After a stellar debut season with Nottingham Forest, Morgan Gibbs-White has yet to reach his full potential this year. In his first six games, he has two assists, both against Manchester United, despite the fact that Taiwo Awoniyi nearly ran the entire field to score one of those goals.
Some listeners and listers of the Garibaldi Red podcast believe the former England under-21 international should be rested or dropped before Sunday’s match against Brentford as a result of his comeback. In light of this, panelists on the last two editions of our Garibaldi Red podcast discussed his performance. Look at what they said below.
Who will you replace him with, Arsher Ali? It’s the syndrome of the brand-new toy. Antoine Santos? He’s so young, so why left Chelsea if he was that good? He is an unproven individual. He may be amazing, but with this stretch of games ahead, Gibbs-White is likely to find his form, making this discussion useless.
“I don’t think the manager will abandon the number 10 type player. I think this next run of games is where he starts firing again. In this team he’s the gold brick in the house we’re building. It’s his team. You have to play him into form. He’s had a stacked summer with the Euros and that will have an effect. He was on the precipice of a really good game against Man City. His touch is slightly off, but this is the same player last year we were thanking the gods for blessing us with.
“He’ll be fine. Just give him time. He’ll get there.”
Matt Davies: “I would play him into form. We’re trying to build a new team here and new partnerships. I don’t think the way to do that is to leave out Gibbs-White. Obviously, if it carries on and he’s not doing anything, or there’s a perception of a lack off effort without the ball, then I would leave him out.
Mikey Clarke: “I can understand what people are saying. As Arsher said, he’s had that heavy summer. There’s an argument to take him out the side and phase him back. I would say, like you guys, this is his team and play him back to form.
“No one is safe but the bigger question for me is where you play him. At home the idea will be to get him on the ball as much as possible. In home games he can play in a 4-2-3-1 and then you can question how much impact he is having.
“In a front three, does he get in ahead of Elanga and Hudson-Odoi? I would start him but the idea has to be to get him on the ball. Cooper always plays him and he’s not going to get dropped, but for me it’s about where you play him. If we can integrate all these players we can have a cracking season.
“Elanga, Gibbs-White and Hudson-Odoi behind Awonyi is as good anything outside the top echelon teams. Bar Awoniyi, they’re 21, 22, 23-years-old so they’re only going to get better and it’s really exciting.”
Michael Temple: “My primary concern is how we get the best out of Morgan Gibbs-White? I said on here before that this is Morgan Gibbs-White’s team. Brennan Johnson was a very important factor and perhaps overshadowed him in some games last season.
“Now we have Sangare to screen the back four when he settles in and that allows Morgan Gibbs-White to get on the ball. He will have willing runners around him who have a goal in them in Elanga, Hudson-Odoi and Awoniyi.
“They need to be fed by the lynchpin in the team, which will be Morgan Giibs-White.”
