A mate of mines a Blackpool fan he can't believe how well bash has done for us,they didn't rate him and he was in and out of a poor team.
I didn’t rate Basham when he joined us, looked average league 1 standard at best, but he was fully committed giving 100% so I cut his some slack. His improvement in the past 2 years has been like watching a miracle, seems impossible.
I’ve mentioned this before but I reckon Wilder has sussed out that Basham isn’t good enough to be a central defender and isn’t good enough the be a midfielder. However he does see that Basham has a fantastic engine, good battling mentality and versatile enough to put in a half decent job at either right back, central defender or midfield. Basham is “Mr Versatility”
So Wilders plan for Basham is absolute genius. Play him on the right hand side of a back 3.
He’s not the greatest in central defence but in a 3 he doesn’t have so much responsibility and he has the commanding Egan next to him. Wilder knows that Basham has a great engine so makes use of it by telling Basham to get forward as much as possible.
Normally Basham wouldn’t be good enough for midfield but he’s now pushing forward as a spare man and proving difficult to pick up.
Also Baldock is told to get forward as much as possible, so he can be caught out up field. On the rare occasion this does happen then Basham is comfortable enough to slot in to right back position when Baldock isn’t there (caught out of position).
Basham has many weaknesss but they have been greatly minimised with the role he currently plays
But all of Bashams strengths fit his current role perfectly, so now Basham looks a really good player, even at this level.
This is the perfect example of Wilders fantastic management, round pegs then creating a round holes. If it’s a square peg then he creates a square hole.
