Cardiff City manager Steve Morison admitted he substituted Max Watters in the first half because the striker simply "wasn't good enough" in the clash against Coventry City.
The striker, who was recalled from his loan at MK Dons last month, struggled at the start of the game and it forced the Bluebirds dugout to make an early call by replacing him with Jordan Hugill on 37 minutes.
Watters was visibly confused and disappointed by the call, but Cardiff's improved performance from that point on served to prove that the change in personnel was needed.
"I've just got to use my words correctly this time or I will get annihilated," Morison began, referencing the time he used the word "hindrance" to describe an Isaak Davies performance back in December.
"He just wasn't good enough.
"Is he upset? Yes. Do I want him to be upset? Yes. Does he need to realise what it takes to be a Championship striker? Yes. Will we go through it with him and talk about it again? Yes.
"You can't play up front in this team, any team in the Championship, and not have a physical edge to your game. The ball can't keep coming back.
"Within all that, he could have had two goals. He could have scored a header in the first minute, I thought it was a goal as soon as it went to him. Then when he goes through, I'd already planned to take him off, but then I was like 'Oh what am I going to do now, he is going to score!' Because he is a goalscorer.
"But I wanted to rest players. I got away with resting Rallsy (Joe Ralls) for 90 minutes, Tommy (Doyle) for a good 60 minutes, who has never experienced this level of football on a continues path. I wanted to rest Jordan (Hugill) for as much of the game as I could.
"But I think you could see the difference as soon as Jordan come on."
Watters stayed on the bench at half time when the team went down the tunnel, clearly still reeling by the decision.
But Morison said now it is about the reaction of the player and how he bounces back from the early substitution.
"It's not a big deal, it is what it is," he added.
"You have two choices in life. You either suck it up, get on with it and get better and make me not do it again, or you don't. It's very simple."
While Morison said he didn't want Watters to be a target-man, of sorts, he said that at this level of football the forward must learn to add physicality to his game.
"Don't get me wrong, I wasn't asking Max to be a Jordan Hugill. I was asking him to be a runner, to be a threat and be a handful to play against," Morison said.
"But you have to have a little bit of that (edge). Their guy (Viktor Gyokeres) isn't a Jordan Hugill, but he doesn't make it easy to let opposition just knock balls down and start a counter attack again.
"It's a learning curve for me and for him.
"Now I look a genius because I did it and it worked. I just felt something and wanted to do it, so I did it.
"Is it nice to do? No. But sometimes you've just got to do what you feel is right."
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