Player Ratings: Bolton Wanderers 0-2 Wycombe Wanderers

We’re rubbish. I wish we weren’t but this is our life now. I won’t bore you with long winded soliloquies about the state of things at our club. You already know that. I’ll just let you know why I think near enough every player was poor today.

Here are my Player Ratings:

Remi Matthews - 6.0
I know we at LOV aren’t allowed to criticise Remi but I’d do it anyway because I can. However, I’ve not much to criticise him on. Not at fault for the first goal and I wouldn’t expect him to save a penalty. He gave said pen anyway but he was just doing what any sensible goalkeeper would do when their defence lets someone through easily. Just didn’t work out for him. Made some good saves and actually came out to claim some high balls. One of the few who will be spared.

Josh Emmanuel - 3.0
His marking was terrible, he struggled to outpower Onyedinma and his passing was mostly wayward. Rightfully substituted at half-time. I’d drop him for Brockbank so he can try and reclaim his place. He may not attack as well as Emmanuel can at times but hopefully he can at least defend better because teams are exploiting Josh’s poor positioning constantly.

Aristote Nsiala - 3.0
He was actually dealing with Akinfenwa relatively well and won his headers a good amount of times. He was even finding teammates with his headers. His other passes were a mixed bag. But those mistakes, Jesus Christ, those mistakes that led to both goals were absolutely comical. That’s the kind of stuff fans absolutely hounded Zouma for at times, despite his inexperience. An experienced head doing that though is even worse and I have to knock down his score because of it despite me thinking overall, he was passable.

Jack Hobbs - 4.0
He’s the best rated in our defence, meaning Hobbsy wins the shiniest turd award. His long balls were rubbish at times and he didn’t even deal that well physically with not just Akinfenwa but their whole front-line. He notably played on Onyedinma in the buildup to their penalty as well. I know he’s been having back issues but I didn’t know that it got so bad that he lost his spine. Quite poor from Hobbs today.

Brandon Fleming - 3.0
Fleming was mercilessly harrassed by the very impressive Paul Smyth. So much so that we saw Bunney for the first time. His tackling was off, he gave the ball away a silly amount of times and struggled to deliver any kind of promising play or cross that I can remember. Needs to be dropped next game. I miss Chicksen.

Jason Lowe - 5.0
The last starter that I can’t criticise too much because he was the only one that was actually giving a shit in defence. We miss his knack for interceptions and battle in midfield whenever he’s shifted to the back four. He was doing alright in midfield, passing forward a bit more than I usually see him doing and making a nuisance of himself. He wasn’t that good at RB but he was a damn sight better than Emmanuel. Keep him in midfield for God sake and stop using him as a plug for our leaky defence. Still passes too slow at points and halts our momentum too much at times though.

Luke Murphy - 4.0
Unlike Lowe, he does a little better at passing forward and does OK at winning headers sometimes. He’s undoubtedly terrible at every other aspect of defending though. Letting opposition midfielders glide past him too easily is all too common an occurrence. I’ll give him credit for trying to carry it forward but too often runs into no mans land and is forced to pass it sideways. Has to do better and learn the difference between when to actually challenge a player and when to slow his run so he doesn’t give away so many cheap free-kicks.

Ethan Hamilton - 4.0
Heard this myth that Hamilton was one of our best players in the 1st half. Not for me. His shots were testing but that’s the extent of his good play in my mind. He was often lazy in supporting his teammates going forward, was poor in his positioning many times and needlessly gave the ball away far too often. Did better with his tackling in 2nd half but was pretty much anonymous otherwise.

Dennis Politic - 3.5
His illness from last game has clearly taken away any competency from his game because this was far from the Dennis Politic that made himself a constant attacking threat in the last few games. Looked more like the Politic we saw at the start of Hill’s tenure. Soft in the challenge, heavy touches and did not hold onto the ball well at all in possession. I’m sure he knows he can do a hell of a lot better.

Chris O’Grady - 2.0
That’s more like the Chris O’Grady that pissed me off so much in November. Possessing the touch of a wrecking ball, all the aerial prowess of a dead fish and losing more possession more times than I’ve had hot dinners, he was absolutely woeful. He was regularly bullied by their center-backs to boot Has to be dropped, especially if he continues to be shifted out wide. We might as well be playing with 10 men if Hill keeps doing that.

Daryl Murphy - 2.0
His worst game for us that I’ve seen. Like O’Grady he relentlessly had his arse handed to him by the center-backs. Whenever he actually got involved that is. The rest of the time, he ghosted around the pitch showing no attempt at trying to win the ball back at any point. He reacted to every pass that went slightly astray of him with all the speed and interest of a tree stump. If you can’t be a bagsman, at least make something of yourself but he didn’t even do that. Dreadful from the veteran.

SUBSTITUTES

Joe Dodoo - 3.0
And so our striker situation proves to be even worse as Joe Dodoo couldn’t win a single header to save his life, found himself offside by a mile twice and was dispossessed regularly. I’d say Faal should play but apparently he’s not ready so what the hell we do with out striker conundrum, I have no idea.

Jacob Mellis - 5.0
Don’t remember him doing anything wrong. Don’t really remember what I had for breakfast yesterday either. Same energy.

Joe Bunney - 10.0
Distinctly remember him telling someone, one of our players I think, possibly Luke Murphy but I’m not certain, to f*** off which is just delightful. Happened in front of me so I’m already taken to him. Oh and he was OK while he was on.

Keith Hill - NO
Hill wants me to be a happy clapper and be patient with him and this progress that has apparently happened despite the glaring flaws his management and interviews have provided in the past few months so I will. We’ll see if that produces something positive in next game. Just keep progressing fella. By the way, that NO stands for “Nice Onions” Keith. Swear down.