Bolton Wanderers FA Cup Preview: The Black-Eye Threat Level Has Been Raised

I remember a time when trips to the Reebok Stadium were met with groans; Bolton Wanderers, for a brief period there, always seemed to have our number.

Call it a “bogey team”, call it what you will, but the Trotters seemed extra keen to cause us problems in one way or another. They may be playing their trade in the Championship at present, but I don’t think much will have changed. It’s the magic of the Cup that pundits and punters are always banging on about that gives this meeting an extra bit of edge. Liverpool, riding an unbeaten streak that stretches back to the tail-end of December, go into the FA Cup fourth round tie the obvious favourites, but that only raises the stakes for the Premier League side; no matter what Reds boss Brendan Rodgers does, it’ll be seen as a gamble and there’ll be some serious trouble should Bolton give us a black-eye.

With the all important second leg of the League Cup semi-final looming just over the horizon, the Northern Irishman is expected to shuffle his deck tomorrow in a bid to keep a number of his stars fresh for the trip to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. Mario Balotelli, Joe Allen and Glen Johnson could all feature after returning to full training yesterday, while the likes of Javier Manquillo, Jose Enrique and Dejan Lovren could be handed rare starts against the lower league side.

That, of course, is where the gamble comes in — this “lower league” side aren’t exactly push-overs. Considering that we only narrowly scraped past a League Two outfit in the previous round, naming a weakened team may not be the best decision for Rodgers to make. Although we may not feel the sting of a former player in the form of Jay Spearing, who looks set to join Watford on loan until the end of a season to forget,, the Kop is sure to give a rousing reception to Emile Heskey with the 37-year old on a short term loan at the Midlands Lancashire outfit.

Should 19-year old Zach Clough, who scored the only goal as the Trotters beat out Wigan Athletic in the previous round, be unavailable due to an on-going hamstring problem, Bolton boss Neil Lennon could call on the services of former Chelsea man Eidur Gudjohnsen, but how effective the Icelandic attacker will be is debatable; considering his catastrophic miss in a certain Champions League semi-final back in 2005, Anfield doesn’t harbour the best of memories for the 36-year old.

While the Trotters will be putting a heavy reliance on experience this weekend, Rodgers confirmed that he’ll be looking towards youth with 17-year old Jordan Rossiter likely to be involved in some capacity. Regardless of who the Northern Irishman names to the starting eleven, or who they come up against for that matter, it’s going to be a test. The Reds may be on a nine match unbeaten run, but when you upset the flow of the team with tweaks and changes, you risk wrecking the dynamic. In the same vein, if you don’t give players a rest now and again, you risk burning them out or, in the very least, increase the possibility of them picking up a knock. The Trotters may not be the same team that they were before, but it looks like they can still cause us problems…

–Steven