Gary Megson says Bolton Wanderers urgently need reinforcements

01 May 2009 17:37
After four successive top-eight finishes between 2004 and 2007, Bolton have languished in the lower half of the Premier League for the past two years. Safety was assured after a fraught battle with relegation last term but Megson's side head to Wigan on Saturday still seeking to cement their top-flight status for a ninth successive year. Bolton lie on 38 points and Megson is determined to add to his squad in the coming months once the threat of relegation has ended. "We haven't got one of the smallest squads in the Premier League - it's the smallest squad," Megson claimed. "I think Liverpool have got 62 professionals on their books and we have 27, although I had a head count and couldn't get it up to 27. "I think three or four got slipped in there. It's important that we make sure we're safe first and then we'll assess the season and look at what needs to be done. Player recruitment will certainly be one of the issues that will be addressed." Megson has generally impressed with his spending since replacing the hapless Sammy Lee in October 2007. Gary Cahill and Matt Taylor - both tipped to win full England international honours - and Gretar Steinsson were bought in January 2008 and played a key role in the club's survival last term. In the summer Megson persuaded the club to spend £10million on Sweden striker Johan Elmander and pay £5million for Birmingham midfielder Fabrice Muamba. The jury remains out on those two but Megson said: "I've been pleased with all of my signings because they joined a club that wasn't on the up. "It was going the other way to be perfectly honest. A lot of change has happened in the past 18 months but we still need more change because the squad still isn't strong enough. "I think the team is strong enough but if you look at our substitutes' bench last weekend against Aston Villa it didn't cost one penny. They were free transfers and a couple of kids who had come through the academy." Wigan manager Steve Bruce admits work needs to be done at both ends of the pitch as he tries to halt a run of three successive defeats. The Latics' lack of goals - they have scored only seven in 14 Barclays Premier League matches since the turn of the year - has been compounded by recent frailties in defence. Having conceded four against both Everton and Arsenal, they also lost 2-0 against Blackburn last weekend. "You don't have to be Einstein to work out where we are short at the moment," said Bruce. "If you look at the table for goals scored, we need to improve on that. Last week in the first minute we hit the bar and in the last minute we had two off the line, it was just not going to be our day. "But what disappointed me was we conceded against two set-pieces; although they are a big part of the game, we had tried to plan against that all week. We had enough to win the game but, always, if you don't score a goal, you leave yourself open. "We need to get back to what's got us in the position we are in. We don't score many goals but we don't usually concede any either Goalscoring has been our Achilles heel but we have prided ourselves on being a team that is difficult to play against, difficult to beat and has a sprinkling of talent in there. We don't score enough goals as a team but defensively, as a team, over the last 18 months, we have conceded 0.8 goals per game. "We hope we can turn it around but we have to defend properly because we know what to expect from a decent Bolton team."

Source: Telegraph