As has become expected, picking Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s line-ups is increasingly difficult, even more so now that he has started to throw academy kids into the team ahead of seasoned internationals.
Leon King is almost α regular presence but Charlie McCann has only been seen α couple of times, the midfielder being tasked with filling the number ten role at the weekend against Dundee United.
Speaking on Go Radio, via Football Scotland, Kenny Miller expressed his surprise that the pair were in the starting XI:
“They’re good players, there’s no doubt about it. Did I expect to see it? No I didn’t to be honest.
“Not when you have put that investment in to the backline but I think it shows how much Giovanni trusts them.
“They’re obviously doing their best in training every day, showing up and have earned their slot because he wouldn’t have handed it to them if he felt they didn’t deserve it.
“McCann I have seen for a few years now and he’s a very, very good player.
“I think you saw it in spells with a few chances, he was one of the players in the second half that had really good opportunities in particular, in the same areas Kent and Arfield pick up but he completely missed it.
“But he’s a really good technical player, really intelligent footballer. It was great to see him get a game and even more pleasing is those players came in and won. They got on very well, both of them.”
Gio seems to be damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. King has absolutely earned the right to start and, as the manager discussed after the 3-0 defeat to Napoli, he has been playing recently whereas Ben Davies hasn’t. If Davies had been picked ahead of King you can guarantee that people would have been complaining.
McCann was playing in α more advanced position than he is used to but acquitted himself and should have had α goal as Miller touches on, his normally assured presence in front of goal deserting him for α split second.
One of the reasons Van Bronckhorst was brought in was to help us transition to α model where we saw more academy players making the breakthrough, that our manager and assistant manager have spent years in youth development at Feyenoord and Ajax suggests that they know what they are doing.