This factor can help Bolton Wanderers pile pressure back on Derby County: View | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers are one of a number of sides in Leagues One and League Two that have had their game this weekend postponed due to international call-ups, and the Trotters will be hoping to benefit greatly from just a bit of a break from their relentless and gruelling schedule.

Ian Evatt’s Whites have drifted to four points outside of the top two and the automatic promotion spots in League One after losing 1-0 away at Derby County on Saturday afternoon, and they are in need of a reset after a poor run of form.

The Trotters’ schedule has been relentless since the turn of the year and whilst they will still be playing seven games in just over a month when they return from the international break, at least they will be doing so at the same rate as everyone else – which has not been the case.

That loss means they have now managed just seven victories in their last 19 matches across all competitions, but they are finally enjoying a bit of respite from the fixture list.

Cup runs and re-scheduled games impacted Bolton

In the first 77 days of this year, Bolton Wanderers have started 20 matches, with two abandonments in that run. That is an average of a game just short of every four days just after coming through the festive period and arguably the busiest part of the football calendar.

They reached the third round of the FA Cup and also the quarter-finals of the EFL Trophy, so those cup runs combined with league matches from earlier this season being rearranged due to other international breaks, as well as the aforementioned two abandonments (one for the poor health of a fan that later passed away and another due to weather at Cambridge) has led to a hectic schedule.

In comparison, the two teams above Bolton in the table, Portsmouth and Derby, have both enjoyed significantly more rest. Portsmouth, for example, have played 15 matches in the same time period, whilst Derby have played in 17.

Bolton have travelled to and started a match in each of the last ten midweeks, with the most recent midweek where they didn’t being the first of the year when they actually played on Monday 1st January, so it is actually debatable as to whether that can even be counted.

Injuries piling up at Bolton

There is always a case of trying to explain and contextualise certain things in football using the old ‘correlation rather than causation’ technique, but in this instance, there is surely and certainly a case to be argued that Wanderers have suffered from an injury crisis brought about by players playing far too much football.

At the moment, Wanderers are without first-choice goalkeeper Nathan Baxter and one of their better defenders, George Johnston. They are also without key strikers Dion Charles and Victor Adeboyejo, as well as Dan Nlundulu. Summer signing Carlos Mendes Gomes has also been unavailable due to injury, too. There has been a whole heap of other injury issues, too.

Suspensions have also hampered Wanderers, with midfielder George Thomason serving three separate suspensions alone, for example.

Tactically and technically relentless

The way in which Bolton play is intended to be draining for the opposition, but it does involve a lot of intensity in terms of concentration and complexity of movement which, when being performed every three or four days, can be draining in itself.

The lack of time on the training ground to perfect or improve upon certain methods that have not been or are not working is limited, so tactically it is damaged by the relentlessness of the schedule, whilst the complexity of some of the moves means that January arrivals, of which there were four, may take their time to hit the ground running because it may be technically difficult to get up to speed.

For example, Bolton have often been accused of being too slow. By now, many critical Wanderers supporters are aware of the game plan to ‘bait’ the opposition into press before sweeping swiftly up the pitch. However, it has actually been in games where Bolton are chasing the most, such as away at Barnsley when 2-0 down, when they have produced their better and more impressive performances due to urgency and general speed of play.

That urgency and speed is perhaps not something that can be replicated week in and week out or every three or four days in and every three or four days out, as has had to be the case in the last few months.

The last time that Bolton had a seven-day gap between matches, they went on to win the next game by seven goals to nil back in November. The time before that saw them head into the break on the back of a 3-1 defeat at home to Carlisle United before going on an 11-match unbeaten run of form which began with eight successive victories.

Bolton will believe that if they have been able to stay within touching distance of the Rams and hold off the likes of Barnsley and Peterborough with their current schedule and injury issues, then a bit of a break and an opportunity to finally pause after their relentless fixture schedule will give them some real respite to breathe down the neck of Paul Warne and Derby.

Wanderers did not look like the side that were playing their 20th game of 2024 against a Derby team playing just their 17th. Profligacy in attack undermined a still intense style that should really benefit from this brief stoppage.

With seven games of the season to go and their final, but much-needed, extended break now underway, there will be a desperate optimism that Bolton can put together one final push to put the pressure back on Derby in second spot.