Maghoma thanks Wanderers for helping him enjoy his football once again

Paris Maghoma has thanked Wanderers and Ian Evatt for putting the “fun” back into his football.

The Brentford loanee has hit eight goals this season, one of the most recent of which at Charlton earned him a goal of the month prize.

Maghoma has become a regular starter for Evatt, featuring 41 times so far for the Whites as they look for a way out of League One into the Championship.

And the midfielder, who cut his teeth in professional football with Tottenham before moving to Brentford’s B Team set-up, feels as though the roving role he has been given in the Bolton team this season has brought out something positive that he had not felt in a while.

“I feel like I am getting back to who I was as a youngster, trying to be involved in goals, trying to create things, score, assist, whatever, and it has just been fun,” he told Sky Sports.

“The gaffer has given me license to express myself so he has shown a lot of faith in me and all I can do is be thankful for that.

“Not only him but the whole club in general – the fans, the players.

“In training we are always told to express ourselves, to try things going into a game, and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. You have to try and react and do the same thing again.”

Maghoma had been named on the bench by Brentford on half a dozen occasions but has yet to make a senior appearance for the club.

He is contracted to the Premier League side until the summer of 2025 and Evatt has been pleased with the progress he has made at Wanderers.

“Paris is a very good player,” he told The Bolton News. “He knows the areas that we wanted him to improve on when he came here, and I think he has done that. He has listened and worked hard at his game, and I think he is showing signs now of realising his potential.”

This has been the most productive season in front of goal for Maghoma so far in his career and he says playing in a team which has created so many chances has certainly helped.

“I wanted to score more goals this season and this team has helped by supplying those opportunities,” he added.

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If we had the chance to sign him would you want him on a permanent basis?

I for one would keep him, he has improved recently and i'm guessing it's due to getting a regular run of games.

Norpig wrote:If we had the chance to sign him would you want him on a permanent basis?

I for one would keep him, he has improved recently and i'm guessing it's due to getting a regular run of games.

I like him. Can be frustrating at times, but he's going in the right direction.

Seems to me that only Maghoma, Sheehan and surprisingly George are the only players we have that can create something, other than having to knock the ball around for 73 passes whilst we wait for their side to get all their players back behind the ball.

With Maghoma doing his bit of magic whilst on the ball and Sheehan and George with the killer pass through their defence.

Evatt ball is a bit too predictable for me and if I were the opposition manager I'd just tell my players to simply hold their shape in defence and not to get drawn out of position.  I'd also play with the quickest forwards I had because of how frequently we get caught out in defence tippy tappying about in and around the front of our goal and have let in so many soft goals by doing so.

The very first thing I was ever taught as a defender was to never pass the ball across the front of the goals, always play away from it.

It might be old fashioned philosophy these days but to my eyes I see far more goals scored from being caught in possession or rushed passes from being 'pressed' than goals resulting from opposition throw ins.

It might not be professional but I had no problem whatsoever to pass the ball out of play if I ever got in trouble at the back rather than make a hospital pass to someone and having it picked off and scored from.