With every move that the club makes, it forces us to think again about how the team are going to do things next season.
It’s pretty straightforward and complicated at the same time, but I enjoy thinking about it.
I’ve spoken before about how the introduction of more wingers (still as yet unsigned, but by the sounds of it they are on their way slowly) could offer Dan Crowley a new lease of life in the middle of the pitch, back to his more natural position. Well with the addition of Jon Toral in the mix now, that might need a little bit of a rethink, but not too big a change in the grand scheme of things.
Whilst Crowley has spent most of his playing time as an attack-minded midfielder, I think that there’s a possibility he can offer us something by dropping back a little bit more and becoming a playmaker from the centre circle rather than just outside the opposition box.
Has Dan Crowley been worth the investment for the Blues?
Yes
No
If you take a look at his statistics from last year, you can see that he can offer us that ‘dictating play’ option in central midfield; averaging an 82.5% pass completion rate, 1.5 key passes per game and 1.2 long balls per game.
Plus, having had 1.8 dribbles per game out wide, the most of any Blues player last campaign, he’s clearly not scared to take a man on, so if he can just transfer that from a winger to driving through the heart of the midfield, then I think we really could be onto something here.
You might be tempted to say that Crowley is a jack of all trades, but a master of none, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.
The more options that he can present for us going forward, the better.
