Burnwinter Then he goes to the post match presser and pats himself on the back for bringing Smith Rowe on for five minutes!
I know you're being flippant but I think that was more to manage his recovery from injury than anything else.
RocktheCasbah I agree with a lot of what you're saying but when we're currently short a bit of depth in some positions and the depth available are youth players that have never played 90 minutes, at some point you have to give them pitch time so they can get a feel for senior football. When today was a dead rubber, there aren't going to be many better chances than this. And we're not talking about 11 youth players coming in, we had three in the squad yesterday.
It's a vicious cycle because by not giving them a chance in matches like this, it gives them even less of a chance being under consideration for matches that are of more importance, which leads to a situation where we're playing Rice at CB, Partey at RB, Cedric at LB and Elneny in midfield. Not only is that a waste of 1 (arguably 2) of our best players but it's an investment in three players who likely won't be around next season. Cedric in particular doesn't suit the way we play, is a level below what's required and is out of contract in the summer. In that situation, I struggle to understand why Walters doesn't get a run-out.
