TSH you say you want Steed and Zokora in central midfield the only problem is the lack of height to win any headers(Zokora's worst part of his game is actually heading the ball) and Steed is good going forward but has tendencies to go missing for long parts of games and i couldn't even start to imagine Steed tackling back by the edge of our area,
He chases alot but how anyone can say he was fucking awesome against a poor Blackburn side need there head sorting
He put in a good performance on sunday a few were average to good at most,
An awesome one would be scoring and setting up at least one more after that not running around chasing people all game.
I think it is fair to say that there is a difference btween U20 football, the championship and the premiership. The premiership is possibly/probably the fastest and most physical major european league. There is no doubting Huddlestone's ability to pass when allowed to do to so but when pressured his game becomes erratic and moribund to a degree. It is not just about pace or lack of. It is about mobility, awareness and positioning. I think in many ways he was an almost cloned replacement for Carrick - which is why I'm sure they were happy to cash in on Carrick - but his deficeincies have hampered his development. I don't think he is overweight at all and I don't think he is to broad round the middle, it is his upper body that hampers his movement quite alot.
I think it is highly unlikeley that he will miraculously become more mobile. You don't get more mobile with age. And to play in a midfield 4 in this league you certainly have to be mobile. To play good football teams must be mobile all over the park let alone midfield.
The only solution that I can see is that he either plays in a midfield 5 or we buy an uber midfielder to play next to him. One that covers every blade of Grass, winning the ball constantly. (To be honest we need one of those anyway, regardless of who plays next to him as none of our cm's can do this). Even then Huddlestone would still not be ideal in tough games where you really need all hands on deck. Which is probably why Jol picked Zokora ahead of him away from home.
He's a likeable lad and has a great passing range, but todays game lends itself more to the Ardiles and less to the Hoddle I think.
Zokora is out most important central midfielder, and hopefully Ramos will get the best out of him.....
Don't be surprised if Ramos builds the team around Huddlestone. He took fearful stick from supposed supporters today but showed his character by continually probing forwards. He was often played into trouble by receiving passes at varying heights and at varying pace, but more often than not often played himself out of trouble, by his skill and agility, which of course went quite unnoticed by his critics, who feel he has neither. A lot of his passing didn't come off, but some of it was quite superb, two or three delicious through balls and a glorious centre from the right begging to be finished by two on rushing forwards who both missed it, come to mind. Others of his passes were cut out at full stretch by defenders just managing to stop him putting strikers clear and of course when this happened he was criticised. In fact on any number of occasions he was being loudly criticised when closed down, when lo and behold he came away with the ball. It was noticeable to me, that when he became less involved towards the end, after Malbranque had been replaced by Bent, and the team resorted to nothing other than long hoofs forward, whether by Cerny or the back four, cutting out the midfield, this was the time when we lost our momentum. But I recognise I am in a minority of one and saw a different game to the rest of you.
So be it.
If Zokora can actually sit behind him and be a defensive midfielder, then I reckon the partnership would work pretty well.
I agree wholeheartedly and wish all these stupid zokora loving fans would take thier zokora tinted glasses off and realise who is the stronger player.
Zokora constantly causes problems for hudd when they play together and puts him under endless pressure with awful passing and terrible positioning sense..
:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:
I just got back from the game, and I've heard many fans talking about how awful he was this afternoon, and I agree that his passing was very poor most of the time, but everything else about his game was fantastic. I've never seen him win the ball as much as he did today. He used his strength brilliantly, and kept the ball brilliantly as well. Just a shame his passing was so poor, but I think Huddlestone showed so much promise in today's game. We all know how good his passing can be, and if he implements that with the rest of the way he played today, he could become the midfielder we've been lacking for so long.
Oh, and Malbranque was fucking awesome for us today as well.
How does that work? Is that like saying someone's utter bollocks at football, but they're actually a great player because they're great at being bollocks?
That's slightly exaggerated and I don't think Huddlestone is bollocks, but what you said doesn't really make sense, in order to be a great player you have to be able to read the game and adapt to the players around you, not play passes that would be fantastic if we had players who could read what you were thinking and run faster than the speed of light...