Holden Injured Again

American midfielder Stuart Holden to miss another six months with knee injury - Soccer Insider - The Washington Post:

It is rare that I get to link the blog of my favorite writer on US Soccer as there aren't many cross-over topics between his blog (mostly focused on the USMNT and MLS) and our Premier League and Premier League Fantasy blog.

Sadly, my opportunity comes on the occasion of Stuart Holden's relapse to the ranks of the long-term injured. Apparently he wasn't all the way healed and by coming back either unearthed or aggravated his condition. He required additional surgery yesterday and appears to be out until the start of next season.

Huge bummer for fans of Bolton, the USMNT, and fantasy managers everywhere hoping he'd get back to the form he flashed early last season.

Good luck for a speedy and full recovery to Mr. Holden.

Season Preview - Bolton Wanderers

Quick Reminder, Real Life

A hot start to the season seemed to fall apart when rising playmaker Stuart Holden was injured and Elmander, who started the season blazing hot, cooled dramatically. Bolton fell to 14th in the final accounting. Much-ballyhooed summer signing MPet (Martin Petrov) failed to recapture the form he demonstrated in his first season with Manchester City. Kevin Davies kept doing what Kevin Davies does.

The problem is that Bolton found themselves stranded between Owen Coyle’s attacking style and personnel left over from Big Sam’s grind it out style. That could potentially be a great thing or an ugly thing and last season it seemed to transition from being the former to being the latter. It could have been worse but Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge scored a flurry of goals after coming over in January on loan.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

If you put Elmander (first half) and Sturridge (second half) together, you’d have had one great forward (18 goals). Holden had a very nice early season run of putting up “phantom points” in the Yahoo scoring system - tackles, corners and fouls won, successful crosses, etc. Gary Cahill, Jussi Jaaskelainen, and Matty Taylor were typically solid but ended the season a bit on the overpriced side based on their production.

Summer Changes

Bolton Sign Darren Pratley and Sell Ali Al Habsi

Bolton Wanderers | News | Latest News | General | Wanderers Snap-Up Pratley

I missed this news over the holiday weekend, but Bolton bolster their central midfield options - in the wake of releasing Joey O'Brien and Tamir Cohen - by signing Swansea's Darren Pratley. Also, they have sold Ali Al Habsi to Wigan after his loan spell there last season.

Pratley has been improving his goal-scoring over the last two seasons and put in nine for the Swans last term. I won't pretend to know much more about him, or how he might be used at Bolton alongside the likes of Holden and Mulumbu Muamba, but consider this a marker and a reminder for further study.

Al Habsi is a keeper we've liked for a while now, and I for one am happy to see he's found a home at Wigan.  For fantasy purposes he may provide a good, cheap squad option who can rotate with David De Gea and the like.

Now we await the real news, which will be Bolton's signing (or taking on loan) a forward, be it Daniel Sturridge or someone else.

Holden out for Six Months

Bolton Wanderers midfielder Stuart Holden will be sidelined for six months with a knee injury meaning the U.S. international will miss June's CONCACAF Gold Cup, the Premier League club said on Monday.

Holden, 25, sustained a deep cut in Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Manchester United after a tackle that defender Jonny Evans was shown a red card for.

This season, six months might mean two weeks. Here's hoping as Holden has been a real joy to watch in Bolton's midfield. Expectations of what he could do for the USA at the international level were also rising and this is just another set-back on his way to real prominence. Get well soon!

Just had a sincere phone call from Jonny Evans wishing me the best in my recovery, def wasn't intentional, just unfortunate part of the gameless than a minute ago via ÜberSocialStuart Holden
stuholden

Holden worry for Bolton

Sky Sports | Football | Premier League | News | Holden worry for Bolton

Bolton Wanderers could again be without midfielder Stuart Holden for Saturday's Premier League game at Manchester City.

Holden missed last week's 2-2 draw with Blackpool due to a thigh strain and has yet to fully recover from the problem.

He is still to return to training and Trotters boss Owen Coyle admits the USA international is a major concern for Saturday's trip to the City of Manchester Stadium.

This could be good news for those of you who grabbed Mark Davies at 2-and-change. I think you can spend your current 7-something better elsewhere this week. But if you want to bet on Bolton at Manchester City - and we never suggest you bet on Bolton, unless we do - go right ahead.

On Bale

Well, I said nice things about Spurs (deservedly) and ManYoo (also deservedly) and wasn't particularly enamored with Arsenal's performance despite their win and yet the shouts of "you're biased" still came ringing in the comments section of "First Impressions and Second Thoughts."  Honestly, I'm coming to enjoy it a bit so keep it up.  To the extent that I have time, I'll continue to discuss my (non-biased) rationale for my opinions.  The main subject of displeasure this time around was the fact that I called out Bale as still not being fantasy value on a weekend where the Bale fantasy apologists were still glowing from his 29 point, 2 goal effort.  For those who still don't believe me that you should have sold him weeks ago despite this past weekend's outburst, here are the numbers:

Since Bale's last major outburst in Week 2 (33.5 points), he has been averaging 10 points/match and has cost approximately 15.  Over the course of 11 matches, you've gotten approximately 110 points from him at the combined cost of about 165.  For those of you who had Bale from the beginning of the season, you got those same 110 points for a cost of about 132.  So, what else could you have had for your money over that stretch that leads me to believe that you should have spent differently?