Bolton Wanderers vs Wigan Athletic - match preview

 No Charles, No Party?

The first derby of the season

Bolton Wanderers will take on Wigan Athletic on Saturday the 19th of August at 12:30pm and the home advantage of the Toughsheet stadium will be crucial in this fixture. With just over 11 miles separating the two towns, there is no doubt that the fans will be ready for this one, but will the players?

Bolton Wanderers team news 

The current injury list for Bolton contains Eoin Toal, George Johnston and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson; Johnston will not be fit for this fixture and will unfortunately miss most o the season, with no update recently. The injury updates for Toal and Bodvarsson are also very quiet and it is believed that both are training with the first team but how close to making the matchday squad are they? If Bodvarsson is close to full fitness then he will likely be included in the squad for the Wigan game with the suspension of Dion Charles (more to follow). However, Toal will not need to be rushed back as fast because the defensive three of Gethin Jones, Ricardo Santos and Jack Iredale are all performing well - Will Forrester has also performed but hasn't had as many opportunities. 

Of course for this game Bolton have two suspensions to deal with, star-striker Dion Charles and the manager Ian Evatt were both red carded against Fleetwood on Tuesday night. The current situation is very unclear, both red cards were very questionable and most fans have encouraged Bolton to appeal the result of these decisions and in this moment, it appears as if both Charles and Evatt will miss the game. This is absolutely massive and could upset Bolton who, so far, have been brilliant this season and hadn't conceded a goal until going down to ten men, without a manager against Fleetwood.

The starting team will likely revert to normality, with Sheehan and Morley coming back in for Thomason and Maghoma but the question remains, who will replace Dion Charles. From my perspective I see two potential starting replacements for Charles, the first is Dan Nlundulu. He was brought in on loan for the second half of last season and has been brought in on a permanent deal from Southampton this season and he is the obvious option. He has only started 1 game this season but is a very similar profile to Victor Adeboyejo. The other option, and more outside the box choice, would be Carlos Mendes Gomes - CMG hasn't had many opportunities for Bolton this season but is definitely capable of playing this position. I think Nlundulu will start but Mendes Gomes may replace him later in the game. 

Wigan team news and tactics

Wigan will likely miss two of their players for the game against Bolton on Saturday: Jason Kerr and Thelo Aasgaard, Callum Mcmanaman could also miss the game but he is more than likely to be available. Jason Kerr will miss this game with a ruptured ACL, meaning that he will be out for several months and won't return soon, Aasgaard went off injured late on in their recent game against Carlisle. Maloney has confirmed that Aasgaard is in a lot of pain and "It doesn't look good" so he will not be available, Mcmanaman also went off in that game but just with cramp so should be fine. Other than that they have a fully fit squad to choose from for their 4-2-3-1 formation. 

Wigan's approach to games seems to change based on the opponent that they will be facing: in the opener against Derby, Wigan amazingly, won 2-1 and did not dominate the ball or have a lot of shots - suggesting the played on the counter (creating 4 big chances). However, they have dominated possession in every game since, including in their most recent game against Carlisle (1-1). In this game, they took a lot of shots outside of the box but will most likely play closer to how they did against Derby than Carlisle against Bolton. Their big strength appears to be their counter pressing, against Derby they would often force Derby back and this is how they scored their first goal. Their weakness appears to be their marking when pinned back, this is how Derby scored their goal in that game, Adeboyejo or Nlundulu can definitely capitalise off of this.

For this game I will predict a 2-1 win for Bolton, coming out victors but without Charles it will not be as easy. First to score will be Randell Williams off great team play in the 18th minute and Wigan will score in the 44th minute against the run of play, coming from Charlie Wyke. However, I do believe Bolton will find a way and will score in the 87th minute from a Maghoma corner onto the head of Ricardo Santos.