IAN Evatt says his philosophy “will always stay the same” as Wanderers aim to push for promotion next season.

The Whites were one of the form teams in League One since the turn of the year and Evatt has already set his sights high for next term.

But the Bolton boss admits his side still has room for improvement and wants to be better out of possession.

“My philosophy will always stay the same,” he told The Athletic. “But I’m learning too, and when I watched Liverpool in their Champions League semi-final against Villarreal I was amazed by their work out of possession.

“That’s the next stage of my development, and ours as a club. We want that in-possession style, but how do we implement that Klopp counter-press? If we can get the two together, that’s the holy grail.

“I still hear the occasional shout of ‘Get it forward’. I heard it at one game recently and I had a bit of a bite at one supporter.

“He was shouting at me because our goalkeeper had played it short to the centre-back instead of playing it long. I can’t please everyone but I think overall our supporters are enjoying it.

“I wouldn’t turn up my nose at managers who don’t play possession-based football but my enjoyment, as a player for 20-odd years, was being in a team that dominated the ball.

“People pay a lot of money to watch football and they should be entertained. For me, that means possession-based, open, expansive, attacking football and, if we can provide that, we are entertaining our fanbase.”

Evatt admits being committed to an attractive brand of football isn’t easy at times but reckons it will pay off in the long run.

He added: “It’s challenging and it takes real bravery. I always say, unless you really believe in it yourself, how are you going to get everyone else to believe in it? The fans, board, players.

“You have to educate people. You have to stick with it and, if you start to get results, you get a huge buy-in from everybody.”

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