The Club:
Bolton Wanderers have problems, and their tough opening to their fixture list is not going to help them either. After a season in which they just totally collapsed in the new year, all of the problems at the club came to a head. There is no hiding from what Owen Coyle has to do, there really isn’t. An injection of cash is needed to bolster one of the weaker squads in the Premier League as it stands. Bolton may have to rely on making the Reebok Stadium a difficult place to go to still. It was a tale of two halves last season for Bolton, so which side will come out this year is anyone’s guess. There was a lot of promise of how they started their season, and despair at how they finished it. Bolton Premier League betting looks to be focused at the wrong end of the table for them.
Players/Manager:
The biggest loss Bolton have suffered, is through losing a player who was not theirs to start with. On loan striker Daniel Sturridge, who netted eight times in just twelve appearances for Bolton has gone back to his parent club Chelsea. Bolton have also lost Johan Elmander up front, so in the current standing, you wonder where the goals are going to come from. Lack of strikers at Bolton are going to be a major concern unless they manage to plug the holes quickly. They really only have the aging Kevin Davies to turn to at the moment, and the back up that is at the club doesn’t really look as if they are going to fire Bolton upwards. Bolton have also lost the services of Lee Chung-young after picking up a terrible injury in a pre season friendly. They have signed Nigel Reo-Coker from West Ham but that is hardly going to even start to paper over all of the cracks that the weak Bolton squad have. They really need a stand out figure in the middle of the park, as well as a prominent, lethal finisher up front. Not sure where the money is going to come from to fill those positions, so Bolton could really struggle next season. A lot of pressure will be on Coyle, who has displayed great fighting spirit and canny tactical awareness in the past. However, he will only be as good as the players he can field and unless he has some secret trick up his sleeve, a mid table finish may be a job well done for them. Need to make signings. Not just solid ones, but adventurous ones. They have a back bone of a team which can dig in a battle, they need to find a little more creativity and assurance in pressing forward. Balance is the name of the game.
Last Season: 14th
It all went horribly wrong for Bolton last year. Owen Coyle seemed to have them humming along nicely at one stage, and it looked as if there was even a good chance of landing a spot in Europe. However, they just fell away more and more as the season went on, and while they were never really a relegation threat, they finished in just fourteenth after a run of five straight defeats to end the season. They are better than that, and played some pretty good football until it all went pear shaped. They did not have any trouble scoring, but just could not keep the ball out of their own net, which was pretty much their undoing in the end. Definitely something there to build on, but it is very shaky.
2011/12 Bolton Premier League Betting Projection:
As there will be weaker teams in the Premier League than them, you expect Bolton to stay up. There are missing parts to their squad however, notably up front. They will be hard to beat at home and that should keep them in the hunt for a mid table finish. Not sure if those missing pieces are going to be filled, and Reo-Coker off a free transfer looks about as uninspired a signing as you could get, even though he was a free transfer. Owen Coyle needs to get back to his side playing brave an entertaining football, and being able to mix that up with the long ball which they did so well at the start of last season. But when Bolton were bad, they were terrible. If they land a striker, even getting Daniel Sturridge back on loan, they will be in much better shape. But for now the striking crisis is the big dark cloud hanging over the Reebok. Do they have the finances to solve it?
Finishing Position: Threat of Relegation
Premier League Relegation Odds:
11/2 at SkyBet
First Three Fixtures
August 13th: QPR v Bolton
August 21st: Bolton v Man City
August 27th: Liverpool v Bolton
