West Ham United vs. Bolton Wanderers

This is a big match between two teams trying to pull away from the relegation battle and settle into mid-table mediocrity. West Ham currently sit 13th with 27 points and goal differential of -8. Bolton are 15th with 26 points and a -19 goal differential. Hull City and Burnley play Everton and Arsenal this weekend, so it is a good opportunity for the Wanderers or the Hammers to put some distance between themselves and the bottom 3.

It will be interesting to see what team Owen Coyle picks, especially in the central attacking positions. Of course Kevin Davies will start at forward, and I would expect to see Lee Chung-Yong and Jack Wilshere on the wings. But Stuart Holden and Mark Davies are both unavailable because of injury, and Tamir Cohen seems to have fallen out of favor. That leaves Matt Taylor, who has been in poor form most of the season, or Vladimir Weiss, who really doesn't look to be capable of playing in the center of midfield.

I think most Wanderers supporters would like to see Wilshere moved into the middle with Weiss on the wing. I don't know if Coyle will do that away from home, we might see the return of Ricardo Gardner.

The other questions is who will partner Davies up front. Ivan Klasnic has returned from injury, but Elmander has continued to start, and he scored an outstanding goal for Sweden Wednesday. I am very much looking forward to seeing the team sheet tomorrow morning.

Stuart Holden

The young American had a rough night Wednesday, but it may yet have a silver lining.

Holden started for the US against Holland yesterday, and it was a one hundred eighty degree turnaround from just a month ago. At the beginning of February Holden was coming off an injury, not playing for his club, and barely surviving at the fringes of the US squad, not even certain he would be on the plane to South Africa.

Then, just last week Bolton Wanderers had an FA Cup replay against Tottenham, and Holden finally got an opportunity. Even though Bolton were knocked out of the cup, young Stuart played well enough that he was given the chance to start the next league match. He played great, Bolton won, and Stuart Holden went on to the Amsterdam Stadium, full of confidence and ready to play Holland.

When he arrived in the Netherlands, Stuart discovered that, thanks to 4 midfielders and 1 striker being out injured, he would be in the starting line-up. In the first half hour played well, maybe the only US player to play well, and I was thinking not only had he secured his place in South Africa, but he would be full of confidence and ready to take the Premier League by storm when he returned.

But alas, it was not to be. Manchester City midfielder Nigel DeJong wen tin high, late, and hard on a tackle at midfield, breaking Holden's leg and putting him out of action for at least 6 weeks. Damn the luck. Hopefully he will recover quickly.

There was other good news though. Holden had originally signed with Bolton on a short term contract through the end of May, with an option for Bolton to extend it to the end of next season. This week, despite the injury, Bolton decided to exercise that option. A good decision in my opinion.

Vladimir Weiss

This young winger was signed on loan from Manchester City in January on a six month loan deal. He made a couple appearances straight away, starting one match, and it looked like he was going to establish himself ahead of the other young midfielders at Bolton. He has plenty of pace, a few tricks, and an obvious desire to score goals.

The Slovakian was not the only winger brought in by Owen Coyle. Both Jack Wilshere from Arsenal and Stuart Holden from Houston are more experienced than Weiss and play on the wing, although Holden played in central midfield this past Saturday. Maybe the manager has decided that Weiss, of the three, is more effective as a change of pace off the bench. This is fine with me, as long as Coyle continues to play two out of the three along with Fabrice Muamba and Lee Chung-Yong, in an all under 25 and very attacking midfield, I believe Bolton Wanderers will end up in a decent position at season's end.

I would also think, given the size of the Manchester City squad and the extensive resources of the club, that if Weiss impresses there is a good chance that the loan will be extended through next season.

Bolton Wanderers 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0

Bolton were triumphant today in a huge battle at the bottom of the table. The biggest news is probably that Bolton finally had some good luck. After watching balls go off the post, penalties not given, ridiculous own goals and the like always seem to be against Bolton, today we finally had some benefits in this regard. Wolves had three shots hit the post, and two of them could have gone in if they had been an inch or two closer.

