Legia Sky Blue
Well-Known Member
I don't think it's so black and white Faz. Doyle's set piece/corner delivery has been top notch this season as an example. Nowhere near a failure. But I'm not sure he should be guaranteed 90 minutes every week.
I'd love to see a midfield of Jones-Kelly-Bayliss-Thomas once Jones and Kelly are back to full fitness. I do see Doyle as a fantastic option for certain games and also for closing games out. He could also play a defensive shield role in a different formation. But in a 4-4-2 I'd personally like to see a more dynamic midfield.
Completely different point it's fantastic these days to hear the support for Burgey at the Ricoh. Lots on here could see his quality over the last couple of seasons and that most of the criticism was misplaced. Some (usual suspects) couldn't. Burgey's becoming a bit of a cult hero and it's highly deserved.
What have you seen in Kelly that would make our midfield more 'dynamic' if he replaced Doyle? I've seen marks as high as 8 for Kelly's performance yesterday, but other than being an improvement on a very poor Ogogo, I just don't see he did anything other than sit too deep in midfield playing safe none threatening passes, and helped ensure that there was too big a gap between our midfield and forwards when we were chasing the game. This repeated a problem we also had in the first half of last season when he was a regular, and when we also struggled to break teams down once we went behind. It speaks volumes for Doyle, that he was picking up the pieces in their box for the equaliser, when Kelly would have been sat in front of the back 4 by the half way line in the same circumstances. If and when Kelly replaces Doyle he needs to be the player we saw in the play offs, and not the 'negative' player he was for much of the season up to then. Kelly was a regular in midfield for Orient when they meekly slipped out of the league, and I just don't see him as a 'dynamic' alternative to Doyle, nor do I understand the clamour to change things when the team are on such a good run.