take a look at the speed and service at which Mitchell distributes the ball and now compare it to the pace at which Friend distributes it
now tell me who looks much more efficient passing from dummy half.
it's no surprise that once Mitchell came off that our attack began to slow down
don't get me wrong, Friend is a great player as such and tackles his arse off, but his attacking game leaves a lot to be desired. It's that two-steps/pause/then pass thing that Friend does, along with a pretty average-slower spiral pass, which is holding back his game
Mitchell is more simply a greater distributor of the bal; and a lot more zippier and faster.
games are won from the ruck. slow wobbly passes = forwards get dominated, no time and space for halves to move.
quick passes and all of a sudden players get half a second to a second more to move around and create space