Owen Coyle must find a way to win in style at Bolton

By Simon Mullock

Published 07:00 08/01/10

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Owen Coyle's biggest problem as the new manager of Bolton is how to balance style with substance.

Gary Megson didn’t lose his job because of bad results.

He was sacked because chairman Phil Gartside realised that the club’s 20,000 hardcore fans had become bored and disillusioned by the functional football that has kept Wanderers in the Premier League for nine successive seasons.

Sam Allardyce got away with playing the percentages because Bolton were usually ensconced in the top half of the table.

Under Big Sam it was Bolton against the world. And more often than not the world went away with a bloody nose.

Not so under Megson, who was forced to wage a constant struggle against relegation on the kind of budget that would make most Premier League managers cry.

Which was what prompted chairman Phil Gartside to remove Megson and bring in Coyle.

The Scot did such a remarkable job at Burnley that I felt he was the manager of the year last season.

He took the Clarets into the Premier League and to within a few injury-time minutes of the Carling Cup final – and he did it in style.

This season Burnley have continued to win friends and influence people by the classy way they have continued to play.

But that was with a team that Coyle moulded in his own image.

His challenge now is to transform a side programmed to play from back to front with as few passes as possible.

He must find a way of harnessing Kevin Davies – Bolton’s best player for the last three seasons – without forcing him to chase the Hail Mary passes that have become his staple.

Keeping Bolton in the Premier League will be hard enough.

But to do it by playing the kind of football the Reebok fans crave will rank right alongside the miracle he produced at Turf Moor.