Coyle Assures Us: Marvin Sordell Has Not Been Forgotten

There must be little more dispiriting to a professional footballer than not only being benched, but being taken out of the squad entirely. After scoring to secure a point in Bolton's draw with Nottingham Forest over a month ago now, Marvin Sordell was dropped to the bench against Crawley Town, and last weekend against Sheffield Wednesday he failed to make an appearance on the squad sheet at all. That's a £3 million bum apparently not worthy of sitting on the bench. Owen Coyle does have a bit of explaining to do.

I think that David Ngog and Kevin Davies have been doing well as a pair up front, so when it came to picking my bench, we knew that Jay Spearing's fitness had been touch and go, so we felt that we needed to put that extra midfielder in there. Stephen Warnock can play there and he scored against us last year from that position, so I felt it was important we had that option.

He [Sordell] missed out on this occasion but there's no doubt his day will come.

Marvin wasn't give much of a chance when he arrived at the club in January, only getting 3 appearances in the rest of that season. However, that was a very different Bolton, and Sordell has continually been showing promise, not least for Great Britain in the Olympics this summer. It is difficult to see why loan boy Benik Afobe is getting preference over own Sordell, when his performances thus far this season have by no means distinguished him.

All of that said, it is a long season ahead of us, and their is plenty of time for squad rotation to take place. Especially in a position like striker, where confidence can have such an effect on form, it's vital to have depth, something Bolton so seriously lacked last season. With that in mind, I think Sordell probably will get his chance this season. Let's just hope it comes before his confidence has atrophied.