One of the big pluses from Saturday evenings 4-0 win against Dundee United was the performance of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who I reckon looks like a new player with a full pre-season behind him…
I thought the Ox looked fantastic at Tannadice deputising for the now transferred Arne Engels. While his speed has waned over the years, it was clear his footballing ability certainly hasn’t.
Some of his long range, direct passing was beautiful, and will provide us with a different form of attack this season as opposed to always hitting the wings. He’s already proving that the decision to bring him back this summer was an excellent one.
It’s massively frustrating that he will be missing the Champions League qualifiers due to suspension, and it’s certainly worrying that we are short of numbers in that particular area after the loss of Engels.
Mika Baur looked like a good addition from what we seen during his 30 minutes on the pitch, my only worry is whether he’s ready for 180 minutes in such important games while still trying to get up to speed and gel with his new teammates.
On a side note, did anyone else think he looked a lot like Reo Hatate in terms of his movement and style of play? A younger, hungrier version of Reo would certainly be a welcome addition to the squad.
While I thought Oxlade-Chamberlain looked excellent on Saturday, it’s clear we need a box-to-box type midfielder to replace Engels. A midfield of Callum McGregor, Ox and Benjamin Nygren, while full of quality, is severely lacking in pace and overall work rate.
A fit, athletic midfield like the kind you will ultimate find in most Champions League teams would absolutely run over the top of that midfield trio. I doubt we will have any new additions in before Wednesday’s game so really Martin O’Neill, in my opinion, has to start with either Mika Baur or Luke McCowan in place of Engels, or switch it up and go with a different formation altogether.
None of these options are ideal and if losing the midfield battle against LASK is what ultimately costs us Champions League qualification, the knives will be out for the board once more.
I really hope it doesn’t come to this as earlier I wrote an article praising the positivity around the club at the moment. As we well know however, a decision like selling Engels before these games could end up being magnified and cause a rift between the board and the fans yet again.
In my opinion I would play Baur from the start. Yes, he’s only through the door but if he’s the kind of talent we all hope he’ll be then he’ll rise to the occasion. Plenty before him have been thrown into the deep end and survived. Reo Hatate, the player I compared him to earlier, is the prime example!
Stick him in Martin and let him show what he’s made of. It could be the making of him.
Conall McGinty
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