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Wanderers must learn to ‘trust’ new loan signing Shola Shoretire to get the best out of him, says Ian Evatt.
Amid the disappointment of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Derby County there were a few fleeting glances in the second half of what the Manchester United playmaker could offer to his new club.
Recruited to play the number 10 role, linking up the front two with midfield, the 18-year-old came on for Kieran Lee with 27 minutes left on the clock at Pride Park but soon found that a second goal from the hosts slow down any attacking momentum.
With Evatt considering changes to the starting line-up, Shoretire could get the first league start of his career against Forest Green Rovers, tasked with adding creativity and inspiration to a side that had lacked such qualities at the weekend.
But to maximise the England youth international’s potential, Evatt reckons his players must take some risks in possession.
“We have never really had an out-and-out attacking number 10 who can receive the ball in such tight areas, be on the half turn, who we could trust enough to receive when he is opposed,” he explained.
“Provided we pass with detail, safe side away from the markers, we can give him the ball and he can be reliable, he can create for us. That will come with time but I saw glimpses of it on Saturday.
“We haven’t had anyone I’d deem as a 360 degree player. Kieran Lee can be but he is not an out-and-out number 10, he is an eight, really, but he can play 10 because of his intelligence.
“Shola brings a dynamic change of speed, he can get away from markers. He can dribble and beat players and when you come up against – as we did on Saturday – a man-for-man press, then you need people who can dribble and beat a man.”
Wanderers were beaten at Forest Green back in October, a result which came off the back of another poor night at neighbouring Cheltenham. After a poor start in which Connor Wickham opened the scoring, the Whites flooded forward after half time but could not find an equaliser despite nine shots at goal and 70 per cent possession in the second half.
Wickham left a short-term contract this month and is now a free agent who will surely have been considered by Evatt as he looks to bring in some experience and quality up front.
His replacement was Amadou Bakayoko, who had been playing for Bolton as recently as January 10, and Evatt admits his former player is likely to arrive with a point to prove.
“We know Amadou will be fully fired up and wanting to show us what we are missing,” he said. “We know what his strengths and weaknesses are and at this level he is a very good player.
“We know what we have to do to stop him, and we also know what we have to do out of possession to stop them.
“We’ll welcome him back with open arms but, as I have said many times, it is all about us, really.”
Forest Green will provide a very different type of opposition to Derby – but the Bolton boss wants his players to focus on improving what they offered at the weekend.
“They will be different, and they certainly sat in at their place and made it very difficult for us,” he said.
“I think they have integrated a lot of players into their squad and brought in some additional quality.
“But I believe when we play to our best level we are a hard team to stop. Saturday we didn’t and we lost the game, we need to get back to our regular performance level and see where that takes us.
“I don’t think we defended badly at the weekend, we just lost out on a couple of moments and the game became too transitional. We will analyse what went wrong, learn some lessons, but we have got to be ready to go and give it our all again on Tuesday night.”
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