Thomason challenges stars to rediscover belief in 'complicated' style

Wanderers must recapture belief in their style of football to turn around a wretched start to the season, says George Thomason.

Ian Evatt’s side will attempt to bounce back from a dismal run when they host Reading this weekend amid escalating pressure from supporters unhappy at seeing the club sitting fourth bottom of the table after five games.

Criticism of the possession-based brand of football Evatt has instigated throughout his four-year stay with the Whites has also spiked in the last few weeks, in which Bolton have failed to score a league goal since the opening day.

Thomason accepts that Bolton’s squad is arguably tasked with mastering the most complicated style of football in League One, something which Evatt insists will future proof his team if they got promoted to the Championship.

But against calls from some quarters to shift to a more pragmatic approach, the midfielder reckons the responsibility lies with the players to make the gameplan work.

“It is on us,” he told The Bolton News. “We are coached in a way that a lot of League One football teams are not, and it does take belief and confidence to make it work.

“We don’t try and pass the ball around for the sake of it. We understand there are times to play and when to be more direct.

“In general, we are being asked to do more complicated patterns of play than the teams in this division who go front to back quickly, win second balls, duels, play for set plays.

“That’s all fine but we don’t want to do it. We are trying things that are a little more intricate, trying to create different types of chances.

“And I get that we are not doing it at the moment. But I think a lot comes down to confidence and belief in the things we are doing. Without it, this system is a tough thing to do.

“I think that when things are not going well you need to believe even more. And I don’t think we are doing that at this moment in time.

“If you can believe in yourself when things are not going right then it is usually a good sign, but I don’t know if there is a bit of that at the moment, things are not going right so I’ll look after myself. It can’t be like that. We are not only letting ourselves down, the manager down but the people who come to support us and spend their hard money to watch us play.”

The pressure to improve will be even greater on home soil this weekend, and Thomason says the home support will have a big role to play, as ever.

Reflecting on the anger and frustration seen around the terraces after the last couple of defeats, the 22-year-old says players must understand what impact their own successes and failures have on the public.

“We have to dust ourselves down, stay quiet,” he said. “I understand the frustration when we get beat.

“Football is an escape for a lot of people but there is a lot we can be happy and proud about in everyone’s lives. We have to play a part in that.

“It’s what we need to bring against Reading. We need positivity, not just from within but from everyone coming to the ground too because it is something that can really push us on. But as I have touched on before, it’s on us to make that happen.”

Source

“I think a lot comes down to the confidence and belief in the things you are doing.”

Very telling George and an inference that maybe some of the guys are either lacking in confidence or belief in the system and it’s really showing. When you continually attempt something and it’s not coming off then the opposition who aren’t trying any of that just go up the other end and pop one in, or four in Huddersfield’s case, it’s maybe not surprising that players lose faith. Surely even an idiot can see that whatever the reason it isn’t working. There’s not even a sign of attempts to change or modify and that’s the most frustrating thing. It’s great having beliefs and ways you’d like your team to play but the very first ingredient you need is players who can deliver. Deliver not just once but most times and sadly our players just can’t do that or they wouldn’t be in division 3. I don’t see any change against Reading on Saturday, another decent team with a good manager who will know how to outwit Evatt and likely will.

Whitesince63 wrote:“I think a lot comes down to the confidence and belief in the things you are doing.”

Very telling George and an inference that maybe some of the guys are either lacking in confidence or belief in the system and it’s really showing. When you continually attempt something and it’s not coming off then the opposition who aren’t trying any of that just go up the other end and pop one in, or four in Huddersfield’s case, it’s maybe not surprising that players lose faith. Surely even an idiot can see that whatever the reason it isn’t working. There’s not even a sign of attempts to change or modify and that’s the most frustrating thing. It’s great having beliefs and ways you’d like your team to play but the very first ingredient you need is players who can deliver. Deliver not just once but most times and sadly our players just can’t do that or they wouldn’t be in division 3. I don’t see any change against Reading on Saturday, another decent team with a good manager who will know how to outwit Evatt and likely will.

Look, it IS working, or rather it was - the style of play had us in automatic promotion until Baxter, Charles and Dempsey were all injured - and even then we were 90 minutes away from promotion at Wembley - so let's not lose our heads and rip it all up because the tinkering Evatt has done to it since the Oxford game hasn't worked.

The players we had last season are all still here apart Paris (Bodvarsson and Cameron Jones who were only bit part players), so these players CAN and HAVE 'delivered' constantly in the system, so much so that we've been in two consecutive playoff seasons.

Evatt did two things in the summer, one of which was to bring more players in to fill out the squad in order that the injury's that we had in the second half of last season won't throw us off track again and the second was to tinker with how we play by switching to 3-4-2-1 and this bit clearly has not worked - to me it has simply added more complications to the already complicated system we had - in short it has unbalanced the team, crowding out the midfield and making it all but impossible for the defenders to get the ball via the midfielders to the strikers - that can be evidenced by the fact we've only scored ONE goal from open play this season (the first against Exeter) in fact we've only scored TWO league goals all season so far, the second against Exeter was from a free kick their keeper spilled.

The crowed out midfield has also led to all the stupid goals we've conceded by playing tippy tappy in suicidal positions attempting to play possession football out along the ground to midfield players being pressed themselves.

This jokey tweet just about sums it up!



The first rule of 'holes' someone once said (Gordon Brown?) was that once you find yourself in one, then stop digging!

Evatt needs to go back to his factory re-set.

Tippy Tappy Mark II does not work - we've played 5 and only scored 2 goals and only one of them from open play whilst conceding 9  - clear evidence if any is needed.

