Steven Schumacher is under huge Bolton Wanderers pressure - he has everything he wanted | OneFootball

Steven Schumacher will be expected to propel Bolton Wanderers forward after a major overhaul this summer.

Steven Schumacher has been handed a squad overhaul that was perhaps unexpected at Bolton Wanderers, and now there are no excuses for the former Plymouth Argyle and Stoke City boss, with Wanderers expected to mount a push for promotion this season.

The Trotters had been knocking on the door under Ian Evatt, before collapsing in the back end of the 2023/24 campaign to missing out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season before a play-off final defeat to Oxford United at Wembley Stadium.

Evatt departed after stagnation became regression mid-way through last season, and after a bounce in the opening month and a half of being appointed, Schumacher then oversaw another Boltonian collapse, as they won two of their final 11 games of the season to finish ten points adrift of the top six and the play-off places.

Schumacher warned fans that there may not be the possibility of an overhaul this summer, but he has certainly got one with plenty of key first-teamers leaving and 14 new signings being made to transform the shape and the style, with the Liverpudlian having said he wanted to recruit to a different shape.

With Fergal Harkin, the club’s new Sporting Director, and Head of Recruitment, Jimmy Dickinson, who worked with Schumacher at both Bury and Plymouth; the former Bury captain has been put under a fair bit of pressure due to the overhaul, and Bolton must now start winning.

Bolton’s transformation leaves them looking well balanced in League One

The amount of so-called ‘number tens’ or attacking midfielders that were signed by Evatt left Schumacher in particular, as well as Wanderers supporters, bewildered by what they could do moving forward.

At the time of Evatt’s departure, Wanderers’ squad boasted Scott Arfield, Aaron Collins, Klaidi Lolos, John McAtee, Carlos Mendes Gomes and Joel Randall; all seemingly for the same position on the pitch.

Well, Schumacher saw off Arfield within a couple of days arriving, whilst Collins was a surprise sale to Milton Keynes Dons earlier this summer, with Lolos joining Peterborough United for an undisclosed fee and then Mendes Gomes, who actually started Bolton’s opening game of this season at Stockport County, was loaned out to Exeter City on deadline day.

That has seen Schumacher able to completely restructure the shape of his squad to be able to play a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 shape, rather than exclusively set up in a back three, which had been the case for around half a decade or so.

Wingers were required for that and Schumacher has been backed with the additions of Thierry Gale, Ibrahim Cissoko, Amario Cozier-Duberry and Charlie Warren; whilst Marcus Forss, who has arrived on loan from Middlesbrough, can also play out-wide, and did so on debut in a 1-0 defeat of Rotherham United at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.

Schumacher has been able to completely shift the squad shape and how Bolton will be able to play in just a couple of months, and now there can be no complaints about a lack of depth for the wide options or a change in system.

Steven Schumacher will also hope to have changed the mentality

As well as Wanderers being able to shift the actual personnel for tactical reasons, there will also be a view that the mentality of the squad should now have changed with so many players that have been guilty of having capitulated in the big moments having now been shifted.

As well as the departures of Lolos, Mendes Gomes and Collins this summer; former club captain Ricardo Santos, vice-captain Gethin Jones and first-choice goalkeeper Nathan Baxter were let go at the end of their contracts.

Luke Southwood, backup to Baxter, was sold on to Bristol Rovers and Santos’ captaincy replacement, George Thomason, was granted a move to Championship new boys Wrexham. Szabolcs Schon also joined Mendes Gomes in leaving on loan on deadline day, returning to Hungary to join Gyori.

Whilst pretty much all of those listed are decent players and many, in particular Santos, Jones and Thomason, had been good servants for the club; there is a recognition that perhaps those three names especially were the ones at the heart of a consistent underperformance when it mattered most.

Steven Schumacher has been granted a complete new look squad to implement his tactical ideas and improve the mentality of the squad. Performances have been reasonable to start off with, but results not so much.

With the summer transfer window now done, perhaps the unexpectedly busiest at Bolton in a very long time, Schumacher is under pressure to ensure there is no prolonged hangover from last year because he has been granted a major makeover.