I thought a few really stood out today and will just go into player ratings . Green 5 Ned 6 Hall 6 Angella 5 Konch 7 Henry (generous) 6 Tozser 6 Phillips 7 Chery 8 Fer 9 JET 8.
Fer for me was the MOM and showed his ability, quality touch, ready to take people on (not always successful) and always looking to get the ball forward. Chery was all over the pitch, scored a pearler and can't be faulted with effort. JET was excellent took his 2 goals well and was always offering himself as an option and wanting to take people on.
I think you're being generous with Henry, Tozser and Phillips. I was vocal in my support of Henry and Phillips last season but they've both been consistently poor this season. Henry always allowed Bolton too much space when they were moving forward. He was rarely in their face, even when they closed in on our penalty area and, if he did make one tackle all game, I certainly can't recall it. Add to that his woeful passing and you have a player who badly needs a rest on the bench to get his confidence back. I'd rate him a generous 4: our worst player.
Tozser's passing was almost as bad, salvaged to some degree by good set piece deliveries. He was our second worst player on the day. With both him and Henry mis-firing, we have no central midfield: it's not surprising that we ship goals and it IS surprising that we can score 4 with those two in the side.
Phillips was hardly in the game - anonymous, just like most games I've seen him this season. My seat was right behind him when he had that awful miss in the second half. He tried to bury it and screwed it badly wide with the goal at his mercy. He could, and should, have side footed it into the space available.
I had JET as MOTM ahead of the classy Fer because it's hard to argue with two goals, especially the second which was all of his own making and such a good strike. I believe Konchesky had his best game for us to date and Chery was also very good. His goal really was a peach (Taarabt-esque).
So, there were some promising performances. If we can just sort out our awful defence and central midfield we might start to climb the table. The latter should be easy, it's just a matter of selecting the right players from the existing squad (I'd now choose Faurlin and the fit again Sandro). Fixing the defence is a bit of mystery to me: as individuals, they're much better than the promotion side which had Orr, Gorkks, Connolly and Hill but as a unit they're far inferior. I'd probably stick with the same four and hope that, by playing a few games together, they develop some much needed co-ordination as a unit. Plus some decent cover from central midfield would undoubtedly help. There, I said all that without using the forbidden "gel" word.