Keeper to make way as Jimmy rebuilds defence?
THREE IS TOO MANY SAYS BOSS AFTER SIGNING ONE
SOME time in the next five days it looks likely that a goalkeeper will leave Burton Albion.
With the arrival of Dillon Barnes on loan from Queeens Park Rangers, the Brewers have three senior keepers “in the building”, to borrow a well-used Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink phrase.
Teddy Sharman-lowe, sold to Chelsea just at the start of the season, has now returned to Stamford Bridge after being loaned back to Burton, while Callum Hawkins would appear set for another loan period when, or if, most of non-league football starts to play again.
That means Barnes, Kieran O’hara and Ben Garratt are vying for the first team jersey.
The fact that Garratt replaced O’hara for the first game of Hasselbaink’s return, played well and retained his place for the second game suggests that O’hara might be the man to miss out.
If that proves to be the case, it would be quite a startling turnaround from the point in September when the Brewers pursued and secured the Republic of Ireland international on a two-year deal.
It seems unlikely that Hasselbaink would bring in Barnes to sit on the bench and the comments made by the manager firstly when the signing happened and then in a press briefing on Monday suggest that he rates the 6ft 4in Queens Park Rangers keeper very highly.
“He has given me an insight into how he likes his goalkeepers to play and I’d like to think I fit that,” said Barnes when signing.
Distribution and being comfortable with the ball at your feet appears to be a big part of it.
“If we are going to win matches and control matches, we need a goalkeeper who is calm and can play out from the back,” sadi Hasselbaink.
“At the moment, we don’t control the ball as much as we need to. We panic a little bit.
“We need a goalkeeper who can pass it, as well as keep the ball out of the net. “Even though Ben (Garratt) has done magnificently, I do feel that I needed to bring another goalkeeper in.
“There might be another goalkeeper going out because, obviously, for a club like Burton, three goalkeepers is probably a little too much.
“But I had to do something, I feel, as I did with the centre-half.
“We had 50 goals against. I had to improve that area – to bring in competition to improve that area. At every healthy club, that’s what happens.”
It is a stark, almost ruthless, summary but players have to be accustomed to the fact that football is like that.
Hasselbaink does not mince words and the keepers will know the score.
We had 50 goals against. I had to bring in competition to improve that area. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Although Barnes kept eight clean sheets in 26 League Two appearances for Colchester United in the 2018-19 season, he had played only four times on loan for Hibernian in the Scottish Premier this season before being recalled by QPR.
He does not have masses of experience at 24 but Hasselbaink obviously likes what he sees.
He had left as manager of QPR before Barnes arrived but says he has followed the keeper’s career “through my QPR connections.”
O’hara, unfortunately for him, did himself no favours when he misjudged a dart from his goal in the game against Oxford United, which
Hasselbaink watched from stands.
O’hara did not reach the ball before Oxford striker Matty Taylor, who was able to hit it comfortably past him and set the Brewers on the way to a 5-1 defeat.
Garratt has played well twice, especially in the away win against Gillingham, when his saves did as much as anything to help secure three points, but Hasselbaink will probably have wanted to see him dominate his area more; the same arguably goes for O’hara.
It will probably be less than a week before we find out which one of them is moving on. the