Why Ryan Hardie has a growing Bolton Wanderers problem after Wrexham switch | OneFootball

Ryan Hardie has already fallen down the pecking-order at Bolton Wanderers and faces a tough test to become a useful contributor in Lancashire.

Bolton Wanderers have started steadily upon their return to the Championship and one of their 13 new signings this summer, Ryan Hardie, is perhaps already feeling the ramifications from that in a negative sense.

Bolton gained promotion back to the second-tier of English football by hammering Stockport County by four goals to one at Wembley Stadium in the League One play-off final in May.

Within a couple of days, The Trotters had announced the sale of Szabolcs Schon, the release of George Johnston, Jordi Osei-Tutu, Kyle Dempsey and Carlos Mendes Gomes as well as thanking their seven loanees – with none of those seven players returning to the club.

Business began quickly and more or less went according to Fergal Harkin’s plan for the summer transfer window – with the Sporting Director and Head of Recruitment Jimmy Dickinson working well.

Plenty of new signings came in from abroad with more than half of those 13 additions coming from outside of England, led by Harkin, but one signing that seemingly must have been pushed for by manager Steven Schumacher and Dickinson, who worked with Schumacher at both Bury and Plymouth Argyle, was that of Ryan Hardie.

However, the Scottish striker who thrived in both League One and the Championship under Schumacher is now very much down the pecking-order at Bolton.

Sam Dalby and Theo Bair are limiting Ryan Hardie’s minutes

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The starting striker for Bolton when everybody is fit and available will inevitably be Sam Dalby, who signed for The Whites on a four-year contract after his departure from Wrexham last summer.

Injuries and a struggle to get in the side ahead of Mason Burstow limited Dalby’s impact in the first half of last season but he eventually became the fulcrum of their promotion push, winning the club’s Player of the Year award and scoring a spectacular goal in the final to put Wanderers 3-1 up against Stockport.

His hold-up play has been superb since joining Bolton but he began to add more goals to his game in the second half of last season, and he has started this season well, too, with three strikes in their opening eight matches.

After chasing Max Dean throughout the summer, Wanderers failed to get a deal for the Gent striker over the line and instead brought in former Motherwell striker Theo Bair on loan from Motherwell.

Bair has yet to start for Wanderers but is surely marked out as the back-up for Dalby, especially having made an impact off the bench in a 1-0 victory over Cardiff City, providing a pinpoint cross for Barbados international winger Thierry Gale to head home a late winner.

Prior to Bair’s arrival on the final day of the window, Hardie had been the man who had been the closest challenger for Dalby but his substitute appearances left a lot to be desired and, after just eight games, his minutes look set to be few and far between already.

Steven Schumacher has changed the system that got the best out of Ryan Hardie

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Something that has not helped Hardie is the fact that the former Blackpool striker had previously thrived under Schumacher in a 3-4-1-2 or a 3-5-2 system at Plymouth.

Hardie helped The Pilgrims gain League One promotion with over 100 points in the 2022-23 campaign before hitting double figures for goals in back-to-back seasons in the Championship.

What helped Hardie in that regard was an ability to be a nuisance for defenders with runs off the ball and in behind, which is not something necessarily required by Schumacher’s lone striker in the 4-2-3-1 system.

Bair, like Dalby, is more of a physical presence seeking to get players into the game and letting them play off him, which isn’t the main attribute nor necessarily even an attribute of Hardie’s game.

Having been a bit-part player after joining Wrexham last summer, Hardie then moved to Huddersfield Town in January amid reported Bolton interest with Bolton opting to sign Johnny Kenny instead.

His time in West Yorkshire was difficult, too, with injuries hampering him and his fitness levels have seemingly taken a hit, seeming off the pace in his cameos for Bolton thus far.

It could well be that, given how well Schumacher uses his bench leading to a lot of late Bolton goals - as was also the case at Plymouth – Hardie has a major role to play this year as a poacher when Wanderers push for a goal but in other phases of the game, which are set to be the vast majority as a newly-promoted team with less territorial dominance for a so-called ‘fox in the box’ to thrive on, Hardie may struggle to make a major impact for a while or consistently.

Bolton may still strengthen their attack in January

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Another issue for Hardie would be the expectation that Wanderers do once again strengthen in the final third in the January transfer window over the winter.

Dalby and Bair have their own limitations and with Hardie not at the level to be fit and firing just yet either, someone to indeed run in behind and pose a different threat is expected to join.

That could well see a return to Gent to finally sort out a deal for Max Dean or to even enhance their attacking midfield position, with defensive midfielder Atsuki Ito replacing Ruben Rodrigues in that role in recent matches – and to great effect against Norwich City when he scored their winner in a 4-3 thriller at Carrow Road.

John McAtee, who may even also be preferred ahead of Hardie if Wanderers were short up-front, was linked with several clubs at the back end of August and he has returned to the periphery of things, while the wide position sees Bolton boast four wingers in Kyliane Dong, Thierry Gale, Samuel Iling-Junior and Jayden Nelson but with such an emphasis on those players in Schumacher’s style, another winger may also not go amiss if room in the squad is made in January.