Quote Originally Posted by dml1954 View Post
He played centre or right sided midfield for most of our Championship promotion season and got 10 goals in a side that got automatic promotion with 91 points ! He then got shunted up front because we didn't really have another goal scoring forward and did more than ok. He is a victim of his own enthusiasm and hard work. If Ralls and Bacuna put in half the amount of effort that he did, we wouldn't be languishing in lower mid table as we are currently
When he played on the right we were characterised by time wasting tactics and lumping the ball forward, its no surprise that our excellent early season performances became turgid hoofball affairs once he was introduced on the right.. He was a good nuisance, but he's showed nothing to suggest that he could play the role Ralls did or still does. I was a unclear on that was what I was trying to get at when saying he couldn't play in midfield, but thought it was implied as the person I was replying to specifically mentioned Ralls. By the time we'd sold him, Paterson was almost completely ineffective and having a strop if he was brought off. He's a character and he works hard, but he was almost certainly on good money as one of Warnock's favourites and exactly the kind of player we need to be moving away from if we want to watch football where the ball's on the floor for more than 10 minutes a game

Lamenting Ralls whilst bigging up Paterson's contributions in the promotion season is a strange one considering Ralls was a key part of that side, starting 37 games and playing the full 90 in all but one, with a hamstring injury the only thing keeping him from playing in the remaining games (coincidentally that spell included that brief wobble against Sheffield United, Wolves & Villa). By contrast, Paterson started 23 games, playing over 1,000 fewer minutes than Ralls. Surely if Paterson was this great midfielder, he'd have played more than the apparently work shy Ralls?

Also, Paterson's current side are one of the few below us in the table, which surely refutes your point that we wouldn't be languishing where we are if the almighty Callum Paterson were still in the side?