It's clear from Thomason's interview that the style of play WILL NOT change, then it needs to be adapted in that pissing around at the back is costing us goals whilst at the same time we aren't creating goals from free flowing football.

We need to go back to last seasons style and think again how to unlock defences, now without the the individual talent of a Dapo or Paris and with Sheehan being marked out of the game.

We seemed to have got to a point where we have a squad that can lift and move a piano around - but no one to play it.

The team has no unpredictability in it to my mind and operates to a system that is now (without Dapo/Parris) completely predictable and which can (and is) being negated by opposing teams.

If we aren't planning to get the ball forward quickly or win free kicks up field...

“In general, we are being asked to do more complicated patterns of play than the teams in this division who go front to back quickly, win second balls, duels, play for set plays".

...then it completely frees the opposition into pressing us across the pitch because they know we aren't going to do anything else but try to pass the ball on the ground, through them.

They don't have to defend deep because they know we aren't going to play the ball over them or behind them.

Evatt needs to find some sort of a balance that allows the players to be able to do both tippy tappy and get the ball forward quickly because clearly everyone knows how to play us now.

I think your last point is the critical one Sluffy that everyone knows how to play us now. Yes we only just missed out by losing at Wembley but we also threw away the automatics. I’m afraid the results prove that since January we were nowhere near promotion form and sadly it’s continued to deteriorate this season under Evatt’s “improved” system 2.0a. He’s in his fifth year here now and we’re 18th in L1 so clearly whatever it is it’s not working. If we lose on Saturday as I expect us to then I genuinely don’t see how Evatt can be allowed to continue. Like you I’ve enjoyed some terrific football from Evatt’s teams but it’s all going backwards quickly and for me we’ve just been found out and I don’t think Evatt has the ability to change it. I really do hope I’m wrong and he can turn it round but it has to start with Reading or for me it’s all over and we need new blood because I still believe we have amongst the best squads in league one and can still make at least top 6 with the right man in charge.

Whitesince63 wrote:I think your last point is the critical one Sluffy that everyone knows how to play us now. Yes we only just missed out by losing at Wembley but we also threw away the automatics. I’m afraid the results prove that since January we were nowhere near promotion form and sadly it’s continued to deteriorate this season under Evatt’s “improved” system 2.0a. He’s in his fifth year here now and we’re 18th in L1 so clearly whatever it is it’s not working. If we lose on Saturday as I expect us to then I genuinely don’t see how Evatt can be allowed to continue. Like you I’ve enjoyed some terrific football from Evatt’s teams but it’s all going backwards quickly and for me we’ve just been found out and I don’t think Evatt has the ability to change it. I really do hope I’m wrong and he can turn it round but it has to start with Reading or for me it’s all over and we need new blood because I still believe we have amongst the best squads in league one and can still make at least top 6 with the right man in charge.

There are lies, damn lies and statistics, as the saying goes.

I'm a massive fan of sayings, as you may well have noticed if you follow my posts over the years, as they simply don't become sayings unless there is a kernel of truth contained within them that demands some respect.

I know full well the stats of the club from the New Year onwards but they only state the end result (the effect) and not the cause of what actually happened.

The injury to Baxter unsettled the balance of the team, further injuries to Charles and Dempsey added to that.

Yes all clubs have injuries but we simply did not have the depth of squad or quality of players to continue to play how we had.  We dropped points that we wouldn't otherwise have done and quite frankly we would otherwise now have been in the Championship (maybe still getting battered - but at least we would be a division up from where we were).

I don't know if you ever watched the video from Oxford's manager as to how he/they planned to outplay us in the play off final but it is illuminating in several ways, not least that he had a plan as to how to play us on the day - my point here being something I've long said about Evatt and that is we continually play with a 'one size fits all' mentality (tippy tappy football and damn the consequences) but that we don't take into account our opponents strengths and weaknesses and plan to limit their strengths and to exploit their weakness - common sense really but something Evatt seems not to do.

We all know he plays to a rigid system (tippy tappy) plays the same formation 3-5-2 (this season 3-4-2-1) and quite often plays the same players irrespective of what form they are in - examples being Jones, Santos, Williams, Sheehan, Charles, etc - and his subs are nearly always like for like attackers.

The Oxford manager identified one of our weaknesses being that of Santos passing the ball out from the back (we ALL have known that for months and months and months), so he set the team up to deliberately not close down Santos but to 'block' him from making any easy pass up field.  The Oxford manager also saw a weakness that we didn't play the ball in the air to go over the top, in order to create a different attacking dimension to the game.

Christ I've been saying all this for the last three season's if not more!

It's all been blindingly obvious to me - and in all honesty, easy to fix!

Stop pissing around at the back, and mix it up by playing it over the top for players to run on to rather than fart about looking to find a pass through a massively overcrowded midfield.

I'm not claiming to be a genius but it really isn't rocket science to take into account what your opponents do well and do badly and to vary the ways we play so not to be too predictable to them.

The original tippy tappy worked for us because we had better players than most other teams, it can work again for the same reason.

Don't forget we beat Oxford 5-0 just weeks before the final!

It hasn't been working so well for us recently because we lost Baxter and upset the balance of the team in the second half of last season, because Oxford's manager simply outsmarted Evatt by a country mile in the final and because Evatt has gone all in on Tippy Tappy Mark II that simply isn't working.

Go back to tippy tappy the original, learn from the Oxford managers 'Master Class' against us, stop playing suicide at the back, allow defenders to float the ball over the top to give them an option rather than having them play statues and keep the momentum rather than lose it immediately Santos puts his foot on the ball.

It will turn our season completely around.

Trouble is Evatt's pig-headedness.