Linnets boss feels his squad needs more balance after defeat

King’s Lynn Town manager Adam Lakeland says there is room for extra balance in his squad and knows he needs fresh faces at The Walks.

Lakeland – serving a one-game touchline ban – watched from the stand as the Linnets lost 3-1 to Buxton in his first game in charge.

After the match, Lynn’s new boss admitted that his squad lacks some pace and width and that any new arrivals could be offset by players going in the other direction.

“It’s just balancing out what we have,” said Lakeland.

“You know we’ve got a hell of a lot of bodies who play down the middle of the pitch. We’ve got five or six centre-halves, it’s crazy, and we’ve got a lot of midfield players.

“Obviously Tommy Hughes is still out injured and he’s another big player to come back, so we’ve got a lot of central midfield players and a lot of attacking midfield players.

“We’ve got Q (Quaine Bartley), Barts (Bartosz Cybulski) and Jordan (Ponticelli) who can play through the middle, but you then look at us down the sides and we’ve got very few options.

“In the wing-back areas we’ve got Cliffy (Tom Clifford) and Kian (Ronan) and there’s no real competition for places there.

“It’s my job to try to give us more balance in the group so we can get a bit of pressure on the lads that are playing in their positions and get some options higher up the pitch in the wide areas.

“It’s very difficult for wing-backs playing in that system. The most natural thing for a full-back or wing-back to do is to open up and push it down the line and then go and overlap or run the lap and get balls in the box.

“They haven’t got that so that’s probably impacting on their game as well.

“I don’t think it needs major surgery. I think we have got a lot of good players here, but the ones who we feel are the weakest of the areas where we’ve got too many bodies we need to probably look at maybe moving those out.

“It’s about getting them out on loan or sending loanees back and replacing them with players in areas of the pitch where it will give us more options going forward.”

Lynn’s boss also reiterated that playmaker Josh Barrett is staying at the club – despite more interest from National League Aldershot and former Linnets boss Tommy Widdrington earlier in the week.

“He’s contracted to us and he’s staying here, that’s simple,” said Lakeland.

“I spoke with Tommy on Tuesday and said if they wanted him then he needs to put a, put a bid in because he’s not going for free.

“He’s one of the best players in the league when he’s at it. They had no money to pay for him and he said they’d take him on loan, but they wouldn’t pay all of his wages.

“I told him that’s not happening. JB is a top player and I have to say he’s his attitude this week has been absolutely first class.

“He’s worked hard, he’s trained well, he’s smiling and if we can get a tune out of him he’s one of the best players in this league.

“He shouldn’t be playing at this level but ultimately it’s my job to find a system that suits him and get the best out of him.

“I believe if he continues to work as he has done this week, then he’ll he will come good for us, I have no doubt about that.”