Armstrong

[AucklandRover]

Why has he taken him out of the side??

He's got to the point where he is most useful as a sub, because he is able to fill in in numerous positions.
Secondly, more naturally gifted players have emerged, and if they can perform consistently, Bennett will become more and more peripheral.
It's still wait and see, though. After one particularly good game, Buckley is being talked of as the next Matt Jansen. That is ridiculously premature. If he now has two stinkers, Mowbray's selection of him will be targeted again.
This is what I meant on the other thread about it being best to watch a game at a time, and not get carried away in either direction. If we get hammered by Brentford 0-4, we'll be getting the end-of-the-world scenarios again.
I don't always abide by this, of course, because it's easy to get swept along.
The classic recent example where I fell for it was before the final of the Rugby World Cup. The way England had played against the All-Blacks, the week before, I felt they were certainties. We all know what happened next!
We all want sport to be "analysable" and form patterns, but each game is so dynamic and complex that expectations can be floored.
Just look at the Fulham-Barnsley result. (At moments like that, the "It's all down to the manager" argument leaves me speechless).
The extra factor which makes me cautious is that the Championship, this season, is even more balanced than usual. Even the leaders have not reached the normal benchmark of averaging two points per game.
And, to get back to the main point, I think generalisations about individual players are often equally unsafe. Johnson looked entirely different on Saturday from the player we saw in the last three months of 2019.

[champs95]

He's got to the point where he is most useful as a sub, because he is able to fill in in numerous positions.
Secondly, more naturally gifted players have emerged, and if they can perform consistently, Bennett will become more and more peripheral.
It's still wait and see, though. After one particularly good game, Buckley is being talked of as the next Matt Jansen. That is ridiculously premature. If he now has two stinkers, Mowbray's selection of him will be targeted again.
This is what I meant on the other thread about it being best to watch a game at a time, and not get carried away in either direction. If we get hammered by Brentford 0-4, we'll be getting the end-of-the-world scenarios again.
I don't always abide by this, of course, because it's easy to get swept along.
The classic recent example where I fell for it was before the final of the Rugby World Cup. The way England had played against the All-Blacks, the week before, I felt they were certainties. We all know what happened next!
We all want sport to be "analysable" and form patterns, but each game is so dynamic and complex that expectations can be floored.
Just look at the Fulham-Barnsley result. (At moments like that, the "It's all down to the manager" argument leaves me speechless).
The extra factor which makes me cautious is that the Championship, this season, is even more balanced than usual. Even the leaders have not reached the normal benchmark of averaging two points per game.
And, to get back to the main point, I think generalisations about individual players are often equally unsafe. Johnson looked entirely different on Saturday from the player we saw in the last three months of 2019.

Every player has a sell-buy date, I don't care what they have done before. Tim Sherwood was a premier league captain during our finest hour, he went past his best and was putting in woeful performances and had to be moved on under Hodgson. Same with Tim Flowers who had been a fantastic keeper for us, during his final days, he was not the same keeper. Past his best. It happens to everyone.
Maybe I need to phrase things a little different. I have always rated Bennett especially during the promotion season. And half of last season he did a satisfactory job, playing in various positions for the team.

If you think the players see Bennett as a talisman, then you should see the regard Mulgrew is held in. He scored lots of goals, was the club captain, and was taken out of the side and sent to Wigan. Which was a great move, he needed to go, we have not looked back since. Like we haven't since Nyambe came back into the team. Results have proved ten fold since the likes of Bennett and Mulgrew, Smallwood, Williams where taken out. When was the last time we got a real hammering? Last season we would regularly get a battering 4-1, 5-2 etc etc this happened quite alot.
Look at who played in all those games, the usual suspects.
We may lose the off game now, but we don't get a hammering anymore. And we aren't a soft touch. We aren't carrying anyone.
I will refrain from calling anyone useless, but hopefully we agree on the fact he is best off out of our team (like Williams, Like Charlie, like Smallwood, Like Graham) apart from playing a very very small role filling in every so often.
Every player, including Bennett and Graham, has a part to play from now to the end of the season. Some more than others.