Ruffels has been skinned on a regular basis this season though. Yes he’s been good, if not excellent for us previously, turning out 7/10 performances most games, with the occasional 8/10 thrown in there. However, the past seasons are irrelevant now (eg your argument that he’s been a key figure previously etc) - this season, he’s been very poor, almost disastrously at times. The very fact that you say he will get back to his usual high standards shows that you’re accepting he hasn’t been good recently. And couldn’t you make exactly the same arguments for keeping Simon Eastwood in the team - he’s been good for us before, it’s the defences fault as well, etc etc - and yet look what happened when you take him out of the team. What’s the difference between Eastwood and Ruffels? Why can Josh put in 3/4/5 out of 10 performances every game and yet not be dropped?
And the previous point was relevant, as it showed that your argument that ‘as we haven’t been conceding goals, so Ruffels can’t be playing poorly’, is wrong. Ruffels has been playing poorly all season, and should be dropped.