Madine.

What is the point in this guy? from a fans perspective he is a useless lump, can't hold the ball up, rarely wins a header, rarely scores, and by all accounts is stealing a living, no chance he is going anywhere anytime soon, no other club would be stupid enough to actually pay him.

Good goal on Monday though!

For the money we paid and taking into account our options and the service he gets he's pretty much what we could expect I reckon. We know Amoebi and Heskey aren't any better and Lennon insists on playing to a target man so what else can we do?

Personally I'd consolidate the midfield and put pacy midgets up front instead so we'd have to try to play through the opposition - just like Barcelona 

Well maybe not Barca, but I reckon Clough, Woolery, Mavies and Clayton could offer a threat if played in tandem.

The bottom line is, Madine was cheap.

He reminds me a lot of Ngog. Occasionally comes up with a really well taken goal, but overall lacks so much inspiration.

He's probably doing a better job than anyone from the development squad though, so it's just a case of making do.

doffcocker wrote:The bottom line is, Madine was cheap.

He reminds me a lot of Ngog. Occasionally comes up with a really well taken goal, but overall lacks so much inspiration.

He's probably doing a better job than anyone from the development squad though, so it's just a case of making do.

The real bottom line is no one else wanted to come to the club... Certainly not Lennon's fault.  I'll leave the tactical analysis to those in the know, but with no real money and with a team fighting relegation, who would really like to come to help us out?  Wish we had the money for ALF months ago...  but that is water under the bridge.  Can Madine do the job? He did prove his mettle on Monday night.  Unfortunately, either the service is poor, or Madine can only do that against a crappy defense.

I suspect that Madine is one of those Lennon referred to as being below Championship standard, will do a decent job for us in League 1 though.

Get off his back, for fucks sake, he cost us nothing,
He challenges for every ball, he's brave, he can play for the full 90 mins and play again a week later
At the moment it's him or one of the pensioners, when fit!, that's how it is.

CAMPO wrote:Get off his back, for fucks sake, he cost us nothing,
He challenges for every ball, he's brave, he can play for the full 90 mins and play again a week later
At the moment it's him or one of the pensioners, when fit!, that's how it is.

The OG poster hasn't set foot in Bolton for 10 years. He hasn't got a clue.

I honestly like Madine and think he could do much better if he got better service from midfield. He's not a guy who'll run with the ball from his own half and dribble past six on his way to a goal but he is one heck of a good finisher if he gets a decent ball to him. Look at the one against Blackburn, that was a really nice chest, turn and finish from an old fashioned target man. Clough's got the speed and control to be the dribble king, Madine's more in the Lineker/Shearer mould and no I don't mean he's as good as them. But he's definitely got a decent eye for goal and can hit the target reliably when he's got proper support.

For what it's worth, I think Madine has a better player trying to get out of him. I'm not sure whether he understands what he is supposed to be doing - or whether Lennon has a clear vision either. It appears that we want him to be a target man and a finisher. Few players can achieve that - Shearer perhaps being the best though Chris Sutton and Dean Ashton also come to mind. But we shouldn't expect that level from him given his limited ability. Either play him as a target and get Clough to play off him (they seem to be on different wavelengths as it is) or have him running behind the lines and creating space for Clough or Mavis to run into.