Bolton Wanderers 5-2 Reading: Tactical Analysis

The Royals were outplayed and seen off easily by Bolton on Easter Monday.

Well, the good news is we scored two goals in an away game, which we’ve only done on six out of 20 matches on the road this season. The bad news is we conceded five. However, I believe that at least four of those could have been prevented fairly easily.

That’s not throwing shade on our defenders, as the oldest of our starting back four, Clinton Mola, is just about as old as the original Shrek film, and the youngest - Tyler Bindon - was born while Bolton Wanderers were qualifying for the UEFA Cup under Big Sam, so it was hard for me to hope for anything but a battering.

Let’s unpack the Jon Dadi Derby on Easter Monday.

The first goal is one of those where, when scorer Aaron Collins sticks it in a highlights reel on YouTube, it looks unstoppable, certainly for Joel Pereira, yet what happened a few seconds before wasn’t unstoppable at all.

Here, Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan tracks back and wins the ball well, but he opts to keep his head down and hold onto the ball too long, eventually being tackled high up the pitch. Sure, the lad hardly has any obvious passing options, but with three opposition players trying to win it back around him, it’s a foregone conclusion, and a big hoof, however speculative, is best.

Also note how Jeriel Dorsett is grounded here, after falling pretty heavy after a collision with Maghoma. Harvey Knibbs is further forward, well out of the picture, as he ran when Ehibhatiomhan had the ball, expecting a counter-attack, and because of Dorsett, Charlie Savage fills in at left-back for the remainder of this play.

So now we have a one-man midfield of Lewis Wing against Bolton’s three as well as Collins, the striker, coming short. It’s a recipe for disaster, and what could come out of the oven but a freshly baked 1-0 scoreline for the Trotters?

Bolton played a 3-5-2 formation, a blessing and a curse for Reading. When the home side were playing out, against our front three, our wingers didn’t know whether to press the centre-backs or the wingers, and whatever they did allowed Bolton excess space somewhere.

Below, the ball is rolled out from goalkeeper to centre-back, who picks out the left-winger, Nathanael Ogbeta. Femi Azeez begins to press the man on the ball, before realising the space Ogbeta’s in, but by that time it’s too late and he can play vertically towards the run of Jon Dadi Bodvarsson further forward.

Ironically, the pass is very poor and in this instance Reading end up with a shooting opportunity, but it still demonstrates how, particularly in the first half, we were tactically outplayed by Ian Evatt’s side, and most of the time in build-up they cut us apart with little trouble.

We’ve struggled against back threes for a while, against stronger teams such as Derby County who also find it relatively easy to play through us, but weaker ones such as Fleetwood Town too, who were good at baiting the press but then using long balls to kickstart attacks.

It happened on the opposite side of the pitch too. Josh Cogley, seen on the ball below, receives a one-two from his own throw-in, and has already passed the presses of Ehibhatiomhan and Knibbs.

The right winger drives forward, meaning the only option for Reading to press is to draw out Savage, leaving a free man in midfield.

No-one ends up closing him down, and the ball is looped down the line. Bodvarsson has come over to overload the right, which occupies Dorsett, so when Collins makes a run on the outside, Amadou Mbengue is all alone dealing with it. The centre-back brings down the Welsh striker in the box, awarding them a penalty.

However, Bolton’s defensive shape served us a few favours too. When we built out from the back and our central midfielders went wide as usual, the home side’s wingers pushed up very high, leaving our front three vs their back three up top.

In this screenshot, Sam Smith is very deep on the right to play a one-two with Wing, the latter of whom launches a long ball over the top. Knibbs can also be seen making a beeline for attack on the left side of the picture.

There are massive gaps between defence and midfield from Bolton, and this creates a man-on-man scenario here, and a golden chance to snatch an equaliser in the early stages of the game.

The ball is dropping, and both Knibbs and Azeez are underneath it, but Josh Sheehan simply seems to want it more and sticks a leg in between the pair to flick the ball away.

Ehibhatiomhan retrieves it and shimmies around a bit, but by that time the rest of the Bolton team has got back, holding the line around the edge of the penalty area, and a tame cross is easily found and cleared by Ricardo Santos.

Against a team as strong as Bolton, we have to be making more of chances like these. Fortunately for Reading, after a bit of chaos, Wing sends one sailing into the top corner, I’d imagine whilst shouting “have it”, and we equalise, but we can’t rely on a goal this spectacular every game.

There’s still not too much cause to be worried seeing as we’re six points clear, from my perspective, although after this weekend when we welcome Lincoln City, League One’s most in-form team, that could well change.

As late as March 12 2023, we were 12 points clear of relegation in the Championship. Keep the faith, but this is Reading Football Club, and anything could happen.

Up the Royals.