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Sheehan is still pivotal. Don’t worry about that. Tues was one of the very rare occasions where Schuey acknowledged we might not have the majority of the ball. Brum have some decent footballers in there so felt we needed some legs to rattle in to them. What we gave up in control we got back in closing down and pressure. That didn’t work great in the first half hour hence them controlling the game. But once Thomasson and Morley got to grips with their roles better the balance started to shift. Along with the press the front 2 made on their back line. however, as I said, that’s a very rare occasion at this level. The games will now flip back to us having the majority of the ball, teams putting the press on us and asking us to break them down. So we don’t have anyone better than Sheehan in receiving the ball under pressure, controlling that midfield with the ball and dictating play. SS isn’t as rigid as Evatt as we have already seen and using a horses for courses approach is working very well so far. But more often than not Sheehan will start.

Only just getting round to adding my thoughts and I won’t repeat what’s already been said, pretty unanimously. - I was convinced that Tutu was no more than a finisher against tired shit defences based on his last couple of performances, and by no means could you trust him in a big game, especially with any kind of defensive role. WRONG. He was fucking brilliant, defensively and offensively. You could tell from the first 5 minutes that he was on it, and it never dropped. I think his fitness is constantly improving as well which is helping. More than happy to eat my words and look a twat for my previous view, that was some performance and another full back destroyed. - I said I wouldn’t judge McAtee until he’s playing under a new manager, although it was getting harder and harder to do. Glad I stuck to it because this is a different player. He’s got that shithouse element back to him and it gets him all fired up. He’s also a striker, not a “top of a box midfield 4, supporting but not being a striker, sometimes but other times helping midfield” bollocks that Evatt concocted. - I thought the starting line up was crazy and I hate to see a team without Sheehan in it. The way they played around GT in the first 30 minutes I was convinced I was right. Turns out I wasn’t (again). GT grew into it and the changes worked. CMG was brilliant, Forino looks like he was playing his 20th game of the season and the switch to the back 5 meant JDC (brilliant again - some change in him!) and Tutu had a field day with Collins and CMG almost acting as wingers in front of them. Made me realise that starting line ups are nowhere near as important as under Evatt. You used to be able to script a game from the team sheet, now you’ve no idea and know that there will be constant changes in tactics, formations and personnel. - I’ll say it again, Morley staying and Evatt going, and not the other way around, is the best thing to happen in the January window. He’s the main man in this team, chest out and absolutely running the show. Up against a championship level midfield and maybe slightly biased but I thought he was the best midfielder on the pitch. Loads of examples again of his defensive side of the game, physical side (pace, strength, legs) is as good as anyone in the squad and I think he misplaced one pass. Some player in this form. - SS has somehow made us look like a physical team. Having Forino back helps (he just looks like a proper centre half) and Toal as well, add to that Morley and GT who aren’t small, Collins and CMG aren’t massive but have a presence, Tutu and JDC hardly getting knocked off the ball, Johnston and even Randall flying into tackles, Lolos comes on to add more height. It was the first time in a long time that I’ve looked at the team and it looks like we’ll compete physically. For me it makes a massive difference in this league and was another thing that Evatt completely overlooked. We’re going up, I’m absolutely convinced.

is that Rio Ferdinand?

100% Beefing up the midfield for legs was the right thing to do. Tuesday was all about energy and press. Fabulous work from the manager. Sheehan will start on Sat.

I think Santos has played his last for us. Mentality hasn't looked right all season so why upset the balance with all 4 of the other CBs playing well

Then Musk sacked him for wasting government resources

Charles celebrating his late winner like

as an aisde I've got from the start of the season £500 on top 6 @ 1.91 returns £954.55 cash out currently £519.71 £277.78 on promotion @ 3.75 returns £1,041.68 cash out currently £166.50 £111.11 each way on the title @ 10.00 can't cash out but e/w is top 3, so really hope we can somehow nicked 2nd or 3rd for an extra £361.11