Another big piece of news was Owen Coyle's team sheet. It was a very attacking team, with two strikers (Davies and Elmander) as well as 3 attacking midfielders (Wilshere, Lee, and Holden). All 3 of the young midfielders played exceedingly well. Elmander, as usual, played well overall but was let down by his poor finishing. Kevin Davies was poor, as he has been for most of the season. His basic job is to hold the ball up and create opportunities for his quicker, more talented teammates, yet he has not been doing that recently. Every time he gets the ball it just stops, and any attack Bolton had been executing based on quick movement into open space just dies. Then, with all options vanished, Davies plays an ill-conceived ball that gives possession back to the opposition.

Stay bright today though, Wanderers have got 3 points, moved out of the relegation zone, finally scored a goal, and hopefully quelled some of the negativity that has been creeping up in the support.

Vacation

I am off to New Orleans for the next week to recharge my batteries, meaning to eat delicious fatty foods and listen to live jazz music into the wee hours of the morning. I will resume writing in about 7 days.

AC Milan

We all know they are not what they used to be. It is also strange that they make so many silly mistakes, since "experience" is their biggest asset. Milan played well early on, and well at the end, but this is the problem. They have too many players who can only be effective in 15 or 20 minute spurts.

The bigger question has to be; Is Ronaldinho back? He drifted in and out of the match, and didn't contribute anything defensively, but that was true even when he was at his best. When he was on the ball, and able to get players around him, he certainly looked good. He was not dominant like in his Barcelona days, but those heights on not easily reached.

Dunga will certainly be watching this closely from Brazil, as will I. If Ronaldinho plays this well in the second leg at Old Trafford, close to what he did to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge several years ago, this question will become a lot more interesting.

Manchester United

Alex Ferguson put out a very defensive team, with little creativity on display beyond Wayne Rooney. Nani has had a few nice matches, but to depend on him for midfield creativity in the Champions League against AC Milan seems a bit much. And it was, as Nani was largely ineffective and Antonio Valencia came on for him in the 63rd minute.

All in all, I think Ferguson was playing for a draw. And I don't blame him. Because the fact is this team is just not very good. They win a lot of matches through a combination of own goals, dodgy refereeing, Rooney's brilliance, fluke goals, guile, and reputation, but they are just not very good. Both of Rooney's headers were down to shambolic defending by Milan. None of their defenders had any desire to try and win the balls in the air. United has been living off this sort of thing all season. But I have to think that eventually they will come up against a good team that is not afraid to challenge them. I'll be shocked if Manchester United manage to win a single trophy this season.

Real Madrid

When I saw Sergio Ramos at centre-back I suspected Madrid would have some problems, and they did. In fact, they made a defensive substitution and moved Ramos to right back at halftime. Madrid's players looked as though they believe they are entitled to advancement into the next round. An interesting attitude considering it has been six years since they have advanced beyond the round of 16. Lyon's players showed no fear and made it clear early on that Los Galacticos would have to work if they wanted anything out of this match.

Does anyone outside of England care about the FA Cup?

Or more pressing, does anyone in England care about the FA Cup? There is plenty of handwringing about another round of low attendances and general indifference by the football watching public.

But I suspect these are the same people who are usually whinging about ticket prices, or matches not starting at 3 PM on Saturdays, or players not being loyal to their clubs, or too much money in the game, or foreign owners buying English clubs, or players not speaking English, or whatever else they notice on any given day is not the same as it was in 1953.

It is a shockingly small segment of the football watching population, and the small attendances at FA Cup matches, large TV ratings, and worldwide interest in Premier League clubs generally proves this. Yet this group makes for a good story. Some white haired pensioner moaning, "Me dad used to give me 15 shilling on a Saturday, and that would be plenty for me to go to the match, get a program, and a pork pie at halftime, not to mention the bus there and home again." All while some reporter nods knowingly.

Of course the reporter is quite happy to receive the extra stipend he gets for his Sky Sports appearances, as well as his minute-by-minute reports on a website. And he certainly doesn't complain when he gets to watch Burnley-Wigan on a rainy Tuesday in February from the comfort of his flat in the west end of London, saving himself a 6 hour roundtrip and an evening in the cold and damp.

