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Wanderers face the set piece kings of League One tonight, knowing their own work with the dead ball needs some improvement.
No team in the division uses free kicks, corners and throw-ins more effectively than Burton Albion, according to top stats website TheAnalyst.com.
The Brewers’ xG (expected goals) for set pieces is 6.58, way above the second-placed side, Portsmouth, and more than twice that of Wanderers’ 2.88.
Burton have scored four goals from set pieces this season, twice as many as Bolton, and have used them to their advantage in the past against Ian Evatt’s side.
By contrast, Wanderers captain Ricardo Santos accepts there is much room for improvement in his own side’s execution.
“They haven’t been good enough, we know that,” he said. “This season we have honestly been working a lot on set pieces, how the opposition set up.
“They have to be better than that, we know it. In tight games they can make a difference, so we have to keep working on it and hopefully get some goals from them.”
Wanderers saw in their last home game against Barnsley how, despite dominating a game in all but score-line, they could still be left clinging to a point, when a late free kick was headed just over James Trafford’s crossbar.
“It always happens in a game when you have been up but not scoring,” Santos agreed. “The other team will get a chance to put one away.”
Burton, despite occupying 22nd spot at start of play, have actually scored one more goal than Bolton this season.
Santos believes he and his fellow centre-halves can help out more with goals – the Portuguese defender still waiting to open his account after more than 100 first team appearances.
“We will keep working on them, even on days for recovery we go in and look at things,” he said. “We are trying to improve them because I think we can get goals from them.
“When you look at goals people tend to look at strikers scoring them. But they can come from elsewhere – centre-halves like me coming up for set pieces, midfielders getting involved. We all have to share that responsibility.
Wanderers had to work hard for three points at Accrington on Saturday, adapting their shape in the second half to overturn a two-goal deficit.
This evening’s game will probably be a return to something more familiar for Santos and Co, and the big centre-back is hoping to continue what he feels has been a positive start to the campaign.
“We’re happy with how that is going and it comes from the whole team, right from the top with the pressing. It is a good base to build from, keeping clean sheets, but we know we have to work on the other side of it,” he said.
“When it does click we will be a strong team and it will be hard to stop us.”
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