Pre-season has seen Barnet pick up some mixed results. There have been thumping wins over non-league sides Burnham Ramblers and St Albans City; while Boreham Wood and most impressively QPR (behind-closed doors) have been defeated. There have also been losses; one to a very impressive Charlton side and the other to Watford (behind-closed doors), who thrashed us 8-0.
Minus the Watford travesty, we have conceded eights goals in five games; which is an average of 1.6 goals a game. Include the Watford travesty, and we have conceded sixteen goals in six games; an average of 2.72 goals a game.
While we kept a clean sheet against QPR and Burnham Ramblers, we conceded four against Charlton and two against both St Albans City and Boreham Wood. It is against the latter two teams against which I was most worried about the state of our centre-backs. More in this later though.
The favoured centre-back pairing of new manager Mark Robson is Jonathan Fortune and Clovis Kamdjo. Fortune-who was signed on a free transfer by Robson-has not seemed too bad. While he is injury-prone, his experience and ability will help him do well at League Two level. Kamdjo, on the other hand, is not a good centre-back. For quite a big lad, he is easily outmuscled; his tackling is not the greatest and he his prone to errors.
We do have another centre-back in Jack Saville. He has a lot of potential and looked comfortable when playing in his favoured position of centre-back, as opposed to left-back, where he was played last season. This article might not have needed writing if it was Saville, and not Kamdjo, in the Barnet team. However, Saville has not featured that much in pre-season, leading myself and many other Barnet fans to believe that Kamdjo and Fortune will be the favoured centre-back pairing.
I will go back to the friendly matches that I mentioned earlier. Against St Albans City, Boreham Wood and Charlton Athletic, it is set pieces that have been the problem. Out of the eight goals we have conceded in these games; two have been direct free-kicks and two from corners. It is the latter point which frustrates, and worries me the most.
Last season, we had a major problem defending set-pieces. And unfortunately, that trend does not look like ending anytime soon. Kamdjo and Fortune, who had been set to mark certain players at these set-pieces, have let their man go-with this resulting in a goal for the opposition. Against League Two sides, this could be exploited-I remember when Bilel Moshni got a hat-trick for Southend United against us last season due to bad defending from set-pieces.
A centre-back partnership of Jonathan Fortune and Jack Saville would be alright in my view. It is Clovis Kamdjo who is the major problem in the defence: he was deployed as a defensive midfielder last season, where he did well. As a defender though, he is just short of diabolical (maybe a tad harsh, but its true).
One more centre-back-preferably one to be in the starting eleven-is needed to add strength at the back. A glance at the PFA Transfer List brings up some players who would be ideal for Barnet e.g. Sam Sodje or Luke Foster.
Rant over. That is for now, at least. If this problem is not fixed before the start of the season, this could cause us many problems.
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Follow Josh Ilan on Twitter: @footyatjoshilan and be sure to check out joshilanblogs and The Football League 72 as well
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