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Phil Brown reckons the lack of an in-form goalscorer is costing Wanderers points at the moment.
The former Bolton captain and coach watched Ian Evatt’s side take a point at Cambridge United and felt they had been the better side in the game, even after Kyle Dempsey’s red card.
Wanderers put 14 shots on the home goal, only one of which hit the target. And Brown admits that statistic points towards the club’s biggest issue at present.
“The commitment of the team was outstanding,” Brown said on BBC Radio Manchester's The Verdict. “There are a lot of managers these days who want to dominate possession and there is nothing wrong with that but you have to have an end product, and that is what let them down.
“There were a couple of really good chances, one came from a set piece where I think it was Gethin Jones at the back post. During open play, the best one probably went to Dion Charles, and both were in the second half.
“It looks to me like the manager has had a go at half time and said to his players when they get into the final third they have got to compose themselves.
“When you go back to my day when you had John McGinlay, Owen Coyle, they didn’t work pretty, clever or tirelessly, they just knew where to be when the ball came into the area.
“At various times, McGinlay was a one in two striker, Coyle was one in two, Andy Walker was one in two. Bolton don’t have a one in two striker at the moment, there is nobody in form, it’s as simple as that.”
After trying 4-3-3 against Barnsley in the FA Cup, Wanderers reverted to Evatt’s tried-and-trusted 3-4-1-2 formation at Cambridge United, with Amadou Bakayoko and Dion Charles up front, and Elias Kachunga starting in the number 10 role.
Four changes were made to the team that lost in the cup – adding to the growing criticism in some quarters that too much squad rotation is affecting performances.
Brown feels it is part and parcel of life as a manager in 2022.
“The modern-day squad, the whole game has changed. It isn’t the case that you have an 11 and two or three subs, you probably have two sets of 11,” he said. “I know the argument about not knowing your best team – but it is very difficult to get that team out there week in, week out. The modern day game is that quick, there are injuries, all sorts of issues.
“Where Ian is concerned, I think he knows his best system but he needs that second string to the system – a change at some stage to confuse the opposition or two win a game in the last five minutes. I don’t think we see enough of that.
“You are going to go through highs and lows, get teams that will work you out, tactically and defensively, so when they do that you have to try something different.
“I haven’t particularly seen a Plan B or a Plan C. He is strong in his views, strong in his opinions the manager, he wants to play a certain way and get on with it. Well played.
“But at the end of the day the proof of the pudding is winning games of football sufficiently to keep your job.”
One player who particularly impressed Brown was Wanderers’ on-loan keeper James Trafford.
“What I have seen of James Trafford, he pulled off a couple of unbelievable saves – one in the 95th minute, to get Wanderers a point,” he said.
“If they had been beaten 1-0 it would have been all and sundry coming on and asking what is going on. But the goalkeeper has set a fantastic standard.”
Trafford went down injured in the first half after colliding with a Cambridge player but was able to see out of the game after some treatment. The incident did raise, once again, the logic behind Evatt not naming a reserve keeper on the substitute’s bench.
“I was asked about this four or five times as a manager and the percentages would lead you to believe you don’t need a goalkeeper on the bench but every once in a while it comes back to kick you in the proverbial,” Brown said.
“It is not negative, it is a positive move not having a keeper on the bench but maybe you look at it as the opposition and think ‘We’ll hang a few balls under the crossbar and if the goalkeeper gets injured then it’s not our problem, it’s yours.’ “There is an argument for and against. But that young man got through the second half in a breeze even though it looked like he’d pulled his thigh.
“The numbers game I’d talk about is how many times do you use your reserve keeper over the course of one or two seasons? It’s something like five per cent.”
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