Speaking after Norwich’s draw with West Ham, Alex Neil has hailed John Ruddy’s experience as the reason behind his inclusion back in the starting eleven.
Ruddy hadn’t featured for Norwich in the Premier League since he made an error in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal over two months ago. Declan Rudd had been Norwich’s first-choice since Ruddy was dropped.
The Diss-born ‘keeper won Norwich’s player of the month for December but had found it tough since the turn of the year. Neil opted to play Ruddy ahead of Rudd yesterday and gave his reasoning as Ruddy’s experience.
Neil believes that Ruddy’s former Premier League experience will aid Norwich in their relegation fight more than what Rudd would have done, despite the young ‘keeper not having done much wrong.
I just think that his experience in this type of run-in and his presence will be important for us.
Performance-wise he did pretty well today. Declan Rudd has not doing much wrong but I think I need to put the best team out to win games.
John is looking lighter and fresher and today he looked a lot better.
Ruddy is, therefore, the first-choice shot-stopper yet again and will be until the end of the season as Norwich look to avoid relegation
