This is the thing tho, without a run of games we will never see what he's capable of. After 6 or 7 games if performances haven't improved then I agree with changing it up
Phillips, Connell and probably Kane are still first choice midfield for me. Cole, Watters and Dallas covering the 90 minutes up top though I was pleasantly surprised by a few things Shaw did when he came on. Defence as started on Saturday bur De Gevigney may well be one of the back three and Shephard looks imposing. Saturday was one of those days when everything went in but they did better than my worst case scenario and looked very slick with passing and movement at times. I watched the full replay on ifollow this morning and it was the Vale commentary. Their two guys were very fair but one thing made me smile. The commentator said someone had told him Collins was a very angry man and his summariser laughingly agreed that he was the angriest man he'd ever met! Sounds like it might be woe betide a bad performance from our lads!
I'm just not even seeing the basics from him. His first move when the ball's heading his way is to jump into his opponent. Has zero clue where the ball is. On one occasion in the second half, the ball came to him at waist height. He controlled it, held it up & laid it off. Nice, simple, effective, but once in a game doesn't really secure your spot.
You'd have to give Shaw or Dallas a go after Watters' non-show on Saturday. It's a lot easier to look good coming on when we're 4 or 5 up. Watters did nothing of note while he was on the pitch. Hardly surprising however when we were just hoofing it up for him to get beaten every time by a heftier centre back. Those tactics were useless and were shown to be so for the first half hour. If we want to give him a run then we need to give him a chance.
To be honest with you I agree, I'm yet to see what made Cardiff splash 1 million pounds on him. If he struggles at this level I can see him dropping to league 2 on loan....... He's here for 3 years so still time.
I say tough s#17 to Phillips. He's good yes but he should wait until someone ahead of him moves or has a dip in form. It's unfortunate but that's football. If Watters isn't firing after a run of games he needs dropping for Dallas or Shaw. It really is that simple.
If Russell plays anywhere near his obvious ability he has and adding a consistent good work ethic then he plays every week same with Styles leaving the best 3 midfielders in the league Kane Connell and Phillips fighting for one position. That is just a scary thought
I would keep Dallas in head of Watters. He scored so it’s his place to lose, create some competition amongst them
And the funny thing is nearly everyone’s forgotten about Benson. If and I realise this is a big if given the last 18 months to go by he gets fit he’s a brilliant player at this level. Was quality at the start of last season scored a couple of thirty odd yarders and was keeping Kane out of the side.
