Dougie Freedman’s football philosophy maybe starting to take shape
While the news slowly filters through, that Jay Spearing is running the treadmill as we speak, I will hamper my excitement to try and write this little article.
Our young wingers` display and goals in Shropshire, Tuesday night, meant Bolton Wanderers had wrapped up their second round place with only minutes played in the second half. Of course, we didn`t know at the time that the Whites had done enough, but it turned out they had. After 60-or-so minutes it was job done.
But saying ‘job done` for Wanderers` supporters, of late, after two-thirds of the match, certainly has not been the norm. But it was this psychological aspect of Bolton`s performance in Shropshire which pleased me the most.
The words ‘job done` during a match were rarely uttered, thought or felt with Whites` fans during an 18 month period before Dougie arrived. Having said that, the uncertainty of a positive result didn`t change even immediately after Freedman took the hot-seat either. A staggering amount of points were lost last season from winning positions, a statistic still being discussed in the comments section now.
Some fans think the problem so many points were lost last season was because not enough goals were scored. Some fans believe it was because too many goals were conceded. From a statistical perspective, both are true. If the Whites had scored that extra goal when pressuring the opposition in the dying seconds of the game, they`d have taken 3 points instead of the 1. If Wanderers had stayed stubborn near the end and not conceded that sloppy goal, they`d have kept hold of the 3 points instead of handing back 2.
But was it as simple as that? Was it just a case of defenders not defending or strikers not striking? Or was something else to blame? Or should I say, was something lacking in the team for it to be happening time and time again?
I know its early days, but after only two games into the new season, I`m already seeing something different with the Wanderers players. Visually, their fitness levels are brimming, there`s no questioning that. But an aura seems to have appeared around them.
Cardiff and Hull won promotion last year for being neither prolific scorers of watertight defenders. They didn`t need to be, because they knew how to win. If another goal was needed they`d go get it, or if they needed to close the doors, they`d somehow make it happen. The psychology of winning not only embodied the Cardiff and Hull teams, their opponents suffered the alternative phenomena. The more Cardiff and Hull managed to gain points- either through situations were no points were deserved, or points seemed unlikely- the more opposing teams disbelieved their likelihood of taking a positive result from the Championship front-runners.
On Tuesday night, in the Cup game, Shrewsbury had the players and the ability to hurt Bolton Wanderers. At 1-3, after only 60 minutes, the means, motive and opportunity hadn`t gone for the Shrews, but the belief had. Bolton had not only won the physical game, after 60-or-so minutes, the Whites had wrapped up the win psychologically.
Again, it`s very early days. But if Bolton can continue to win the psychological battles of the Championship, the amount of points dropped from winning positions will decrease dramatically, whether we score more or concede less. I believe wholeheartedly this is the doing of Dougie Freedman. A lot of fans raised an eyebrow when Freedman replaced Coyle. Some questioned his experience, some his loyalty and some, his credentials. But regardless of how successful Dougie becomes, he seems to have completely switched the mentality of the bewildered Premiership failures.
Another manager may have come to the Reebok and pressed CTRL, Alt, DEL to get over the devastation of falling out of the Premier League. But Dougie seems to have come to Bolton Wanderers and reformatted the hard-drive.