Dundee have a new No 9 in Amadou Bakayoko.
The towering striker made an impact on his debut on Sunday, coming off the bench for the final 45 minutes against Inverness.
On first look, Tony Docherty appears to have found himself a targetman who can keep possession high up the pitch but also bring a real goal threat.
It is still early days for the striker as he bids for a first start in dark blue this coming weekend at home to Motherwell. But what kind of player might Dundee have got themselves?
His previous two seasons in English League Two brought very different outcomes.
Bakayoko scored 13 goals for Bolton Wanderers in 2021/22 but fell out of favour the following season and moved to Forest Green Rovers.
There he didn’t score in 19 appearances. However, Courier Sport can reveal reasons for the vastly-different campaigns.
Background
First, though, a background. Born in Sierra Leone, Bakayoko lived in Guinea before moving to the Netherlands aged six before relocating to England four years later and entering the Walsall youth setup.
He would emerge as a first-team regular there in 2016/17, scoring nine goals in 80 League One appearances.
Upwardly-mobile Coventry City then splashed some cash on the then-22-year-old and he would net 13 in 85 games.
His step up to the Championship, however, proved difficult with no goals in 14 matches in 2020/21 signalling an end to his time with the Sky Blues.
Dropping back to League One, Bakayoko impressed at Bolton with 13 goals in all competitions the following season.
But then came the struggle of 2022/23 with just three goals in 27 appearances – just five league starts – ending his time at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
He joined Forest Green Rovers, a side struggling badly in League One, and within two weeks saw a change in manager.
Duncan Ferguson came in but the Green finished rock bottom with Bakayoko failing to score a single goal.
Comparing Bolton and Forest Green
Bolton finished ninth in 2021/22 while Forest Green were 24th last term.
The big difference for Bakayoko in particular was the level of service he had to work from – plenty at Bolton, very little at Forest Green as can be seen below.
The nature of his goals for Bolton are worth a look too – all coming from a central position inside 12 yards.
And only one header in those 10 league goals with one penalty as well.
He may not have troubled the top scorers with 10 in League One (top was Will Keane of Wigan on 26 ahead of Sunderland’s Ross Stewart on 24) but it was the best scoring return of his career with 13 in all competitions.
He scored 10 in his first full season at Walsall then seven and six for Coventry.
Not a prolific goalscorer by any stretch but if Dundee can get the right service to the big striker, his time at Bolton shows he can come up with the goods.
The good thing for the Dark Blues is they are getting a player determined to prove doubters wrong after a poor 2022/23.
International career
His flurry of goals for Bolton saw Sierra Leone take notice, the country of his birth.
Manager John Keister, a former Walsall player himself, called Bakayoko up in March 2022 for a pair of friendlies.
They lost the first one 3-0 to Togo before beating Liberia five days later with Bakayoko scoring the only goal of the game.
His most recent cap, his sixth, came last September in a heavy friendly defeat to South Africa with former Dundee defender Steven Caulker captaining the side.
Sierra Leone have since played four internationals, three of them African Nations qualifiers but Bakayoko was not called up.
Something he’ll be keen to change by moving to Scotland’s top flight.
