Charlton Athletic manager Lee Bowyer has admitted that he is encouraged by his side's ability to create chances in the absence of forward Lyle Taylor.

The 29-year-old has missed the Addicks' two most recent clashes due to knee ligament damage (via London News Online) and is expected to be out of action for another two months.

Without the forward, Charlton have suffered back-to-back defeats in the Championship to Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic which has resulted in them dropping out of the play-off places.

Since joining the Addicks in 2018, Taylor has managed to take his game to new heights.

As well as firing in 25 goals for Charlton last season, the Montserrat international also provided 13 assists as the club achieved promotion to the Championship via the play-offs.

Excellent during the opening weeks of the current campaign, Taylor managed to find the back of the net on five occasions before suffering injury.

Although the Addicks have failed to score in the forward's absence, Bowyer has praised his players for their creativity.

Speaking to London News Online, the 42-year-old said: "You can argue we ain't got Lyle and he's our main striker, you take him out of any team it is going to be more difficult.

"But the positive side for me is we still created chances - against Birmingham we created enough chances to get something out of the game.

"We created chances at the weekend [against Wigan].

"They aren't just falling to one person.

"Josh [Cullen], Macauley [Bonne], Tom [Lockyer] and Tamer [Hemed] - they are four different players who had good chances.

"Not half-chances - good chances."

The Verdict

Whilst losing Taylor was unquestionably a massive blow for Charlton, there is no reason why they cannot go on to achieve a relative amount of success over the coming weeks providing that their players can step up their performance levels.

With the likes of Conor Gallagher and Jonathan Leko at their disposal, the Addicks will be confident that they can bring their mini-slump to an end on Saturday by producing an impressive performance against Leeds United at The Valley.

If Charlton can defeat the Whites, they could close the gap between them and the top-two in the Championship depending on results elsewhere.