There's been a lot of chatter on here as to why Rico hasn't been picked since the return and, instead, we've been playing Smith out of position at LB instead. If you cast your minds back I think the answer makes sense but the outcome raises questions.
Whilst Rico had a good start to the season and seemed to be coming along, ultimately he was dropped. My opinion as to why is that he simply wasn't being dynamic enough. Sure, he has a good cross on him but he wasn't pushing forward to make overlaps which is something we've traditionally always needed from our fullbacks.
When Stacey came into the side, he offered that missing forward thrust from the fullback role and looked very handy indeed. It helped change the whole outlook of the team. We know this is something Smith also offers and something that he has also done from left back for us very effectively in the past.
Just before the lockdown, despite results, we were starting to look more like our old selves with Stacey and Smith helping to provide a danger down the flanks. We come out of the lockdown needing points in two crucial games so it made absolute sense to stick with the setup that had been working so well last time we played.
The mystery is why, having played our two most dynamic fullbacks, we had absolutely zero attacking thrust forward including in the places where you would expect to see the two of them bursting through. There were a couple of times when I saw Stacey further forward in the last match but it was, if we're kind, sporadic. Nothing to put the fear into the opposition and make them wary of breaking forward themselves, thus pinning back their attacking threat.
Those criticising the original choice to not play Rico seem to have forgotten that it was the right call based on the most recent playing information we had available. However, given what we've seen on the pitch since football restarted it feels like it would be a mistake to carry on without a change. Whether that's Rico or Kelly remains to be seen but I do expect to see a change for the next match.