(That long since we've had any, couldn't find the thread)

Alan Nixon: "Top Liverpool starlet Cameron Branagan will Ben allowed out on loan in Jan.

Bolton lead the race for the 20 year old midfielder"

Edited December 11, 20169 yr by Ratwhite

I wonder if Conway could be utilised further forward at some point given his driving forward prowess.

Must admit I'm quiet surprised Taylor seems to be moulded into a full back given his size.

3 minutes ago, gonzo said:

I wonder if Conway could be utilised further forward at some point given his driving forward prowess.

Must admit I'm quiet surprised Taylor seems to be moulded into a full back given his size.

I wouldn’t replace Conway at the moment- was our best player Sunday 

Just now, RUREADY2ROLL said:

I wouldn’t replace Conway at the moment- was our best player Sunday 

Deffo not. It's gonna be a conundrum for the manager like 👍 

 

2 minutes ago, RUREADY2ROLL said:

I wouldn’t replace Conway at the moment- was our best player Sunday 

He was excellent but Taylor is also good at getting forward when the opportunity arises and offers more physicality and height when defending set pieces - SS has great options on the left. My worry is the right, but what is the compromise if he sticks with JDC behind Duberry? Somebody has to cover when they are both forward or one pass will give the opposition wide man acres of space to exploit as happened v Stockport.
 

Happy with Max Bale at left back, the lads class

14 minutes ago, gonzo said:

I wonder if Conway could be utilised further forward at some point given his driving forward prowess.

Must admit I'm quiet surprised Taylor seems to be moulded into a full back given his size.

He’s only being moulded into a LB by folks on here.

Stuff being made up again.

When they’re all fit, Taylor will be LCB and Conway LB.

Yeah, he can cover it if Conway is injured.

1 minute ago, Wanderlust said:

He was excellent but Taylor is also good at getting forward when the opportunity arises and offers more physicality and height when defending set pieces - SS has great options on the left. My worry is the right, but what is the compromise if he sticks with JDC behind Duberry? Somebody has to cover when they are both forward or one pass will give the opposition wide man acres of space to exploit as happened v Stockport.
 

How many times have you seen taylor play ?   

And surely then that falls to a midfielder to come across to cover, simons has said he wants to be the best mid in the league so this is part of the job.  

3 minutes ago, Steejay said:

He’s only being moulded into a LB by folks on here.

Stuff being made up again.

When they’re all fit, Taylor will be LCB and Conway LB.

Yeah, he can cover it if Conway is injured.

Schumacher's own words:

 

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/25363338.bolton-wanderers-schumacher-issues-update-striker-search/

Richard Taylor is also nearing a return from injury, and Schumacher explained why he decided against bringing in a further left-back option.

“I didn’t want to just bring somebody in and play him in ahead of Max,” the boss explained. “Max has done well in pre-season and how are we going to know if he is good enough if he doesn’t play?

“In all the pre-season games, in the game today, he has defended better. What I asked him from day one of pre-season, I showed him clips of his stuff from Crewe last year where he wasn’t close enough to a wide player. 

“We asked him to be more aggressive because he can run. I want to give him an opportunity to play because he's one of our own and we should.

“Richard Taylor won't be far behind. We think he'd be best suited as a left-back for us. He can also play centre-back.

“I don't want to waste money in a left-back area when I need a striker and a wide player.”

 

3 minutes ago, Cheese said:

Schumacher's own words:

 

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/25363338.bolton-wanderers-schumacher-issues-update-striker-search/

Richard Taylor is also nearing a return from injury, and Schumacher explained why he decided against bringing in a further left-back option.

“I didn’t want to just bring somebody in and play him in ahead of Max,” the boss explained. “Max has done well in pre-season and how are we going to know if he is good enough if he doesn’t play?

“In all the pre-season games, in the game today, he has defended better. What I asked him from day one of pre-season, I showed him clips of his stuff from Crewe last year where he wasn’t close enough to a wide player. 

“We asked him to be more aggressive because he can run. I want to give him an opportunity to play because he's one of our own and we should.

“Richard Taylor won't be far behind. We think he'd be best suited as a left-back for us. He can also play centre-back.

“I don't want to waste money in a left-back area when I need a striker and a wide player.”

 

I still think that Taylor will be LCB.

If Conway continues to progress like he is doing, he won’t get shifted from LB.

Unless someone comes in for him with a massive offer.

Just now, Steejay said:

I still think that Taylor will be LCB.

If Conway continues to progress like he is doing, he won’t get shifted from LB.

Unless someone comes in for him with a massive offer.

We'll see. I'm just pointing out that it's not only "folks on here" saying Taylor will play LB.

7 minutes ago, Steejay said:

I still think that Taylor will be LCB.

If Conway continues to progress like he is doing, he won’t get shifted from LB.

Unless someone comes in for him with a massive offer.

I read from those Schumacher quotes that Taylor will be play LCB with Conway at LB - I'd be happy with that. If Max needs a rest, which he may, or if he just goes through w bit of a bad spell, which he may, we know we've got cover with Taylor moving across one.

I think recruiting a LB is low on our priorities, I feel the same at RB to be honest. As someone I'd forgotten about. If we need an out and out defender at RB, we could use Forrester if he gets fit. If we need to attack, we have Tutu and if we need the balance, we have JDC who's done little wrong since he signed for us

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

I wonder if Conway could be utilised further forward at some point given his driving forward prowess.

