God the outdated physicality arguments about players .
Don't think it is outdated. Football may be less physical than back in the 70s and 80s when some tackles were life threatening and career ending. However, if you do not match the physicality of some teams you get turned over. Kitch, Thomas and Lati are no angels and do try to intimidate the opposition. Fadz was a master of the dark arts. Bidwell is not adverse to telling a winger you wont go past me again.
Ideally, you want players like MVE or Sheaf who can tackle hard and also are great footballers but they come at a premium.
We lost at Stoke because we lost the 50/50s too often when the ball was free in midfield.
There was a classic example where Allan tracked their player across the face of our penalty area and he just bounced off their player who nearly scored.