Saints 0-0 Bolton - Match Thread

[warsash saint]

Gerald Ashby levels from the corrupt ref today 🤬

Edited 4 hours ago by warsash saint

[Cuddles]

27 minutes ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Reading a lot of Tonda over complicated it tweets/messages etc. 

I’ll try my best to convey from a tactical view point why he has done this.  Again these elite managers are far advanced from me but i probably see it through their lens slightly more than the average joe. 
 

We’ve lined up today in a 4-4-2 because Bolton defend very uniquely. So they’ve condensed the pitch into a 15 meter pitch and aggressively high playing an offside defensive unit similar to that of the German Flick. I was really impressed with how high there line was, and credit them for that.  I’m presuming because of this Tonda has played strong sided wingers as Bolton wanted us to come inside where there was no room. Fellows and Matsuki from left and Scienza and Azaz at different times from the right.  Playing Azaz as a 10 is the same problem we can’t get three lines into their 15 yard defensive unit and they planned for this.  The other interesting thing was that Scienza started as a striker with Larin but kept getting to wide so they switched that in game but couldn’t work out how, fellows was poor he got caught far to many times.  First half it worked much better than second ironically as we were in complete control but we didn’t create enough clear cut chances. Scienzas aside. 
 

Losing Larin was an issue as we then couldn’t play more direct as the game progressed meaning they could stay higher from restarts and we couldn’t cross the ball late from deep as no one to hit, a big problem for the team and one I’ve called all season.
 

Was the same as wolves v Bolton midweek, no Jimenez and Armstrong the replacement, Bolton stopped them playing.  
 

Interestingly I watched Azaz for Ireland against Austria and he played in a deeper role something we’ve not seen loads of. I’d have preferred to see us start with him in with JWP and have two flying wingers on from the start. Edozie and Scienza with Larin + Dobbin. 
 

The biggest two misses were manning and Downes/Jander. We had no deep runners from midfield to break Boltons high line both Jander and Flynn would do that. And we really missed Manning’s quality to pick a pass.  Having no back up striker is an issue, we need to act on this in Jan.  I won’t stop telling anyone this.  Lincoln, Wrexham, Today - cost us at least 5 points so far this season. 

 

Positives for me - Dobbin and Edozie have had good weeks. Edozie should have had an assist for dobbin. Minus taking his chances I thought dobbin looked sharp. Can certainly play as a second striker. 

 

Interesting, thank you for breaking it down, I was only half watching a stream.

The biggest misses for me weren't Jander and Downes though, it was Scienza, Dobbin and more obviously, Bree 😉

We made excellent chances but didn't take them. 

[Patrick Bateman]

Worst match of the season. Weird crowd, odd atmosphere, awful ref. I'm sure it's all been covered in the thread, but meh. Best thing was half time out in the sun.