English Premier League: Owen Coyle defenders Fabrice Muamba for his aggressive streak
Bolton’s manager, Owen Coyle has become the latest manager to defend his player from press criticism as the U-21 English national Fabrice Muamba has come under fire due to his challenge that left Wigan’s James McCarthy injured on
the sidelines.
McCarthy is expected to miss up to three months of footballing action and as usual the critics are out in full force to stop the kind of tackling that Muamba took part in just a week ago in his team’s match against Wigan Athletic.
The 22 year old has found himself in focus after his tackle on James McCarthy during a match that eventually ended with a the score line at one all at the DW Stadium.
Scottish star McCarthy is out with an ankle ligament injury after the tackle that he was a victim off as Wigan’s manager described Muamba’s tackle as a “football crime”.
Owen Coyle, the Bolton manager has come out in defence of his player and has stated that Muamba has the psychological strength to get over the past weeks incident and continue playing at the highest level of football for Bolton. Bolton
face Liverpool on the weekend in an English Premier League encounter.
Coyle spoke about the player and the tackle that he committed last weekend as he said, "Everybody knows the tackle wasn't malicious, Fabrice is a great kid. He's a very good player, and he'll be focused on doing his job for Bolton,
it's as simple as that. Honestly, he is such a lovely kid, and he was genuinely disappointed and hurt by the fact young James was injured. I knew James as a young kid growing up in Glasgow, and he'll go on to have a glittering career. It's such a shame he
is injured, but Fabrice went to win the ball, and unfortunately James has picked up an injury on the back of that. But that's the nature of the competition we play in. There are always going to be talking points and obviously right now tackling and injuries
are the main focus. You just have to deal with that the best you can."
Coyle spoke about his team’s encounter at the weekend against the Merseyside Reds as well as he expressed, "Their tails will be up. They will certainly be boosted by last week's result, so I'm sure they will be positive, trying to
win the game. We know how hard it will be because of the quality we face, but we will also be on the front foot. My boys are in terrific form, they're playing well, so I'll ask the same of my group, that we give our maximum. If we do that then I'm sure we
can go and earn points from this game."
The Bolton manager went onto say, "The difficult thing of late has been picking only 11 players to start recent games because of how well they have been doing. We don't have a big squad; in fact it's fair to say we probably have one
of the smallest squads in the Premier League. But what we do have is a tight-knit squad, players who work for each other, who are pushing each other on every day in training. That for me as a manager is a good problem to have, and long may that continue."
Coyle further confirmed that Bolton’s star Ivan Klasnic is fit enough to part take in the match against Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool. Klasnic missed Bolton’s last match as he was suspended. He will be available for selection for Bolton’s
next league match despite being on bail due to his arrest on suspicion of rape earlier in the week.
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