Bogdan to Back Four: Do Your Effin' Jobs!

Adam Bogdan is a shot-stopper, and a very good one at that. He is somewhat inconsistent on crosses, and occasionally parries his saves directly into the feet of an opposing player. He is still only 25, quite young for a goalkeeper, and we have seen him improve over the past two seasons. That said, you have to have some sympathy for him. For the past two years he has been playing behind a team that put little or no emphasis on defending, and for a goalkeeping coach whose only skill seems to be bringing out the exact same weakness in every player he has.

In an interview with The Bolton News, Bogdan said a few things that caught my attention.

Brighton created plenty of chances and we got a bit lucky earlier in the game – but I think we have to look inside us and correct our mistakes and try to be more stable and not let the opposition create so many opportunities.

Translation: Close your man down once in a while Stephen Warnock!

Bogdan went on to put a positive spin on things, but we all know what he meant.

They created too many chances against us and I think we have to do better to avoid these chances, but we were able to end the game on a positive note and we now move forward.

Translation: It's just shot after shot and cross after cross. No wonder we give away so many damn penalties, our opponent has always got the ball in our penalty box!

When Dougie Freedman came in the priority was to improve the defending, and we have had some signs of that. However, it's only one clean sheet in five. Two clean sheets all season. The defenders need to take some responsibility. Bogdan is too young, and too good a teammate to openly call them out in the press. But we know what he meant. And hopefully, so does the back four.