Quote Originally Posted by Elite_Pie View Post
Agree with your last couple of lines, but not the first few. Ruben was criminally underutilised in his first season, we got the odd glimpse of what he was capable of, but the rest was sheer frustration that we couldn't get him more involved.

Ardley wasted his talent, Burchnall unlocked some of it, Williams has got it right.
I'm not sure you get what I'm saying, his 1st season can be divided in 3 parts I think

The start - amazing skills shown, some rough edges and deficiencies for sure on the defensive side, and NA's complete inability to see that our prospects rested on harnessing a talent like Ruben's over the old pros like Turner, Doyle etc who were never going to do the business for us. He didn't give Ruben enough game time, he needed to play himself into fitness a lot more. NA didn't allow him to do this. Big mistake

Banishment form the team - NA gave up on him it seems. Then he didn't play for IB's first 6 or 7 matches

The run-in - from his scoring return at Altrincham away to his bullet header at Torquay in the play-off semi, this stretch, including about 9 goals is still my favourite time of his at Notts. He was a revelation, was at the heart of everything and completely transformed our fortunes that year

There's something in that version of the player, that's been lost a bit IMO. But that's academic...he plays a defined role in LW's system and is doing it fantastically