There are clearly arguments for an against, valid arguments on both sides

Farke stakes a lot on being fair and players retaining the shirt and its not as if Mclean has done really badly. He's a decent player and when Vrancic and Leitner were injured I wanted him in the side because I felt we needed a passer alongside Trybull or Tettey.

But now Vrancic and Leitner are available the question(s) for me is not whether Mclean is a good player its whether he is better in that role than either of them and whether the overall play of the team would be improved if one of them came back in. I don;t want this to sound like a witch hunt against Mclean because it isn't. But i do think that watching our recent games, despite the result, the overall quality of the performance of our midfield has dipped. We don;t have the same flow and the defenders and Trybull are getting penned in at times because there is not the easy out ball that Vran and Mo provide. If you watch back the game last night you can see on several occasions our defenders and Trybull looking for an easy pass into that pocket of space in midfield that they usually sit in and there was nobody there.

We are fortunate in that we have such good players going forward and such good full backs that we can still beat most sides in this league whilst not producing 100% convincing performances. we can do this because our front 4 are outstanding and we can score goals for fun. It could well be that we can continue to do this for the rest of the season. Mclean may also get used to the positional requirements and gel better with Trybull. i suspect its only 2 or 3 of our tougher games games where this selection point may potentially make a difference. However, we are currently in a scenario where every result is crucial and I still think its a risk not to play what in my opinion is your best midfield. I also think that even if he;s not going to start them he needs to bring on the likes of Mo and Vrancic earlier in games as they are really not getting any meaningful game time at all at the moment.

Anyway I accept there are arguments to the contrary but that's my view on the matter.

Posted By: Jim on March 14th 2019 at 10:51:46

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