if dropping a bloke back to the seconds sinks his confidence then he doesnt have the fortitude to take you where you want to go.
as i said, i want him to succeed as a backman, but he just has looked out of his depth this year in the games i have seen( pre season game included) , which is opposite to what i saw last year. he may not have set the world on fire, but at least he looked comfortable.
sometimes young players need to go down a level because their confidence is already shot?