Stuart Holden has enjoyed a strong season for Bolton, perhaps stronger than we realized.
Holden has been named to the Guardian's English Premier League Team of the Season at the halfway point after garnered the highest average rating among all EPL players. The Guardian's website has reader-generated player rankings for all Premier League matches and Holden scored the highest average of the season.
Here is the Premier League Best XI at the mid-way point according to the Guardian's website:
Richard Kingson (Blackpool); Bacary Sagna (Arsenal), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Leighton Baines (Everton); Samir Nasri (Arsenal), Stuart Holden (Bolton), Luka Modric (Tottenham), Rafael van der Vaart (Tottenham); Johan Elmander (Bolton), Andy Carroll (Newcastle).
Holden finished the mid-way point of the season with an average of 7.4, with Bolton teammate Johan Elmander posting the second-highest average at 7.2.
Here are some other stories to get you through the day:
Findley linked to deal with Nottingham Forest
U.S. national team striker Robbie Findley had been linked to a trial with Premier League side Wolverhampton, but a new report has Findley signing with League Championship side Nottingham Forest.
Sky Sports is reporting that Findley has left Wolverhampton and is on the verge of a deal to sign with Nottingham Forest, a club managed by Billy Davies, the same manager who brought Americans Eddie Lewis and Benny Feilhaber to Derby County.
Findley is currently out of contract and is therefore free to sign with any team. There are questions about his ability to secure a UK work permit, but he played in 10 of the U.S. national team's 14 matches in 2010, and the four matches he missed were due to suspension, injury and club commitments. Given those figures, Findley shouldn't have trouble securing a work permit.
Balotelli honored as best young player in Europe
Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli has been honored as Best Young Player in Europe by Italian-based Tuttosport.
Balotelli edged out Arsenal's Jack Wilshire for the award, which honors the best European player under the age of 21.
It's tough to agree with that choice. Who would we have voted for? Belgian Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku are two standouts who come to mind, along with French midfielder Yann M'Vila.
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What do you think of these developments? Impressed with Holden's rating? Surprised by all the interest in Findley?
Share your thoughts below.
Balotelli has always been a d*ckhead, but he is always dangerous when he is on the field. Bale is obviously the most dangerous young talent in Europe. There is no way that Tuttosport missed the single-handed raping that he layed on Maicon and all of Inter, for that matter. And he did it TWICE. Just utter abuse.
mls is prolly in between league 1 and the championship. Though the average player is not far above league 1 they, teams have a number of players who are at least championship quality and the mls allstar team would likely survive in the prem, something you could not say about a league 1 team
I agree with you 100%. Ive been saying that since day 1 however, people get so enamored with him in his current position as a CMF with BOLTON, that they fail to realize what he does with Bolton and what he would be required to do for the US is really a contrasting role. You would almost be able to compare Holden’s game with Jones or Bradleys as opposed to a crafty play-making midfielder. Holden’s best attributes are the endurance, service and man marking abilities of his game. As long as Jones shows the ability to create from that DMF position offering excellent service from a deep position and Bradley keeps his game simple and a scoring and continues to be a threat on counters then Holden will have to ride the pine. Holden would also be able to be serviceable on the outside just to have him on the wing.
Holden does a lot of ball-winning and ball-moving/short passes to other middies or back to defenders or up to strikers for Bolton, that’s why he’s rated so highly.
Yeah he makes a mistake now and then but most of the time he looks more a Barcelona type middie helping his team gain or keep possession. Ok he’s not quite at that skill level but by EPL (and certainly by USMNT) standards, he’s a possession guy and ball winner. The long ball is not really Bolton’s main thing, though it works sometimes with Elmander having a good season.
Thank god hes welsh, if him and ryan giggs were on the english squad, they wouldve performed a tad better in the past and in the future.
Ryan giggs and Bale are beasts
That’s from his game playing days. Counter-strike and most likely a lot of others.
Scoff if you want.
If you put Holden and Dempsey out on the wings, they will both cut inside and clog the middle. They usually do.
“Wingers don’t necessarily need pace and trickery to be effective. Look at Walcott, he has both and always ends up out of bounds.”
Walcott is a striker, he’s not really a winger per se. If you want a winger example in the EPL right now look at Nani. Since the eclipse of DMB and Eddie Lewis, Donovan is the closest thing the US has to a legitimate international winger, not Holden or Dempsey.
“He gave Stu a fair shot and Stu did the business.”
