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Ian Evatt has called for focus from Wanderers as they resume action after the international break – and attempt to tackle their issues from set plays.
Only Bristol Rovers have conceded more goals per game from corners and free-kicks in League One than Bolton so far this season, with six shipped over the first nine games.
It is a problem that Evatt hopes can be addressed quickly, and having reviewed the footage of the last league outing against Shrewsbury Town, he has called on his side to sharpen up considerably ahead of this weekend’s home clash with Burton Albion.
“The players have to take ownership from it because set plays, more than anything else, is about the details and individual battles,” he told The Bolton News.
“We have to be stronger, more diligent, more focussed, and that was what was disappointing against Shrewsbury because all the talk had been about how they could hurt us – two ways, transitions and set plays. The last thing you do against a team that wants to come and block it up is concede the first goal. To let it get to two was a disaster, really, but credit to them, it was the Alamo in the second half, all-out attack.
“We looked more like ourselves, we should have scored more and won the game, I don’t think anyone will argue that, but we have to drill down on the details.
“We can’t afford to keep conceding sloppy goals. Generally, in open play, not too much of an issue but definitely set plays we need to focus more on that.”
Twice exposed by Shrewsbury in the first half of their last league game, Wanderers have looked unusually vulnerable at set pieces over the last couple of months.
Last season they conceded just 12 over the course of the whole league season, which was the joint-fifth best return in the division.
And by allowing opposition teams to snatch goals against the run of play, Evatt feels his team become targets for teams who come to the Toughsheet to sit back, frustrate and defend.
“It is my job to try and give it some context, and if you look at the Shrewsbury game their open play XG was nominal, like 0.02,” Evatt explained. “Their goals came from two set plays.
“With every set up in set plays you have a deficiency, a weakness, and ours is that we leave the edge of the box free because of the structure we like to set up, the way we have zonal players, the way we have disruptors and markers, the way we always mark the man on the keeper, it always leaves us short somewhere.
“There is in every single set-up, bar none. That is why people spend money on set piece coaches and go through set-ups to try and find solutions and pick holes in what the opposition might bring. It is certainly what we try and do.
“The disappointing thing for me against Shrewsbury was that it was a carbon copy of the goal from last season and we had shown the players over and over again what they would try to do, how they would try to do it, and we just got disrupted.
“We got blocked far too easily. We didn’t get to the edge fast enough and we needed to jump off our markers to get to the edge and close the space down, but we didn’t see it early enough and we were too easily blocked, which is disappointing from my point of view.”
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