Steven Schumacher may have solved key Bolton Wanderers issues – They could now fly up the table | OneFootball

Marcus Forss and Thierry Gale may have now finally nailed down a spot in the Bolton Wanderers starting lineup.

Bolton Wanderers have endured a frustrating start to the season due to too many draws, but it could well be that the Trotters have now fixed their biggest issues and are set to propel themselves up the League One table.

Bolton are unbeaten since an opening day 2-0 loss to Stockport County at Edgeley Park in which they were unfortunate to lose and perhaps the better side – but that has been a theme of what has been a frustrating start to the campaign.

Five 1-1 results in games against stiff opposition but in matches whereby Bolton certainly had the better of it for large parts has left Wanderers still firmly in the middle-of-the-table but certainly with the capabilities to move themselves up it.

Profligacy in the final third has been an irritation, and perhaps the defining characteristic in the opening month or so of the season, but there is reason to believe that can now be changed for the good.

Two key positions, the attacking midfield role and out-wide on the left, have been up for grabs throughout the opening month, with the other half of their four-man in attack in a 4-2-3-1 system being nailed down positions for loanees Mason Burstow and Amario Cozier-Duberry.

However, for the first time this season, it does seem as though the other two slots have guaranteed starters for them in Thierry Gale and Marcus Forss, who made the shirt their own against Wigan Athletic.

Thierry Gale and Marcus Forss nail themselves down for Bolton Wanderers

The opening month or so of the campaign has seen multiple players start in the attacking midfield and left-wing positions so far.

John McAtee and Joel Randall have both been tried in the so-called ‘number ten’ slot, whilst Carlos Mendes Gomes started on the opening day of the campaign before Ibrahim Cissoko arrived on loan and began to get in ahead of both him and Thierry Gale.

However, the last couple of weeks has seen Gale return to the starting lineup and Schumacher will now have to admit the position is the Barbadians to lose for the foreseeable future.

Benefitting from Wigan’s primary focus being on Cozier-Duberry on the right, Gale, combining well with Max Conway, was able to score his first League One goal of the season, whilst also providing an assist in his first derby day encounter for the Whites.

Electric pace with an insatiable desire to beat his man and quickly make an impact in the final third with a shot or a key pass, Gale has shown Cissoko, who has shown glimpses of quality but all too often far too ineffective, how Schumacher wants his wingers to play.

Marcus Forss was brought in on the final day of the summer transfer window and many believed him likely to be a challenger for Burstow’s striking spot but the Finland international came with immense quality and impressive versatility that is now being utilised.

Having made his debut on the right-wing, the former Brentford attacker played behind Burstow against Wigan and a player of that quality being able to regularly pick up space was something of a ‘cheat code’ in the third-tier.

Having scored from a Gale pass mid-way through the first-half with a superb slammed home first time finish, Forss’ awareness and endeavour was then on display as he punished a woeful Wigan defensive error, from a combination of players, to make it 4-0 early on in the first-half.

Forss played higher than a natural attacking midfielder was, but more in a second striker role rather than as a centre-forward. Whilst that may not be the game plan for absolutely every game, the work rate and pressing of both Burstow and Forss makes it very difficult for Schumacher to change it too much because, both with and without the ball, Wanderers are now a major threat, as outlined with the counter-attack for the second goal.

Randall has shown signs of improvement, but there is just a slight lack of quality on the ball, despite off-the-ball intelligence, and that is not something that can be levelled at Forss.

Bolton Wanderers now have players making the shirt their own under Steven Schumacher

After a major squad overhaul over the summer, Schumacher deciding what his best eleven would be as the season goes on was always going to be difficult, and he began it not necessarily knowing.

For example, Mendes Gomes, now loaned out to Exeter City, began on the left-wing and McAtee, now not a member of the match day squad for a few games, began as the attacking midfielder.

Players, though, have begun to nail down a spot in the eleven, with Max Conway perhaps the best example from the opening weeks of the season, alongside both Cozier-Duberry and Burstow.

Xavier Simons is also someone who has begun to move himself way ahead of both Josh Sheehan and Aaron Morley in the pecking order and there is beginning to be more clarity with regards to the selection hierarchy and squad construction at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.

Gale and Forss are now the latest players to nail down their spots in Bolton’s now-known best eleven, and that can only be a good thing as they seek to become more cohesive and more consistent and string a run of victories together in order to move up the League One table.