Based on what I’ve seen, it’s almost as if when Coyle saw Holden he said to himself “that’s the engine for my team”, and then proceeded fit all the pieces together.
Holden and Coyle are both very lucky. It’s very rare to see such seemingly perfect partnership. The one thing I never see mentioned about why Holden is so perfect for Coyle’s Bolton is that he maybe the fittest guy out there. He and Donovan are always competing for most fit US player.
I suspect that is why Coyle always keeps him out there; because, leaving his skill aside, he can go all day. That explains why he can make so many tackles as cleanly as he does. when you are fitter than the other guy you can do that.
Unfortunately Wales is not going to qualify for the next World Cup.
Way to go Stuey! Modric over Bale makes the list look a bit questionable IMO, but regardless, it is a good thing that an American is so highly regarded over there.
+2. He’s looked like the most dangerous attacking player in Europe. (I’m biased though, so I’m glad someone else said this first 🙂
You seem to have forgotten how colonialism works.
Hes only 21?
He’s going to be so good next WC. That guy is the real realll deal.
Only way Findley is doing well in ANY league is if he superglues those wide receiver gloves NFL players use to his feet.
He turns the ball over more than those 10year old ymca kids that were playing in a pickup game against LeBron James.
Whats funny is Altidore is younger than those “young guys” you’re hoping for.
CD9 took a while til he was really good, lets give altidore a chance til you see someone whos clearly better.
So thinking 4 years ahead…im praying someone who can press forward with the ball and not turn it over and over(Findley)…. but screw this discussion honestly
PLAY DEMPSEY AT STRIKER PLEASE, but the offense has to run through holden so he has to play CM, he rarely loses the ball like Edu and Clark(did),
disagree. from having watched several games of bolton’s, neither holden or muamba really plays a possession, playmaker role. bolton’s main game plan is to punt the ball to elmander and then see what happens, and buckle down defensively. which they do very very well, in large part due to holden’s tenacity and discipline
and no we don’t have a modric, but we also don’t have a maicon and i’m still very happy with cherundolo at RB. my point is that we do the best with what we have, but that doesn’t always mean throwing the best 11 out on the pitch regardless of tactical awareness or positional abilities. i’ve argued this before but given our weaknesses defensively right now (RB is really the only position that we are comfortable at), we need to keep some possession to be able to win. we also dont have a good speed/size combo up top (jozy lacks the size, cd9 was our only speed threat), so the counter attacking long-ball strategy won’t work for us, and we need to try and actually break teams down. my point therefore is that we need to try and play a more well roudned game. no we don’t have a modric, but we have a couple decent options to play that hole player in a 4-2-3-1 (dempsey, donovan, and some younger guys). no it’s not the ideal position for dempsey and donovan, but i think we’ve all complained at some point that they get lost playing on the wing when we can’t get distribution to them…
anyways, just my thought, but i dont see a 4-5-1 with jones, bradley, and holden solving any of our fundamental problems (defensive weakness and inability to create chances).
I agree Holden is on his way to becoming our best central midfielder (along with Jones currently)….careful otherwise the Bob Bradley Lovers (BBL’s) will come out of the woodwork and cry tears of outrage.
Amusing as it is, BBL’s will certainly derail topics on this thread with emotional outburts of sorrow.
So, he’s an attacking holden midfielder, then?
+1
Eddie Johnson’s got a role in the EPL doing the same things.
I think most fans are coming around to that view.
The two questions it lieaves us:
1) Does Bob Bradley agree?
2) Is Altidore the right guy to have up top all alone?
Balotelli has got serious skills and an athletic body that everyone this side of Drogba would kill to have. He;s also got serious attitudinal problems. If can grow up and get serious about his career, he may well be the best player in his cohort.
Speaking for myself, I have always been a huge Holden fan. From the very first time I saw him play — he was this basic unknown, playing because of an injury, and on a hot streak, though still coming off the bench for Houston. DC United was on the road in Houston. I saw Holden exhibit skills I’d rarely seen from a US player at that level, and I immediately proclaimed him a future star of the national team.
Holden has an uncanny ability to steal the ball in 1 v 1 situations. He must have amazingly quick reactions. Often, he wins the ball without even having to make a tackle… he simply reads where the player is going to dribble and cleanly takes the ball away..it’s something you dont often see in the professional game. It’s almost more like a basketball “steal” off the dribble than the typical tackle or shoulder-off-the-ball that one sees in professional soccer. Now that’s I’m aware of it, I’m amazed at how often he wins the ball so cleanly against such technical and speedy opponents.