Charlie Goode – Welcome to Wigan Athletic

Latics have moved to strengthen their squad with the loan signing of Brentford defender Charlie Goode, who joins until the end of the season.

The 28-year-old possesses a wealth of EFL experience, including a promotion with Northampton Town under his belt, and has gone from non-league to the Premier League which is testament to his character.

Following the departure of Omar Rekik, Shaun Maloney and Gregor Rioch have moved quickly to bring in the centre back who adds depth and several new and important qualities to the squad.

He’s had a few tough years due to injury so here’s hoping we can be the club where he gets his career back on track.

What does he bring to the side?

What three things have we missed more than anything in our defensive unit?

Premier League / EFL experience. Aggressive defensive work. Leadership qualities. They all spring to mind and I think it’s fair to say Charlie Goode ticks all of those boxes. To fix those problems with one loan move is wonderful work.

Speaking to Latics TV, Goode described himself as:

“A centre half who will leave everything out there. I like to lead the team and I’m an aggressive defender. At the end of the day, I want to win, so I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Charlie Goode | The First Interview – Latics TV

I think the addition of a streetwise defender who can provide a calming influence to the youngsters around him will be extremely beneficial. I think back to the Reading game a few days ago where I felt like we were in need of someone there to get a grip of things and settle things down. Jason Kerr will do that, as will our new signing.

If you’re talking about pure defensive quality then there’s no doubt Goode is Championship quality at the very least. He’s physically dominant and stands at 6ft 5in tall which allows him to win the majority of l duels he’s involved in.

Going back to the 2019/20 season, which unfortunately is the last season he played regular football, Goode led Northampton to promotion into League One as the right centre back in a back three.

He has the ball skills to cope with the demands of playing Maloney’s style, although it’s probably worth noting he’s not as much of a ball-playing defender as a Hughes, Morrison or Rekik.

That being said he does offer something on the ball and isn’t afraid to make a darting run down the wing to progress the team up the pitch. While he’s not particularly quick you’d do well to stop him when he gets going given his size and strength.

He has a decent long throw in on him too which is obviously something we’ve been known to utilise. While it would be ideal to have him on the end of a long throw I’m sure we’ll see him launch a couple into the penalty area too.

I must admit that his lack of game time over the last few years is concerning and it would be hard not to be worried about his injury-proneness. The potential for a Martin Kelly type situation feels scarily high, but maybe that’s just me and my pessimism.

Where might he play?

There’s not much versatility with this signing, nor did there need to be. The addition of an out-and-out centre back who is comfortable in a back three in four makes sense given the loss of Omar Rekik.

One thing it does suggest is that we’ll be sticking with the 3-4-3 system that we’ve used in recent weeks. We now have Hughes, Morrison, Kerr, Goode, Watts, Chambers and Clare who could all play in a back three, and five of those are specialist CBs who can’t play elsewhere. It seems unlikely that we’d need that many if the plan was to play the flat 4-2-3-1 that started the season.

Goode suits being the central or right CB in a back three, and as I mentioned he’s used to playing those roles already in his career. We don’t play a particularly high line so there won’t be any issues there, and his physical profile suits being a ‘box defender’.

I’m sure he’s come with assurances around his playing time, and while CB isn’t a position that you want to be rotating regularly it’s nice to have genuine quality depth there ahead of an important few months.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes a signing comes out of nowhere that makes more sense than it should, and I’d say this is an example of that. It appears that this has been a deal that’s been in the pipeline for a while so credit to the club for keeping it under wraps. You can tell it’s been considered for a while because, like I say, it makes a lot of sense.

We needed some experience added to our squad and I think someone like Charlie Goode is probably the highest calibre of player we can get. When he’s fit he’s a Championship quality player and I expect him to look a cut above the rest in League One when he’s had a few games to settle in.

With his contract up in the summer you’d imagine, if all goes well, there’s a chance he could join us permanently ahead of next season. It’s the kind of player you can’t really say no to in our position, and I’m sure all of our youngsters will benefit from having a player like this around for five months, or maybe more…

Welcome to Wigan Athletic, Charlie Goode!