Great player to stick on after an hour. Lets Connell run himself into the ground. I don’t mind it. I’m never dropping Phillips and Russell doesn’t deserve the chop either. So it’s Luca or Kelechi and regardless of current opinion, they’re both quality. Gent looked absolutely shattered the other day, so no surprise to see Barry get a chance. Shame there’s no Humphrys to bring off the bench, but Cosgrove and Marsh will want to show something you’d imagine, with the window about to open. Confident today, assuming they perform like Boxing Day.
A lot of games in a short period of time; Gent probably needed a rest, Cotter deserves a run and O’Keeffe presumably will play left. No problem with him not starting Nwakali - I would, I think he’s the best passer of a ball at the club - but he may feel for a game that probably won’t be the most ‘pretty’, the graft of Connell, legs and power of Russell (!!), and final third threat of Phillips is the best shout. Live and die by decisions, let’s hope he’s right and we bag another three points.
I genuinely reckon it's a consequence of us having to play Phillips basically as a wide forward. If we actually have 3 attackers quite good at football I reckon he'd be starting. Maybe clutching at straws mind.
The problem with Gent is that he so left-footed, no right foot at all - he's bound to always want to go on the outside and I think he's fairly easy to defend against when we are attacking. Just show him inside.
I was really running out of patience with Clarke after the Orient game. I know he can't legislate for just how bad some of our players performed in that match, he certainly didn't instruct them to play like that, but neither did he correctly instruct them to play to the conditions and I thought his decision making was really poor throughout the match. But credit where it's due, he's nailed it these last couple of games. It's not about picking our favourites, it's about selecting a team to win games and using substitutes to improve us after his first 11 have tired, and that's exactly what he's done. 10 out of 10 for Clarke in these last 2 matches. If I could give 11 I would.
