There’s no doubt that the future is going to be interesting.
Next season, League One will feel very different. Fallen giants like Huddersfield might find life much harder, clubs coming up from League Two don’t look all that different from those going down, and the big spenders of Wrexham and Birmingham are being replaced by clubs who perhaps won’t have the same clout.
I missed Stockport, but by all accounts it had something for everyone. Those with a glass half full point to a good first half, full of promise, and those who don’t think we’re heading forward will cite the second half collapse as an example of what is wrong right now. Nobody is right, nobody is wrong, that’s football.
I personally feel we’re not in a bad place. Over the last 11 matches, we’ve taken 18 points, losing only to sides in the top five, away from home. Arguably, we matched those three teams (Birmingham, Wycombe and Stockport) but didn’t come out on the right side of the result. Over 46 games, our form in those 11 matches would yield 75 points – currently the bottom benchmark for a top-six spot.
I’m not here to talk about general observations, though. I’m here to talk about one player who has slipped under the radar, a player who has quietly gone about his business, but feel ready to return and have an impact on our first team squad.
I am talking about Rob ‘Quality’ Street.
Early Criticism
I’m going to be honest, Rob Street was one signing I was dubious about from the start. I’d been told he was a player with lots of promise, a bit of pace, and the attributes that impressed football people. Those looking at the stats liked him, but I wasn’t sold. I write a lot about the EFL, and I’d covered Street when he went on loan to Shrewsbury from Palace. He didn’t impress me, and he didn’t impress me at Cheltenham either. I know we’d been looking since he left Palace, and so the club’s delight at getting him in was obvious. I didn’t see it.
I felt vindicated after his 11 outings. Okay, he didn’t start a league game, but still, one goal in 11 appearances? He managed four shots in that time, only two in the league. It mattered not that he actually only had 92 minutes across his six League One outings; I just didn’t see a player there. He looked out of place in a couple of cup matches as well, and so when the loan came up, I felt it might be make or break.
However, it seems the club backing him was the right move (who’d have thought, the professionals getting it right and the so-called experts getting it wrong), because Rob Street has (probably) earned himself the middle name ‘Quality’ while at Doncaster Rovers.
Doncaster Loan Spell
I was even dubious about this. How was a player who barely had a kick for us going to force himself into a team at the top end of League Two? The answer, rather obviously, was by scoring goals, and that is what he’s done.
He scored on his debut against Port Vale, and has gone on to bag ten in total. That’s really the magic number, isn’t it? We signed James Collins, he scored ten. We loaned in Joe Taylor, he scored ten. We loaned out Freddie Draper, and he scored ten. Rob Street has joined that club now, and that’s exciting. It’s also amusing to think that over the last two seasons, we’ve effectively loaned out 20 goals a season, and brought in 20 goals a season. The key, for me, is that we own three of those four players for next season.
Rovers have been playing in a 4-2-3-1, with Street as the main striker. That eclipses our setup, which means his return won’t see him put into a shape he’s not used to. Last season, Walsall were playing a 4-4-1-1 with Draper, and he returned to a side playing 3-5-2, so it wasn’t such an easy transition. Street won’t be asked to do anything he isn’t already doing.
Look at it this way – if a 23-year-old scored 20 goals in League Two this season, and we signed him, he’d be seen as a brilliant signing, right? Of course he would. 26-year-old Alassana Jatta has got 18 for Notts County, and sides are talking about seven figures for him. Here we are, welcoming back a player with a better goals-to-minutes ratio for nothing (in League Two, Jatta has a goal every 196 minutes, Street 141), and that’s massive for us. I genuinely believe we’re going into a new season, not needing to sign a striker at all.
It’s not just his goals. During his spell at Doncaster, he is fifth for touches in the box per 90 minutes. Of course, that relies on the likes of Luke Molyneux and Owen Bailey serving up passes and Doncaster creating chances. That said, we’re a side that does get the ball into the box, and one would suspect that Street will come back with the confidence to get on the end of those balls.
Remember, before he went to Doncaster, we were playing a 3-5-2, and often he felt isolated from whoever he was playing alongside. Our shift to a new formation will suit him massively.
How Will He Fit Us?
It’s a big question, and one that will only be answered when he’s back. We must remember he’s a poacher as well – six of his goals this season have come from inside the six-yard box, an area we have often flashed the ball across this season. We do have to stay on the front foot to get the best from Street, but the same goes for James Collins – games where we’ve been a bit under it, Collins hasn’t shone. The reliance is going to be on the three behind the striker – Makama, maybe Hackett, maybe House, hopefully Joe Gardner, Jack Moylan, Tom Bayliss, JJ McKiernan… the list goes on.
What I do like is that while I talk about crosses, a lot of the assists Rob has scored from are little passes inside the area. There’s no more space in those areas in League Two than League One, and he’s emerged as a striker who is able to finish off passing moves, not necessarily get his head on a cross. When a ball drops in the area, he’s the sort to poke home, and I can see him getting on the end of flick-ons from corners and free kicks, or knockdowns from long throws. We’re a set-piece menace, and many of those set pieces have been finished off by someone at the back stick, or driving into the danger zone from nowhere.
Also, one would expect James Collins to be our number nine, so there’s not going to be quite as much pressure on Rob. Four of his goals for Doncaster have come from the bench, and with Collins often rotated when we have two games in a week, one can see plenty of opportunities for Street over the course of autumn and winter.
Conclusion
I’m guilty of overlooking both Street and JJ McKiernan when looking ahead to next season. They both came on four-year deals and went out on loan, and to a degree, they’ve become forgotten men.
However, the purpose of a loan is to get experience, not to leave the club. We often saw promising players leave after loans, such as Theo Archibald, but these two are coming back and Street, in particular, has made a real claim for a first team squad place last season.
He might not be a new signing, but bringing in a ten-goal striker in the summer (ten goals in just four months) would be huge. His coming back adds real quality to our forward line, and once again, proves me absolutely wrong. Nothing makes me happier than being wrong about a player (unless I say he’s ace and he’s crap, obviously).