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Kieran Sadlier will get more chances to play up front after a successful audition in the Papa Johns Trophy.
Wanderers fans were impressed by the former Rotherham United man’s performance on Tuesday night as he came off the bench to partner Amadou Bakayoko up front against Leeds United’s Under-21s.
Sadlier has worked hard to find a niche in Ian Evatt’s side since signing from January and has primarily been used as a right wing-back.
He had previously played up front for Doncaster Rovers, and is now hoping to get more chances to show off his finishing skills.
“I think he can be a good number nine and he is different to the ones we have got,” Evatt told The Bolton News.
“Kieran is a fantastic lad and gives us some real flexibility. When we first wanted to sign him we were playing 4-3-3, which suited him down to the ground. Since then we changed the system but have still felt that he gives us enough to be able to be moved around, and he has proved what he can do, playing as a wing-back, a 10, now he’s saying ‘play me as a nine’ and he got a chance, scored a goal. We need to see more of that, really.”
Wanderers’ goalscoring stats have come under scrutiny in the last few weeks and they head to Accrington Stanley on Saturday looking for a first league goal in more than four-and-a-half hours of play.
Sadlier was one of three scorers in midweek but Evatt says the team style puts more demands on its strikers, which are integral to its overall success.
“Playing for this team and the way it functions, it is crazy to say but it is not just about scoring goals,” he said.
“Kacha (Elias Kachunga), for instance, probably gets more of a hard time that most. But he does so much more than score goals – the way he brings other players into play, the way he presses from the front, it all has an importance as well.
“We want our forward players to score goals but we want them to do it all. We don’t want a number nine who stays in the box, doesn’t move and taps it in. The rest of the team might fail then, become dysfunctional.
“They have to do the entire package and it is difficult. We are trying to get them into a place where they are able to and if that means we get Kacha in better goalscoring positions than he is at the moment, or that Kieran has to start pressing from the front and making sure he combines and connects the play, it is all good too.
“We are very much a work in progress but I am fortunate to have the squad we have got right now. We have so many players who bring different attributes to the pitch in all areas, and then it is down to me to come up with the right plan for the right game.”
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