What Dons lack without Max Dean - and it's not just his goals

A clinical eye, a deadly ruthlessness and a moment of magic - the realities of Max Dean’s sale have started to hit home this week for MK Dons.

The 20-year-old was Dons’ surprise performer last season. While the returning talisman Alex Gilbey gave him a run for his money and claimed the Player of the Year title for a third time, Dean emerged out of the ‘youngster with promise’ bracket and into the ‘first name on the team-sheet’ one instead.

But as much as football is a team game, what Dons have appeared to lack so far this season is exactly what they lost when Dean set sail for Belgium a couple of months ago. And it is not just his 19 goals.

Out-and-out strikers though are a rarity, and therefore carry their weight in gold. Callum Hendry has found himself in good positions but only has one goal to his name so far, as does Ellis Harrison, who has only featured off the bench, while Matt Dennis’ injury-prone spell continues, not seen since his half-hour cameo against Bradford on opening day - only his ninth appearance of 2024, and 18th in the last 12 months.

Crucially, when things have not gone Dons’ way this season, they look like they have lacked an X-factor. Though the style of play is regimented and disciplined, sometimes the moments of magic which Dean brought last season - see his goal against Notts County or his emphatic Stadium MK return against Walsall - can turn a game on it’s head. Sometimes, of course, it worked against him. His frustrated performances against Crawley in the play-offs were balanced on a knife-edge, but at the moment, every area of Dons’ short-comings this season look like a Dean-shaped void.

What Dons lack in Dean though, they have tried to make up in the aggregate. Mike Williamson will be looking at the likes of Hendry, Gilbey, Stephen Wearne, Joe Tomlinson and Aaron Nemane to make up for the goals they are missing, and all carry viable goal threats. As a team though, they still look short of that X-factor.

Dean’s departure though was inevitable. No amount of money, a longer-term contract nor promises from above could have kept Dean at Stadium MK this summer. Scoring 19 in 34 games, whether Dons were in League One or not, the only thing that would have changed was his price tag, and someone would have met it.

And the numbers make for great reading - three goals in five Europa Conference League qualifiers for KAA Gent, and one assist from two brief substitute appearances in the Pro League thus far for the ex-Leeds striker. Dean has taken to life in his new team like a duck to water, while his old side have missed his presence.

On nights like Monday, in a sticky game where two sides were butting heads, Dons missed a little something, a sparkle, a player who looked capable of a moment of magic out of nowhere. They missed Max Dean’s biggest attribute.