Chesterfield: Paul Cook can ignite play-off push with November tweak | OneFootball

Paul Cook’s Chesterfield are on an eight-game unbeaten run and sit in sixth place, all with last season's Player of the Year playing out of position.

Chesterfield are flying high in League Two following an eight-match unbeaten run and another five-goal haul away at Morecambe on Saturday means Town are the current top scorers in the top four divisions, but their gung-ho approach leaves them vulnerable at the back.

Paul Cook’s side struggled at times in the first half against the Shrimps and conceded twice in a 5-2 win. Following three 2–2 draws against Bromley, Walsall, and Notts County, last Saturday was the fourth time this month the Spireites have shipped two goals in a match.

Cook has tended to chop and change his central defensive duo this campaign, with Chesterfield lining up with six different pairings in just 14 league games with Tom Naylor, Chey Dunkley, Harvey Araujo, Jamie Grimes, and Tyrone Williams all battling it out for two starting spots.

Naylor has started 11 matches in defence this season but was used as a midfielder when the Spireites kept a clean sheet away at hotly-tipped Doncaster Rovers so a move back into a more familiar role could add some steel to Chesterfield’s engine room.

Naylor was Chesterfield’s Player of the Year as a midfielder last season.

Naylor was one of Cook’s marquee signings ahead of the 2023/24 season, with the 33-year-old making 36 Championship appearances the previous year at Portsmouth. As a regular for Cook's former clubs, Pompey and Wigan Athletic, he came with a big reputation and certainly lived up to the hype.

Playing as a holding midfielder in Cook’s 4-2-3-1 system, Naylor scored 11 goals and contributed a further six assists in the National League as Chesterfield stormed to the title by 12 points.

There were very few holes in Naylor’s game in midfield. He could arrive late into the box to score goals, break the lines with a killer pass to create chances for his teammates, win tackles in front of the back four, and control games from the middle of the park. Put simply, the EFL veteran made the Spireites tick.

Darren Oldaker has taken up Naylor’s role of ‘goalscoring midfielder’ brilliantly, with two goals and three assists so far this campaign, but the 25-year-old doesn’t possess the defensive ability of the Kirkby-born midfielder, and Chesterfield’s midfield has been opened up too easily at times.

Defender Will Wright’s opening night goal for Swindon is a prime example. The 27-year-old slipped past Oldaker on the half-way line and was allowed to run straight through the Spireites’ midfield unopposed and score past Ryan Boot.

Alongside Oldaker for the past four matches has been Everton loanee Jensen Metcalfe and while he has been a tidy player for the Spireites, seeing a lot of the ball and rarely giving it away, he’s still learning the game and has looked lightweight at times, and is yet to score or assist for Town.

Naylor has played in midfield twice this season, away at Doncaster, where a 3-0 win handed Rovers a first League Two home defeat since January and against Walsall, where he picked up an assist, albeit from a free kick.

If Cook were to move the defensive-minded Naylor back into midfield, where he made 44 appearances last season, it would give the team more balance and the back four more protection, allowing Oldaker to get forward and continue his impressive output.

Chesterfield already have plenty of options at centre back.

The Spireites are spoiled for choice with defensive options.

Club captain Grimes has struggled for pitch-time, having only made two starts in the league this season, coming off the bench against Doncaster, Newport, where he successfully dealt with the aerial threat of Kyle Hudlin, and against Morecambe.

The 33-year-old has admitted he is frustrated at the lack of minutes and has done well in all five of his appearances, even scoring his first EFL goal in six years last weekend.

Tyrone Williams is another player who has found game-time hard to come by this season, but he was unexpectedly given a first League Two start against Newport and kept a clean sheet, donning the captain’s armband in the absence of Naylor and Grimes.

Another forgotten man this season has been fellow defender Ashley Palmer, who has been sidelined with a knee injury since pre-season, and he has been seen pictured back in first-team training.

Chesterfield have a favourable FA Cup first round tie against seventh-tier Horsham this Saturday, and it could give Cook a good opportunity for fringe players like Palmer, Grimes and Williams to gain valuable minutes and potentially push for a starting spot.

While Naylor has done a good job filling in at centre-back, there’s no doubt his best position is in the midfield, with teams playing on his lack of size and speed by using a mixture of target men and pacey forwards.

Notts County's Alassana Jatta outjumped Naylor to score a close-range header in the 14th minute in a 2-2 draw, and the former Burton man was also beaten in the air by target man Jayden Stockley in the build-up to Ethan Chislett’s winner for Port Vale.

Naylor was unfortunate enough to score an own goal against Morecambe on the weekend, and with Cook not using his star player in his best position, he may risk scoring one himself.