by RoyalBlue »
04 Oct 2018 19:14
leon Snowflake Royal RoyalBlue
Within twenty minutes it was obvious that Kelly was having an absolute nightmare. Not only did he look lost but he also looked completely disinterested. He should have been replaced by Swift at that point.
Swift has made it clear that he did not have any injury problem and that it was just cramp at Brentford. It also appears that, either he is covering up for Clement, or he genuinely wasn't told why he wasn't selected for the starting lineup against QPR (absolutely p*ss poor management if true).
Clement should've started with his strongest team (Swift is far, far superior to Kelly) to try to get our noses in front and then used his subs to replace tired players if necessary, not wait until we were a goal down to bring on two players who could have made a significant positive contribution had they started the game.
I think we've frequently seen in the past that players are not great judges of their own fitness.
I also completely disagree that Swift is far superior to Kelly. They have different strengths and weaknesses and have both been at times excellent and at times shambolic. Kelly's fitness is certainly more reliable.
Maybe Clement just didn want to run the risk of more forced subs from Swift cramping up again, or a consequent injury. I don't care. The decision to play Kelly pre-match was not unreasonable under the circumstances IMO.
And the conversation isn't about what should have happened once the game had started.
Kelly’s shit and has been for over a year. He shouldn’t be anywhere near the first team.
Swift, though, is injury prone and I can see why he wasn’t played from the off.
So who did that leave us in centre mid?
We really still are fcuked when it comes to the midfield. Still.
As Adie Williams and Mick Gooding would always say, if Swift was fit enough to be on the bench and quite likely to be brought on then he was fit enough to start. If he wasn't fit enough to come on as a sub other than in a real emergency then his place on the bench should've been taken by someone else.
Swift should've been on for the start to give us the strongest possible team from the start and then been subbed if he tired. He certainly should've been brought on in the first half when it was evident that Kelly was having a nightmare game.
There is no doubt at all that Swift is a far better player than Kelly (which of the two has played for the international team?). Furthermore, he was only really injury prone last year when he didn't have any real rest over the summer period, broke down and then kept returning too early.