My "what does he do?" may have looked flippant, but I was being genuine - can someone who defends him on here tell me what he contributes?

There were plenty of Derby fans who said that Bryson had been a great player for them in the past, but had dropped below those standards in the previous two seasons. As he was thirty when he signed for us (he was thirty one last month), I took that to mean that his legs were going. However, there were reports that in a recent game (think it might have been Barnsley) that he ran further than any City player had done since they started measuring distance covered in a game and on Tuesday he was still one of our most energetic players at the end of the game, despite the fact he has only just recovered from injury.

Therefore, I think I was wrong to form the conclusion I did about his legs going, or at least I was wrong to think he was losing stamina and energy. However, despite the complimentary comment above about his "closing down, tackling and chasing", I see very little evidence of that every week or, to be more accurate, I see very little effective closing down, tackling and chasing from Bryson - that's not to say that the intention to do those things is not there, it certainly is, but it seems to me that Bryson is usually a little late in getting there to provide that closing down and sides can play around him quite easily, so, maybe, his legs are going in terms of speed and acceleration?

Anyway, there was far more to Bryson's game during his best days at Derby than closing down, tackling and chasing. He was a real goal threat with an ability to time his attacking runs to perfection and he contributed with some neat passing in and around the penalty area as well. The only time we've seen the old Bryson in terms of that goal threat was with his fine goal at Sunderland and it's strange, that, having made it all look so easy that day, we've seen nothing remotely like that since from him.

As I say, there are those who rate Bryson on here and I look forward to any attempts to prove to me that I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that, although I thought he did better in the second half on Tuesday, all I see is someone who gets on the ball very few times and struggles to fulfill the defensive side of his game as well.