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Wanderers’ blunt start to the season has left Ian Evatt desperate for a change of fortune in front of goal.
Saturday’s stalemate against Barnsley was Bolton’s third successive game without scoring – leaving only Morecambe, Cheltenham and Fleetwood averaging fewer goals per 90 minutes.
Evatt’s side remain seventh, and perversely also boast the division’s best defensive record, but the manager admits he is keen to see one of his attacking options hit some form that will help sustain the chase for a top six spot.
“We play with two strikers and we just want one of them to grasp it and say ‘let me be the man to be that 20 goal a season striker’ and at the moment, there’s so much that’s right in the game with the way we build, the way we connect, the way they work against the ball, but that final third last bit of magic, we have lacked this last week,” he said.
“We will keep tinkering and chopping and changing, fundamentally believing in ourselves and working hard on our beliefs and working harder on the training pitch to put things right, but it is not like we’re not getting there or not creating anything. We are, but it is just not going in for us at the moment.”
Wanderers brought last season’s top scorer Dapo Afolayan back for his first league start since August 20, playing him behind front two Dion Charles and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson against the Tykes.
Evatt said: “I thought he did really well. I thought he was proactive with what he was doing. He has listened and learned his role against the ball and how intense he needs to be and how he needs to press and work against the ball.
“I thought he found some good pockets. We didn’t get the ball to him enough probably second half, but I thought he looked like he was trying to make things happen. He looked like he was enjoying his football.
“The last three weeks, he has really knuckled down, kept his head down, been an excellent professional, been a wonderful team-mate. The way he trained deserved another opportunity and chance and he has not done himself any harm today.”
Wanderers face Leeds United Under-21s at home in the Papa Johns Trophy tomorrow night, and Evatt hopes that whatever team he puts out can score some goals to help break a barren cycle which has quickly emerged.
“We will be a really strong team, whatever team I pick on Tuesday because you have seen the strength of our squad. We have five strikers that all want to grasp that number nine spot.”
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