We never bet on or against them. Unless we do. That's the way it's been since the Big Sam days. You never can tell which team will show up - a tough unit who can play with, and beat, anyone on their day or a team that can be rolled over and made to look like relegation certainties. When they're playing at their best they have danger men all over the pitch - Taylor, Gardner, Davies (who scored 12 goals for Bolton last season). And they have a strong defence and a very good keeper. It's just that they can go missing at all the wrong times... and for extend periods of time. That's why we never bet on or against them.
Unless we do.
Possible Starting XI: Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, Cahill, O'Brien, Samuel, Muamba, McCann, S Davis, M Taylor, Elmander, K Davies
Players to watch:
Mark Davies: One of those very odd situations where a player's fantasy production in no way represented his actual contribution on the field. If you had the stomach to watch a Bolton match in the second half of the season, you had no choice but to notice this Davies. He's definitely going to be a solid-to-above-average midfielder in the Premier League unless he was playing over his head the few times I saw him play. The note of warning here is a) he plays for Bolton which always gives us pause and b) is likely to be more of a defensive midfielder with the upside for him being more of a box-to-box type. You have to be nervous that he didn't have a single SOT in parts of 8 matches last season in the league. Why are we writing about him? Well, he's got talent and he's priced at 3.58 and that makes him worth at least a look to see how he's adjusted after his first taste of the big time.
Jussi Jaaskelainen: It would be really interesting to see how things would be different for Jussi if he'd been picked up by a better team (a la EvdS). Remember, Roy Carroll was the starting keeper for ManYoo for a while and that good defence made him look a lot better than he has turned out to be with inferior support since leaving Old Trafford. EvdS wasn't nearly the stud at Fulham that his stats would indicate since his move to ManYoo. Given how well Jussi played for modestly talented teams at Bolton under Big Sam you have to wonder "what if" about some of those rumors about a move to Arsenal when they were moving off of Lehmann. All of this is to remind you that Jussi is a high quality keeper capable of producing some strong performances. At just over 7 to start the season he's another one worth watching when he has a good match-up.
Matt Taylor: We here at the blog have always had something of a footie-crush on MTay. Playing for Bolton there are certainly weeks where not much goes on from an attacking standpoint so he wasn't as consistent last season as he has been in past years. That said, given the lack of other attacking options he's generally in the middle of whatever it is that does happen for Wanderers. Starting out at 14.30, he's less expensive than some of the bigger name players from bigger name teams and in the real world that would be appropriate - in our little fantasy world, he's was the equal of Nando, RvP, and Rooney and superior to Anelka, Cesc, and Ashley Young at a lower price. You'll need to live through a few down matches but over the course of the season he's a strong buy.
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