Bolton Wanderers v Reading – Big Match Preview

Whether the manager’s value has declined to irreparable levels in the last five games is still a matter of debate, as is the time period over which the club’s disappointing performances should be judged.

But for 18 players and a technical room full of staff, there is a 90-minute public interview on Saturday and they cannot afford to mess that up.

Reading come to Bolton with bigger problems. Their seven-year decline under owner Dai Yongge looked complete until recently when a takeover by ex-Wycombe boss Rob Couhig fell through.

Promises have been made that the club will be sold and that funds will be available to continue operations as normal. But for the fans who have united impressively with manager Ruben Selles and his young squad, these are the latest worrying times in a bleak chapter for the Royals.

Reading may think that by travelling to the northwest they can take advantage of a particular vulnerability. Vagrants have yet to score a goal at home this season and are under immense pressure to show the kind of improvement Evatt promised when he brought in eight new players this summer, bolstering a squad that narrowly missed out on automatic promotion.

John McAtee, Chris Forino, Scott Arfield, Jay Matete, Luke Southwood, Szabi Schon, Klaidi Lolos and Jordi Osei-Tutu represented an upgrade on the core of the Whites squad, which was only slightly reduced towards the end of last season. This is, by far, the deepest and strongest squad Evatt has worked with in his four years as manager and while injuries have not been helpful, the wiggle room provided by a frustrated fanbase is minimal.

Emotions were running high after the 4-0 thrashing by Huddersfield Town last weekend, and so it is perhaps fair not to judge and scrutinise every sentence uttered. Evatt may yet find the answers – and has done so before – but the margin for error is also shrinking with each passing week, and the Reading game now feels more like it is being played on a powder keg than on a patch of grass.

Wanderers must find a way to numb the nerves that were so evident in the second half of last weekend and, to use George Thomason’s term, “rediscover belief” in a style of play that has relied so heavily on self-belief in recent years.

Evatt is often the one to inflate egos – giving his players the bravado and bluster they need to execute a brand that, when done well, is effective and easy to watch. But when the manager himself looks speechless, as he certainly did last weekend, it’s hard not to be concerned.

Many supporters have called for the manager to adopt a more pragmatic approach, in order to reduce the information burden on his players. However, the squad has been assembled according to Evatt’s individual design and it seems highly unlikely that the grand plan will be changed.

It was hoped that Wanderers would follow Ipswich’s example and play a brand that has thrived in the Championship straight away, giving them the best chance of long-term success. Unfortunately, in the same way that Oxford United found a way to strangle the Whites with their own possession in the play-off final, more opponents have been able to resist, and Evatt’s players have struggled to make the right decisions on the pitch to change their own fate.

Evatt has only lost four league games in a row once, a run in late 2021 when his injury-plagued team, newly promoted to League One, were beaten by Fleetwood, Accrington, Rotherham and Wycombe. His tenure in charge began with five straight defeats in September, but has also included a pair of cup games.

He once joked that the absence of fans in the building during the pandemic might have saved his job, but that his resolve is now being tested as 20,000 expectant eyes from the stands follow his team’s every move.

Wanderers urgently need to provide evidence that their manager’s plan is working and that he can gain promotion from a squad of players who should undoubtedly be doing much better.