United’s midfield ranks have taken a double hit in recent weeks with long-term injuries for Jamie Devitt and Callum Guy, but manager Paul Simpson reminded us at his Thursday press briefing that every setback means a door opens and an opportunity arises for someone else.
“Thankfully we’ve got people like Brennan Dickenson and Rod McDonald back in, and Kelvin Mellor’s maybe a week or ten days away,” he said.
“We’ve got players who are classed as experienced in a young squad, people like Corey Whelan and Danny Devine, who will definitely come into the thinking.
“We’ll see come the weekend what team gets put out. It’s now for somebody else to come into the side and grab hold of that position and make it their own for the last nine games.”
Another vacancy with the absence of Callum Guy is the captain’s role out on the pitch.
“The truth is it’s not something I’ve ever thought about,” he commented. “Last weekend, when Callum had to come off, I had to say to Gav Skelton that he was going to have to help me as to who was going to be the next captain.
“He said that Corey normally takes it so I went, right, crack on, Corey takes it. I’m not here to radically change what’s going on, I just wanted to tweak things a little bit.”
“I’d like everybody to be a leader on the grass,” he added. “I think Morgan Feeney leads in the way he goes about it, he doesn’t need an armband, even though he has been right through the Everton development teams.
“I think Jon Mellish goes about his business really quietly and professionally. Dynel Simeu leads by example. We’ve got players in that group who are showing they have leadership qualities regardless of not having an armband on.”
And could the midfield injuries lead to a recall for Taylor Charters, who is performing well in his loan spell over in the north-east?
“We’ve certainly talked about that,” he revealed. “To be honest we’ve talked about him coming back since the first week I was here, but he’s now getting regular game time in their team over there.
“I think the best place for him to be is playing football, and at this moment I can’t guarantee him any football here. For his development, he’s in a good place.
“It may be that we might have to make the decision to recall him, but at the moment I think he’s in the right place, and hopefully the players we’ve got here will be able to show what they’re capable of and get us results.”
