It’s weird how this one has worked out.
When he signed for the Blues, one of the few players this summer that the Blues actually paid money for, with reports putting the fee around £700,000 there were high hopes for him. Speaking to BCFC.com once the deal was done, Pep Clotet said:
“I believe he can bring us a lot, especially going forward offensively… Technically he is well gifted and I think he is the right kind of character for our environment. I am sure he can add to the team and add to the good atmosphere around the players.”
The only problem is; he hasn’t had much of a chance to add to the team. Despite coming in with such high praise and high hopes, he’s sort of fallen under the radar. Having started the first three league games of the season, he has found himself on the bench for the rest of them, and subsequently come off the bench in two.
I have noted in the past that Pep Clotet clearly wants to play a certain style of football, that’s why he has brought in players with high pass completion rates like Crowley as well as Ivan Sunjic, which then baffles me why Crowley can’t get a game, especially as Crowley’s is actually higher than Sunjic in the Championship standing at 88.4% compared to 81.7%.
Did Clotet see enough in his first couple of games to instantly think he’s not good enough, thus making him sign the likes of Bernard Sun and Fran Villalba? Or was Crowley always going to be a stop-gap to fill the hole before the likes of Sun and Villalba arrived?
Personally I would like to see more of Crowley, and I think it’s possible to squeeze him in. Keeping with the 3-4-2-1 formation that I believe suits us best, I would have Ivan Sunjic act as more of a defensive-minded player in front of the back four, and have Crowley alongside him to link the play between defence and attack. Then have two attacking midfielders/strikers playing off Lukas Jutkiewicz up top, I’d pick Fran Villalba and Alvaro Gimenez personally.
So what would you do? Do you think that there is a place in the team for Dan Crowley? Or do you think we can chalk this one up as a bust already?