Bolded bit is complete and utter rubbish. VB wasn't playing as an inside midfielder, but a lot of his possessions were contested.
For the record, here are the stats..
Matt Crouch
Avg Disposals per game: 21.0
Avg Contested per game: 8.5 (40.5% of disposals)
Kick/Handball ratio: 40%
DE: 71%
VB
Avg Disposals per game: 15.3
Avg Contested per game: 5.4 (35.3% of disposals)
Kick/Handball ratio: 61%
DE: 68%
Interesting stats...
- Crouch had more contested possessions, and a higher percentage of contested possessions, which is not unexpected given the role he plays. Even so, more than 1 in 3 of VB's possessions was contested. So much for the idiotic statement quoted above.
- Despite kicking it more, VB's DE was only marginally worse than Crouch's. What that translates to... despite being much maligned for his kicking, his kicking record is better than Crouch's.
Honestly, that is embarrassing. Matt Crouch is 20 games in and VB is a 200 gamer. Do you think that 20 gamers don't improve. When you look at young Crouch's stats, do you get excited thinking about what he may become. Or do you try and work out why we'd be better off playing an experienced plodder ahead of him.