Be more selfish, Maghoma urges ace Crowley
‘TERRIFIC’ Dan Crowley needs to show a selfish streak to become Blues’ magic man in midfield.
That’s the view of Jacques Maghoma, who had a front seat as
Crowley opened his account for Blues in the FA Cup win over Blackburn last Saturday.
Winger Maghoma reckons the former Arsenal trainee has “everything he needs” to be a major player for the club and blamed his long wait for a goal on Crowley’s willingness to always put the team first.
“He could really be the difference in this team if he wants to be,” said Maghoma, who showed a selfless side himself by slotting into central midfield after Ivan Sunjic was sent off against Rovers. “Dan’s a terrific player. When you look at him, he’s tidy and neat on the ball, he can have an eye for a goal.
“He could get himself into a position to score more goals. That’s something he needs to work on. He tends to help out the team in different aspects to get them playing so he sometimes does go a little bit deeper. “Sometimes you need that. Sometimes he can play a throughball. He’s got everything and I’ve told him that. But also, sometimes you need to dig deep, which he did on Saturday. Dan has got everything he needs.
“He needs to work hard, carry on and performances like that will boost his confidence. Getting a goal and being on the winning team will boost a lot of players’ confidence. We need to take that win and carry it on to Luton on Saturday.”
Sunjic was ordered off, just 98 seconds after his introduction last Saturday, for bringing down Sam Gallagher in the area after the Croatian had given the ball away. Adam Armstrong converted from the spot to cancel out Crowley’s early opener and spark a Blackburn bombardment. But Blues stood firm and found an injury-time winner through Jeremie Bela.
“The second-half performance, where we had to dig in and fight, that’s got to be our standards from now and take it on to the game at Luton,” Maghoma said. “That’s a massive game, an important game to get three points, which could almost kick-start our decade.”
Only four Championship teams have scored fewer goals than Blues this term yet Maghoma reckons it’s at the opposite end of the pitch where Pep Clotet’s side must improve to start climbing the table after only one victory in 12 league games.
“We’ve got to cut out goals, that’s been our biggest downfall,” he said. “We’re getting into positions where we’re scoring goals, but I just think when we stop conceding we’ll be fine. “We need to start winning games to get up the table and start looking up.”