Kieftenbeld - Gardner in the centre? (5 replies)

You could tell yesterday whenever he got space with the ball and time to run and lay it off that he is very poor at that side of the game.

When he is getting stuck in, winning the second ball, going for ankles and then dinking it 10ft to a player either side of him to run with he is fabulous.

Everytime he got the ball and the space in front of him seemed to open up he would run with it forwards and then overthink and play a poor ball.

He really needs that player beside him that can take time on the ball and move it forwards and make great passes, something Gardner did very well when he played, picking the ball up and taking time on it to play it in the right spot and he did some wonderful lay offs. It was just when he was next to Davies that it exposed the weaker side of his game his physicallity because Davies has been a shadow and hides more than he should, Gardner needed that scrappy chunt in beside him to do the dirty work.

Yesterday, if Gardner had been the one running with the ball forwards instead of Kief i feel we would have a hell of a lot more chance of scoring.