Zat Knight believes Bolton owe it to Owen Coyle to halt their miserable recent run, starting with their clash against Aston Villa on Saturday.
Wanderers defender wants the team to turn around their form
Defender Zat Knight believes Bolton owe it to Owen Coyle to halt their miserable recent run, starting with their clash against Aston Villa on Saturday.
Wanderers are sitting second bottom of the Premier League after managing to win only three matches in 14 league games.
Knight wants to defeat his former club to help take the pressure off his boss, who he insists is a fantastic manager.
"I do feel sorry for him because his management is good, his training is good, and I think he picks the team everyone else would pick from those available," Knight told the
Bolton News.
"And if they (the players) are not doing it, what can you do? It's not as if he's got that much strength in depth.
"It's down to the boys now to get it together for the manager because he's been as good as gold to us. We need to repay him as a team."
Bolton have lost more games than any other Premier League team this season and due to this the centre-back admits confidence levels within the squad have dropped.
Demand
"It's easy from the side talking about body language because when you are down there it's going to happen," Knight said.
"We have to pick ourselves up in training but also in other ways. It's not just about football. Sometimes you need to go home and be with your family, try and put a smile on your face and enjoy your football again.
"We need to be a bit harder on each other too. Sometimes it's a bit too easy when we concede a goal, and we don't say anything - but we need to demand a lot more.
"We're grown men and this is our livelihood. Everyone wants to play in the Premier League, so if you want to play in it, you have to work at it."
Knight also insists that they owe the fans something to cheer about, having stuck by the team and manager throughout their disappointing start to the season.
"We need to turn things around for ourselves because the fans have been fantastic for us," he said. "We owe them something.
"Luckily enough for us we have had some good results in the past against Aston Villa but we can't rely on past form.
"We have to start now. We have got a busy Christmas period coming up and Villa are not in a rich vein of form."
