Bolton Wanderers: Steven Schumacher comments shed new light on Ian Evatt claims | OneFootball

Ian Evatt bemoaned the mentality of his Bolton squad before departing in January and it appears that Steven Schumacher is in agreement.

Bolton Wanderers, by their relative expectation level, have endured a miserable campaign and now their push for the top six and the play-off places in League One is over, albeit not yet completely mathematically confirmed.

Steven Schumacher replaced Ian Evatt in January with many supporters believing that the League One title-winning coach from the 2022/23 season would be able to rally a squad that had finished third in the third-tier last season.

For a period of time, after a bright start to the Schumacher reign, some even believed they could close the gap on the top two and the automatic promotion spots, but the Trotters have, frankly, once again, collapsed when it mattered most.

Their 4-2 defeat to Lincoln City at Sincil Bank on Easter Monday was their seventh defeat in nine League One matches and that shambolic and appalling run of form gave way to Schumacher, once again, laying into his squad.

Evatt was criticised by many supporters for his critique of the mentality of the players, suggesting nothing would change if they changed him, but now Schumacher’s comments with regards to the mentality of the squad would now back up the former boss’ claims.

Bolton Wanderers’ mentality issue

Steven Schumacher said when he first arrived that he believed there is enough talent in the squad to get promoted, but he revised those comments after the defeat to Lincoln at the weekend, stating that there is still some good quality and talent, but he doesn’t believe the squad has the mentality to get promoted.

Throughout the last few years, Wanderers have crumbled in big pressure moments and even when they had been fairly dominant in League One for much of the last campaign, they finished with bog-standard form to miss out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season before being comfortably beaten by two goals to nil by Oxford United at Wembley Stadium in the play-off final.

Be it big games like that or the countless derby matches that they have capitulated in or simply lost from a position of generally being on top for the majority of the game, their inability to pull off significant victories is an issue that has plagued them for a few years.

Schumacher, who has now overseen seven defeats in nine League One matches as the Trotters slide away from the top six, is already keen on beginning a rebuild at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.

A rebuild at Bolton is required

However, that rebuild is already slightly halted by Schumacher’s statement that he knows that most of the players at the club are still contracted beyond this summer, so he doesn’t know how to go about that.

Wanderers have spent relatively heavily by their own League One standards in recent years, with fairly hefty fees shelled out on several members of the squad, most notably the likes of John McAtee, Aaron Collins and Joel Randall.

Schumacher has bemoaned the previous recruitment at the club, and it could well be that those three are who he is most specifically referring to in his apparent bemusement.

Director of Football Chris Markham left the club shortly after the departure of Evatt and is to be replaced by Standard Liege’s Sporting Director Fergal Harkin this summer.

Wanderers need something of a clear out and a rebuild this summer and that is something that Schumacher appears open to but their continued capitulations at the sight of any pressure or potential achievement is something that is not going away easily.

Evatt was lambasted by supporters for his comments and the way he conducted himself towards the end of his tenure made it clear the right decision was for him to depart, but the past month or so has proven that, whilst perhaps not the solution, he wasn’t the only problem at the club.

Solving a mentality issue is something that the previous Bolton manager couldn’t do, and it is now something that the current Bolton manager has admitted is the major issue ahead of the summer.