Lennon issues challenge to Wanderers star Davies

MARK Davies has been challenged to prove he can fire Wanderers back up the Championship table.

Fit again after a bruised knee, the mercurial midfielder returned to action from the bench in Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at Charlton.

Davies remains a popular figure on the terraces but has started just four of Wanderers' 16 games this season.Neil Lennon is debating whether to launch him from the start against Brentford tomorrow but admits he needs to get more out of the 26-year-old playmaker if he is to fulfil his full potential.

Now the new Whites boss, speaking ahead of his first home game in charge, has laid down the gauntlet to his flair players to take charge and lead the club out of the bottom three.

"It is good to have Mark back and I haven’t seen much of him on the pitch, obviously, but I was quite pleased with what I saw against Charlton," he told The Bolton News “But now he’s got to come to the party and make a difference. They all have.

"It is the same with Chung-Yong Lee. He is a very good player but there has to be an end product to all that good approach play. "We need results, it's as simple as that. And I can’t give it to the players, they have to find it themselves and give me some answers on the pitch."

Lennon will assess the fitness of Joe Mason, who pulled out of the squad in midweek with a hamstring strain, and also has Liam Trotter back in the squad after he came through 45 minutes for the development squad on Monday.

The Wanderers boss believes he has a better understanding of his squad after sampling defeat for the first time at The Valley. “I know the players better now," he said. "I wasn’t disappointed with the performance but I was raging with the result. And that is the be all and end all.

"I said that this is the last time I want to feel like that for a very long time. "They have got to change. I don't think the mentality is a problem and I definitely don't think it is a fitness thing. There is a will to win - it is just a matter of quality to address now."

Source

"just a matter of quality to address now"

Really Neil?
Could have told you that when Dougie was in charge. 

Question is how do you improve the quality if the squad is the same? I guess that challenging supposedly "flair" players to show they can actually do it isn't a bad plan and seeing as there are people both on here and in the media who still reckon this squad is better than the results indicate it's perhaps a good way to get either salvation or a reality check.

wanderlust wrote:"just a matter of quality to address now"

Really Neil?
Could have told you that when Dougie was in charge. 

Question is how do you improve the quality if the squad is the same? I guess that challenging supposedly "flair" players to show they can actually do it isn't a bad plan and seeing as there are people both on here and in the media who still reckon this squad is better than the results indicate it's perhaps a good way to get either salvation or a reality check.

I couldn't agree more lusty. I'm one of those who believe we DO have quality within our squad and that properly utilised and motivated it could send us a long way up this table. However the possibility exists that they aren't as good or don't have as much ability as I and others believe. 

What I do have faith in is NL's ability to get that question settled once and for all. If anyone can motivate these players to perform to their very best on a week in week out basis it's him. The likes of CYL, Mavies and a few others will no longer have anything to hide behind with Neil in charge the way they did under Dougie. 

So it's put up or shut up time for them. I believe they'll prove me and the others who believe in them to be right but if they don't then I'll be the first to hold up my hand and say I was wrong. With Neil Lennon in charge they can have no excuses about bad atmospheres, tactics, team selections etc. He's a hard man but a scrupulously fair one and if they can't succeed under his management they'll never do it at all.

I'll offer Mavies a challenge:

Stay fit you utter ponce. Are you a man or bone china?

luckyPeterpiper wrote:

wanderlust wrote:"just a matter of quality to address now"

Really Neil?
Could have told you that when Dougie was in charge. 

Question is how do you improve the quality if the squad is the same? I guess that challenging supposedly "flair" players to show they can actually do it isn't a bad plan and seeing as there are people both on here and in the media who still reckon this squad is better than the results indicate it's perhaps a good way to get either salvation or a reality check.

I couldn't agree more lusty. I'm one of those who believe we DO have quality within our squad and that properly utilised and motivated it could send us a long way up this table. However the possibility exists that they aren't as good or don't have as much ability as I and others believe. 

What I do have faith in is NL's ability to get that question settled once and for all. If anyone can motivate these players to perform to their very best on a week in week out basis it's him. The likes of CYL, Mavies and a few others will no longer have anything to hide behind with Neil in charge the way they did under Dougie. 

So it's put up or shut up time for them. I believe they'll prove me and the others who believe in them to be right but if they don't then I'll be the first to hold up my hand and say I was wrong. With Neil Lennon in charge they can have no excuses about bad atmospheres, tactics, team selections etc. He's a hard man but a scrupulously fair one and if they can't succeed under his management they'll never do it at all.

They'll probably find something to complain about eventually, but in the meanwhile I do think that CYL seems more effective in the free role he's been given so there's hope for the others. I include Trotter in that as he used to be a "creative player" at Millwall so it depends on what opportunities Neil gives him to express himself.

In encouraging the players to play their "natural game" Lennon will see how the players see their own roles - and give them the opportunity to show him what they think will be their best performance. Smart. He'll have them all worked out in no time. I think he'll sort it out.