Chris Davies and Centre Mids (4 replies)
There's been a lot of chat about the lack of rotation over the season, but one thing which I've noticed is that even in-game, Davies is very hesitant to change anything in centre-midfield.
Ignoring the 4 games Paik was injured, he's played 2,789 minutes out of 2,880 and he's only been subbed off once before the 85th minute all season. Iwata has only been subbed off before 70 minutes twice (Cambridge when we were coasting, and when on a yellow against Stevenage).
Even Marc Leonard - who has barely featured (over 25% of his league minutes came before we signed Iwata) - when Paik was injured he played every minute of every league game, playing the full 90 back-to-back against Exeter, Wrexham, and Huddersfield.
When the likes of TGH play midfield - it's the same. With Paik out injured he played 4 games back to back, only being subbed off once in the 87th minute.
One of the things I liked about Davies at the start of the season was his willingness to change things early - bring on a second striker, bring on wingers, change things up at half time. But this seemingly doesn't apply to his centre midfielders.
At this level, we're able to control games and win even with players not at their freshest. We're on track to break records, win the league at a canter, and Davies might well win manager of the season. I also really rate Davies, think he's been absolutely fantastic for us, and the level of football we're playing is a tier above anything we've played since Hughton was in charge.
But next year's it's going to be much harder. We're not going to be able to coast to 1-0 wins against teams significantly worse than us. We can all see Thor looks knackered and isn't as effective as the start of the season. Dowell has started 10 games in a row, only coming off before the 85th minute twice, and hasn't had a non-penalty goal involvement since Cambridge.
Maybe we'll solve it by buying more centre mids in the summer, but even then that will only help if we actually rotate or make earlier subs in game.
Ignoring the 4 games Paik was injured, he's played 2,789 minutes out of 2,880 and he's only been subbed off once before the 85th minute all season. Iwata has only been subbed off before 70 minutes twice (Cambridge when we were coasting, and when on a yellow against Stevenage).
Even Marc Leonard - who has barely featured (over 25% of his league minutes came before we signed Iwata) - when Paik was injured he played every minute of every league game, playing the full 90 back-to-back against Exeter, Wrexham, and Huddersfield.
When the likes of TGH play midfield - it's the same. With Paik out injured he played 4 games back to back, only being subbed off once in the 87th minute.
One of the things I liked about Davies at the start of the season was his willingness to change things early - bring on a second striker, bring on wingers, change things up at half time. But this seemingly doesn't apply to his centre midfielders.
At this level, we're able to control games and win even with players not at their freshest. We're on track to break records, win the league at a canter, and Davies might well win manager of the season. I also really rate Davies, think he's been absolutely fantastic for us, and the level of football we're playing is a tier above anything we've played since Hughton was in charge.
But next year's it's going to be much harder. We're not going to be able to coast to 1-0 wins against teams significantly worse than us. We can all see Thor looks knackered and isn't as effective as the start of the season. Dowell has started 10 games in a row, only coming off before the 85th minute twice, and hasn't had a non-penalty goal involvement since Cambridge.
Maybe we'll solve it by buying more centre mids in the summer, but even then that will only help if we actually rotate or make earlier subs in game.