Swindon Town’s team selection against Bromley demonstrated the power of this squad, and Ian Holloway must be trusted to pick as he sees fit.
At 1.45 pm on Saturday, amidst the rush to put the team news on the live blog, there was time to pop an eyebrow like Carlo Ancelotti. Will Wright on the bench? No Paul Glatzel at all? Ryan Tafazolli straight in to start? Following a defeat last week, after which some had questioned the wisdom of the line-up, this seemed like an awfully big curveball.
Then again, how do you select 11 players, or even 18, for that matter, from a squad of this strength? As I arrived in the media room on Saturday, I turned the programme over and marvelled at the strength and depth of the players listed on the back in the Swindon squad. Even Richie Wellens was not blessed with these kinds of riches.
As it turned out, the team selection was perfect. Tafazolli looked assured at the back as he showed no sign of rust, Ollie Clarke played so well in the back three that Nicke Kabamba was withdrawn at the break, Tom Nichols turned out to be a terrific ball-winning midfielder, and the attacking play was sharp as it always is.
Glatzel has been tremendous this season, especially in a front two alongside Aaron Drinan. He feels like he should be a nailed-on starter, but who do you take out? It’s sure as anything not going to be Drinan, Ollie Palmer has been excellent since he arrived, and his aerial presence would be important for Bromley, and Danny Butterworth has done more than enough to play more than a cameo role. Even to get him on the bench would mean shunning Billy Bodin or Princewill Ehibhatiomhan.
Filozofe Mabete, Ryan Delaney, Adam Murphy, Billy Kirkman, and Dylan Mitchell were also all in the stands for this one despite being fit enough to feature. Mitchell may not be quite ready for League Two yet, but the others are players more than capable of playing at this level. I can’t remember a Swindon team in my 19 years of watching the club who have had such an issue.
Next weekend at Newport County, unless there is some sort of mass brawl at Beversbrook, we will see some other surprise exclusion, as there is simply not enough room for 24 players in each squad.
At present, I feel as though I would struggle to pick the strongest team. The midfield three was playing very well with Nichols, Gavin Kilkenny, and Darren Oldaker, but how can you leave out Clarke? And how can you field that three when it would mean dropping one of Drinan, Palmer, or Glatzel? There would be a lot of pieces of paper balled up and lobbed in the bin.
Since I started covering Swindon, I have had the pleasure of dealing with seven managers. At one point or another, all of them have said that they don’t have a strongest 11, but pick based on the strengths of the opposition. This always seemed like one of those delightful lies managers tell, because those teams looked awfully familiar, whether Town were playing Sutton United or Manchester City.
I believe Holloway is the first one who was not just trying to sound cool and mysterious when he says this. You can see his different game plans writ large in his team selections.
Holloway is going to take gambles, things will look strange at times, and you may not like that somebody gets dropped, but any confusion needs to be checked with the scale of the task of whittling this excellent squad down to just 11 players.
