Sask’s Thoughts On Maghoma

A marmite person as we all know, is someone who divides opinion amongst a group of people. Maghoma is the pinnacle of a marmite person.

I know people that would rather see Aston Villa win the Premier League than Jaques Maghoma starting a game of football for the Blues’. (This may be a slight exaggeration but I need to get my point across.)

However, some people believe he is Birmingham’s answer to Lionel Messi, maybe even pushing the heights of Maradonna. (Again, this may or may not be exaggerated.)

But seriously, how can a player who we have seen on a good few occasions split people so decisively? I think it is because he can be inconsistent. Those who appreciate that he is getting used to the way we play and can play good football at times, let him off for the odd mistake or missed chance that he may be guilty of.

However, for those who dwindle on these missed chances, he is the worst player they have ever seen. For these negative souls, he cannot do anything right in their eyes. Poor lad.

In my opinion, he is neither a world beater nor a waste of space. (For the record, I am indifferent to marmite too.) I think that Maghoma is a brilliant squad player. He has the impact that you need when you come on the pitch as a sub.

I don’t think he is as influential when he starts games because he is explosive and this can often lead to tiredness or even predictability if he is doing the same thing over 90 minutes. He brings an element of pace that we don’t get from Donaldson and this is why I think that if we are chasing games, then he should come on to partner Donaldson.

Imagine an attack of Gray, Donaldson, Maghoma and Cotterill. We would be clawing back victories at the hands of defeats. But Maghoma is a good player in his own right. He is powerful and so can easily outmuscle defenders plus he has a quick mind. This means that he can link up with the midfield really well.

His touch is not always there, and yes, he may be a bit wayward at times with his shooting and passing. But he tries to do something different. He tries to attack. If we wanted wingers who would just pass the ball backwards and never get anywhere, we would have signed James Milner.

He tries everytime he has the ball at his feet to create something and this ambition despite not pulling it off sometimes, is to be admired and not punished. The more we cripple creativity with our negativity, the more boring our teams become.