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Wanderers’ sagging strike-force has got manager Phil Parkinson at a loss for words.
Concerned at the sudden and rather unexplained lack of goals coming from the Whites’ strikers of late, the manager is hoping the old adage about form being temporary will prove true at the Macron.
Six recognised front men - Zach Clough, Jamie Proctor, Gary Madine, Keshi Anderson, James Henry and Sammy Ameobi – have failed to find the net in their last five games. And over the course of the season, only Madine has managed more than a single goal.
His return from injury alongside Clough at the weekend was a shred of comfort from an otherwise dreadful afternoon against Oxford United.
Elsewhere in League One, strikers well known to the Wanderers boss are finding the net with regularity. Scunthorpe United’s Josh Morris, for example, has scored more goals than the whole of the Bolton team put together.
But while his former Bradford City charge is enjoying life at Glanford Park and topping the scoring charts, Parkinson is at a loss to explain why his own players are labouring so much in front of goal.
“When you look at results around the country and I see players I’ve worked with scoring goals or creating chances and then compare it to here, it leaves you scratching your head,” he told The Bolton News.
“I believe I have got some extra quality here but for our whole group of attacking players not to be creating is quite unheard of. You might get two or three who lose their way a bit – and maybe that’s a bit harsh on Gaz and Cloughy who haven’t had much football. But I know I have got players who can produce and we have to get to the bottom of why that isn’t happening at the moment.”
Parkinson is likely to let Ameobi and Anderson loose against Blackpool in the Checkatrade Trophy tonight, hoping for someone’s luck to change in front of goal before the weekend trip to Swindon.
Added to his scoring problems, the Wanderers boss was equally concerned at the lack of application across the team on Saturday.
The four-game winning burst at the start of the season was solid, rather than spectacular, and Parkinson hopes to get back to grinding out results as quickly as possible.
“We went back to a midfield diamond because that system had been working so well for us before but when people are not doing their jobs it can feel like a very big pitch out there,” he said. “We have got to get back to being resilient, first and foremost, and look like we’ve got a bit of grit and determination. At the start of the season we knew this was a group of players who’d been through a lot, so we set ourselves up to be difficult to beat. We were strong and we were workmanlike.
“I don’t know why but we’ve gone away from that as a group.”
Source
Concerned at the sudden and rather unexplained lack of goals coming from the Whites’ strikers of late, the manager is hoping the old adage about form being temporary will prove true at the Macron.
Six recognised front men - Zach Clough, Jamie Proctor, Gary Madine, Keshi Anderson, James Henry and Sammy Ameobi – have failed to find the net in their last five games. And over the course of the season, only Madine has managed more than a single goal.
His return from injury alongside Clough at the weekend was a shred of comfort from an otherwise dreadful afternoon against Oxford United.
Elsewhere in League One, strikers well known to the Wanderers boss are finding the net with regularity. Scunthorpe United’s Josh Morris, for example, has scored more goals than the whole of the Bolton team put together.
But while his former Bradford City charge is enjoying life at Glanford Park and topping the scoring charts, Parkinson is at a loss to explain why his own players are labouring so much in front of goal.
“When you look at results around the country and I see players I’ve worked with scoring goals or creating chances and then compare it to here, it leaves you scratching your head,” he told The Bolton News.
“I believe I have got some extra quality here but for our whole group of attacking players not to be creating is quite unheard of. You might get two or three who lose their way a bit – and maybe that’s a bit harsh on Gaz and Cloughy who haven’t had much football. But I know I have got players who can produce and we have to get to the bottom of why that isn’t happening at the moment.”
Parkinson is likely to let Ameobi and Anderson loose against Blackpool in the Checkatrade Trophy tonight, hoping for someone’s luck to change in front of goal before the weekend trip to Swindon.
Added to his scoring problems, the Wanderers boss was equally concerned at the lack of application across the team on Saturday.
The four-game winning burst at the start of the season was solid, rather than spectacular, and Parkinson hopes to get back to grinding out results as quickly as possible.
“We went back to a midfield diamond because that system had been working so well for us before but when people are not doing their jobs it can feel like a very big pitch out there,” he said. “We have got to get back to being resilient, first and foremost, and look like we’ve got a bit of grit and determination. At the start of the season we knew this was a group of players who’d been through a lot, so we set ourselves up to be difficult to beat. We were strong and we were workmanlike.
“I don’t know why but we’ve gone away from that as a group.”
Source
