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agree he's obviously having bit of advice on how to deal with the media here . he talked about building a team for when he eventually leaves the role and I would have thought Collwill would be a part of the future
The bit i did agree with him when talks about the gulf in class not just with the prem to the championship but also the gulf in class between the championship and League 1 . he's spot on there
Cant get my head round Rubins omission. Is he the player Bellers 'bullied' when at Cardiff? It makes no sense to pick Sheehan and Crew and not Rubin.
https://www.skysports.com/football/n...-investigation
A few things to say first. Craig Bellamy knows more about football than I ever will, he’s galvanised the Welsh international team and they are playing winning and entertaining football. Bellamy has a passion and knowledge of the game which shines through when he appears in the media - I could listen to him for hours.
All that said, he sounded as weak as I’ve heard him when he tried to justify excluding Rubin Colwill from the squad for the upcoming games. Again, in the interests of fairness, I must say that Ive had no particular problem with Rubin being omitted by Bellamy from previous squads - he had a poor 24/25 and it was a poor reflection on him that he often became a sub used late, almost as an afterthought by Omer Riza, as the season went on - you can moan at Riza for this, but Rubin was not doing much to demand selection todo this.
However, this season Rubin is a player transformed. For me, the main difference is physical as he’s using his height and strength more effectively, even when heading the ball, but also his stamina seems improved to the extent that he’s able to put in multiple sprints when leading our press. On the mental side, the captaincy seems to have brought something out in him and he looks like a captain out there (something I can’t imagine me saying before this season). Colwill’s physical and mental improvements have not reduced his technical capabilities, in fact they appeared sharper and better honed, maybe because he’s concentrating more on- comparing the Rubin Colwill of 25/26 with one of 24/25 is like comparing chalk and cheese.
Of course, all of this is being done in a lower division, so allowances need to be made for that. However, Bellamy was happy to pick four other players currently at League One clubs - Kpakio, Lawlor, Sheehan and Crew. I’m not knocking Kpakio and Lawlor here, they’re great prospects and are surely going to win plenty of caps during their careers, but both have suffered ups and downs of the sort you’d expect from teenagers making their way in the senior game - Kpakio had his defensive problems on Saturday, while Lawlor has had issues coping with the physicality of the men’s game. Away from City, Crew has sometimes been a sub for Doncaster, while Sheehan has more often than not been a sub for Bolton. Therefore , when Bellamy talks of wanting more consistency from Colwill, it seems to me that he’s providing more often that quality than any of four League One players he’s selected.
Three of the four from League One are teenagers and, as with Coventry’s Kai Andrews, it seems that different criteria are being applied here. It would be good to know precisely why Bellamy still doesn’t rate Colwill’s that highly when he is clearly a more mature player who is in his best spell of form possibly ever instead of the vague generalizations we got from him today because, for now, it’s hard not to believe that he just doesn’t rate Rubin no matter how much he tries to improve perceived weaknesses in his game.
I honestly think it's more positional - if crew or shehan played in the same role as rubin then I don't think they'd be anywhere near the side.
If Colwill had had a run of games as a deep central midfielder then he'd probably be going at the expense of one of the others (crew?)
But as it stands he's probably looking to play 2 central midfielders and we are really thin on the ground with Ampadu's absence.
We are left with Jordan James, Josh Sheehan, Kai Andrews and Charlie Crew who are playing there for their clubs.
Beyond them it's Joel Colwill, Charlie Savage etc, maybe Mafico or King before long
If that’s the case, Bellamy should have said so. You say they’re playing there for their clubs (I thought Andrews was a more attacking player?), but none of them are starting many.
Look at players like Dylan Levitt and Matt Smith, both given far more chances than Rubin, yet nowhere near the Welsh squad in their mid 20s - Rubin, a year younger than Levitt and two younger than Smith is proving a lot more durable than those two.
Bellamy knows far more about the game than I ever will and he has done an amazing job for Wales, however he’s vague rambling about RC was bollocks, no other way to describe it
He obviously doesn’t rate RC, and that’s his opinion and unfortunately for Rubin that’s the only one that counts
I hope Rubin carries on as he’s started this season and shows Bellamy what he’s capable of and what he’s missing out on
I think that Colwill should be in the squad, and i think it's as simple as Bellamy not fancying him for whatever reason. Colwill is a very unique player in every respect, the way he plays, his height, shape, the way he moves with the ball, the way he passes the ball, even down to his posture, you wont find many like him, and all of this means (in my opinion) that a team needs to set up towards his strengths in order to get the best out of him. The evidence is already there for us to see, under previous managers there was never really a playing style that suited Colwill, and that's one reason why he was in and out for the best part of two years or more. The line up and style of play has to lean towards his abilities, otherwise he can struggle, as we've seen before. I'm going to make a crazy analogy here; Matt Le Tissier couldn't find a home in the National side, and Glenn Hoddle never really prospered. I'm not comparing Colwill to either, that would be crazy, but what those two and Colwill have in common is a very unique playing style, a style that needs to be accommodated, and in my opinion i don't think that Bellamy is prepared to do that.
More conventional players are easier to work with, as are those with the size, shape and movement of your ordinary to good attacking midfield player, it's easier to get the message over to them, especially if a coach wants them to play in different ways during a game, because of their style, shape and ability, they adapt better. That doesn't mean that they're better players, just easier to work with on a one off basis like international football. Obviously these are just my thoughts, it could all be bollocks, but i do believe that Colwill can consider himself very unlucky and that Bellamy (like so many coaches before him) just doesn't know what to do with Colwill.
For Analogy, read Comparison...
I think it’s as simple as that and it will obviously take a good bit more than a handful of decent performances against relatively poor League One and Two opposition for Bellamy to change his mind.
That’s fair enough as far as I’m concerned. Bellamy’s getting results and he’s doing things his way. I’m sure Colwill will get a chance in due course if he continues to work hard and provided he retains his current form.
It must be personal. It can’t be justified.
The season Bellamy's team won the league he gave Colwill 12 starts and subbed him in 10 of them. As a comparison he gave Harry Pinchard (now at Gloucester) 16 starts
As Colwill started breaking into the first team here Bellamy was saying he always knew how good he was but couldn't play him more because of fitness issues caused by his growth spurts.
I wasn't convinced by this, I never felt he was playing any more or less than he deserved or than Bellamy wanted. He was massive compared to the other lads but never used his size to any advantage and the skill he had tended to be negated by his lack of pace, he'd need to beat the same defender three times in one dribble. He was different to the other players and enjoyable to watch but I never felt he was a key part of the squad and I don't think Bellamy did either.
Another interesting point.
I wonder about RC and where he could play in an environment where now most coaches have systems and philosophy about how they want to play?
RC appears to me to be a luxury player who you may build a team around to enable him to have space to get 'on the ball'. Problem there is you don't really see that these days and whether RC could ever be good enough to justify that is debatable.
I have wondered if RC was not taking on advice or instruction by coaches as consecutive City coaches didn't appear to rate him, granted they were Bulut and Riza?
Before anyone points out how well he's done this season, I know. Perhaps BBM has got the system for RC or he's working harder at his game?
Although there's always noise around RC in transfer windows I've never heard of any concrete offers for him or even continued interest?