JFH keeps pledge to make it a more youthful Brewers line-up
JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink is making good on his promise to lower the average age of Burton Albion’s squad.
After last week’s Crewe Alexandra game, the manager alluded to the relative youth of the team which had just dismantled the Railwaymen 4-1.
“There were a lot of young players on the pitch for us and that’s good,” he said. And no-one was arguing.
Six of the starting line-up were the younger side of 25 and a seventh, Conor Shaughnessy, only turned 25 in the summer.
On the bench, everyone was 25 or under apart from Michael Mancienne. On the pitch, only one player, John Brayford, was over 30.
Just to be sure, I have compared the average age of the starting lineup for the home game against Oxford United on the equivalent date last year, when Hasselbaink, newly-arrived, watched from the stands, with the average age of the team against Crewe.
Last Saturday’s team had a combined again of 281 years, while the team against Oxford totalled 312 years.
That means the average age of the team which faced Crewe was 25 and a half, while the average age against Oxford was 28.3; a notable difference of three years per player, give or take.
Six who played against Oxford in that humiliating 5-1 defeat were over 30 and the average age was hauled down a good bit by Ciaran Gilligan being in midfield at 19. Had Ryan Edwards, at 27, played instead of him, the average age would have come out at exactly 29.
By the same token, against Crewe, had 24-year-old Sam Hughes been fit and played instead of Brayford and had 18-year-old Daniel Jebbison started instead of Kane Hemmings, neither of which is wholly unlikely, the average age of the team would have been 23.6.
The average age of the Oxford match-day 18 was 27.2 and of the 18 against Crewe, 24.9. It is a tiny point, compared to the rest, that the regular goalkeeper now, Ben Garratt, is actually three years older than the man who was keeping him out last year, Kieran O’hara.
But Garratt is not old at 27, nor does it matter so much with keepers.
Two other young players, Jonny Smith (24) and Terry Taylor (20), were unavailable against Crewe owing to Covid-19, although that is balanced by two strikers who weren’t playing, Louis Moult and Aaron Amadi-holloway, at 29 and 28 respectively.
No matter, all in all, it bodes well for the job Hasselbaink has stated he is trying to do.
Hasselbaink called the Crewe game “a good commercial” for his plans and what was especially interesting against Crewe was the vibrancy and success of a largely young midfield running at the opposition. A note of caution. They may not have been nearly as productive had they been running at a defence as uncompromising as Rotherham United’s, Wigan Athletic’s, or even Portsmouth’s. Only Morecambe have conceded more goals than the 43 Crewe have let in.
But you beat what is front of you, if you can, and it was good stuff nonetheless, not only from the starting players.
It was quite a departure, it seemed at the start, for Burton to include Charlie Lakin, Jacob Maddox and Harry Chapman in the same team but they had Deji Oshilaja watching over them – and turning in his best performance for some weeks.
They also had the wily Kane Hemmings to hold the ball for them up top. As usual, he went wholly unprotected by a referee who gave only three free kicks against Crewe in the whole game, but he still came out on top.
I think there is a good chance two of those three midfielders will go on to play a big part. Notwithstanding the danger of second-guessing Hasselbaink, Chapman’s initial loan was for only half the season and, arguably, the one very accomplished goal, against Crewe, he has supplied might not be enough to warrant that deal being extended. Chapman remains an enigma. Maddox, as I suggested in a previous article, has a lot still to offer, kept back early in the season by an unfortunate injury as he was. He was a former Chelsea teenager, being coached by Hasselbaink, who rates him.
And there is surely more to come
There were a lot of young players on the pitch for us and that’s good. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink from Lakin, who has made eight starts and nine substitute appearances so far since arriving on the last day of the summer window.
There have been one or two eyecatching moments, such as the perfect pass to send Hemmings clear to score against Rotherham, and he is combative. He is easy to spot, too, with an unusual, upright running style.
The thing that stands out is how keen Hasselbaink was to sign him when Birmingham City released him.
Lakin was not in the original plans, the window was almost closed and the manager noted that, while he already had plenty of players in Lakin’s position, his availability was an opportunity that could not be passed up.
Uniquely among the summer signings, he was given a three-year deal. You would think that, somewhere down the line, Hasselbaink thinks Lakin is capable of running Burton’s midfield.
Apart from those three, the substitutes further demonstrated the pol