Roeder Comments on Bolton And Allardyce

By Matt Jones
March 4 2006

Glenn Roeder speaks of Bolton, and boss Sam Allardyce, who has been stronly linked with being his successor, ahead of this afternoon's Premiership clash at St James' Park.

Glenn Roeder: "There are so many different styles in football. Everyone seems to talk about pretty football and ugly football and I don't really know where ugly football came from. It's a fashionable word right now. The word has upset Sam recently and I can understand why.

"Like Everton and Charlton, who we've just played, they like to get in your face so we've had a fair bit of practice of playing that kind of team.

"Bolton are always a difficult challenge because Sam sets his team up in formations other teams don't.

"His team play in a way which is difficult to play against and that's credit to Sam and his players. It's up to other teams, not to moan about that but, to find a way how to beat them.

"When they say ugly, I'm not too sure what they're meaning. Is it a very direct style, a very robust style or a combination of both? I'm sure the Bolton fans aren't complaining about the way their team is playing. So let's not make excuses but, instead, find a way of beating a team which is physically strong, well-organised and who often get the ball forward quickly.

"I have watched them a lot and most of their long passes are exactly that. They're not just hopeful punts up the field. They'll put good long passes into (Kevin) Davies.

"So pretty football, ugly football? I think one of the big attractions of the Premiership is the different styles. What you find in Spain, Italy and France, is that you almost know before the game what kind of style they'll play, which sometimes is called boring."

On Allardyce, he added: "He's put together a side that's played in Europe so you have to give him credit..

"One dimensional? The very fact he's got (Jay-Jay) Okocha in the team, a left back in (Ricardo) Gardner who's very offensive, (Kevin) Nolan, who gets goals from midfield in the style not dissimilar to Frank Lampard, says it all. Bolton have won games because they have good players.

"That he has someone like Okocha tells you he certainly feels you need creative players in your team to win games.

"Like Everton, we know Bolton are very good at set plays and we know we have to be very strong and our concentration must be spot on to defend them but it's up to us to find a way of beating Bolton.

"All these excuses and the accusations that Bolton are not attractive to watch and set out not to get beat, they're just excuses. That gives our players negative thoughts and our players would respond thinking 'our manager's making excuses'.

"I'm not having that. We have to find a way of beating Bolton like we did against Everton."

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