Wrexham are looking to get back on track as they travel to strugglers Colchester United this afternoon.
Phil Parkinson‘s men passed up a chance to punish their rivals on Tuesday night.
Although MK Dons, Barrow and Crewe Alexandra all dropped points, Wrexham were beaten 1-0 by Doncaster Rovers at the Eco-Power Stadium.
Supporters saw that result as a missed opportunity, as the prize on offer was to go five points clear of the Dons, but instead, the gap remains at two.
Wrexham are still firmly in the driving seat in the promotion race, however, Parkinson must consider changes to his starting XI today.
George Evans deserves to start at the base of midfield, switching Tom O’Connor to centre-back, while another talented player should be strongly considered for a start.
Luke Bolton was dropped at half-time against Doncaster
Wing-back Luke Bolton was taken off at half-time against Doncaster, with Parkinson revealing the substitution was purely tactical.
Replacing Bolton with Ryan Barnett, the Wrexham boss said: “I just felt we needed Barney’s bit of quality, Bolts has been great for us. But I just felt we needed to get Ryan on there, he had moments, he had a great chance to score and got some good crosses in.
“But you know, Bolts was unlucky because he’s done well for us but sometimes you’ve got to make a decision.”
The “wizard” certainly made an impression in an attacking sense against Rovers, sending six crosses into the box, two accurate long balls and completing 15 of his 19 passes.
While his second-half display suggests he deserves to start against Colchester, the statistics also reinforce that claim.
The stats that show why Ryan Barnett deserves to start v Colchester
Despite capturing Bolton from League Two rivals Salford City, Barnett has proven he’s better than his teammate at operating in that wing-back role, particularly when asked to defend.
Barnett has outperformed Bolton across various defensive metrics, including ground duels won, balls recovered, clearances per game and aerial duels won.
However, their attacking metrics make for a pretty close reading.
Here are their stats for the season compared via Sofascore.
- Games – Barnett (27), Bolton (32)
- Assists – Barnett (3), Bolton (6)
- Big chances created – Barnett (10), Bolton (10)
- Balls recovered per game – Barnett (2.9), Bolton (2.7)
- Ground duels won – Barnett (62%), Bolton (47%)
- Aerial duels won – Barnett (62%), Bolton (33%)
- Dribbled past per game – Barnett (0.2), Bolton (1)
There is little to separate the two in attack, but Barnett appears to be the better one-on-one defender and having performed well off the bench against Doncaster, he deserves to return to the starting XI this afternoon.