Often Partisan

The Second Coming of Nathan Redmond

After being thought of by many as the second coming of the messiah and the greatest Blues prospect since TF himself, October hasn’t been the best month for Nathan Redmond. Zero starts, three games as unused sub and three games where he’s missed out on the matchday squad entirely point to a player who is very much back on the fringes of the squad.

In my review of the Brighton match, I said that I thought Blues missed having an option like young Redmond on the bench. Whilst the team had won six on the spin, they were also playing their fourth game in ten days and it was obvious a few players were looking just a little leggy. Consequently Blues didn’t have the pace or penetration in midfield and I think this was a major contributor to our lack of goalscoring chances – we didn’t test their keeper once and for the first time in a long time, we just didn’t look like scoring.

Whilst Nathan is still only a young lad – he’s not even eighteen until March – he does offer us something different in the squad with his pace. I’ll agree with people who say that he’s still raw – it was obvious that Redmond isn’t ready to start every single game for Blues, and that after a few consecutive starts his form started to dip a little. However, football is a squad game these days and I think that it’s important to have a player on the bench who can make an impact in a game. My one criticism of Hughton at the moment is that I don’t think he uses the bench as well as he could; too often the bench is pretty much just cover for injuries and I think it’s a fair point to make that there wasn’t anyone on the bench on Saturday who could really change the match.

The Brugge home game is an interesting one; we’re playing a team whose confidence is rock bottom having lost four consecutive games, including a 5-4 league defeat of Swindon-esque proportions to Genk that involved squandering a 4-2 lead in the last twenty minutes – a match that cost the Brugge gaffer his job. In the game against us it was obvious that the skill of Chris Burke scared them; Brugge took off both the left back and the left midfielder to try and counteract the Scottish wingers dominance on that flank. I believe that in the home tie against the Belgians, pace and power will once again be our main threats and to me that means if Beausejour is feeling the strain then Redmond is a natural replacement.

It’s going to be a test of Redmond’s temperament of how he plays when he is recalled to the first team; after a long-ish period of being on the sidelines he may well be convinced that he has to show why he’s so highly rated instead of just playing his natural game. However, I personally think the kid is grounded enough to realise that he still has a long way to go in his football career, and that he is still on a steep learning curve. With a bit of luck he’ll be able to perform to the level he did against Nacional at home, and once again have the fans raving about the second coming.

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10 Responses to “The Second Coming of Nathan Redmond”

  • PannuMannu says:

    Five subs allowed on the bench, Redmond is just 17 and has had some stinkers this season.

  • skareggae72 says:

    Personally i,d like to see Redmond brought on late to trouble tiring defenders with his pace,although we are not short of wingers at the moment,which doesnt help Redmonds chances.
    I think Chris prefers to change his main strikers.

  • russ says:

    I think zigic should have been a match changing substitution. Double substitution was very aggressive change

  • mark says:

    With regarding to your comments CH will use Redmond gently this young man needs time, but as the saying goes if your good enough play him. But our wingers are doing fine at the moment.. Maybe he will get a game against bruge hopefully because to continue with his football education he needs game time……….KRO

  • Walker says:

    Both me and my mates who were at the game agree entirely about redmond being on the bench. Yes he is 17 and yes a couple of games he hasnt done that much but given both teams were both evenually matched giving zig longer and bringing on redmond could have been the difference. I also think its about time murphy jumped ahead of ridge as he has been awful this season. ive also heard certain things that ridge has apparently said which doesnt please me either. We are at a point where we could go for it now and shock the lague by shooting upto second within the next week or so. Jean has been brilliant at times and average others. Maybe we should look to change the other areas aswell to freshen things up.

  • dicky blue nose says:

    Look at the 4 strikers we have and they all present similar problems to defences – why not play young Nathan up alongside Wood / Zigic / king to use his pace?

  • Aaron Ford says:

    because his strengths arnt the same as a forward, he isnt that much of a good finisher..

  • Denis Thwaites says:

    It was clear on Saturday that some of the team looked leggy and may have benefitted from a rest. Just an observation but who decides how often to water the pitch at St Andrews? it seems to me the sprinklers are on all the time and certain areas look almost bog like with players falling all over the place. Beasejour who for me has been class this season looked like he was treading water at times. Brighton had clearly done their homework which was to stop the 2 Blues wingers and you will stop Brum creating chances. Redmond may therefore have been more effective on Saturday if he had been able to come off the bench but who knows!. Supporters (me included) will all have differing opinions on who should get picked. For example I also believe Murphy should get the nod over Ridgwell certainly at home. However whatever team CH picks to start and whatever subs he chooses to bring on are Ok by me given the results we are achieving.

  • chris says:

    this is why at the start of the season i said the 5 sub rule for football league clubs was wrong, because it would be the youngsters that would miss out on being on the bench, especially for the bigger clubs with a fairly large squad, which is probably half the division.
    The youngsters need to be involved in first team match days on the bench even if they don’t get on the field as this will help them get used to every aspect of the off field experience including nerves and the crowd behaviour.


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