Paul Dickov believes Luca Scapuzzi possesses the touch of arrogance required to inspire Oldham.
The 20-year-old Italian forward, at Boundary Park on a two-month loan from Manchester City, had the start to his Latics career cut short when goalkeeper Alex Cisak was sent off 10 minutes in against Bury and he was sacrificed in favour of veteran stopper Paul Gerrard.
Since that 2-0 derby defeat, Scapuzzi has featured in back-to-back 3-1 home wins over Crewe in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and Burton in the FA Cup, marking the former with a superb goal.
"He's got that little bit of arrogance in his play, in a nice way," said Latics boss Dickov.
"When you look at him he looks a little bit gangly and a little bit light-weight, and he possibly doesn't look the quickest. But when he's got the ball at his feet he's got the natural ability just to drift past players.
"That's not the sort of thing that you can teach people, that's ability that you're born with.
"What we've got to try and do is get the best out of him and the more he plays in the the team, the more he gets to know his team-mates and the more his team-mates get to know him the better he will be."