Ian Evatt admits he may have to “rethink” Wanderers’ attitude to cup competitions after seeing his players struggle under the workload last season.

The club played a total of 61 matches in 2023/24, reaching the second round of the Carabao Cup, the third round of the FA Cup and the northern quarter-final of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

Evatt felt the squad had sufficient depth but suffered from losses of key personnel at regular intervals, particularly at the start of the new year. This season he hopes to avoid such problems, but the Bolton boss says he plans to stick with his traditional approach to team selection in knockout competitions.

“I don’t think the number of games helped us in the end,” he told the Bolton News.

“I don’t know if we need to look at cup competitions, for example, and change our policy accordingly.

“Sixty-one games was too many last season, period, and it’s something we’ll think about now.

“But we are working very hard to improve this team and that is where we are focusing all our attention at the moment.”

Wanderers used 25 players in League One last season, fewer than any other club.

Across the three knockout competitions, 27 different players were used – Luke Mattheson and Nelson Khumbeni being the only two players selected in the B team for their experience but not used in the league.

Evatt is not keen on having a much larger first-team squad this season, which could mean more opportunities for the club’s young players in the early rounds.

“If everyone had been fit and available we would have had a pretty big squad I think, but the problem was we kept having injuries,” he added.

“Dan Nlundulu was in great shape and then he suffered a serious injury. Carlos (Mendes Gomes) was in great shape and then he suffered a serious injury. Nathan Baxter and Rico (Santos) were out for a while, Eoin (Toal) was injured and Dion (Charles) was out, key players. We just needed a bit of luck.”

“Of course, we will strengthen the team and the squad this summer. We will bring new and positive energy to the group. But it would be nice not to have so many injuries. We can deal with two or three of them, but the level we reached at the end of the season really took its toll.”

Meanwhile, Evatt says Stephen Crainey is already proving a valuable addition to the coaching staff after making the switch from Wigan Athletic.

The Scot was appointed co-assistant coach last month and is currently with the squad in Portugal for an intensive training camp.

“People have different skills, different talents, whether it’s on the grass, in terms of motivation, all coaches are different. We were missing someone like Stephen,” he said.

“I’ve known him for a long time, I trust him, he’s a good man who is good at what he does. We were delighted to add him to our coaching staff. And it’s up to us now to really work with the players and improve them.”

Ian Evatt admits he may have to “rethink” Wanderers’ attitude to cup competitions after seeing his players struggle under the workload last season.

The club played a total of 61 matches in 2023/24, reaching the second round of the Carabao Cup, the third round of the FA Cup and the northern quarter-final of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

Evatt felt the squad had sufficient depth but suffered from losses of key personnel at regular intervals, particularly at the start of the new year. This season he hopes to avoid such problems, but the Bolton boss says he plans to stick with his traditional approach to team selection in knockout competitions.

“I don’t think the number of games helped us in the end,” he told the Bolton News.

“I don’t know if we need to look at cup competitions, for example, and change our policy accordingly.

“Sixty-one games was too many last season, period, and it’s something we’ll think about now.

“But we are working very hard to improve this team and that is where we are focusing all our attention at the moment.”

Wanderers used 25 players in League One last season, fewer than any other club.

Across the three knockout competitions, 27 different players were used – Luke Mattheson and Nelson Khumbeni being the only two players selected in the B team for their experience but not used in the league.

Evatt is not keen on having a much larger first-team squad this season, which could mean more opportunities for the club’s young players in the early rounds.

“If everyone had been fit and available we would have had a pretty big squad I think, but the problem was we kept having injuries,” he added.

“Dan Nlundulu was in great shape and then he suffered a serious injury. Carlos (Mendes Gomes) was in great shape and then he suffered a serious injury. Nathan Baxter and Rico (Santos) were out for a while, Eoin (Toal) was injured and Dion (Charles) was out, key players. We just needed a bit of luck.”

“Of course, we will strengthen the team and the squad this summer. We will bring new and positive energy to the group. But it would be nice not to have so many injuries. We can deal with two or three of them, but the level we reached at the end of the season really took its toll.”

Meanwhile, Evatt says Stephen Crainey is already proving a valuable addition to the coaching staff after making the switch from Wigan Athletic.

The Scot was appointed co-assistant coach last month and is currently with the squad in Portugal for an intensive training camp.

“People have different skills, different talents, whether it’s on the grass, in terms of motivation, all coaches are different. We were missing someone like Stephen,” he said.

“I’ve known him for a long time, I trust him, he’s a good man who is good at what he does. We were delighted to add him to our coaching staff. And it’s up to us now to really work with the players and improve them.”