Home
Durability could be the buzz word at Wanderers this summer as Neil Lennon looks to assemble a Wanderers squad capable of lasting the course of a Championship season.
Recent debuts for Tom Walker and Rochinha mean the Whites have now used 43 different players this season – more than any other Bolton team outside the war years.
Such has been the depth of injury problems encountered at the Macron, only 14 players have managed more than 10 starts in the Championship so far; of those, Jay Spearing and Chung-Yong Lee are now playing elsewhere, and Adam Le Fondre belongs to Cardiff City.
Tim Ream, Matt Mills, Neil Danns, Liam Feeney and Andy Lonergan are the only individuals you could possibly consider “regulars” since last August, topping 30 appearances or more in the league.
To pin the blame for such an ever-changing line-up squarely on injuries would be wrong. Form has undoubtedly played its part, and replacing a manager midway through a campaign is always a recipe for change.
It certainly spelled the end of short-lived loan spells for Aston Villa’s Chris Herd, Crystal Palace’s Owen Garvan and, to an extent, Kevin McNaughton, who failed to get into Lennon’s line-up until very recently, only to see the injury jinx strike.
While Lennon has been happy to manage the workloads of veteran strikers Emile Heskey and Eidur Gudjohnsen, he believes more sturdiness is needed in his squad if they are going to last the pace of a 46-game season, plus cup competitions.
“We’d never have been able to foresee the number of injuries we’ve had, so we need to get more durability into the players we bring in,” he told The Bolton News. “Hopefully they carry that on when we bring them in here.
“Character is a big thing for me. And also if the team is losing I want to see how that player reacts. Does he pick the team up by the scruff of the neck?
“If you’re two or three-nil down, does he have the enthusiasm to keep going? That tells me a lot about a player. You learn more about them in defeat.
“But the Championship is an absolute monster. You need players who can cope with the physical demands it places on you – and at the moment I don’t think I quite have that.”
Lennon will take little pride from holding the record for using most players in a post war campaign but a glance over history tells you that a settled side often goes hand-in-hand with success.
A huge turnover of players was understandable in the war years, when military service and guest appearances meant line-ups were hugely interchangeable from one week to the next. Wanderers twice used 48 different footballers in a single campaign (1940-41 and 1942-43) and also topped the 40 mark in 1918-19 and 1943-44.
As football clubs grew in size and the use of substitutions came in, there were more opportunities for managers to use their squad.
Ian Greaves’ Division Two title-winning side of 1978 used just 21 different players, while Bruce Rioch achieved promotion with 25 in 1993 and 26 in 1995.
Colin Todd needed only 23 in the record-breaking final season at Burnden Park in 1997.
Sam Allardyce’s more experimental approach to squad building certainly upped the numbers at the turn of the millennium. He used 36 players to get Wanderers back into the Premier League in 2001 and another 36 keeping them there a year later.
Many fans still look back on some of the blink-and-you’ll-miss them Bolton careers which emerged at that time. Who, for example, remembers the services of Cleveland Taylor or Emanuele Morini?
Until this season Big Sam’s patchwork quilt was the benchmark but the squad hastily assembled by Lennon since taking over from Dougie Freedman in October is unlikely to be viewed with such fond nostalgia.
The succession of loanees used to plug gaps caused by injuries has left Wanderers with a rather temporary look.
The Whites boss wants to examine potential root causes of so many soft tissue injuries, which could include re-laying the pitches at Euxton, but has not said publicly whether he will look to change the medical staff any further.
After plugging round holes with square pegs for the last few months, Lennon can be congratulated for getting what he has from the procession of players to have passed through the books.
The signs are that next season’s squad will be leaner and meaner. Hopefully, they will also be a little luckier than the current crop.
Source
Recent debuts for Tom Walker and Rochinha mean the Whites have now used 43 different players this season – more than any other Bolton team outside the war years.
Such has been the depth of injury problems encountered at the Macron, only 14 players have managed more than 10 starts in the Championship so far; of those, Jay Spearing and Chung-Yong Lee are now playing elsewhere, and Adam Le Fondre belongs to Cardiff City.
Tim Ream, Matt Mills, Neil Danns, Liam Feeney and Andy Lonergan are the only individuals you could possibly consider “regulars” since last August, topping 30 appearances or more in the league.
To pin the blame for such an ever-changing line-up squarely on injuries would be wrong. Form has undoubtedly played its part, and replacing a manager midway through a campaign is always a recipe for change.
It certainly spelled the end of short-lived loan spells for Aston Villa’s Chris Herd, Crystal Palace’s Owen Garvan and, to an extent, Kevin McNaughton, who failed to get into Lennon’s line-up until very recently, only to see the injury jinx strike.
While Lennon has been happy to manage the workloads of veteran strikers Emile Heskey and Eidur Gudjohnsen, he believes more sturdiness is needed in his squad if they are going to last the pace of a 46-game season, plus cup competitions.
“We’d never have been able to foresee the number of injuries we’ve had, so we need to get more durability into the players we bring in,” he told The Bolton News. “Hopefully they carry that on when we bring them in here.
“Character is a big thing for me. And also if the team is losing I want to see how that player reacts. Does he pick the team up by the scruff of the neck?
“If you’re two or three-nil down, does he have the enthusiasm to keep going? That tells me a lot about a player. You learn more about them in defeat.
“But the Championship is an absolute monster. You need players who can cope with the physical demands it places on you – and at the moment I don’t think I quite have that.”
Lennon will take little pride from holding the record for using most players in a post war campaign but a glance over history tells you that a settled side often goes hand-in-hand with success.
A huge turnover of players was understandable in the war years, when military service and guest appearances meant line-ups were hugely interchangeable from one week to the next. Wanderers twice used 48 different footballers in a single campaign (1940-41 and 1942-43) and also topped the 40 mark in 1918-19 and 1943-44.
As football clubs grew in size and the use of substitutions came in, there were more opportunities for managers to use their squad.
Ian Greaves’ Division Two title-winning side of 1978 used just 21 different players, while Bruce Rioch achieved promotion with 25 in 1993 and 26 in 1995.
Colin Todd needed only 23 in the record-breaking final season at Burnden Park in 1997.
Sam Allardyce’s more experimental approach to squad building certainly upped the numbers at the turn of the millennium. He used 36 players to get Wanderers back into the Premier League in 2001 and another 36 keeping them there a year later.
Many fans still look back on some of the blink-and-you’ll-miss them Bolton careers which emerged at that time. Who, for example, remembers the services of Cleveland Taylor or Emanuele Morini?
Until this season Big Sam’s patchwork quilt was the benchmark but the squad hastily assembled by Lennon since taking over from Dougie Freedman in October is unlikely to be viewed with such fond nostalgia.
The succession of loanees used to plug gaps caused by injuries has left Wanderers with a rather temporary look.
The Whites boss wants to examine potential root causes of so many soft tissue injuries, which could include re-laying the pitches at Euxton, but has not said publicly whether he will look to change the medical staff any further.
After plugging round holes with square pegs for the last few months, Lennon can be congratulated for getting what he has from the procession of players to have passed through the books.
The signs are that next season’s squad will be leaner and meaner. Hopefully, they will also be a little luckier than the current crop.
Source