Home
Phil Parkinson insists tactics are not to blame for Wanderers’ goal-scoring problems.
A 1-0 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers leaves Bolton with just two goals to show from their last six outings.
The club remain way ahead of where they were last season, with 15 points already in the bag from the first 12 games, but have now dropped to 16th place in the table, and will remain there over the international break.
Parkinson hit back at suggestion his team had been set up too defensively at home against Rovers, who sealed victory with a Bradley Dack goal in the first half.
“We got in enough good areas to score a goal but we weren’t good enough to do it. That wasn’t a tactical thing, it’s just a bit of quality that we lacked in the final third,” he told The Bolton News.
“Scoring goals is difficult but I don’t think we could have been any more positive with the way we set up for the subs we made. We had dominated the game but couldn’t make it count.
“It wasn’t just the balls into the box, it was those little passes slid through which didn’t quite go for us – we have got one of the most creative players we’ve had in a long time in Erhun Otzumer and I thought he was excellent but we were just half a yard away.
“Those moments are the hardest to produce on the football pitch.”
Wanderers have won just one of their last eight – that coming on home turf against Derby County – and Parkinson feels a chance to work with his players over the international break will be beneficial.
“The performances in this last batch of games have warranted more points than we got,” he said. “But we need to find reasons for that. We have got better players in that final third than we have shown in the last few games. We need to address that on the training pitch.”
Parkinson was also disappointed by the way his side conceded after a Blackburn counter-attack down the right, instigated by Kasey Palmer.
“Jonathan Grounds should have brought him down,” he said. “We just said that to him in the dressing room. Joe Williams did it in the second half and sometimes you have got to take a booking on the half way line. We do that, the game comes in at half time 0-0.”
Source
A 1-0 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers leaves Bolton with just two goals to show from their last six outings.
The club remain way ahead of where they were last season, with 15 points already in the bag from the first 12 games, but have now dropped to 16th place in the table, and will remain there over the international break.
Parkinson hit back at suggestion his team had been set up too defensively at home against Rovers, who sealed victory with a Bradley Dack goal in the first half.
“We got in enough good areas to score a goal but we weren’t good enough to do it. That wasn’t a tactical thing, it’s just a bit of quality that we lacked in the final third,” he told The Bolton News.
“Scoring goals is difficult but I don’t think we could have been any more positive with the way we set up for the subs we made. We had dominated the game but couldn’t make it count.
“It wasn’t just the balls into the box, it was those little passes slid through which didn’t quite go for us – we have got one of the most creative players we’ve had in a long time in Erhun Otzumer and I thought he was excellent but we were just half a yard away.
“Those moments are the hardest to produce on the football pitch.”
Wanderers have won just one of their last eight – that coming on home turf against Derby County – and Parkinson feels a chance to work with his players over the international break will be beneficial.
“The performances in this last batch of games have warranted more points than we got,” he said. “But we need to find reasons for that. We have got better players in that final third than we have shown in the last few games. We need to address that on the training pitch.”
Parkinson was also disappointed by the way his side conceded after a Blackburn counter-attack down the right, instigated by Kasey Palmer.
“Jonathan Grounds should have brought him down,” he said. “We just said that to him in the dressing room. Joe Williams did it in the second half and sometimes you have got to take a booking on the half way line. We do that, the game comes in at half time 0-0.”
Source
