We shall have to see about Kinsella. It seems that since Grant, we have looked for small players like him and Louis Reed to break up play in front of the central defenders. Reed was always making angles and linking up but was no defender. Kinsella needs to settle in a bit more. He never came with a creative label but I can see him becoming a very useful defensive midfielder. Regardless, we still need a more imposing central defensive midfielder who won't get knocked off the ball except when buying a foul and a bit of time.
Overall quite a wasteful, ornamental display from midfield last night. Nevertheless, Kemp was on hand to nod in and McEachran did beat Daniels if not the woodwork when so nearly equalising in the first half. As also noted, Cain played the ideal switching role against the 10 men.
But instead of slow, tippy tappy (ok for Man City), we built up far more quickly down the flanks. FBT and even more so, UGM, showed a carrying capacity to develop "inside out" play with Hutton and Genesini. UGM, Hutton and Young were risky, yes but offensively they threatened Forest Green in both halves never giving them the chance to properly re-organise. Soon enough, cuter teams will prepare to counter UGM and FBT's predisposal to carry the ball forward but last night they were both great and worked a treat.
Re Kinsella, Walsall fans said not to expect much from him outside of being a pure defensive midfielder. His positioning and reading of the game in that position were praised but they said whenever he was looking to do anything outside of that comfort zone, he wasn't particularly good at it.
That was fairly evident last night and I thought Cain was a lot more useful when he came on. Not particularly doing anything fancy, but keeping the ball moving quickly and neatly.
