Port Vale vs Bolton Wanderers - match preview

 Must Win Game?

In the return to League action, Bolton Wanderers take on Port Vale at Vale Park this Saturday at 3:00pm. Bolton have not loss to Port Vale, in any competition, since December 2020 in a 9 goal thriller at Bolton, however Port Vale have scored first in 5/6 of the last games between the two clubs. Port Vale currently sit fourth in League One with 17 points, however their results make for very interesting reading: they lost on the opening day 7-0 away at Barnsley and since then haven't won a game by more than one goal. 

On Tuesday night, Bolton played against Manchester United u21s in the EFL Trophy, playing a very strong team, and came home 8-1 winners (pain). Youth team players like Matheson, Khumbeni and Inwood all made appearances the first 2 scored, with Matheson also registering an assist. It was a great performance but the lack of rotation, ahead of a big game, is very interesting and possibly a mistake from Ian Evatt. Have the young players forced themselves back into the team? Is Dion Charles fit to start? Who will play in midfield?

Bolton Team News

Two players will miss this game through suspension, Gethin Jones and George Thomason, Jones was given straight red after a horrific tackle in the last league game against Peterborough United. George Thomason is also suspended because of this fixture but for picking up his fifth yellow card of the season, his physicality will definitely be missed in midfield. On the injury front, the situation with Ricardo Santos is unclear and his return date is unknown, the same is with Dion Charles, he did start against Peterborough but wasn't fully fit and wasn't involved in the cup fixture. Zachary Ashworth is also yet to return to the matchday squads, since his injury on international duty.

Nathan Baxter will likely line up in between the sticks with Coleman still out injured and no other real option, Baxter has also been impressive in recent weeks and there is no reason to drop him. With Santos unlikely to play, Eoin Toal will most likely return and play in the middle of the back 3 structure - this would allow Will Forrester to play on the right of the back 3 and give him more freedom to under/overlap. There is no other centre back option apart from Jack Iredale so he will almost definitely complete the back 3 on the left hand side. Randel Williams is also a certainty at left wing back, due to Ashworth's injury, but this could give an opportunity for Luke Matheson to make the bench and possibly feature. 

In midfield, I believe that Evatt will return to his midfield selection at the start of the season, meaning that Aaron Morley will return to the team and play alongside Josh Sheehan and Kyle Dempsey. If fully fit, Dion Charles will start and likely play for 60 minutes alongside his striking partner Victor Adeboyejo - both have been very prolific so far this season. However, Dan Nlundulu was very impressive in the fixture against Manchester United's under 21s, scoring 2 goals; Jon Dadi Bodvarsson also scored and has potentially showed that he is on his way back into starting selection if a striker gets injured or is in poor form. 

Opposition tactics

Port Vale line-up in a 3-4-2-1 system under the management of Andy Crosby. So far this season, Port Vale have scored an average of 1.7 goals per game: 3 from inside the box and 2 from outside the box. On average, they create 1 big chance per game, missing 0.7 of those chances per game from their 13 shots per game. Their possession this season has been, on average, 55% so it will be very interesting to see who dominates the ball on Saturday afternoon. However, they have only kept 1 clean sheet this season.

After watching the highlights of some of their games, they appear to struggle when it comes to defending crosses or from corners because of their weak central defenders. If they actually do win the first header (they don't) they struggle to get the ball clear - as was clear against Sutton United. Bolton can definitely capitalise on this as they have scored a lot of set piece goal this season and Adeboyejo should be able to get the better of their centre backs physically. 

However, they can be threatening on the counter with quick and composed forwards that can finish well. Depending on the personnel, they are also threatening from distance and can strike well from outside the box. Alfie Devine has been very impressive so far this season but hasn't started every game, as he is still young. 

My prediction is that Bolton will win this game 2-1, it should be a good game and fans should be excited.