Post Wednesday, Where Are We?

By Neil Ravenscroft
September 13 2004

After the game on Saturday, Paul Merson said that he'd now had a chance to look at all of the players and knew now what they can do. That sounds like a fun game, doesn’t it?

Mark Paston. I think he'll do. He’s a lot more agile than I'd have thought for a keeper of his size and not as good in the air as he should be. In fact, he reminds me of our goalkeeping coach in a lot of ways, as the same things were said about him!

Richard McKinney. Looks like a third division reserve, which is exactly what he was. If he was 18 or 19 with bags of time to improve, I'd be happy, but he's 25 and should be a lot better. Looks more and more like a panic buy and I wonder who made the decision to get him and on what grounds. Surely no one knew his play that well?

Darren Bazeley. I just don't know what's the matter with him. Granted our style of play doesn't help, as he is continually exposed by the lack of width, but his form is nowhere near where it should be. Should not be struggling at this level.

Jonathan Bewers. Too early to say on one performance. Was continually caught out of position against Wednesday, but it's difficult to judge whether that was him, or lack of match fitness. Does not give us much going forward, but that again may be a problem with the formation, rather than the player.

Ryan Willetts. Not ready. Say no more.

Neil Emblen. Should be Captain Fantastic, but is struggling instead. May be being over exposed by the lack of cover in front of the back four. Looked much happier when he came on against Wednesday, when he just had to deal with a big physical presence. After all, they showed no guile at all.

Ian Roper. Looks unfit and completely out of sorts. He's a shadow of the player of the last couple of seasons and the coaches and management should be sorting this out. Not helped by the lack of a left sided centre back when he has played, but is not the leader Bennett would need alongside him, should they be the first choice.

Kofi Dakinah. Looked "little boy lost" on Saturday, struggling to cope with the pace of the game and it's a good job that Wednesday were a poor side showing little or no ambition to get at us. Would need a lot more work before he's ready.

Scott Dann. I haven't seen anything of this lad at all really. He's had good reviews in the reserves, but it's difficult to see him breaking into the first team while his partner is likely to be Bennett. That would be far too much inexperience, surely?

Julian Bennett. Looks a tremendous prospect as a centre back, but only adequate as a full back, as he just doesn't get forward enough. Granted the lack of cover if he does is again a limiting factor. However, his lack of experience does show occasionally, as his poor clearance on Saturday, leading to the goal, showed. We should not be depending on him to hold the defence together.

Zigor Aranalde. Zigor is just Zigor, a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous. Typical of the sublime was the lovely free kick for the equaliser on Saturday, whereas falling over the ball at Doncaster was certainly the ridiculous. He also came up with a couple of excellent pieces of defending when covering for the centre backs against Sheffield Wednesday, something he does often, but doesn't get a lot of credit for.

In general, they defensive unit looks weak and nowhere near enough thought or coaching has gone into it. Ignoring the keepers, we have 9 defenders on the books, of whom 3 are right backs, 4 are right footed centre backs and 1 each left footed centre backs and left back. (Yes, I know Kris Taylor can do a job there, but we'll come to him and his reported reluctance to play in defence later). This is the perfect example of the lack of balance in the squad, as we desperately need cover on the left side of the central defence and left back. Merson has expressed an interest in Mark Williams, and he is left sided, but will he really displace Bennett from the side? Does this mean playing Bennett at left back, as, if so, I'm not totally convinced? There are a lot more problems here than there ought to be and most of them seem to be down to lack of planning and forethought. Sorry, Merse, but this is one area that still needs sorting out as a matter of urgency.

Later this week, we'll look at the midfielders and strikers and, maybe, the opposition so far.