Brayford, Bostwick blows set up young back four
JFH HAND WILL BE FORCED BY LOSS OF EXPERIENCE
INJURIES which look likely to keep captain John Brayford and Michael Bostwick out for a few weeks will force Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to give a younger look to the Burton Albion defence.
The Brewers boss has remained loyal to Brayford, his captain and – when he has been fit – to Bostwick, preferring their experience to bringing in some of the younger signings he has added to the squad in his busy two transfer windows in charge.
And he has not been wrong. You cannot build a side on youth alone and their experience was especially vital as the Brewers climbed away from danger in League One last season.
Brayford, especially, has continued to defy the passing of time, having reached 33 in December.
One of Hasselbaink’s first signings when he returned to the club was Tom Hamer, a young right-back, and it triggered the idea that maybe the manager thought Brayford needed replacing.
Hamer did indeed make his debut at right-back, against Hull City, but Brayford was required at centre-half that day.
He returned to right-back for the next game and Hamer was an unused substitute. Hamer was again on the bench next time out but came on at left-back when Josh Earl was sent off against Sunderland and has never looked back, largely playing left-back ever since.
There was a theory a few years ago that Brayford, having had knee injuries earlier in his career, now struggled with his knees. He laughed it off when asked.
“I don’t know where that came from,” he said. “My knees are fine. Other bits hurt but not my knees!” Last season, he was injured against Plymouth Argyle, a quad strain, before Hasselbaink arrived and missed five matches.
He was back in the team regularly by the time the new boss arrived and Hasselbaink then toyed with the theory that Brayford might struggle to manage three games a week. He rested the captain for the trip to play Charlton Athletic in February but Owen Gallacher had to come off after 68 minutes and therefore Brayford’s appearance record under the new manager was uninterrupted.
The experiment of resting him in midweek was not repeated and he has played every game since for Hasselbaink. On Saturday, pulled back by the Dons’ Ayoub Assal inside the first 10 seconds, he fell awkwardly and stayed down and that record will now be interrupted. Bostwick has been less resilient in terms of injuries, with a month out at the start of his first season with the club and then an injury at the end of it which kept him sidelined through pre-season and playing catch-up for this campaign.
While he was recovering, Conor Shaughnessy and Ryan Leak formed a strong early-season partnership and when he was ready, he had to settle for two late substitute appearances before Leak was rested for the away game against Bolton Wanderers.
Burton were subjected to a siege there and it suited Bostwick, who was immense, and now it was Leak on the bench.
Bostwick went down with a hamstring injury, like Brayford’s, a new one for him, in the home win against Portsmouth and Leak positively raced on to the pitch to take over after 51 minutes.
So now, with both out, which way will Hasselbaink turn?
He has not left himself short of options, having signed two leftbacks in the summer, Cameron Borthwick-jackson and Frazer Blake-tracy but sod’s law afflicted the team on Saturday.
Borthwick-jackson had travelled to Wimbledon but was ill on the morning of the game and did not take his place on the bench on the very day that Brayford was injured.
Hamer went to right-back and
Hasselbaink has not left himself short of options, having signed two left-backs in the summer
Tom O’connor had to fill in at leftback, which he did well apart from one shocking pass, but that disrupted his midfield partnership with Deji Oshilaja.
Had it been a home game, there might have been time to summon Blake-tracy to the squad.
Surely, now, one of the two leftbacks will get a game in their natural position and not just in tonight’s Papa John’s Trophy game against Aston Villa Under-21s, the competition in which Blake-tracy wore the armband and did play left-back – with Borthwick-jackson ahead of him in midfield – against MK Dons.
The Leak-shaughnessy partnership in the centre now looks secure again, at least until either or both are challenged by the return to fitness of Sam Hughes towards the end of the year.
Shaughnessy, after all, has been a revelation, the one defensive summer signing to nail down a place so far, having played every minute in the main competitions.
While they were admittedly short of forward options, it seems daft now to think that Rochdale played him up front last season while they were conceding 78 goals on the way to relegation from League One.
The likely back four, then, for the trip to play Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, is Hamer, Shaughnessy, Leak and Borthwick-jackson, which will be the youngest the Brewers will have fielded in quite some time, although Blake-tracy’s challenge to Borthwick-jackson cannot be ruled out.
The positions are now otherwise likely to be threatened by Mancienne’s return to fitness before that of Brayford or Bostwick.
How the younger quartet copes should be a good pointer for the future and Hasselbaink assures us he is looking beyond this season already.