Bolton defender Rob Holding has passed a medical at Arsenal after a £2.5m bid was submitted. (****: Bolton News)
Oli Price-Bates @OliPriceBates
Fee agreed and medical was completed tonight. Rob Holding to sign #afc contract this week
anell je napisao/la:Seamene brate, kakav je ovaj Holding, samo tebi vjerujem jer znam da redovno pratiš Bolton.
He carries himself with the air and leads the backline like Gudni Bergsson used to do. I recall in Holding’s first game at centre back for the Whites he was constantly talking to, directing and then consoling his much more senior centre back partner. He reminds me of Gary Cahill with how calm and composed he is on the ball. You could very much consider Holding a ball playing centre back but, unlike someone like John Stones, he never takes unnecessary risks, he doesn’t “mess about” with the ball. If he does something with the ball he does it for a reason. If it’s running out with it from defence, a cool pass to the midfielder, putting it into row Z or even pulling off a piece of skill in his own box. Everything he does feels calculated in order to benefit the team.
Elsewhere he is strong and well timed in the tackle like Bruno N’Gotty and can dominate in the air like Abdoulaye Faye, not to mention he’s quite quick for a centre half, too. Also, even though the other end of the pitch doesn’t really matter when talking about defenders, he has proven to be a nuisance in the opposition box, always looking threatening and even scoring on one occasion.
As I said, this may come across as hyperbole, but I don’t think Holding is as good as any of these other defenders yet, he still has some learning to do, but he does seem to possess plenty of positive traits.
On the side of the game he can improve, well, I think his biggest flaw at this point is that if an attacking player does manage to get in behind him than Holding isn’t the best, at this moment in time, at recovering. So many goals Bolton have conceded this year always seems to end with Holding, and the rest of the defence in fairness, running backwards to the goal and trying to catch up with the racing striker. This was typified against Reading in April when Holding gave away a penalty and got sent off for bringing down Matej Vydra as he was through on goal. Replays suggest he may have gotten the ball but it was certainly a close call and it looked like a straight red in real time. Holding should have been smarter and not give the referee a decision to make.
Holding just needs to keep gradually improving, in every facet of his game. He has all the components, he just needs to keep working and tuning them and it will soon all come together and he’ll be a top level defender.