I think Sheehan "without the ball" isn't as poor as is made out. I get that he isn't as physical as some and yes he's behind Matete, Tomo & Morley arguably in that regard, but he isn't like for eg Randall (or the departed Williams) who generally avoid any form of physicality, or McAtee and Collins who don't win tackles. Sheehan puts his body on the line, takes the heavy challenges and gets up for more, has the technique if not physicality to tackle and with his low centre of gravity can nip in to win slide tackles and make interceptions. He reads the flow of the game as well as anyone (Morley great at that too - Kieran Lee was even better, its not all about how big you are). I certainly wouldn't be resting him based on his tackling, just his overall contribution sometimes - like at Wrexham when he just wasn't on his game from open play and in particular from set pieces. (Thankfully Morley was back on set pieces on Tuesday and we scored from two of them!).

So Trump has suspended aid and now stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine. What conditions has he placed on Russia who is still bombing the shite out of Ukraine? None. What a cunt.

Correct. It was a 523, but it morphed very easily to a 442 at times when we had possession with Tutu advancing on the left and CMG on the right.

I'd say it's still imbalanced. We're missing a fast striker, a big unit striker who can hold up the ball, a defensive midfielder who can enforce games, and a decent out and out left back. Considering our squad is huge for this level it's still overstocked in certain areas and poor in others. The fact SS is getting what we have to play so well is very impressive. Imagine what he'll do when we've balanced out the squad.

That, is abominable.

Quite amusing to think that when we're winning Whilst under IE and doing shit no one knew what formation we were playing and it was all bingo machine etc

Seems like there’s some confusion and disagreement as to where Tutu played on Tuesday. In my eyes he was LWB all game. Cogley was on the other side and we played 3 CBs. CMG had a bit of a free role behind Mcatee and Collins, albeit his impact was mostly on the right. Did other folk see it differently?

Thought our sqaud wasn't fit for purpose, all our players are shite, it's totally imbalance, Evatt and Markham left us in a right mess and we need a complete overhaul in the summer?

How it should be This Israel won't have any of it though They clearly want that land And what's to stop them finding an excuse to bomb the fuck out of it again at some point regardless of Hamas ceding But aye Good luck and go for it

After all the years of IE playing the same way and formation for years it is now a different thing when talking about best players. If we only have 2 in midfield I do think Sheehan struggles to influence games. But if we have 3 in there he has loads to offer. Personally I think 3 in midfield would be the best solution but Tuesday showed it can work with 2 especially if the wide 2 play as well as CMG and Tutu did. The big change is now we could play any formation with 2,3,4 or even 5 in midfield. And certainly within games we will switch. Sheehan will have a big influence in the rest of the season just might not start every game.

Relatively speaking, I'm taking that as a compliment, but I'm not going to let complacency creep in.

Going to remove "keen eye for details" from my CV.

he was at Napoli and touted, like Oshimen for big things - both helped them win their first title in ages in 2023 was surprised he ended up at PSG, thought a "bigger" club from a stronger league might take a punt but he cost them 80M euros in the last window whilst Oshimen's next stop was Galatassary on loan, but expect him to definitely step up in the summer

Sheehan isn't a patch on our other midfielders? Not having that mate jesus. He's easily the most technically gifted. It's not all about blood and thunder.

I'm yet to be at a game where VAR is used so I can only comment as an armchair fan, and I hate it. Genuinely makes me watch less live games than I would, if there is no flow of the game due to a combo of VAR and the modern trend for slow boring football, I do something else instead. VAR is a massive contributor to me turning games off, and being less arsed when a goal goes in, because its quite likely there will now be a 4 minute delay and still no goal at the end of it. And the tedium of everyone just talking about VAR instead of the football.

I've not even looked at the starting line up before the match the last couple of games - It feels almost irrelevant!!

We'd be higher up I reckon..

Iquite enjoyed that. Not the usual sweary outbursts. They seemed a decent bunch of chaps.

If your garden has 14 years worth of dogshit in it, cleaning it up will occasionally involve some fairly unpleasant periods. But, it’s understood that clearing it up means the dogshit will be gone. Unfortunately, the dog that laid all the turds won’t help. It’ll just sit there barking.

