Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
Surely the way to approach things is acknowledge that Colwill can do things that very few in the squad can (especially if Ramsey is out for some time) and the task facing any City manager is finding a way to integrate that ability into the team format? I think if you’re good on the ball (I’d say even his critics accept Colwill is) and you know it, you’re going to want to take more touches of it - it’s been a running theme of Aaron Ramsey’s career, but it’s a “criticism” which I’d say still applies.
Bulut said that he sees Colwill as a number ten supporting the striker about a month ago, yet has used him almost exclusively in a wider position since then - now, with Ramsey’s injury there is a chance in the short, and possibly long, term to use him in the position he said Colwill is best suited to. In the last two matches, it’s been Ryan Wintle who has been given what I’d call the most advanced central midfielder role, as opposed to number ten. This was a very surprising choice to me, but, with an assist against Coventry, it could be said to have worked that evening and, given how we played at Sunderland, I can understand Wintle before Colwill or Robinson there.
Tomorrow though we face opponents that everyone is expecting us to beat, opponents who have yet to take a point away from home yet and so I think we need to be more aggressive in our selection by either leaving Wintle out or dropping him back to play alongside Siopis and bringing in Colwill or Robinson.
If it is to be Colwill, then there’s a case for Tanner starting because Wednesday offered more evidence of the understanding between those two players - Colwill seems more prepared to release the ball quickly if Tanner is one of the options he has to pass to.
Personally, the success story of the Blackburn game was how Colwill, Tanner (although not as a wing back) and Etete pushed their cases for inclusion in the starting line up for Championship matches.
Although three of them have come in the League Cup, Etete already has scored more goals this season than last and has also scored more than Ugbo in what I’m pretty sure is less game time - a big difference so far from last season is that the competition for attacking places in the first team is much more intense, players like Tanner, Colwill and Etete are making much stronger cases for inclusion every week than they were last year.
Finally, regarding Nathan Blake and playing centre back, that was how Len Ashurst saw his career developing, Blakey was never having it though!