Bolton 2-0 Ipswich

Don't want to get carried away but so many positives from today.

All the new signings were excellent

Moved the ball quickly from back to front

Stuck with 2 strikers

Great athleticism in the recovery runs especially Fossey who was like the Energiser bunny up and down the wing

Geth is back

Created chances

It all bodes well so....

Natasha out!

442 aswell. I think Evatt reads my posts...

As I said for weeks Dapo needs to be benched - shocked Ian eventually did it.  For all to see we moved the ball quicker - more passes through the middle and over the top - two strikers up.  
Dapo as an impact sub which is perfect for now. 
Next fix is to tell MJ and Santos to stop back passing to our goalie who then can only hoof it. We got some luck today with the back pass for the second goal, but we deserve a little luck for a change. Things looking up again. The new lads look decent so far - our bench is stronger with more to come apparently.
Overall, an excellent three points - COYWM

Really enjoyed the first half started slow and grew into an interesting game, Ipswich lacked a real threat but played some decent stuff, Lee was everywhere, Charles has very quick feet and will give us more options. The goalkeeper did well and i expect Morley will improve. The first goal was a thing of beauty and at last we benefited from a cock up for the second. A good day. 

Never heard a quieter set of away fans.

Could this be this seasons Mansfield moment? I genuinely believe we will go on a monumental run again

Also interesting to note that the revised system meant that we were prepared to give up possession - we only had 36% in this game yet created more chances than we have done for ages.

We’ll have a mini resurgence with the new system. Like a new team to the league that no one knows how to play against. The changes sounded positive (thanks for the updates Lusty) and obviously made a big difference to today’s result. Nice to get 3points for a change.

That was much better, embarrassing that it took so long for the penny to drop though.

Gone was the tippy-tappy possession football for something more direct and entertaining. Fossey and Morley brought some energy and pace to the team and this seemed to inspire others, Lee in particular. The defence also looked better, perhaps Jones has a calming presence?

Still some major question marks though. Bakayoko wouldn't make a Nuts 11 (and there's only 7 of us), the new goalkeeper looked as shaky as the previous guy, and Charles has played 3 games without a goal. But today was still progress.

Welll done Bolton today.

A couple of observations. 
The keeper did OK, but nothing better than Dixon would have done today. And in fairness we would have been slating him if Ipswich had scored from one of his numerous dodgy moments when passing. Dixons distribution and precision passing is usually better than we saw from Trafford today but we are all kissing his ass because we are suffering from dissonance of sorts. Forgivable though.

Jones was the key today. But let's not underestimate the power of the set up by the manager. With the two up top. And Fossey in front of Jones worked wonders because out of possession we looked like we had two right backs. 

By the way, we have seen Doyle put in quite a few shifts similar to what Charles did today. 

And as good as Kachunga has been in pieces, we benefitted from him not playing.

The possession stat looks bad on paper but that's because we were happy to let them have it and spending our time being solid at the back. That's contrary to the idea stated above that suggests we played more directly. 
On the whole I thought we played passing football much more today than in any other recent match. As a slight caveat I do realise that some of the time we played direct when compared to the first few games of the season.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Gone was the tippy-tappy possession football for something more direct and entertaining. Fossey and Morley brought some energy and pace to the team and this seemed to inspire others, Lee in particular. The defence also looked better, perhaps Jones has a calming presence?

NAH MATE. 
The tippy tappy is back. And here to stay thankfully.

A number of good comments on this thread already.

Belatedly Evatt has moved away from tippy-tappy in order to secure a more solid defensive structure by reverting back to a traditional 4-4-2.

Playing attacking fullbacks with two wide men with Doyle supposedly in the middle hasn't worked for months now and resulted in both conceding goals at one end and being incapable of scoring them at the other - footballing suicide really isn't it?

Let's not get carried away though, not only is it just one match for us in this form, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we do revert back to possession tippy-tappy stuff once he get's all his signings done and he knows what his new best team will be.

Interesting to see if Afolayan is now used as a super sub, with his freshness and trickery coming on later in the game as the opposition are tiring.

Also how does he fit Amaechi into the team unless he too is used as a super sub too?

I'm guessing he prefers Johnston to Aimson at the back with Santos and I also guess bringing in Trafford on loan and sticking him in the team suggests to me that the thinking already is the Trafford is our number one keeper.

