Defensive dilemmas for Torquay United

The sight of a makeshift defence doing its best, after Ross Marshall’s red card in the recent league defeat by Maidstone United, was not lost on Torquay United fans who have been worried about that department since before the start of the season.
The player who had done as much as anyone to tighten things up there last March and April, 19- year-old loanee Nico Lawrence, had gone back to Southampton.
And the Gulls had not signed, or had been unable to, a senior centre-back in his place.
Which only helped to resurrect the question among supporters: “Why not move midfielder Asa Hall into the defence?”
The idea had been irrelevant while United’s captain recovered from an ankle injury.
But Hall made a welcome return off the subs’ bench a fortnight ago and, although he’s still working his way back to full match fitness, he is at least up and running again.
Moving players from one position to another has helped to extend or, in some cases, even reinvent many a career.
Probably the biggest example involving a Torquay United player was Keith Curle.
The Gulls bought Curle from Bristol Rovers in 1983 for a modest £5,000 as a rapid but inconsistent right-winger. Rovers were happy to let him go for the money.
Curle immediately found his form at Plainmoor, scoring six goals in 18 games before his hometown club Bristol City paid £12,000 for him.
Nobody who saw him play for Torquay would ever have dreamed that Curle would end up as a centre-half, and a very good one indeed. He just didn’t seem cut out for it.
But somewhere between City and Reading, who bought him for £150,000, someone had the bright idea of turning Curle, who was 6ft tall, into a central defender.
It’s history now that he went on to play for the old ‘Crazy Gang’ Wimbledon, Manchester City who paid a British record £2.5 million for a defender for him, Wolves and Sheffield United among others. Curle added a hitherto undiscovered ‘attitude’ to his game and, of course, he was seldom beaten for pace.
He even won three England caps plus 750-plus league and cup appearances, changing hands for more than £3.8 million before moving into a second successful career in coaching and management.
But it doesn’t always work out quite so well, even with players who seem nailed on for the job.
Towards the end of his time as United’s midfield inspiration, Chris Hargreaves couldn’t get around the pitch quite as well as he once did.
Manager Paul Buckle had the eminently sensible thought, as many of us did, of moving his captain into the back-four. And Hargreaves was up for it too.
Yet a switch that appeared to have so much going for it never really worked out, and Hargreaves was soon back in midfield and then off to help Oxford United follow Torquay back up from the Conference and into the Football League.
You look at Hall now. He’s 6ft 2in, he can tackle, head the ball and, at 36 with all that experience behind him, he should be able to read the game.
For several seasons now he’s also been one of Torquay’s most effective players in both penalty areas.
For all those good reasons, Hall would seem like the obvious answer to United’s current problems at the back, especially in tandem with fellow veteran Dean Moxey and the still-developing Ollie Tomlinson.
But as always, we’re not the one who picks the team – or gets the blame if it goes wrong.
One thing’s for certain.
You can bet that a manager like Gary Johnson will already have thought of it, probably even run it past Hall and possibly even tried it out on the training ground.
Watch this space...