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McDonald told to find inner devil
Friday 5th February 2010, 10:00AM GMT.
Walsall manager Chris Hutchings believes defender Clayton McDonald must embrace his inner devil to become a Saddlers star.
The young centre-back has impressed in the last three games after returning to the side and is primed to face Bristol Rovers at the Banks’s Stadium tomorrow.
McDonald arrived to reignite a career which was stalling at mega-rich Manchester City and Hutchings believes the 21-year-old needs to get nasty.
He said: “You lose that real devilment sometimes and he’s got to get that back. Once you play again you get a big buzz and want to be part of it.
“It’s no good sitting in the stands at Manchester City watching the first team, you want to be out there performing to the best of your ability. He’s played a lot of reserve team football and you get into the habit of jogging along and the real determination sometimes goes away because it’s a comfort zone.
“You can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, because the big clubs buy ready-made players to go straight into the first team.”
After his return to action, Hutchings reckons the centre-back needs to prove his performance on a consistent basis.
He said: “That’s his next step – learning and playing consistently. He showed a bit of composure on the ball, he’s a big strong lad and needs to punch his weight. He’s still learning, it’s all good experience for him and he’s hungry to be successful.
“But you need to do it week in and week out. For one or two games you think you have a player but Manny Smith started off the season well and then, in a couple of games at Brentford, he’s all at sea.
“I’m not knocking Manny for that because he’s still learning and it’s the same with Clayton.”
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I hope Hutchings is not leading up to dropping McDonald or Smith to bring back Hughes.
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I hope not too, Clayton is easily our best centre half and why single Manny out for stick when there’s others whose form has dipped (and some who’ve never done it in the first place)?
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I agree. Captain or not I’d like to see them play together for a while until one of them at least deserves to be dropped rather than just because the captain’s fit. Hutch has proved earlier in the season that’s he’s willing to do this (e.g. Westlake and Sansara kept their places for a time after the regulars were back fit) but I’m worried he won’t be willing to do the same for his captain. Even though the present combo seems better (this time round and earlier in the season!).
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