I am not a fan of Barnes, but the recent success has shown that

the way Wagner seems to use him is not "leading the line" or as a genuine number 10 but more the combination of him and Sargent giving defenders kittens and causing chaos as the opposition tries to play it out, often with any resulting loose ball picked up by Sara, Sainz, Nunez or McCallum and Sarge has the pace to then get into scoring positions.

I would imagine that Championship defences hate playing against us because of the Sarge / Barnes combo in the middle and the marauding full backs giving them a lot of pressure even if not performing the high energy high press that the binners are supposed to be good at.

Having said that, when Sarge came off last night I do think we should have replaced with a striker for the above reason. Barnes on his own doesn't have the pace, and it also means the wingers are having to defend deeper without the additional help from the more mobile striker so even if he does hold up a clearance he has nobody to lay it off to.

Posted By: Legacy Fan, Apr 10, 09:57:00