Could Harvey Knibbs finally have his breakout season for Cambridge United?

It’s fair to say that Harvey Knibbs hasn’t quite fulfilled the lofty expectations that were placed on his shoulders when he signed for Cambridge United.

The 22-year-old spent time in Nottingham Forest’s academy before joining Aston Villa, signing his first professional contract with them in 2017. However, despite being highly rated at youth level, he never managed to break into the Villains’ first-team before leaving the club in 2019.

It became clear that the Bristol-born striker needed to play senior football, and that opportunity soon came about after leaving Villa Park. Colin Calderwood had worked as assistant manager to Steve Bruce at Aston Villa before becoming manager of Cambridge United, and the U’s were the ones to offer Knibbs the opportunity to play regularly in League Two.

His first taste of senior football came in the 2019/20 campaign, where he scored nine goals in 31 appearances. While it didn’t count towards his overall tally, Knibbs made the headlines when he scored the winning penalty in Cambridge’s Carabao Cup win against Brentford at Griffin Park.

Unfortunately, that proved to be the pinnacle of his U’s career so far. Calderwood’s sacking was coupled with the signings of Paul Mullin and Joe Ironside, who started the vast majority of games up front as the club won promotion under Mark Bonner whilst Knibbs only made 23 league appearances, scoring twice.

The departure of Mullin to Wrexham means that Cambridge have lost a 32-goal striker, and that leaves a huge gap in their attack. Sam Smith, who spent time on loan at the club in 2019/20, has returned on a permanent basis in order to ease the pressure on Ironside. Question marks remain as to whether that will be enough for the U’s to stay in League One.

Perhaps the stars have finally aligned for Knibbs and perhaps this can be his breakout season.

In many ways, he’s quite an awkward striker. Standing at 6ft 2in, his height can be an advantage. His one goal in pre-season came against Brentford B when he latched onto Wes Hoolahan’s pinpoint lob to head the ball into the back of the net.

It showed that Knibbs does have that clinical edge, but he hasn’t shown that enough in his career so far. In 57 appearances for Aston Villa’s youth teams, he only managed 17 goals. At senior level with Cambridge, he’s scored 11 goals in 62 games. These aren’t awful stats, they are far from it, but is it enough to replace Mullin?

He’s also going to have to adapt to a change of formation. Under Calderwood in 2019/20 and Bonner in 2020/21, Cambridge have favoured playing with two strikers. Knibbs has looked more confident when he has another attacker alongside him, but that probably won’t be the case next season.

Bonner has been keen to “respect the level” by changing from a 4-4-2 formation to a 4-2-3-1 formation as the U’s prepare to make the step up to League One. This would allow more players to contribute defensively, but means that whoever is chosen to play up front will be a lone striker.

The club’s current striker options, Smith, Ironside, Knibbs and Andy Dallas, have limited experience in leading the line on their own. While all but Dallas managed to find the net in pre-season, they’ve often looked incredibly isolated when playing up front by themselves.

This isn’t necessarily a criticism of the strikers, because the issue stems from the fact that they lack support from the players behind them. This was understandably brushed under the carpet against QPR, due to the fact that Cambridge were facing a top Championship side without their main creative midfielder in Hoolahan.

The performance against Northampton was more concerning, given that the Cobblers are once again back in League Two. The U’s stumbled to a 0-0 draw in a game that they easily could’ve lost, despite Ironside’s second-half penalty miss. Of course, friendly games have to be taken with a pinch of salt, but there’s a lot of work to do before Oxford United visit The Abbey on August 7th.

Hoolahan was the sole creative outlet, playing in front of a double pivot of Adam May and Paul Digby. While he showed flashes of brilliance, he wasn’t able to have the same impact, and failed to create clear cut chances for Ironside in attack.

However, it’s looking increasingly likely that Knibbs won’t fall into that category. The U’s head coach has been increasingly concerned about the lack of options in wide areas, especially following the injury setback to new arrival Jack Lankester. As a result, Knibbs has been played out on the right wing for much of pre-season.

Speaking to Prost International, Bonner elaborated on his decision and explained whether or not we would see Knibbs in this position in the upcoming campaign,

“I think when you play with one striker it obviously opens up limited options for the strikers in the team. So Harvey being able to play in a front two we know, but it’s important that we get Joe and Sam up to speed because they haven’t been around for all of pre-season.

“It’s important that when Wes plays in a central area, we look at other people in wide positions. Harvey’s played off the left in the past, off the right in the past, and I think in the end we want those players to be able to contribute as many minutes as possible. So being able to play in a few positions helps him to maximise his game time.

“He’s learning that position at the moment, it’s something that he’s done at Aston Villa before in the academy, and he’s done it well in the past. So it’s something that I’m sure we’ll see at times throughout the season.”

His versatility may be a blessing, especially given the lack of depth in certain areas of the U’s squad. Of course, playing out wide would ease the goalscoring burden on Knibbs, although Bonner has called upon the entire squad to contribute towards replacing Mullin’s attacking output.

That being said, there are concerns about this decision as well. The 22-year-old is yet to fully develop as a striker, so suddenly forcing a drastic change of position could damage his progress. What Cambridge don’t want is for him to become someone who can play in multiple positions, but not at the required level.

As expected, Knibbs still looks somewhat uncomfortable out on the wing, but time will tell whether he can fully adapt to that position or not. Although he never managed to become a top player in League Two, a step up to the third tier coupled with a consistent run of games may be enough to help him fulfil his potential.

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