GARY Megson believes Johan Elmander simply needs to follow his captain’s lead this season if he wants to remedy his goal drought.

The Wanderers boss expects his club record signing to come good this campaign after injuries and erratic form hampered his introduction to English football.

Elmander scored just five goals — and none as yet in 2009 — in his debut campaign following an £8.2million switch from Toulouse.

But the manager notes that Elmander has looked sharp in the club’s pre-season friendlies and hopes he will follow the same advice he gave to Kevin Davies last summer, which brought a career-best 12 goals out of the captain.

“He doesn’t need to be more selfish on the ball, just to make sure that when crosses come into the box that he is in the right position,” Megson said.

“In an ideal world, we’re looking to put the ball in a certain place. It’s quite simplistic but that’s in front of goal.

“If you want to score, and you’re there at the same time the ball is, you’ll get more chances.

“You will miss — as Davo did; I remember one opportunity against Wigan where he just didn’t get his shot off. But he got 12 goals last season because he was prepared to put himself in that position time and time again – and that’s exactly what we are telling Johan now.”

Elmander claims to be feeling “fit and fresh” following a nightmare run of hamstring injuries that left him playing catch-up for most of the last year.

Statistical analysis of last season’s Premier League strikers actually saw the 27-year-old striker come out on top of the pile in dynamic and aerobic running – although the only numbers Megson and the Wanderers fans want to see improved are that in the goals column.

“I’d expect from Johan probably exactly what he is expecting from himself, and that’s more goals,” Megson told The Bolton News.

“He’s probably the most talented player we have got, on the ball, but he has got to accept the role that he plays in our team and that football in England will be more physical.

“Quite aside from the amount of goals he scored, I was also disappointed with the number of opportunities he got. He didn’t seem at the end of the season to get getting into the right positions.

“His work is very unselfish and he puts a huge amount of effort in – our two wide players got 10 and 12 goals each by running into gaps that he would create – but he is a centre forward and he has to get more goals.”