Help The Cause Before It's Off In The Distance

Time to show there is one more push

This blog has been brewing for about a week or so, but it’s finding time to scribe it in amongst everything else going on in life. The last few weeks or even longer have shown in my opinion that Barnet FC need a little more in one area, striker.

It might seem a slightly controversial topic, it might be not depending on whether you think the squad is overloaded in the wrong areas, we just don’t need one or it’s long overdue, definitely three camps to this I think.

Before I get started let’s get one thing clear, there is no slight on Nicke Kabamba at all. The man has written himself into Bees folklore with his goal scoring exploits over the last two seasons without doubt. I mean, his record currently is eight goals in his last nine games, many would bite their hand off for a striker with that record, over 50 goals in those two seasons as well is remarkable.

But, as we’ve seen over those 24 months we’ve tried flogging him to within an inch of a goal which has meant performance levels have dropped. That’s only natural for anyone, push for more and more especially physically and eventually the body breaks.

The first year we saw no proper back up ended up with a suspension covered by a poor looking David Moyo and then Harry Smith, while providing goals, upset the apple cart balance of the team.

Last year we were fortunate to get Gaitlin O’Donkor but not until Nicke had picked up an injury having played all or almost every single minute, it’s almost negligent.

Once again this season we’ve gone into the season with one proper front line striker. Yes, Rhys Browne and Callum Stead can play there, but it drags down their effectiveness and what they bring to the team. We were all aware of Browne’s injury record, a gamble yes but seemingly not having TK shelling out for a striker of good money that’s out level.

Yes, we had Joe Quigley ready to go, then gazumped by Forest Green Rovers who offered to double his wages and to pay a fee, Chesterfield weren’t going to say no. Whilst in the past many of us might have agreed to pay big wages to sit on the bench and play second fiddle to NK wasn’t an option we’re in different territory here now.

We are in the mix for the title, not the play-offs, the title. Look at York City at the weekend, Ollie Pearce up front with Dipo Akinyemi on the bench, Forest Green Quigley in and Harry Cardwell plus Christian Doidge on the bench, even Oldham with James Norwood in and Josh Stones to come on as his replacement.

Quality to replace quality. It’s not about replacing our top striker, it’s reinforcements to help. Imagine trying to wear down a couple of centre halves and then bringing on a quality substitute to harass further and nick a goal, sounds good eh! All our rivals can manage that, we seem to make do.

Now, some will feel the squad should have been rectified in the summer, too many defenders were brought and one too many with a questionable injury record. We know if they didn’t have that record they wouldn’t be with us, we take that for those such as Nik Tavares and Harry Chapman, hopefully Rhys Browne keeps himself fit and joins that list.

The thing with that is we have players who can fill in both positions when Tavs and Chappers are out so why should it be any different with Nicke? We went six games earlier in the season without a recognised centre forward, how we stayed in contention during that period is testament to the players we have now at this football club.

Pointing to Nicke’s great goal scoring record is another reason why it can be believed we don’t need the extra man, that we can pick up another loanee as we have done if we need it along the way. That may be true, but it’s normally reactive than pro-active, that has to change.

But again, it’s not to replace it’s to help. NK doesn’t have any competition for his place, there is competition across the pitch so why should this be any different?

I called it a game changer we needed from the bench last night that if we wanted to go two up top we can. Our game changers currently are all 10’s and pushing Callum Stead closer is still playing off someone, not alongside as a two. Imagine that extra difference and dimension we could have instead, teams are wise to what we can do now after three and half months of the season despite having to concede possession to us for 95% of the game.

So, let’s see where TK wants to go from here, I know we have the injured coming back but we know where the issue lies and we know it needs fixing, question is, is the backing going to come or are we flogging a dead horse? (not quite literally but almost)

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