"other teams are obsessed with passing" - Bolton camp

My mate emailed me this earlier:

"I was at BWFC's academy tonight and watched Bolton play Rochdale (I was supporting the blues of course). What I could not get my head around was why the Rochdale players would pass the ball out from the back every time while the Bolton lads either didn't want to or were uncomfortable doing...
Our goalie saw a lot of the ball, and I mean a lot (because of all the passing) - but he only kicked it long maybe twice in 80 mins. The Bolton keeper kicked it short only once. Yes, we endlessly passed it around at the back and across the middle but at least they will be learning how to use the ball at their feet and how to get out of tight spots when being closed down - the Bolton lads are just learning to kick it long.
I have seen Bolton before and noticed this going on but the biggest thing of note to me was when I overheard a conversation between the referees and the coaches from Bolton.

Dumb referee: Wow, Rochdale do a lot of passing around at the back, they'll end up costing themselves goals doing that.
Bolton coach: We get a lot of teams doing that here. They are all obsessed with passing the ball out from the back. We think it's pointless.
Other referee: It's only good practice though isn't it, on the ball.
Bolton coach: What's the point, they do seven or 8 passes and then half the time they will only end up kicking it long anyway.
Other referee: Yes, but only half the time, the other half the time they can cause you problems with the ball.
Bolton Coach: Only Arsenal when they come down can cause us problems by passing it. There is just no point spending all that time passing it around. Like I said before, most teams are just obsessed with passing and moving.

Anyway ***name removed***, thought you might find it interesting for your footy forum thing a mi jig.
I just thought it summed Bolton as a whole up in footballing terms last year and I think it's a shame the kids (age 16) are being taught that way."

I hope thats not true.

I have absolutely no reason not to believe him. He often goes to the academy teams games and I know for a fact that he was going to the Bolton academy tonight too.

We are in the sticky brown stuff.

So we know what we can look forward to for as long as Coyle is at the helm.

BSA was criticised for this but he got results. Coyle does it and gives us nothing but failure and relegation and yet because he's a nice guy the media never seem to mention it.

At crewe last weekend we wasnt playing long ball. I have no idea why a highly qualified coach would come out with that statement. In the second half when Vela, Wylde and Riley (all very young) was on the pitch there was plenty of passing and slowly working it down the line for Wylde (this guy is rapid) to get in behind and get a cross in.

Im sure we will see more crosses from the like of Petrov and wylde that they have made in previous seasons. What is the point of keeping 5 decent wingers in the squad if we are going to lump it up for kev or Ngog to flick on.

I sometimes work at the academy and I have noticed the tendency of other teams to pass and move, pass and move, pass and move - including the goalkeeper as if he was part of a back five. Most teams think it's good for development and Bolton tend not to do it, especially at the older ages. The under 13's and below seem to do more passing to me in the Bolton youth.

However, with regards the first team we know Coyle is more a fan of passing than any of our recent managers and I noticed a huge increase in our attempts to pass the ball in the Premiership last season. I'm hoping Coyle will please us with good football soon.

jayjay23 wrote:

However, with regards the first team we know Coyle is more a fan of passing than any of our recent managers and I noticed a huge increase in our attempts to pass the ball in the Premiership last season. I'm hoping Coyle will please us with good football soon.

We passed the ball better and more often under Allardyce, Lee & Megson. I don't see your point.

jayjay23 wrote:However, with regards the first team we know Coyle is more a fan of passing than any of our recent managers and I noticed a huge increase in our attempts to pass the ball in the Premiership last season. I'm hoping Coyle will please us with good football soon.

Attempts is the operative word. Considering they are supposed to spend the week training it was unbelievable how incapable they were of finding each other even over a short distance. They treat the ball like a hot potato and just panic whenever any of them have to keep hold of it for longer than 2 seconds.

Numpty 28723 wrote:
They treat the ball like a hot potato and just panic whenever any of them have to keep hold of it for longer than 2 seconds.

Very true. We need a Campo type player that is comfortable on the ball and can keep it simple.

We want the Rock!


And Iniesta.

We didn't pass the ball better under Megson.

We did pass it better under Sam and under Lee it was a mixture of quickly down the wings and when he started to panic, the long ball.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:We didn't pass the ball better under Megson.

Of course we did - Stelios, Campo etc were much better at passing than the current ponces. Not worldbeaters, but much better at passing and keeping the ball.

Just having people who can pass doesn't mean you "pass the ball better"

Megsons tactics were 100% defensive, long ball, counter attack.

He stuffed the midfield with cloggers.

Under Coyle we've seen flashes of good passing, but these have exclusively been 3 or 4 pass explosions... rare in other words.

The emphasis is not on passing it out from the back, or keeping possession through the middle. It's either long from the keeper, or a long diagonal from the defence.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Just having people who can pass doesn't mean you "pass the ball better"

Yes it does.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Just having people who can pass doesn't mean you "pass the ball better"

Yes it does.

No it doesn't.

Say you're great at selling but I'm your manager and ask you to sit around doing admin all day. Thats basically what happened under Megson.

If we had Xavi and Scholes under Megson they'd have got about 4 touches a game each.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

Say you're great at selling but I'm your manager

Sorry, I can't imagine that.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

Say you're great at selling but I'm your manager and ask you to sit around doing admin all day. Thats basically what happened under Megson.

So are you saying Megson told them not to pass the ball?