Boro 2-1 Bolton

Michael Bolton wrote:

wanderlust wrote:Precisely. That's why several people said he should be given more time. It was only a handful of idiots who interpreted that as saying he was a genius.

Um I heard things like 'the dream team' mentioned. Dream team my arse.

I'm sure the "dream team" stuff was mostly tongue in cheek mich, but the notion that JP could guide this team to promotion was based on nothing and was fanciful at best.

It all stems from him being a former player and a cracking bloke... bit like Coyle.

everyone knows you can't wait around in football, "give him more time" how much? 10 games? 15 games? might work... but we might be in the bottom 3 with zero chance of attracting a manager, the prospect of players leaving and no chance of any players willing to join us on loan or in the window with promotion a distant dream.

Time to let the JP dream, and it is a dream, go now and see what Dougie can do.

We lost to a Boro side without Emnes too, who seemed to be their most potent attacking threat early on. I reckon Ebbsfleet could bag a few against our wank wank defence.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Well the faint hope that we could shoot up the league is slowly leaving me.

I think Freedman will sort us out but the instant fix many will desire i can't see becoming a reality.

we clearly don't have the players.

We don't which is why I commented on "promotion favourites", "best squad" and other nonsense that was being bandied about a few weeks ago. Our best hope is for the youngsters to get a chance and then take it. OC took a gamble replacing the costly premiership die-hards with kids like Sordell and Wylde so now we need them and the homegrown talent including Vela when he recovers to step up and prove they're premiership quality.

Even though I am bolton's biggest fan and have fifty quid on them to win the league, I am glad we lost today. Had we won I think people would feel JP should be our manager and dougie is not needed and would get on his back if he doesn't start off with decent results. At least the messiah JP has shown he isn't the new mourinho. Fingers crossed dougie can sort this team, especially the defence out.

meant to say 13 points behind ...... 4 games and change behind the leaders.

Things went tits up when I started boasting about my predictions being correct. You can blame me guys!

Our defending for the 2nd was fucking abysmal, it was a free header from 10 yards!

Freedman has a lot of work to do at the back, not to mention our inability to shoot when we get in front of the goal.

Up next top of the table Cardiff and we're currently 18th.....

3 points from relegation and 15 (FIFTEEN) games played.

All going to plan then!

Palace beat Leicester at Leicester 2-1 today! It does kind of look like a backwards step for Dougie at the moment!

Lt. Boon wrote:Palace beat Leicester at Leicester 2-1 today! It does kind of look like a backwards step for Dougie at the moment!

Palace are going places and have a great squad. They're talking about a return of Steve Coppell ATM.

That article about the Palace Chairman and DF implies DF was on his bike so as it appears they were dumping Freedman anyway, having a job - any job - can hardly be a backwards step for him. Especially a job at a desperate club who are prepared to pay him double the money he was receiving at the club that didn't want him. He fell on his feet whichever way you look at it.

He'd just better be damned good and turn it around quickly before we completely hit the skids.

Although 4 points out of 9 isn't exactly blazing a trail, its a bloody damned sight better than we were doing. Now we have DF coming in, which should give us the impetus, and prossible team changes, that we are all asking for. Give him time, and be careful for what you ask !

It doesn't matter who is manager, Coyle has left us with the worst squad of players since we were in the old Division 3.

We don't know what Dougies ideas are yet. We presume changes but with who ??? we don't have many to pick from IMO.

My long standing joke is in play again ..... SKD has seen off his 5th manager ..... and we are still below Derby.

Thankyou I'll be here all week.

Afobe is taking some serious abuse on twitter.

sounds like he had a bad game.

I keep thinking we have a good enough squad to win this league but today when I saw the line up I see Kevin Davies - past it, slow, never a prolific goal scorer. I see petrov - just a waste of space, he looked amazing 6 years ago, he just doesn't look like he cares. Eagles - sometimes capable of something great but usually is shit. Mark Davies - I once heard him called England's answer to iniesta. The guy is skillful, he is a great dribbler, but he is lightweight and I don't think anyone had found a way to use him effectively. He is woeful in a 4 4 2 and I just don't think he is effective as a central midfielder. We have Tyrone mears, a shocking footballer.
I see pratley came on, this guy is really shit. Keith Andrews was on the bench, he is very ordinary, a no thrills player. We had mick mills on the bench - another very ordinary footballer. We have afobe on loan, this guy is worse than n'gog.

I think nat is right, I think it's true we don't have a good team. I personally would like to see a real shake up in the players starting. I think it's time to drop a few players.

Do you think it's time to introduce a few youngsters? The under 18's won again today, now i'm not saying they are the answer but I can't imagine the centre backs in the youth set up can defend any worse than our current back 4.

I don't know much about our youngsters, you would like to think if any were good they would be in the first team squad. I do think players like petrov, eagles, Kevin Davies need to be dropped.

We don't have a centre midfield - it's as simple as that to me.

Have one that defends the back four and supports the strikers like most teams do and we will be ok - what do we have though - Mark Davies - can't do it - better off playing behind a lone striker in attack imo, Andrews - currently dropped, Pratley - enough said and Spearing - never seen him so can't judge but even if he is good he can't do it all by himself.

Seems blindingly obvious to me were our problem is - the defence is constantly exposed and there is no one supporting the attackers - is it any wonder we are a poor team.

Don't forget this is the team built and bequeathed to us by Coyle.

Thanks Owen.

PS we also need a reliable keeper not just a shop stopper who keeps dropping clangers.

Well I agree with your assessment sluffy, but I think we have been unlucky with central midfielders - Muamba would be such a useful player to have now, it's sad and unfortunate what happened to him. NRC IMO was our best player last season, he again would make a big difference to our team, he pissed off, he couldn't get away fast enough. And Holden, our best player, he has had terrible injuries. If we had those three now we would look so much stronger. We are lacking in quality in the centre of midfield, I really don't know what the answer is. Spearing and who else? Mark Davies you are right should play off a striker.

However bad Freedman is he can't be worse than Coyle. As others have already pointed out - look at the squad he left us with. And as for JP and the so called dream team - it was just slightly modified Coyle: playing SKD and Mears for 90 minutes every game, hopeless defending, refusal to use players like Sordell and Riley, etc.

Just read the BBC report on the game. It makes depressing reading. We were crap basically apart from Lee's goal against the run of play and yes Bogdan was responsible for the first goal yet again.

Whenever everyone is fit ..... My picks would be... Lonnie in goal, Riley, Alonso, Holden, Wheater, Sordell. Bring back Eaves .... sit SKD & Petrov.... and that's just for starters.....