Ian Evatt believes the January transfer window signings at Bolton Wanderers are still learning how to play for their new clubs and no longer have to take on the responsibilities they did at their previous employers.
Wanderers made a total of seven new additions in the recent window as they successfully revamped their team for the second half of the League One campaign and beyond.
Among the new signings were Aaron Morley from Rochdale, Kieran Sadlier from Rotherham United and Kyle Dempsey from Gillingham.
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In the teams they were in, the trio were perhaps seeking the ball to take the responsibility to create on their shoulders more.
But Evatt believes thet do not need to hunt possession as much as they may have done in the past due to the quality on the ball that all in the Wanderers team have.
And the Bolton boss feels it is something the January arrivals will get better at with time.
He said: “The players we brought in, and this includes Aaron, who has also suffered with it, but because they have been the best players in their respective teams they feel like they have to take on the responsibility themselves.
“Okay, Kieran may not be regarded as the best player at Rotherham, but I think he would be the best, technically.
“They go hunting the ball and feel that they need to be on it all the time because it is them that need to make something happen.
“In this team, where everyone can handle the ball, sometimes it is more beneficial for them to move away and create space with some unselfish running, get into better pockets of space and wait to receive the ball, and that hasn’t really happened yet.
“It will happen with more visual learning and working with the analysis team, they will get a lot better at it."
This situation is one that Wanderers experienced in the summer with the arrival of Josh Sheehan from Newport County, who was seen as the man to make things happen on the ball for the Exiles.
And Evatt believes it is about taking up spaces on the pitch to affect the game, taking opposition players out of position to open matches up, as the Wanderers boss targeted a mixture of their early season incarnation with where they currently are for the rest of the campaign.
Evatt said: “We don’t need any of our players to follow the ball around. It is about taking up spaces where you can impact the opposition. That is what our football is about.
“Sometimes that is about moving away from the ball and pulling players around and I don’t think we have done that enough.
“There is so much that this team can improve on and I don’t think we have dominated games with possession like we can, and will, but what we are doing is looking a real threat.
“I want to find a blend of what we were earlier in the season and what we are now, and I would like to be somewhere in between.”