I think by ‘double up’ it sounds like you are saying £2 next game, then £4 etc etc. which I do not think that is what you mean It is called the Monte Carlo system in casinos when you do this but in evens bets such as ‘high’ or ‘low’. In theory it works but after 9 losses you would be betting £512 for a £1 profit. Given casinos have £5 minimum on these bets it gets very expensive.

I thought the same re Tutu and Cogley, but that in practise Cogley did a lot of defensive stuff and Tutu spent most of the game in their half. That was just my impression, Tutu basically played as a winger with Johnston doing most of the "left back" duties. I noticed CMG more than I might have because I'd expected him to play a free role that you mention, but I thought he played very much as an orthodox right winger. He hardly ventured in field, he was hugging the right touch line every time I noticed him (to great effect). It was like we were playing orthodox wingers and only 3 at the back. It was made possible for the last hour because most of the game was played in the Brum half, not something I was expecting after 30 minutes.

Seems to me if you've heard one Aussie bird shouting you've heard them all

All the ones the health secretary has got rid of/is getting rid of for a start. If he can see it, then so could his predecessors. Throughout the whole organisation, all those employed in unnecessary dei roles, directors of lived experience etc. We've covered many a tale over recent years, with lots of examples and many a case of questionable spending too. For anyone unaware: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/25/wes-streeting-to-axe-thousands-of-jobs-at-nhs-england-after-ousting-of-chief-executive

🤣 Luckily they're not NHS England! 😉

Thomason pretty much said that in one post-game interview. It's a "complicated" system

I think you're absolutely right. So many (all) of our players have been criticised throughout the season, and had dropped off from last year's levels, that there couldn't have been a coincidence. Clearly a factor in it, and we know what that was.

The players couldn’t even understand what formation they should have been playing.

Its a great debate on here, that no one knows actually what fuckin formation we are playing! Well done SS!

HIPs 😉

If SS wants to play with a back four, we’ve only one LB and that’s Murphy. He’s shown that he’s not good enough yet, even if he might be in future. And you can fuck off saying that Johnston could play there. He’s a cb/lcb and this isn’t the time to be experimenting with him, especially as he’s been playing fantastic since Evatt’s left.

Shoite

Can’t argue with any of that and again it just indicates what a terrific choice of centre backs we now have. If it’s difficult for us to choose imagine how tricky it is for Schu when they’re all fit? 😁

8 games post Evatt - 19 points. 2.4ppg Keep that up (we’d do well) and we finish on 86 points. Would mean Wycombe would need to get only 18 points from their 12 games. It isn’t going to happen. Even if we drop to 2ppg (more realistic) and finish on 77 points, I think we’ll comfortably be in the play offs and be in great form post Evatt (43 points from the 20 games).

It was also said IE left us with an imbalanced squad but I'm not seeing it The only issue we have is lack of back up up front since Vic and Etete got injured

The good thing now is we have a manager who will make the right calls on formation and selection depending on opponent and has the nouse to change it if it’s not working. For example can’t see Tutu playing wing back again as the defensive side of his game is not up to it and he needs to be running at full backs all game. Watch this SS will prove me wrong now 😂

The formation, the way of playing and who's deployed where can be big factors in making a player look better or worse. In Sheehan's case, under Evatt, there were many occasions where none of those were in any way helpful to him. He's held his own comfortably enough in international football for Bellamy's liking, in a set up that worked ok for him. I suspect SS will find the right combination of those factors, if not every week fairly often, for Sheehan to still have a lot of good moments for us yet.

Forrester has been our best centre back this season. For me, it’s Forrester + 1 or 2 others, with Johnston in the prime position.

Time to change the law. More evidence of the same influences as in the banks within the judiciary and its environs. Country needs a huge common sense wake up.

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/19017370.bolton-wanderers-boss-ian-evatt-switched-home-away-dugouts/

Dunno if already posted, but here it is. Strangely, some footage in the tunnel.