than usual, Sa was on the periphery of the entire game. Blackman's purple patch seems to be long gone. Their wingers seemed to be getting great joy out of our full backs which is worrying. The one good point for me recently is how solid Al-Habsi is looking.

Back to Clarke, the bench was questionable and his subs were laughable. Where was Ferdinand? What does Liburd have to do to get on the pitch at home? I was left questioning whether he actually wanted to win that game or if he was almost purposely trying to sabotage the result by putting on random players in stupid positions in the hope we'd lose and the board would have to sack him?

[loyalroyaldaz]

That twat in the East Stand that wears shorts still wore shorts.......

A bit harsh - away shirt, black shorts, vibrant yellow bottle of whatever as well? He sits just down from me.

Ref Piazon, simply doesn't cut the mustard for me, goals or assists aside. Yes, well done on scoring and creating, but as a left sided central midfielder you need so much more than just a fancy touch. Effectively he is given a free role to roam it seems, which invariably stems the flow of attack down our left particularly if he has vacated it. Defensively, as a midfielder he needs to do significantly more. I would feel much more secure with a more all-rounded midfielder in there. Piazon would be ideally suited to Spanish football but Championship football, he's a passenger in almost everything that happens.

Different Twat in that case.....

[Ian Royal]

I know the one you mean... sat to the left of the exit in Y26 (from the pov of the top of the stand looking at the pitch) last season. And moved a few rows back for this season?

He's just a bit desperate for attention.

[Nameless]

Clarke is tactically inept. We wont get away with it enough to finish top six. There are better sides in this league this season.

That's clearly garbage. Clarke got us to Wembley last season through his tactically eptness.
But he does daft stuff that I do not understand, and I do agree that sometimes it borders on suicidal.
We're easily good enough to finish top 6, we are one of the teams that is much better this season than last. We need the left side of the team fit, we need to settle on our best X1 and we need to be more consistent. Clarke needs to resist the temptation to be too clever.

[Ian Royal]

Clarke is tactically inept. We wont get away with it enough to finish top six. There are better sides in this league this season.

That's clearly garbage. Clarke got us to Wembley last season through his tactically eptness.
But he does daft stuff that I do not understand, and I do agree that sometimes it borders on suicidal.
We're easily good enough to finish top 6, we are one of the teams that is much better this season than last. We need the left side of the team fit, we need to settle on our best X1 and we need to be more consistent. Clarke needs to resist the temptation to be too clever.

I think he has a tendency to pick his team and tactics focusing on what he thinks is best for the next opposition, rather than forming a coherent strategy for us and only tweaking it where there's a clear flaw for a specific opposition to exploit. Sometimes it works fantastically - see Arsenal. Others it's abject.

He tends to be too conservative and negative in his substitutions as well.

[CountryRoyal]

I think he has a tendency to pick his team and tactics focusing on what he thinks is best for the next opposition, rather than forming a coherent strategy for us and only tweaking it where there's a clear flaw for a specific opposition to exploit. Sometimes it works fantastically - see Arsenal. Others it's abject.

He tends to be too conservative and negative in his substitutions as well.

It's all so unnecessary for me. As you've pointed out that sort of game-specific, tactical preparation worked well against Arsenal and I suspect other higher calibre opposition because the onus is very much on the other team; focusing on how to stop them playing their game. Its perhaps perceivably easier to execute such a game plan in 1 off, big games where concentration levels are higher and people raise their game.

Against similar or lesser quality opposition in a league where anyone can beat anyone, in my mind you should just focus on yourselves. Find a successful, winning formular and stick with it. With the risk of sounding condescending our opponents aren't Arsenal and co, and we should stop treating them with the same conservative and cautious respect. (Referring to league games this season, if we played at the tempo and pressed like we did at Wembley we'd more than likely be in the autos)

Ive said before that consistently making changes to a team, week in week out breeds inconsistency.

Did anyone watch that Salford FC doc on the beeb? One thing I found interesting was when one of the players was describing not knowing your role in the team can be a cause for a drop in individual performance level. I don't mean competition for places, you could play out of your skin but not play the next game because the manager has decided to mix it up, and it can be pretty disillusioning. I'm not saying that's definite or it's comparable but it's certainly something to consider and be aware of as a possible contributing factor to our recent troubles.

Correct me if I'm wrong but in 11/12 I don't remember McD making many changes to the side that won 17 out of 19 games or something like that. Although he was probably the opposite end of the spectrum as it was ultimately his faith showed to certain players and his consistent selection of poor preformed that probably got us relegated.

Although what do I know.

Besides, if I got offered I job for an extra £80k pa I'd probably take it.

To conclude, Clarke out tho.