Nottingham Forest visit the Reebok tomorrow and we’ve got a score to settle
Nottingham Forest are uprooted and heading to the Reebok this weekend. The highflying Championship outfit are firm favourites to take the 3-points away from the north-west on Saturday, but if Dougie Freedman stays strong, his Bolton side will emerge victorious.
I know the last 3-or-so-years have been torrid for Bolton supporters, but for a good 10 years before our demise, us Whites` fans were spoilt. We were constant underdogs, pitted against far superior Premiership squads, with intricate tactical approaches that needed to be countered and neutralised with almost military precision. Not only did we become experts in frustrating and forcing teams to retreat from their approaches during the early Big Sam years, we eventually adopted a formulae and recruited a personnel to topple the big boys.
I know football can be over-complicated by certain Premier League managers- which usually results in them losing their job. But when football is played at such a high level, the right tactical blueprint- seen as ‘overcomplicating a simple game` by many old-school critics- can be the difference between winning and losing for bosses, regardless of the quality of squads at their disposal.
Playing in the Championship and at the Championship level does not require such intricacies. Championship sides, home or away, come at you? They come at you HARD. There are no reputations to precede caution, there are no fear-factors to gain a upper-hand and there are certainly no tactical bamboozling to tie lesser opposition in knots. It`s ‘kill or be killed`? It`s that simple.
Teams will come to the Reebok with basic instructions salient in their minds. ‘High energy`, ‘don`t give them time to settle` and ‘frustrate the opposition` will all be phrases repeated copious amounts before the away team emerges from the tunnel. Even the most intellectually challenged footballer will easily grasp such instructions and only footballers who have a grudge against their own club would refuse to implement such basics.
So why don`t we do this?
I`m not saying, run round aimlessly until the opposition makes a mistake. But we can at least get in their faces early until our point is made, then we can get the ball down at our feet and implement our game-plan. You can`t win a game in the first 20 minutes, but you can certainly lose it, eh Zat?
Standing toe-to-toe with some Premiership teams, with the personnel Wanderers` used to have at their disposal, was folly. But we don`t have to contend with those scenarios anymore and I`m sure, with the team we currently possess, standing toe-to-toe with the majority of Championship clubs, home or away would result in a win.
So why don`t we?
I digress for a moment. AVB`s Spurs side earlier in the season played a 4-2-3-1 with Soldado playing the lone-striker role. Apart from penalties, the Spaniard struggled to find the net. He would continually get lost in amongst opposition defences and his frustration would build to counter-production. He would try to find space out-wide or down the channels, but when success was accomplished and found the ball at his feet, there was no-one in the box to deliver to.
Fast forward to post AVB-sacking and Tim Sherwood`s Spurs line-up 4-4-2 where Soldado now finds companionship in the form of Adebayor. The Spaniard`s goals remain penalty-heavy but the striker has turned provider on 4 goals in 5 games. At least 2 of those assists have been crosses to his strike-partner, Adebayor.
2-up-top for teams not only gives the attack more bite but also keeps opposing defences honest by restricting too much advancement but also halts full-backs bombing forward too often. John McGinlay was a brilliant crosser of the ball and would find success in the channels, but only because he had an attacking criminal partner with his hand aloft in the box.
Be bold tomorrow please, Dougie. Go 4-4-2 and get at Forest from the get-go. If Bolton Wanderers stand toe-to-toe with Forest at the Reebok on Saturday, with 15-20,000 fans cheering then on and lady luck doesn`t ridiculously abandon us, we will beat the favoured visitors.
I don`t want to see Bolton beat Nottingham Forest tomorrow in a battle of wits. I want to see Bolton beat Nottingham Forest tomorrow in a battle. If we lose tomorrow, we lose. But at least we`ll lose knowing we gave it everything we had.
That will be one loss at the Reebok which will be vacated with a round of applause, not with boos.