by Friday's Child »
04 Oct 2008 14:32
The challenge we have here is that Bryn is clearly good enough for this level, but evidence has shown his frailty at Premiership level last season. Not to not give him another chance at it, but it would not fill me with glee. It didn't help that he was partnered with a below-par Harper, and had John Oster on the right to combine to a rather poor midfield start-to-finish, and his defending was not good enough against the likes of pacey strikers (Pompey etc).
However, as stated on another thread, he has the ability of someone like Graham Kavanagh who has the strength and tenacity to complement the likes of Karacan, Harper (if he improves form), and Matejovsky. On a combination basis, I would pitch Bryn ahead of Harper as it is unclear exactly who complements Harper's style in this game other than a strong but also pacey-going-forward midfielder like Sidwell. My gut feeling is that unless we bring in a player very similar to Sidwell, we will never get the best from Harper again - his future lies elsewhere. The only player I could see with Harper is Bikey, from our current squad.
Bryn or Bikey partnered with Karacan or Matejovsky sounds like 4 great combinations at this level. Our next challenge would then be to see if Bryn could hack the Prem this time around, with a better-complementing partner, or whether we need a younger and fresher version of him. Either way, I struggle to understand the "fit" of Harper these days, and the "fit" of Bryn is better, tenfold. IMHO of course.
