Josh Sheehan has one big Bolton Wanderers problem – but it’s not really his fault | OneFootball

Josh Sheehan is perhaps undervalued by Bolton Wanderers supporters but it is not his fault.

Josh Sheehan has been a brilliant player at times for Bolton Wanderers, and he is well liked by the majority of supporters, but there has always been a feeling that he is just missing something extra and that has left his time at the club feel a little underwhelming – but it isn’t that he himself is missing something.

In the 2020/21 campaign, Bolton gained automatic promotion back to League One at the first time of asking in League Two under the management of Ian Evatt, who was and remained intent on playing a possession-dominant style of football.

An evolution of the squad was therefore required to ensure the floor of their talent level was much higher in the third-tier, and among a raft of seemingly impressive new signings was the coup of Josh Sheehan, joining on a free transfer from Newport County.

Playing in a slightly more advanced, box crashing role in the first few months of his career, Sheehan was immensely effective before a severe injury at Stockport County in the first round of the FA Cup ended his season in mid-November.

Sheehan became something of a fringe or a bit-part player for the next couple of years, before once again nailing down a spot as the deepest midfielder in Evatt’s 3-4-1-2 system during the 2023/24 campaign.

Bolton missed out on automatic promotion on the final day of that season before a woeful 2-0 loss to Oxford United in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium.

There were immense frustrations from supporters about that campaign and, in hindsight, perhaps issues with the style of football whereby Sheehan was simply fundamental, but any success that Wanderers had tended to be as a result of the Welshman playing well and making things tick; eventually winning the club’s Player of the Year award.

Since then, it has been a return to a frustrating performance level for Sheehan, who captained Wales in a friendly against Gibraltar in June 2024, and there is a desire from supporters for more from the 30-year-old – but the constraints on his ceiling at League One level are not his fault.

Bolton have no real need for a profile of Josh Sheehan

Due to their budget, Bolton have assembled a squad that is and should be considered one of the very best in League One, in pretty much all areas of the pitch, perhaps aside from the centre of defence.

However, it is perhaps even the best in terms of the depth of quality in central midfield with Sheehan competing alongside Aaron Morley, Xavier Simons and Ethan Erhahon for two spots in the starting eleven.

The control that Bolton therefore have is inevitable for the vast majority of games that they play when teams, be it at home or away, often sit back to try and strike on the counter-attack against the Trotters.

Possession, therefore, is already a given, and the retaining of the ball is already something that is happening, with or without a ball retention specialist such as Sheehan.

Sheehan’s skillset of being able to take the ball under pressure in pretty much any part of the pitch has its days where it is valuable, but the safety of it is not necessarily required when playing against a team sticking so many men behind the ball.

As a result, his overall play is generally ineffective and then supporters can criticise him for not actually doing anything on the ball, as opposed to players such as the aforementioned Morley, who will at least try to be incisive, whether that be via going over the top of a defence or trying to punch through the thirds.

Josh Sheehan would be more suited to Championship football

If Bolton were to gain promotion to the Championship this season, at long last, then Sheehan would therefore surely be viewed as a crucial player by Schumacher.

In the vast majority of games, the opposite would be true in terms of patterns of play whereby it would be Bolton needing to soak up pressure and be effective on the counter-attack.

Whilst efficiency and speed on the ball is required in that setup, which is not necessarily something Sheehan is the best at, the ability to keep the ball is also imperative.

When you have the ball so much, ensuring everything is neat and tidy becomes obsolete; but at a higher level, when possession is sparse and there is a desperation to simply keep hold of it, Sheehan’s skillset becomes invaluable.

There is also the argument that his style of play is far more suited to playing with players on a similar wavelength where passes can be fired in and snappier, rather than having to wait for runs to be made by players perhaps with inferior footballing intelligence.

That is perhaps best shown by his performances for Wales, where he has begun to assert himself for Craig Bellamy’s side as they seek qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

There will still be games, and certainly moments in matches, where Sheehan’s skills become extremely important for Bolton, but, frustratingly for him and the Whites, their determination to fail to get promoted and him having to play at a lower level is damaging his reputation, and that isn’t really his fault.