Phil Parkinson told to make ‘ruthless’ decision on one Wrexham star who isn’t good enough to start.
Phil Parkinson has now been urged to drop one Wrexham player as he is not good enough to start games.
The Red Dragons have endured a rough six days, with their League One title hopes already somewhat fading away.
Birmingham City have a big advantage over Wrexham in the title race, which has become even more evident after the club’s last two results.
The Welsh outfit were top of the division prior to the weekend’s fixtures but have slipped down to second in the table with a big gap already opened up between themselves and the Blues.
Phil Parkinson watched on as Wrexham drew 0-0 with Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road over the weekend before a shock 1-0 defeat to Stevenage followed on Tuesday evening.
The Wrexham manager made a number of changes to his starting line-up for that loss, one of which really did not work out.
Phil Parkinson told Steven Fletcher is not good enough to start for Wrexham
Steven Fletcher joined Wrexham on a free transfer during the summer of 2023 and has since proven himself a useful player over the last year and a bit.
The former Sunderland ace scored eight times in 33 League Two matches in 2023/24, helping his side earn promotion to League One for the first time in their history.
However, the 37-year-old’s early season form in 2024/25 has been poor, with Stevenage fans mocking Fletcher in midweek.
And now, speaking on the Rob. Ryan. Red podcast, journalist Nathan Salt has told Parkinson that the Scotsman is no longer good enough to start games.
He said: “One of my main takeaways was, and again I’m not slamming him in any way, but I think we saw the fact that Fletcher starting games isn’t really a viable option going forward.
“He is just better as a 20-minute impact sub. I know that puts a lot on Ollie Palmer who most of us don’t think can play two games in a week.”
Phil Parkinson must make ‘ruthless’ Wrexham call
With Fletcher no longer at the level required to start games for Wrexham, Salt went on the detail what Parkinson must do with his strike force going forward.
The manager has five names to pick from for two starting berths right now and Salt believes Parkinson needs to be ‘ruthless’ and start leaving Flecther out of more matchday squads in place of Modou Faal.
He continued: “But it is going to mean that Mo Faal, for him not to even be getting in the squad, he’s not been brought here to play against Wolves’ U21s so there’s going to come a point where I get it, you have two starting strikers you have two on the bench, and typically that’s going to be Marriott, Mullin and Palmer and Fletcher. So it kind of leaves Faal as the fifth odd one out.
“But I think you might have to make some tough decisions going forward in terms of it’s Palmer or Fletcher and it’s Faal.
“It’s going to be Mullin and Marriott those two are going to be locked in a matchday squad but maybe you have to be a little bit more ruthless in a Fletcher or Palmer and then you get Faal in there.”
Faal is Wrexham’s record signing having set Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds back £590,000 in August.
But the 21-year-old is yet to start a league game and has not been included in their last four matchday squads
