Exactly my point. Those 4 have been trusted to win clearances and the hard ball inside because they are quality mids ! They read the rucks taps, they crack in to win it .. they burst through a pack and then burst away to win the clearance. You can see they 'get' it .. they obviously work well together as a quartet with Hickey at training every week . Rowbottom doesnt do those things. He might get the odd handball at centre circle or stoppages but he isnt creative or dynamic. Doesnt have the speed to create any run from a stoppage , doesnt have the instincts to read the rucks tap. Im not just making this up btw you can watch him and its clear he has no understanding of stoppage work. When the ruck taps it he runs to the exact wrong place and completely misreads it , and on the very few times he correctly predicts where the ball will go , he is not clean and he fumbles it.
I dont want this to be another "dumping on RB" comment as that is not my intention . I still think he can be a very good player but i see nothing in him that makes me think that will be in the midfield .. he doesnt seem to have a lot of confidence either. Chad has confidence .. he gets the ball and knows exactly what he wants to do with it and he tries to make it happen , doesnt always work but when he pulls it off its game changing and breaks the game open . He will burst away with his leg speed or take the tackler on and break through it. RB doesnt seem to have any of this , he just gives little handballs off or slams it on the boot in the first second of possessing it ! Theres no run or desire to attack. He plays it safe too often To me thats a kid who doesnt know what hes doing and is in over his head in a key role that he doesnt have the right tools for.
Move him to defence i say , or keep him in the midfield is a tagger. Hes a natural at the defensive stuff , his tackling is enormous. Give him an opponent to focus on and Rowbottom would have far greater impact. Leave the ball winning attacking stuff to the guys who can actually do it. Like Chad. These two are talked about a lot as young mids but to me there is daylight between Chad and RB . All we are doing by making them share responsibilities is taking opportunities away from Chad to do what he is made for to be a gun onballer, and wasting time with RB in a role he wont thrive in when he could be used differently to greater effect !! Frustrating as this is a move that i reckon is bloody obvious and would shore up both our midfield to have a liability like RB out of there AND our back six to have a strong defensive player like RB among them . Yet all i get when i try to make this argument is that im hating on Rowbottom and silly nonsense about him pissing me off. I just want to see the kid succeed and mark my words if we keep trying to make him into some kind of gun mid he will only get more exposed and will end up just a depth player who only gets games if Mills or Chad are injured . Is that what everyone wants ??
Bookmarks