My point is, it's 2010, a fact that most of us have accepted, including the reporters who choose it as an easy story subject so they don't have to any real work this weekend.

A Little More on Fabrice Muamba

I think a few things have contributed to the marked improvement in Muamba's play recently.

1. Natural maturity. Lest we forget, the boy is still only 21, and needs to continue to mature. Part of that is knowing what your strengths are. Muamba no longer attempts 40 yard cross-field balls because he has realized that he doesn't have that ability.

2. Tactics. Since Owen Coyle has come in he seems to have instructed Muamba to play shorter passes and not look for the long ball. His philosophy is to keep possession, rather than lumping it up the pitch as quickly as possible.

3. Positioning. It seems that Coyle has instructed other players, especially in the midfield, to get closer to Muamba when he wins the ball, so he can play shorter and more accurate passes. Tamir Cohen has struggled with this a bit, but Ricardo Gardner did it brilliantly today.

It really comes down to Coyle putting players, particularly Muamba, in a position where they can succeed, which is all a good manager does.

Wanderers Earn Replay

Bolton dominated the first half, but squandered several chances and were only up 1-0 at the half. Spurs really came into the match in the second half, although Bolton still created some chances. Sam Ricketts, again playing centre-half, gave away a stupid penalty, raising his arms over his head and blocking a pass in the box. Luckily, Huddlestone took the penalty quite poorly for Spurs and Jussi Jaaskelainen was able to save it. Overall, a draw was probably a fair result, and they will do it all over again at White Heart Lane.

As for individual players, a few stood out. Zat Knight played very well before going with some sort of injury, which has to be a huge concern for Owen Coyle.

Johann Elmander was outstanding in every aspect of the game except finishing, which is still a problem. He held the ball up well, ran at the defence when he could, and created chances for himself and others. In fact, his quick one-two with Lee Chung-Yong and excellent cutback set up Kevin Davies for Bolton's goal. This just showed that when he is able to play off another striker in a true 4-4-2 setup, he is a very dangerous player.

Fabrice Muamba was great in midfield, winning ball after ball and harassing Tottenham's creative players into mistake after mistake. His finishing was also poor, but he is still young, and if he can improve himself technically over the next year or two, he will really turn into a top class player. We have already seen him improve his passing this season through maturity. He doesn't panic as much, plays the simple pass, and gives the ball away far less than he did a year ago.

Paul Robinson was poor again. Nothing more to add really.

Bolton Wanderers v Tottenham Hotspur

Spurs are looking really short on defenders, and don't have a great record at the Reebok, so there could be an upset brewing here. Given that Harry Redknapp may be planning an escape to a tax shelter in the Caribbean Sea, those chances are increasing every minute.

Owen Coyle claims he will put out his strongest team, but I am hoping to see a few squad players get an opportunity to show what they can do.

Stuart Holden may finally be fit enough to make his Wanderers debut, although I doubt he will feature from the start. As far as the rest of the attackers go, I would be pleased if Riga and Vaz Te were given a chance to do some damage. Lee Chung-Yong and Kevin Davies are both starting to look a little tired, I would like to see them rested as well.

I am not really optimistic though, chances are Coyle will make few changes. Here is my prediction of his starting XI on Sunday;

Jussi Jaaskelainen GK: I would like to see Al-Habsi get a start, and he well might.

Gretar Steinsson RB, Jlloyd Samuel LB: Please no Paul Robinson, please!!!

Zat Knight CB, Andy O'Brien CB: Not a lot of other options here, and Knight has been brilliant since Coyle arrived.

Fabrice Muamba CM, Chris Basham CM: This is a soft prediction, as it may well be Tamir Cohen with Basham, but I think Coyle might try a Liverpool style 4-2-3-1, and I would like to see Basham in the holding role, as his passing would complement Muamba's ball-winning.

