Bluemike wrote: ↑Sun Mar 09, 2025 2:03 pm
The thing is I have no idea why some are making it an issue between Delap and Hirst, both our assets, both decent at what they do and both trying their best in the hardest league in the world, why is it a competition? There's pros and cons to both, its almost a tit for tat let's take sides thing which frankly is ridiculous.
Mike, I couldn't agree more.... fortunately

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I can get the reasoning behind some wanting to play both of them up front together, however when they are the only two strikers that we have of that ilk, I feel it is a big risk to start with them. Having one of them on the bench gives us options to change like for like (in other words at least keeping a bustling target man on the pitch who will occupy defenders), though I also appreciate like-for-like Subs are a gripe many aim at KM! It might be worth putting Hirst on post 65-70 minutes and keeping Delap on too, I would of course be interested to see how that worked out! However, do you lose something in other areas by doing that? I don't watch us much so I don't have a clue!
In my heart, I feel that we just haven't got the quality in our side and while KM keeps 'tinkering', injuries/suspensions certainly haven't helped us to keep a settled side! We have a very young forward prong of players who will, I'm sure, be a huge asset to us, even if only in any fee we get for them! The more games they play,
hopefully the better they should get! Hutchinson took quite some time to show a better level of consistency and I believe Clark could do too and Philogene will eventually. They need minutes to build towards a better version of themselves!
Incidentally, I notice there seem to be general waves of opinions about who should play where etc. I am interested to know where all the strong calls for Hutch to play down the right side subsided to? Is Hutch playing down the right or still central (If the former I can understand why that hot topic has cooled)? If he is playing down the right, are we any better for it? It certainly seems goals scored have actually worsened to me! While this question could appear to be a bit petulant, there is a genuine interest in what the majority of posters who attacked KM for playing him centrally think now?