Right, on this episode of Hold the Middle Page, brought to you by Substack,

we have a special guest, ain't life grand. Pete Jensen's back. You loved him before.

We love him still. I'm going to talk Barter.

Pete, La Minimal goes absent, goes AWO.

Bassona play four times without him in the starting line up.

Twice he comes on as a sub.

They at one point, he comes back against Majorca, and for my taste, even though it's given to Rufina,

man of the match. While he's been absent, this 17-year-old genius, what is it overall that Basona miss to have had such a

desolate record without him and such a brilliant record with him? It's got to be more than just

goals and assists, right? Yeah, I think it's the outball, isn't it? We tend to think of the outball

being someone who's big and strong and can play with their back to goal.

But it's not. It's someone who can control the ball, someone who can keep it, won't give it away, and we'll do something brilliant with it.

And I think that's what they miss when he's not there.

Apart from his eruptions of great passing and shooting and assists, is it just that sometimes they can change the tempo of a game, take a rest?

Also is the fact that when he's playing, the opposition are terrified.

And they'll take a step back or they'll leave another player with a little bit more space than they would otherwise do.

So I think he's capable of not having great games. We've seen it various times this season. You could even argue last night, not having a great game. And there's so much, so many contributions.

We are going to argue in that case, but I understand that sometimes what he can do is this special thing about like,

you don't feel he's dominating, but Bish-Bash-Bosh. Three special things in the game changes. Efficiency.

You've got a lot of pet theory as well, just to quote Brian Wilson.

It's not just about Lamin's absence for you, right?

No, because three defeats, and there's another player who's missed two of those three games.

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