The "B" word

Valley_floyd_red

Bailey.

Can't mention his name or else get shouted down but he is the player we miss that no one dare mention.

Can anyone else remember the Andy Reid sized hole (and some might say that was a fair sized hole) that Nicky Bailey filled? His histrionics and play off cock ups aside we are desperately missing a holding player like him.

Bedsaddick

Middleborough arent doing too great with him though. (to be fair i'm not sure if he's starting )

Gotta agree , we are missing him. Central Midfield has been very poor this season and traditionally we have always been strong there.

siblers

Anytime I've seen 'boro highlights he has been playing. I kinda miss Burton and even Mooney.

uncle

Miss burtons hold up play and someone getting there to join him more often than not it was Bailey. Big hole left by those two

Scoham

[cite]Posted By: uncle[/cite]Miss burtons hold up play and someone getting there to join him more often than not it was Bailey. Big hole left by those two

Agree about Burton. We have a few midfielders who can/should score goals, only Waggy has done so far though.

adamtheaddick

Once youga is fit Jackson will get his chance centre mid hopefully

Fanny Fanackapan

Was only saying the same thing yesterday, VFR. Led by example when the going got tough....

" You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone"

Richard J

Bailey was only on the Bench for Boro Saturday.

Valley_floyd_red

It's a shame that his time with us had to end so disastrously but it was a given that if we didn't win promotion he was going to go. Bailey was always better when playing in the middle, I'm not sure if I can see Jackson doing a similar job.

adamtheaddick

Jackson could be the creative midfielder we've been looking for with semedo alongside to do the donkey work jackson does have it in his locker to be a top centre midfielder. And could easily bag 10 plus goals from that posistion.

LSEBarnes

[cite]Posted By: Valley_floyd_red[/cite]we are desperately missing a holding player like him

What do you mean by 'holding player'.

miss his energy, drive and goals. That volley against Millwall was probably my favourite goal last season.

adamtheaddick

Bailey wasn't a holding midfielder, semedo is the holding midfielder, bailey was more attacking, mccormack was supposed to be baileys natural replacement an attacking midfielder who also can put his foot in every now and then, but he has struggled to bed in just at the moment.

carly burn

[cite]Posted By: adamtheaddick[/cite] mccormack was supposed to be baileys natural replacement an attacking midfielder who also can put his foot in every now and then, but he has struggled to bed in just at the moment.

But he played along side Bailey for a couple of seasons and played the Semedo role.
McCormack,Racon,Semedo are pretty similar in their styles of play.This is where i believe Parky's dropped a bolok.

TEL

I think we miss Nicky's all round play myself, he always put in lots of energy, regardless of form

Scoham

Easy to forget we often struggled to fit Bailey in while keeping the midfield balanced.

He was also trying to do too much at times. In the second half of the season he didn't score many and was giving the ball away a lot.

Good player of course but he was inconsistent himself. Wasn't really the answer on the left and Semedo and Racon seemed to work better with each other than either with Bailey.

Bexley Dan

The only thing we miss about Bailey is his goals. He was no more capable of holding the midfield and controlling a game than the current lot.

cafcdan18

I personally believe that we miss Burton more than any other player. Bailey was very valuable but put in some very average performances at times and if he was not the captain and someone always likely to grab an important goal, I think he may have spent periods last year out of the team. It was hard to accommodate him at times and the best football we played last season was without Bailey in the middle (first 6 games for example). Not saying I would not have him back tomorrow, just that his loss is not as great as others.

Burton was excellent in the first half of the season, scored some important goals and the team suffered greatly when he was not fit and not playing. He bought experience to the frontline and his intelligence and link up play has been sorely missed. The much criticised Mooney had his best games for the club alongside Burton (MK Dons home, Swindon home P/O, Milwall home). I firmly believe that if Abbott or Benson has played alongside Burton this season, both would have broke their league duck.

Harveys Trainer

Not sure it's fair to say you don't know what you miss till its gone.
I think we all knew Bailey was a pretty good player for us and that he was ambitious so would take the opportunity when he could.
I'm sure some moaned, but someone always does.

Vincenzo

I certainly miss his goals and his drive and his effort. Not sure how far he can go in the game because his passing is not that good.

He has a handy knack of scoring though. And I wish someone in our current XI did.

Bexley Dan

Agreed about Burton - good player - and from what i've seen so far Mooney has far more footballing ability than anything we've got this year - even if he was a bit powder puff at times. Hopefully Abbot will step up tonight because in the last few games i saw him he reminded me of a cross between Mark fish and David walliams - with somebody elses legs on - possibly Phil Chapple's.