THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

On the plus side played for Wales tonight, unfortunately out if position at RWB and didn't put in a good performance

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.waleso ... 124144.amp

I suppose the fact he started in a competitive game for the senior side says something about their management team's confidence in him.

But from what I've seen so far for us he has a LOT to prove with us.

His preferred position is apparently CM but he is way off the likes of Coventry, Robson, McEachran, Kasumu etc. Said it before but he needs to have a decent pre-season to be in contention, otherwise we're going to need a couple of CMs to keep us at the level we were this season.

Way off the likes of Coventry, Robson etc? What are you basing that on exactly?! He hasn’t played much for us but from the snippets he has played, he’s looked decent (Fleetwood away he had a poor game but pitch was atrocious). The form of JMC and Coventry kept him out the team last season, but he came through City academy and seems highly rated by Wales so obviously has something about him. I expect he will be a big part of our team next season.

Matt needs a run of games to really show what he can do. Really difficult to break into a team that's on form and competing for autos.

I'm basing it on watching him in the 4 games he played for us and comparing him to Coventry, Robson, McEachran and Kasumu.

I didn't think he was decent, he was OK at times, but had more mistakes in him in those 4 games than those four players did the entire season.

He has potential obviously, but from what I saw he's way off it and unless he impresses in pre-season I don't feel he's ready for the starting 11. Same with Kemp.

Strange that, because from what I saw he had a very decent game (as a genuine right winger rather than wing back too, I’d say). Heavily involved in Jonny Williams’ opener and was a much used option when Wales switched the play when attacking.

We’ve not seen the best of him yet, but as pointed out he wasn’t breaking into a settled midfield of McEachran and Coventry in the latter part of the season*. Dare I say it, but it’s the usual thing with our fans with any new player that hasn’t done something extraordinary yet

*- I actually called for him to start the play off 2nd leg, and still think he should have.

Surely that's a valid enough reason then?

If other players are doing extraordinary things then they deserve to be in the starting 11, if another player isn't up to their level then they don't deserve to be, simple as that really.

I'm not saying Smith is a bad player at all, it's just we were blessed with four high performing CMs and he just wasn't as good as them in the four games he played.

I'm with Camdenite on this. From what I've seen of him he looks a good prospect. I can see why he wasn't getting much game time in a midfield that was performing well, and then it's difficult yo show what you're really capable of, but he looked decent enough on the ball and didn't make many mistakes in the games I saw. With a good pre-season and more game time he'll only get better and more confident

So, one perfectly weighted through ball or a silky pirouette in the middle of the park from Smith is all it will take then? That’s MY point.

Not fussed about a pirouette but a perfectly weighted through ball is a start