Doing a little dive into his numbers since hes been at juve, and Kelly may just be underrated lol. 55% total duel percentage, in line with Gatti and superior to Kalulu, whos really weak in the air but the best of the group in ground duels. Kelly is also better on the ball than both.
Of course the sample size is a little different, but maybe the first impression, when he was thrown into the fire, has clouded judgement a bit. Same with the unfair comparisons to Huijsen. Tudor seems to like him, maybe he was right. That said, Cabal should be legitimate competition for him if/when he gets fit.