What and watch him sulk for another 90mins? No thanks, He has played 10 games and done nothing, time to give Bells a chance.
Very harsh assessment there, Snakeye. I don't think Downing has been 'sulking' at all. He's been low on confidence, but that's a million miles from sulking.
Aswell as that, he hasn't done 'nothing' since he's come to Liverpool. He started off playing really well in his first few games. He almost scored a cracking volley after a superb ball from Suarez, only to be denied by a great save, he nearly broke the crossbar in half on the opening day of the season against Sunderland with a 20-yarder after a solo run from his own half. He's gone on to hit the woodwork another 2 times, which is more times than any other player in the Premiership (3 times).
His distribution from crosses has been fairly good, despite him clearly not looking confidence enough to take fullbacks on. People must not forget all this stuff, as soon as a player goes through a bad spell. How short the memory of the modern day football fan is.
Let's not kid ourselves - Downing is yet to produce the goods that LFC bought him for, but there's no doubt he can. For me, the only things that have stood in the way of that are bad luck and a loss of confidence. I'd be very surprised if this season passes us by without us seeing the real Stewart Downing.