Matt Taylor, LM, Ricardo Gardner RM, Mark Davies CM: As I mentioned earlier, I would like to see a bit more adventure in attack, but I don't think Coyle will take too many chances.

Johann Elmander F: I think Kevin Davies needs a rest, physically and mentally. Also, it will be really interesting to see how Coyle's system works without the hulking centre-forward present to give the ball away.

Landon & Ashley

Oh, the irony. When Landon Donavon signed on for a three month loan deal at Everton they were myriad reactions. Some were pessimistic (He's too soft for the Premier League, he's a failure in Europe), some were optimistic (He'll dominate, the US will finally be taken seriously), and some were realistic (Please don't let him get injured, the US is doomed without him).

Well, not only was Landon part of an Everton team that upset Chelsea earlier this week, but his challenge has put Ashley Cole's participation in the 2010 World Cup in doubt. Of course England do have a ready-made replacement in...Wayne Bridge. Oh, this is going to be fun!

Jack Wilshere

The youngster is on loan at Bolton for the rest of the season, and he made his debut against Manchester City on Tuesday night, starting on the left wing in place of Matty Taylor, whose poor form has had supporters begging that he be dropped for at least two months.

Wilshere is left-footed, so the left side would seem to be a natural fit for him, but I am not so sure that he wouldn't be more effective on the right. He didn't put in many crosses, and he looked most dangerous when he ran at defenders and then cut inside towards goal. It seems to me that if he were to do this from the right wing he would be in better position to shoot with his good left foot.

Position aside, he started the game off very well, getting the ball in space on the left and making several pacey runs at the defense. He also played some nice one two's with Johann Elmander. Pablo Zabaleta, an Argentine international that started at right-back for Manchester City, did not seem able to cope with Wilshere's pace and creativity early on.

Unfortunately, his impressive start didn't last. As is normal with such a young player (Wilshere just turned 18 last month), he drifted in and out of the game, combining glimpses of his talent with silly mistakes (he committed at least two fouls when his opponent was at least 60 yards from goal and not posing any real danger) and positional errors.

All in all, it was a good debut. He lasted about 75 minutes, and there can be no doubting his talent. He has a lot to learn obviously, but he seemed to pick things up very quickly, as his defensive positioning and sense of where his teammates would be did improve throughout the match.

It is also worth noting that for the remainder of this season Wanderers will be relying on an almost absurdly young midfield. 31 year old Ricardo Gardner and Matt Taylor (28) appear to have been pushed to the margins of the first team. That leaves Wilshere, who is just 18, Vladimir Weiss (20), Lee Chung-Yong Chris Basham, and Fabrice Muamba who are all 21, Mark Davies, who will be 22 next week, and Stuart Holden, an inexperienced 24 year old. Tamir Cohen is the veteran of the group at 25.

Manchester City vs. Bolton Wanderers

This was a pretty good match to watch. Both teams were trying to attack, with Manchester City having more success in the first half and Bolton coming into the game after the break.

I wold like to mention Paul Robinson, who started at left back for Bolton. Robinson has moved back into the starting XI due to the absences of Gary Cahill and Andy O'Brien, which has forced Sam Ricketts into the center of defense. Robinson is a competent left-back, but nothing more than that. His greatest liability is that he is slow. And this lack of pace is why he had to make a tackle from behind in his own penalty box. The referee had an easy decision, and Tevez luckily put the ball in the back of the net only after it ricocheted off Bolton's keeper.

I personally just can't understand why Robinson was on the pitch instead of JLoyd Samuel. Since Samuel arrived at Bolton two and a half years ago he has been in and out of the first team. He has performed quite well when he has played, yet each of the 3 managers he has had have tried desperately to find someone to replace him. Usually I like to give the managers the benefit of the doubt in this type of situation, after all, they are the experts. Maybe he doesn't practice well. Maybe he is a poor communicator on the pitch. Maybe he doesn't have good chemistry with the other members of the back line.

But at the moment all of this is bullshit. Bolton Wanderers are locked in a relegation battle. There is no honor in going down with dignity, and there is no reward for character or sportsmanship. The best player at each position needs to be on the pitch.