Darren Pratley Injury Update

Owen Coyle has revealed that Darren Pratley is definitely ruled out of this weekend's game at Wolves, although the midfielder is set to be back in action sooner than originally expected.

Speaking immediately after the full-time whistle at White Hart Lane on Tuesday evening, the Bolton boss explained that the 26-year-old could be out for up to six weeks.

However, the injury isn't as bad as first feared, with the likelihood that Pratley will now miss just a fortnight's worth of football

"Darren is certainly unavailable for Saturday. He got a bad gash to his leg, which required a lot of stitches," Coyle at his Wolves pre-match press conference.

"That hasn't helped because he has been in good form and doing very well for the football club, so we will just have to adjust accordingly.

"It was originally feared that it could be six weeks because it looked a deep wound. He went to hospital as he might have needed to have been operated on to clear it up. As it happened, they didn't have to do that but it still required stitches.

"There is a slim possibility that he might make the weekend of the Fulham game. If not, we are probably looking at the week after that which, in the context of what happened, is relatively good news.

"Out with Darren's injury, there are one or two other niggles as you would expect having played two matches in quick succession. Hopefully we will have a similar squad to choose from at Molineux, with the exception of Darren."

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So "he has been in good form" recently. Anyone else notice this?

He's been in such good form that a chant has been made in his honour, that goes like this:

Feed the Prat,
Feed the Prat,
Feed the Prat, and he will miss!

He has been in good form, He's not Xavi is he, but his "shittness" is well well overstated by Bolton fans.

he's the new Matt Taylor, the fans always want someone to have a go at, and Prats is the flavour of the month.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:He has been in good form, He's not Xavi is he, but his "shittness" is well well overstated by Bolton fans.

he's the new Matt Taylor, the fans always want someone to have a go at, and Prats is the flavour of the month.

I disagree. I think he is as shit as he's made out to be. Just like Matt Taylor was.

I think people overstate the scapegoat culture. If a player's getting a hard time off the fans, it's usually because he's not good enough!

Laughable, Matt Taylor had plenty of bad games for us, he also had plenty of good ones, he also bagged two of the most important goals in recent history at Stoke.

He worked his nuts off every game yet was constantly derided by fans.

Prats is the same, he's a hard worker, a grafter, his talent level is low, obviously, otherwise he wouldn't play for Bolton.

reminder: Pratley doesn't pick himself, how the fcuk does lambasting a player on the pitch help him perform? It doesn't.

I don't remember 'plenty' of good Matty Taylor games during the period where he was scapegoat - certainly not enough to outweigh the bad ones.

"he also bagged two of the most important goals in recent history at Stoke."

a ) They were both flukes.

b ) They weren't that important. Take the three points it earned away and we were still six points clear of danger.

c ) The importance of goals a player scores is no measure of his actual abilities. The two goals you refer to were no more important than the match-winning goal scored by Zat Knight at home to Wolves. Does he get similar credibility?

I agree he worked hard and Pratley does too but there's only so much that hard work can achieve. I'd work my arse off in a Bolton Wanderers shirt, but it would be no good as in footballing terms, I'm untalented.

They we're both flukes... fcuking hell... anyway.

You answered, and backed up my overarching point with your last sentence.

If you were playing for Bolton, but were utterly shit, who's fault would that be? Certainly not yours.

And therefore, i don't understand players who are giving their all for the shirt, when others around them aren't, are taking the flack for a decision that is out of their hands.

lol, just admit they were flukes instead of going into your usual 'Mr I'm-Considerably-Sharper-Than-You-Are and shall therefore appear to simply rise above you even though I know you're right' mode. One was a free kick that took a hellish deflection, and one was a touch from a cross at the near post which also probably wouldn't have gone in if not for a considerable deflection. I admit it's a while back and I could be wrong, but I'm quite confident on this one.

By the way, I've not suggested that lambasting out of form players is good, just that it's usually as a result of them being crap.

lol, not sure why people can't talk football without having to get personal. Bit sad IMO.

i just say what i see and to deride a player on the "quality" of goal they score is just stupid, in my opinion of course.

I don't care whether it went in off his bloody backside.

It's like the debate people used to have about Henry vs Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Henry was better "cos he scored from outside the box more"... ok.

When i look at goals i don't think how good it was, just whether it went in the net or not.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:lol, not sure why people can't talk football without having to get personal. Bit sad IMO.

It's like the debate people used to have about Henry vs Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Henry was better "cos he scored from outside the box more"... ok.

But it's not like that. The Taylor goals were about as credible as own goals. It was a crap free kick - it went straight at the wall and got a lucky spin off a defender, and the other was similar in that it probably wouldn't have gone in if not for a touch from the defender.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:lol, not sure why people can't talk football without having to get personal. Bit sad IMO.

I'm not sure why people can't talk football without having to be a condescending arse. Bit sad IMO.

"Laughable, Matt Taylor had plenty of bad games for us"

"They we're both flukes... fcuking hell... anyway."

Clearly you take things a bit too personal.

I think it's laughable, personally, that anyone wouldn't say over his time, Matt Taylor had plenty of decent games for us, and in all, was a good player. He had a load of crap games, who doesn't. We're Bolton.

and the flukes argument for me is just nonsense, thats why i reacted like that. Goals are goals, Taylor also scored a few cracking free kicks which took unbelievable skill and accuracy, so i guess by that logic, they make up for the odd fluke. Or maybe not, i've no idea.

honestly I'm bored of nonsense on football forums, I'm not condescending in the slightest, you don't know me. I come on forums to debate footy, not have tit for tat arguments about who's a bigger wanker. If it makes everyone happy I'll be the forum's "biggest wanker" then we can draw a line under it.

"I think it's laughable, personally, that anyone wouldn't say over his time, Matt Taylor had plenty of decent games for us, and in all, was a good player."

I was talking specifically about his last two seasons with the club where he was a scapegoat.

"honestly I'm bored of nonsense on football forums, I'm not condescending in the slightest, you don't know me. I come on forums to debate footy, not have tit for tat arguments about who's a bigger wanker. If it makes everyone happy I'll be the forum's "biggest wanker" then we can draw a line under it."

I thought it was me that takes things 'a bit too personal'. All I'm saying is you talk down to people when you can't get them to agree with you.

You can pick any season, and Matt Taylor had a positive impact in it in some way, that can't be said for a lot of players.

I don't take anything said on a football forum personally, i really couldn't care whether you thought i was the new hitler tbh. After posting on footy forums for years I'm just bored of it.

Is this a private tiff or can anyone join?
I'm going to butt in anyway just to say that the thing that impresses me about good players is their control, passing and general ability to keep the ball. For the most part Matty was OK in this department but his form dipped before we sold him - a bit like Nolan's did. Pratley just hasn't shown me good form yet by any of these criteria but I'm hopeful he'll get it together as he's a decent athlete.
I was hoping that OC would view Pratley's lay off as an opportunity to try something and/or someone new - perhaps Vela, but in such a key game as the Wolves match I suspect he'll stick to the tried and tested.

Pratley is poor, poor poor on the ball.
He stumbles over it, he mis controls it, he wastes passes. Slow.
I think he is the new Kavies. Only has less impact.

I think I am the new jayjay23.

On the flip side, I want to like him. He works hard. And there is some cause to believe there is potential. More games may see him improve - but if he does not improve relatively quickly then we can't afford to carry him in games.

I think Pratley is better than he is given credit for. It is easy to call someone shit at footy, but he clearly has been doing something that the Manager approves of and didn't select himself.