Must admit I'm quiet surprised Taylor seems to be moulded into a full back given his size.

Reminds me a bit of a young jimmy phillips

37 minutes ago, boltonboris said:

I read from those Schumacher quotes that Taylor will be play LCB with Conway at LB - I'd be happy with that. If Max needs a rest, which he may, or if he just goes through w bit of a bad spell, which he may, we know we've got cover with Taylor moving across one.

I think recruiting a LB is low on our priorities, I feel the same at RB to be honest. As someone I'd forgotten about. If we need an out and out defender at RB, we could use Forrester if he gets fit. If we need to attack, we have Tutu and if we need the balance, we have JDC who's done little wrong since he signed for us

The pedantry of putting a player in a box and saying he plays that position and only that position is rife on here, but it’s more productive to look at their strengths and weaknesses and the flexibility with which you can get the best out of them for different games and circumstances so Im going to ignore a lot of what’s been said about Taylor and focus on what I have seen.

Taylor and Conway are not a problem. Nor are our CBs. But I’d be delighted if someone like Forrester was RB especially against the better teams.

We need Duberry as he’s a big threat and he benefits from JDCs overlapping runs to give him space to work in, but with Forrester in that would mean playing JDC as a midfielder at the expense of someone else so I think SS has a few tweaks to make before we get it right.

1 hour ago, Cheese said:

We'll see. I'm just pointing out that it's not only "folks on here" saying Taylor will play LB.

Not beyond possibility that Taylor and Conway could both play on the odd occasion. Johnston in the mix also so, as SS says, he's well off on that side.

4 hours ago, boltonboris said:

If Taylor is big, fast and powerful then we need him in the centre in my opinion, because Toal, Forino and Johnston have too many limitations when the ball goes in the box 

Nothing to suggest he's any faster, bigger or stronger than Toal and Forinho is there?  I genuinely don't know, but are you saying he is those things?  

Also, taking the Stockport 2nd goal as an example, he would naturally be in there defending those, whatever position he plays in open play.  

1 hour ago, onefinfrandsen said:

Reminds me a bit of a young jimmy phillips

I thought he has traits of Marcus Alonso. Hopefully a better driver.

32 minutes ago, TrickyTrotter said:

I thought he has traits of Marcus Alonso. Hopefully a better driver.

I wouldn't claim he's off the same quality obviously, but for style of play, Alonso came to my mind to

He wants rewarding with a new contract

And he'll get one. 

1 hour ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Nothing to suggest he's any faster, bigger or stronger than Toal and Forinho is there?  I genuinely don't know, but are you saying he is those things?  

Also, taking the Stockport 2nd goal as an example, he would naturally be in there defending those, whatever position he plays in open play.  

I've never seen him play, but I believe he's big and athletic. And it wasn't just the fact it was a set piece, the defenders we have have struggle with deliveries into the box in open play, corners, freekicks for the entirety of last season

4 hours ago, Steejay said:

I still think that Taylor will be LCB.

If Conway continues to progress like he is doing, he won’t get shifted from LB.

Unless someone comes in for him with a massive offer.

IMO he'll get replaced when Taylor is fit and will be in the squad as back up.  If Taylor or the LCB goes off for any reason, Conway will be the replacement (with Taylor moving to LCB if needed).  Taylor hasn't come here to be on the bench most weeks, Conway's time will come either here or elsewhere but not yet.

3 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

The pedantry of putting a player in a box and saying he plays that position and only that position is rife on here, but it’s more productive to look at their strengths and weaknesses and the flexibility with which you can get the best out of them for different games and circumstances so Im going to ignore a lot of what’s been said about Taylor and focus on what I have seen.

Taylor and Conway are not a problem. Nor are our CBs. But I’d be delighted if someone like Forrester was RB especially against the better teams.

We need Duberry as he’s a big threat and he benefits from JDCs overlapping runs to give him space to work in, but with Forrester in that would mean playing JDC as a midfielder at the expense of someone else so I think SS has a few tweaks to make before we get it right.

If Forrester was right back why would JDC need to replace one of our midfielders (that we have loads of)?

4 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

The pedantry of putting a player in a box and saying he plays that position and only that position is rife on here, but it’s more productive to look at their strengths and weaknesses and the flexibility with which you can get the best out of them for different games and circumstances so Im going to ignore a lot of what’s been said about Taylor and focus on what I have seen.

Taylor and Conway are not a problem. Nor are our CBs. But I’d be delighted if someone like Forrester was RB especially against the better teams.

We need Duberry as he’s a big threat and he benefits from JDCs overlapping runs to give him space to work in, but with Forrester in that would mean playing JDC as a midfielder at the expense of someone else so I think SS has a few tweaks to make before we get it right.

Is Desmond not the back up right back?

2 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

I wouldn't claim he's off the same quality obviously, but for style of play, Alonso came to my mind to

Slow, weak defensively and often caught out of position? 😀

Tongue in cheek, just recalling the comments he got when he was here.

18 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

If Forrester was right back why would JDC need to replace one of our midfielders (that we have loads of)?

He wouldn’t but SS seems to like JDC and Duberry overlapping down the wing so there would have to be a compromise somewhere if he played them AND wanted the security of someone covering behind. Could be as simple as a tweak.