Couldn't agree more. He's just too much of a luxury to be a starter with the way we play, but he's a dangerous asset, if he can be kept happy.
I agree in regards to the big teams but any of the teams 10th-20th where we can afford to be a bit more attacking he is surely a starter? Against Leeds we really could have done with a bit more creativity and pace going forwards. He got 10 mins or so and didn't really get in to the game. Know he wasn't fully fit but against Fulham or Palace next week if he gets some game time tonight he'd be starting for me vs them.
Agree that in certain situations, he's good for a start - I don't mean to just bring him off the bench a bit every now and then. For me, against the right opposition, we should be dropping Joe back into the midfield and starting with Maxi, and if for some reason we're getting overrun, change it up. Moving forward though, I think he will be marginalised more often than not when we add more quality. In that situation, I'd still rather we kept him as he's a dangerous option.
I look at it like this. Most of the time we are going to give the oppo a much bigger problem to deal with if we have Maxi on the left and Big Joe replacing longstaff in midfield rather than being out wide where although he does a good job of executing the game plan doesn't really give the oppo too much to worry about defensively. He's more effective in every way from the middle.