I assume if we do get Dempsey he will be a starter so presumably Lee will be more and more 'game managed'.

We'll see how things pan out soon enough no doubt.

Never dull being a Wanderers fan is it!

Natasha Whittam wrote:That was much better, embarrassing that it took so long for the penny to drop though.

Gone was the tippy-tappy possession football for something more direct and entertaining. Fossey and Morley brought some energy and pace to the team and this seemed to inspire others, Lee in particular. The defence also looked better, perhaps Jones has a calming presence?

Still some major question marks though. Bakayoko wouldn't make a Nuts 11 (and there's only 7 of us), the new goalkeeper looked as shaky as the previous guy, and Charles has played 3 games without a goal. But today was still progress.

Is this an official "Evans In" post then Nat.

The main thing for me is that we looked competitive and capable of scoring again and if we perform like that every week we should start to pull away from the bottom of the table. Negotiate Shrewsbury and Sunderland  and we'll be in good shape for February's run of winnable games.

Easy to say in hindsight but had a feeling we’d do something yesterday, felt like we were due a result. The new additions are already making an impact, the club have really sorted out their transfer strategy over the last 12 months, there’s a clear strategy in place. Need Charles to get a goal asap but other than that only positive. Hope we can add another striker and attacking midfielder.

Biggie wrote:Welll done Bolton today.

A couple of observations. 
The keeper did OK, but nothing better than Dixon would have done today. And in fairness we would have been slating him if Ipswich had scored from one of his numerous dodgy moments when passing. Dixons distribution and precision passing is usually better than we saw from Trafford today but we are all kissing his ass because we are suffering from dissonance of sorts. Forgivable though.

Can't agree with this Biggie - Dixon hoofs most of his clearances straight out of touch half the time. I believe Trafford did not put a single one out yesterday. His distribution is far better.  As for the actual goal keeping its hard to tell after one game. Any young keeper is not going to dominant his area - that's why I prefer an older guy - its men against boys sometimes.

terenceanne wrote:
Can't agree with this Biggie - Dixon hoofs most of his clearances straight out of touch half the time. I believe Trafford did not put a single one out yesterday. His distribution is far better.  As for the actual goal keeping its hard to tell after one game. Any young keeper is not going to dominant his area - that's why I prefer an older guy - its men against boys sometimes.

As mentioned Trafford is a converted midfielder so should have decent ball control and distribution, but we have yet to see how he goes on as a shotstopper and handling crosses as he wasn't under as much pressure with that system in front of him. Still trying to decide if it was 352 or 5212 but they're pretty much the same - either way I like it because we've finally got some athleticism in the team so we can both attack and defend in numbers.
Bring on Shrewsbury!

Not sure why people on here are saying we played 442, it was definitely a 352 with Jones playing as a right sided CB. We looked solid at the back and the young keeper did everything asked of him and can actually distribute the ball unlike Dixon.

Morley was busy and played well and Fossey never stopped getting up and down all game and the new formation suited us, lets hope he stays with this now. Still work to be done upfront with Charles and Bakayoko but great to see us playing 2 strikers.

I must have got it wrong then as I thought Fossey was playing in midfield as a sort of 'Isgrove' type role.

Whatever it was it worked - and that's the main thing.

Me too. 
I sort of plumped for saying 442 as I could not quite make up my mind.
At times it looked like a flat back 4, with Fossey dropping deep to cover on the right. But I couldn't make my mind up who was doing the equivalent job on the left.

terenceanne wrote:

Biggie wrote:Welll done Bolton today.

A couple of observations. 
The keeper did OK, but nothing better than Dixon would have done today. And in fairness we would have been slating him if Ipswich had scored from one of his numerous dodgy moments when passing. Dixons distribution and precision passing is usually better than we saw from Trafford today but we are all kissing his ass because we are suffering from dissonance of sorts. Forgivable though.

Can't agree with this Biggie - Dixon hoofs most of his clearances straight out of touch half the time. I believe Trafford did not put a single one out yesterday. His distribution is far better.  As for the actual goal keeping its hard to tell after one game. Any young keeper is not going to dominant his area - that's why I prefer an older guy - its men against boys sometimes.

Funny how we can probably both support our own argument by recalling things from memory. I'll agree that we may both be affected by confirmation bias. Lol. 
One of the remarkable things about Dixon for me was his precision passing. With the occasional mistake.