Town boss Kieran McKenna has explained why George Edmundson was left out of the 18 which won 2-0 at Accrington Stanley in the Blues’ last game and also how he views his backline at present.
Eyebrows were raised when Edmundson, 25, a regular feature of the Town defence since joining the club in the summer of 2021 aside from when out injured, was omitted from the squad at the Wham Stadium with Cameron Burgess starting alongside Luke Woolfenden with Richard Keogh on the bench.
"George is fine, he’s been training well,” McKenna said when asked if the former Rangers and Oldham man had picked up a knock. "We have four good centre-halves competing for two positions in the team, one on the bench.
"Different players are going to be needed at different times for different reasons and he’s in the mix with a very strong centre-half group at the moment.”
Quizzed on his reference to four centre-halves rather than five and whether he sees his system as more four at the back than five and Janoi Donacien as a right-back, McKenna added: "I have always thought of Janoi as closer to a right-back than a centre-back. Last year, we had three centre-backs plus Elkan Baggott for most of the last few months of last season.
"At times last season, we defended more in a back four and sometimes in a back five and the same again this year.
"There are certain games where we defend more in a line of four and other games more so in a line of five.
"And there are certain areas where we defend more in a line of four, sometimes in a line of five, sometimes in a line of three.
"We have that flexibility which is useful as it matches up well against different types of teams and different opponents.”