Bolton Wanderers manager Ian Evatt claims his side were ‘too intricate’ following their 2-0 defeat against Charlton Athletic on Saturday.
The Trotters have struggled in front of goal so far this season, drawing a blank in their last two outings. The loss at the Valley followed on from a 0-0 draw with Wrexham, with their two goals against Leyton Orient on the opening day the only time they have found the net thus far.
Having missed out on a place in the Championship last season following defeat in the play-off final against Oxford United. As a result, promotion is seemingly the minimum requirement this time around. However, they find themselves already playing catch up.
They take a break from League One action tomorrow night when they travel to Shrewsbury Town in the Carabao Cup, a game in which Evatt is expecting his team to react to their latest setback. With such a short turnaround in games, the 42-year-old believes the trip to Croud Meadow could be the perfect tonic:
“That is the way football works, it always gives you another chance,” he told The Bolton News.
“We have another chance on Tuesday and then a home game before the international break, against Exeter in the league. We need three points to build some momentum.”
Addressing the loss at Charlton, Evatt believed his side failed to make the right decisions by being ‘too intricate’, an instruction he said didn’t come from him:
“At times, our structure was wrong. Especially in wide areas, we were either too deep or we went too narrow to receive the ball.
“We needed to stretch them a little bit more. Then we are just trying to be too intricate. Believe it or not, it is not me telling them to make that many passes on the edge of the box.
“It is them trying to make decisions themselves and find the right solution, and we didn’t find the right solutions.
“We didn’t choose the right option, whether that was shoot, pass or cross. That is what we need to do, get back to the training pitch and work extremely hard to be better.”
Writer’s View
Dropping points at this stage of the season isn’t a disaster by any stretch, especially against teams expected to challenge at the top end of the table. Bolton have three home games on the bounce coming up which could dramatically alter their league position by the end of September.
Charlton is a tough place to go and there won’t be many teams that emerge from the Valley unscathed this season. It’s refreshing to see a team try to break their opponents down and if they start to get that right in the coming weeks, they will take some stopping. However, they need to start picking up wins in order to keep the support on side, who are desperate to see their four-season stay in the third tier come to an end.
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