Cod Almighty | Diary

Are Colombia the new Brazil?

4 July 2014

Paul Hurst never loved Louis Moult, a thousand social media rumours said he did.

Our manager has also declared he is not too worried what sort of striker he brings to Blundell Park. Coinciding with James Rodriguez and Neymar taking to the field in Fortaleza tonight, that prompts the thought 'What Town players have approximated to the number 10 role?'

The routine excoriation of English football's fixation with 4-4-2 may have some validity but glides over the variety the system allows. What was rigid was the way the team-sheet was presented, rather than the way the players actually performed. As ever, Alan Buckley was way ahead of the game. Anyone wanting to appear sophisticated now would be turning out the phrase 'false 9' as well as 'number 10' to describe the ways that Garry Birtles, Tony Rees and Neil Woods used to interact.

Later on, Lee Nogan was another false 9. Not the most popular of players at the time, it is nevertheless a revelation to watch one of the 1998 Wembley videos to see how he influenced the match, always on the move, pulling defenders with him, while rarely touching the ball.

Lenny Lawrence brought with him not greater tactical sophistication but greater pretentiousness. He started sending Kingsley Black or Kevin Donovan into "the hole". They rarely saw daylight again.

Go back instead of forward and fans even older than Middle-Aged Diary will no doubt talk about inside-forwards, bringing us to Jackie Bestall, the archetypal Town great in that he was short and overlooked for the national appreciation he deserved. I guess the first priority for a time machine trip back to the 1930s will have to be to prevent the rise of fascism, but watching Bestall and Pat Glover at work and play at Blundell Park will run it a close second.

The code of honour among close-season diarists prevents me using that time machine to nip forward a couple of hours for Town's 2014-15 league fixtures, by the way. Instead, I'll quickly mention that Town's youth play their first friendly at Cleethorpes Town tonight, then return to the topic I tried to open up yesterday.

Asked how you'd respond to a Town player cheating to win a late penalty in an important match, Matt Pakes writes: "Internally, the only logical reaction is ambivalence, probably followed by some form of guilty joy. Externally, the complete facial repertoire of Keanu Reeves from the Matrix films." The Matrix films have passed me by, but I'm guessing that implies a dramatic performance along the lines of 'Mickael Antoine-Curier: the ballet'.