With less than a week until the 2014/2015 Championship season kicks off, I decided to look at how I think we’ll fare this season. So far in this league we’ve come agonisingly close to the playoffs and finished frustratingly boringly in mid table.
This season we’ve seen a complete overhaul in personnel, with Dougie Freedman clearing out players on high wages who ‘got the club relegated’ and don’t want him ‘to change their lives’. This should mean we see more players wanting to fight to represent the club. His summer signings in general have been, I think, pretty good. Dorian Dervite and former loanees Neil Danns, Liam Feeney, Liam Trotter and Kevin McNaughton will add competition for places in the starting lineup; whereas two central midfielders called Andy were also brought to the club. Andy Robinson got homesick after 2 months and left, while Andy Hughes, 36 years old, will add some valuable experience as a player-coach. Youth was also added to the Wanderers setup – youngsters Ross Fitzsimons and Quade Taylor followed Dougie from Crystal Palace.
We’re still a few strikers short with Craig Davies and Jermaine Beckford our only two senior strikers, with young Connor Wilkinson who might be able to push for game time. However, Dougie recognises this and says that the club are looking for ‘three attacking options’.
Now I’ll go through each area of the pitch to see how the squad is shaping up.
Goalkeepers:
We have two goalkeepers who are at a good standard at Championship level. However, both of their contracts are due to expire by the end of this coming season. I reckon only one of Bogdan and Lonergan will be at the club for the 2015/2016 as neither of them will want to play second fiddle and they’re both good enough to get 46 matches a season. Andy Lonergan has featured instead of Bogdan so far this pre-season as the Hungarian has been injured, and I’d expect to see Lonergan start against Watford.
Young Ross Fitzsimmons has also featured in pre-season and has looked promising.
I think this is definitely one of our stronger areas on the pitch – there are no obvious weaknesses, so I’ll give them a fairly generous 8/10.
Defenders:
Dougie Freedman has brought in fullbacks Dean Moxey and Kevin McNaughton, while letting Alex Baptiste go. So, competing for the spot at left back will be Dean Moxey, Marc Tierney (when he’s fit), Tim Ream (if not featuring elsewhere) and Oscar Threlkeld. At right back Kevin McNaughton currently looks the obvious choice, but youngster Oscar Threlkeld and Hayden White featured last season, and will be wanting more first team football. At centre back we have solid Tim Ream and Matt Mills (who played well last season together), Dorian Dervite (former fan’s favourite from Charlton, good on the ball) and David Wheater. All four of these players have played at this level extensively and will want a place in the starting line up.
There’s a lot of competition for places, but many of these players have been inconsistent over the last few years. 6/10
Midfielders:
The release of Andre Moritz and Chris Eagles could well mean less flair in midfield for Bolton, however my hope is that the likes of Neil Danns and Mark Davies will be able to step up. Assuming that Dougie plays 4-2-3-1, our ‘2’ looks pretty strong – we have Jay Spearing and Medo Kamara as my first choices as holding midfielders, who are both some of our better players- although Liam Trotter and Josh Vela will be hoping to stake a claim for a starting position. Our attacking midfielders include the energetic Neil Danns, Mark Davies, Liam Feeney, Chung Yong Lee, Darren Pratley and Robert Hall. Veteran Andy Hughes may get a game or two, as might exciting youngsters Yannick Bastos and Andy Kellett- both quick wingers. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen from Danns- while he might mis-hit the odd ball or lose his footing while he’s running with the ball, he works hard for the team and gets among the goals. Mark Davies has been a long time favourite of mine – when he’s fit he’s one of the best in the league. Our wingers Feeney, Hall and Lee have all shown that they are good players. Feeney, for me is one to watch, after a good brief loan spell, he’s impressed on his return and expressed his happiness at being at the club.
While neither Eagles or Moritz featured much last season, I think there goals and skills might be missed, so I’ll give our midfield a 7/10.
Strikers:
This is where we look most worrying. We only have two senior strikers, and neither of them have shown consistency so far during their times at the club. Jermaine Beckford is quick and he gets into the right positions – and really should be scoring 15+ a season. However, it just didn’t work out for him last season, whenever he found form he’d get injured. I really hope he can recreate his form at Leeds. I like Craig Davies as a player, he’s big and he’s not bad on the ball. However, that’s pretty much where it ends. He hasn’t found any sort of form since joining Bolton and only scored one goal- a penalty during pre season. However, I think he has potential. He has similar attributes to Lukas Jutkiewicz, I really hope that this year he’ll prove himself as a threat in the air and get himself at the very least 10 goals. I haven’t seen much of Connor Wilkinson, but I’m almost certain that Dougie won’t play him all that much. He may get the odd appearance from the bench, or 70 minutes in the cup, but that’s it. I’ve seen his goals, which were good finishes but knowing the kind of manager Dougie Freedman is he will not want to rely on a 19 year old who scored 1 goal in 7 appearances for Chester and Torquay. There will be new additions, whether or not they’re good players we’ll have to see.
We have three players, none of whom have looked very good so far at Bolton. 3/10
So, we’re looking decent in some areas on the pitch but we’ll definitely need to add attacking players. Dougie knows that and we’ll have to hope he brings in the right people. There has been talk of Glenn Murray and Joe Mason – we’ll have to see whether they join. Murray for me would be a brilliant signing – he’s done it before at this level and will have to desire to do it again for Dougie. I’m not sure as to where I stand with Mason – yes he got goals for us in his second spell – but in his first he got 1 goal in 8 matches. He also doesn’t do much else on the pitch, although he is a good finisher.
Starting lineups against Watford:
I’d like to see Dougie experiment in our opening game, maybe try our the 3-5-2
formation again, although I’m pretty sure he’ll go with a 4-2-3-1 looking somewhat along the lines of: Lonergan, McNaughton, Mills, Ream, Moxey, Medo, Spearing, Feeney, M.Davies, Lee, Beckford.
Although some of these players could very easily be interchanged – Dervite could come in, so could Trotter, so could Danns, so could Hall. I also think Craig Davies would be better as a lone striker, but Dougie seems to like Beckford with this formation.
This if our third time trying to break out of the Championship, and hopefully it will be third time lucky – however I’m not so sure. I don’t think we’ll be horrendous, I think we’ll look promising at times, painfully pour at other, and finish 8th. Close enough to the playoffs for it to hurt, but close enough to mid table to get bored.
WRITTEN BY NICKY CROMPTON
Mr Ecky sends his best to the Vital Bolton community, he’s currently not well, he’ll be back as soon as possible and in the meantime, he’s got a staff writer to fill in for him.
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