I would, because we need to stop the domino effect of “versatile” players dragging everybody else out of their best position. Brown is a centre back who can play left back if you have nobody else, but he shouldn’t be “the left back cover” while he’s also the only proper centre back cover, outside of a 17 year old (who is now apparently being viewed as a potential right back) and a 36 year old semi-retired coach.
If whoever is first choice left back is unavailable and Brown has to play there, and then either centre back gets injured or suspended, suddenly you’re shuffling three, or maybe even all four defensive spots around. You’ve changed pretty much the entire back line and potentially not one player is in their preferred / best position. This has happened multiple times over the last two seasons so it isn’t rare or unlikely to happen at some point, and it costs us every time we have to hobble through it.
As an aside, there has been some quite spectacular rewriting of history to justify the lack of defensive depth over the last month or two (not from you, but from others), particularly regarding the L2 promotion season where it has been claimed we had no real cover. That is patently untrue. We had two out and out left backs, Skarz and Jordan Evans (who at the time was the Wales U21 left back) and the only reason Ruffels ever played there for the final game against Wycombe, and I think possibly the second half at Carlisle, was because both of them got injured simultaneously with a few weeks to go, which is a total freak. But even then, Evans was still playing right up until Newport away on April 19th, and Skarz was then patched up to start against Hartlepool and Carlisle. Long was also the right back cover for both Baldock and Kenny, having played ten games there in League Two the season before, plus half a dozen the year before that under Wilder / Waddock, so he was young but an established first team squad member with 16 league and FA Cup games to his name, plus a brief loan spell one division below. We had two full backs on each side, regardless of how many appearances any of them actually made, plus three senior centre backs in Wright, Dunkley and Mullins. A young Robbie Cundy was the fourth choice in case of emergency, which is a role Golding could fill this season, but it would need to be stipulated that he’s the fourth CB, that he’s ready to play if circumstances require, and that he isn’t also the right back cover. Which is crackers, btw, but that’s for another time.
We need seven players to cover the back four spots, plus (not including) Golding as a potential eighth / fourth centre back, including two dedicated full backs on each side. We still need two more bodies - a right back and either a left back or another centre back if Brown is going to focus on playing there - without a single defender leaving.
very true
