Indeed Briers return was a turning point - TS's genius 'sit in the corner for 20 minutes' worked precisely how he wanted it too. Myler clearly lacks/has lost his confidence. He needs to find it quickly as fans are losing faith. Hodgson stepped up the pace instead imo.

well, him getting dropped early 09 was heralded, adn we've not had a problem for nearly 2 years (jesus has it been that long) since.

thing is though, we don't know what he's been like in training or how thats been this week, i'm not saying there are problems but you know if he's not trained as well as smith would like, which may have been reflected in the game.

Tis all ifs and buts though.

To use your logic; keep Briers on regardless of whether he is sticking to the gameplan, regardless of whether we are getting mullered or winning at a canter.

Interesting.

Well it depends whether an out of form Briers is better than the other options. Which he probably is.

If we had not scored in the last 4 minutes and were now looking at played 2, lost 2, would Smith still be hailed as a genius for bringing Briers off? The verdict on here would have been "why when we are chasing the game do we bring off our best player?"

You are utilising theory to assess fact. Smith subbed him, which was obviously the right thing to do, as it yielded the desired effect; a win.

If we hadnt have won on Sunday people would have been questioning TSs tactics. If Briers had stayed on we might have got beat by 12 and people would have been questioning TSs tactics.

He did what he thought was right FOR THE TEAM at the time. End result the decision was right....Sorted!