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Only Sheffield Wednesday have managed to keep more clean sheets than Bolton Wanderers this season – and Ian Evatt has revealed why.
The secret behind a vastly improved defensive return lies on the training grounds of Lagos, Portugal, and the first inroads made into a more aggressive pressing structure which has served the side so well.
James Trafford has managed to keep the ball out of the net in half of his 30 games so far but, by his own admission, has not been over-worked all that often.
Indeed, of all the goalkeepers in League One to have played 10 times or more this season, Trafford has faced the fourth fewest shots – 3.06 per 90 minutes – with Sheffield Wednesday’s Joe Wildsmith (2.87), Ipswich’s Christian Walton (2.53) and Barnsley’s Brad Collins (2.4) ranked above him.
For posterity, the Manchester City loanee has prevented more goals than any of the keepers mentioned above, with Wyscout estimating that he has been worth 7.14 goals to the Bolton ‘against’ column so far.
Bolton’s defensive successes have been very much a team effort and should not, in Evatt’s opinion, only reflect well on the defence and the keeper.
“Our pressing strategy and the way we keep the ball away from our goal is really good,” he explained. “We manage the ball well and when you have got the ball, the opposition can’t score, which sounds really simple but it’s true.
“And I keep harping on about it but the strikers should celebrate clean sheets just as much as the defenders and goalkeeper does.
“The way they press from the front helps the rest of the team function – and we can trace that all the way back to pre-season when we worked really hard on improving that side of things and bringing it into our game.
“We press as a team, create as a team, we believe we can score all of the time and we believe we can keep clean sheets all of the time too. That is because of the work we do on the training pitch and the fact the players are buying into it.
“We are finding ways to win, and we will have to continue to do that if we want to get to where we want to be at the end of the season.”
Measuring the efficiency of a team’s ‘press’ is usually done via a metric called PPDA - which is the number of passes per defensive action. The more pressure put on the attacking team when they have the ball, the lower the number.
In this aspect, Wanderers lead the field. When they lose possession, Evatt’s side is more aggressive in trying to win the ball back than they were last season.
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Indeed, Wanderers are currently more aggressive with their press than anyone in the 2021/22 season, according to data supplied by Wyscout.
Evatt's side have thus far been marginally better at retaining possession, too, averaging 56.5 per cent possession compared with 56 per cent over the course of the 2021/22 campaign.
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Only Sheffield Wednesday have managed to keep more clean sheets than Bolton Wanderers this season – and Ian Evatt has revealed why.
The secret behind a vastly improved defensive return lies on the training grounds of Lagos, Portugal, and the first inroads made into a more aggressive pressing structure which has served the side so well.
James Trafford has managed to keep the ball out of the net in half of his 30 games so far but, by his own admission, has not been over-worked all that often.
Indeed, of all the goalkeepers in League One to have played 10 times or more this season, Trafford has faced the fourth fewest shots – 3.06 per 90 minutes – with Sheffield Wednesday’s Joe Wildsmith (2.87), Ipswich’s Christian Walton (2.53) and Barnsley’s Brad Collins (2.4) ranked above him.
For posterity, the Manchester City loanee has prevented more goals than any of the keepers mentioned above, with Wyscout estimating that he has been worth 7.14 goals to the Bolton ‘against’ column so far.
Bolton’s defensive successes have been very much a team effort and should not, in Evatt’s opinion, only reflect well on the defence and the keeper.
“Our pressing strategy and the way we keep the ball away from our goal is really good,” he explained. “We manage the ball well and when you have got the ball, the opposition can’t score, which sounds really simple but it’s true.
“And I keep harping on about it but the strikers should celebrate clean sheets just as much as the defenders and goalkeeper does.
“The way they press from the front helps the rest of the team function – and we can trace that all the way back to pre-season when we worked really hard on improving that side of things and bringing it into our game.
“We press as a team, create as a team, we believe we can score all of the time and we believe we can keep clean sheets all of the time too. That is because of the work we do on the training pitch and the fact the players are buying into it.
“We are finding ways to win, and we will have to continue to do that if we want to get to where we want to be at the end of the season.”
Measuring the efficiency of a team’s ‘press’ is usually done via a metric called PPDA - which is the number of passes per defensive action. The more pressure put on the attacking team when they have the ball, the lower the number.
In this aspect, Wanderers lead the field. When they lose possession, Evatt’s side is more aggressive in trying to win the ball back than they were last season.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Indeed, Wanderers are currently more aggressive with their press than anyone in the 2021/22 season, according to data supplied by Wyscout.
Evatt's side have thus far been marginally better at retaining possession, too, averaging 56.5 per cent possession compared with 56 per cent over the course of the 2021/22 campaign.
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