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The 2013/14 Bolton Wanderers are one point better than their 2012/13 counterparts were after their first match last season. Which, based on how the men in white played today, might be more than they deserved. The stats from yesterday's match paint a picture of a Bolton team that was on the defensive more than they were in the attack.
|
Bolton |
Burnley |
|
|
Possesion |
47% |
53% |
|
Goals |
1 |
0 |
|
Own Goals |
1 |
0 |
|
Shots |
13 |
12 |
|
Shots on Goal |
3 |
3 |
|
Shot Acc. |
23.08 |
25.00 |
|
G%/Shots |
7.69 |
0.00 |
|
G%/SOG |
33.33 |
0.00 |
|
Corners |
6 |
10 |
|
Fouls |
0 |
9 |
Burnley's edge in possession coupled with their advantage in corners paints a picture of a Bolton defense that was under pressure throughout the match. With the currently quality of Bolton's defense, the team cannot really afford to let the opposition consistently put itself in dangerous positions. In some ways it appears that Bolton were fortunate that Burnley only managed to score on a David Wheater own goal, and I suspect this has more to do with Burnley's lack of quality finishing than anything the Wanderers' defense did. The other concerning inference that can be drawn from the data available is that early in the season the Bolton players might not be on the same page. Even on the road, a Bolton team playing a 4-2-3-1 against a mid-table team should be able to maintain possession better than today.
The potentially good news in the stats from today's game is that when Bolton did get a shot on frame, one of them went in, which gave the Whites a conversion percentage of their shots on goal 33.3%. If Bolton managed a similar conversion percentage throughout the season, which admittedly is extremely unlikely as last year's team conversion percentage was 21.52%, they would likely be near the top in finishing in the league. On the brighter side of moving towards team averages, last year Bolton put 54.02% of their shots on target.
All in all Bolton appeared thoroughly mediocre today, and at times looked to be worse of the two teams by a fair shake. The stats from today seem to back up this observation as Bolton were outperformed in a number of areas. Still, a point of the road to start the season in light of a poor performance is nothing to scoff at.