Could Thudd have played?

[spursontheloose]

Could Thudd have played instead of Modric last night or do you think he is still not match fit?
I'm not knocking the little fella but that is just it..... He's little and was getting knocked off the ball quite easily and this was leading to us tracking back all the time.
Both can pick a pass out and have relatively no pace so pretty equal in these terms, but I think Hudd would've been a little more hard to get off the ball as he is quite a strong lad!

Ifso do you think it would've made a difference to the game even when we were down to 10 men?

 

[ThorntonSpur]

umm what might have been interesting would be to have brought huddleston on for VDV at half time and then pushed modric up as the lone striker.

Reason a bit more pacy than VDV more skilful than defoe and would have held it up better than defoe and picked a pass for bale to run onto. all hindsight though.

my worry now though is threadbear squad for saturday which we have to win and look for pool to win or draw with city.

 

[kevinfish]

i thought he should have got 10 or 15 minutes at least just to give him a run out

 

[stevenqoz]

Agree with Kev there......10 or 15 would have been useful. To me Huddlestone could have come on at any time for Jenas whose pass completion would make interesting reading tonight. Having said that, putting on someone with no match fitness in a game where you are getting over-run with just ten men makes limited sense. Huddlestone looks nailed on for Stoke and we may see him with Sandro.

 

[14/04/91]

i thought he should have got 10 or 15 minutes at least just to give him a run out

He couldn't mate, Jenas was actually considered a substitution as it was so close to kick off, hence why we could only bring 2 more on.

And in reply to the OP, I'd guess after 4 months out he was nowhere near fit enough to start. The problem we faced was their high pressing, rather than physical so Hudd would've had the same grief Modric had, ie 3 men on him as soon as he received the ball. And no outlet thanks to that lanky streak of useless piss.

 

[pal90]

He couldn't mate, Jenas was actually considered a substitution as it was so close to kick off, hence why we could only bring 2 more on.

You sure about that? AFAIK substitutions only count from kick-off. T'was in the "You are the Ref" in the Grauniad a few weeks back.

 

[tRiKS]

Far too harsh on Modric. He wasn’t at his best by any means when on the ball but worked very hard off it and contributed to us holding out for long spells of relentless possession from RM 20 yards from our goal. Very harsh also because the pre match prep was bale left, Lennon right and luka central with Sandro. The ridiculous decision for Rednapp to tear that plan up and switch bale right and luka left contributed to both bales and modrics poor start and therefore team start and then crouch going off gave Modric little outlet in the game. You reduce any players options and you reduce their ability no matter who they are.

So no Huddlestone shouldn’t have started. What should have happened was just a straight swap Jenas for Lennon. Very amateurish from our coaching staff. Also when crouch went off. Jenas or VDV for PAv should have been an immediate change.

All motivation isn’t enough at the top level is it.

 

[FITZ]

I thought Harry doesn't like making three subs in case there is a late injury and you have to play the last few mins with 10.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I think anyone who thinks Huddlestone might have made a difference needs to rewind to the last time this happened away at Inter, where he was the worst Spurs player on the night - even Mr Pink conceded he should have gone off, not Modric.

That game last night would have been a nightmare for Hudd, who's only seen to good effect when we are in possession. Chasing an extra man in midfield does not suit his deficiencies. The movement of Real would have had him in the same stupor he got into against Inter when outnumbered.

It was stupid putting Jenas out to RM and keeping Modric in CM. Jenas is better defensively than Modric and was our best player against Inter away playing in CM and Jenas and Sandro could would have offered a more robust CM pairing.

The usual scapegoats like Jenas will be blamed but he was no worse on the night than Modric and a lot more useful than Bale. For Stevenqoz who asked, here they are:

Jenas 18 successful from 22 and 3 tackles
Modric 24/28/2
Sandro 16/19/2
Bale 8/15/0

None of them played well in difficult circumstances. Modric trying stupid back heels in front of his own area etc. Bale was a fucking passenger for much of the game and was much lazier than Jenas, who didn't play well (no-one did) but ran his bollocks off trying to close men down.

Redknapp has got the ten man thing to hind behind, but it doesn't account for all the mistakes he made before and during that game. The lack of set piece organisation is fucking schoolboy. Fucking about when Lennon clearly wasn't right and we shouldn't be playing both Bale and Lennon for that game anyway. The tactic of starting Bale right was wrong. Moving Jenas to RM. Taking off VDV at half time. Bringing on Defoe not Pav who at least can hold the ball much better than Defoe.

Really basic stuff.

 

[Zimmy]

Na, not really. Class player but you can't throw him into a game like that after five months out. Jenas was the logical choice.

 

[Mr Pink]

BC, I think Huddlestone would of made a difference, albeit perhaps nothing earth shattering, but a bit of a difference in terms of some effective out balls with his passing range...if nothing more he may well of earned us a bit more respite and enabled us to push up more often.

Madrid move the ball much quicker than Inter so I dont even think its a like for like comparison. It was easier to defend against both Milan sides although I concede our late reshuffle certainly didn't help not to mention the loss of one our few outlets.

Its not all about off the ball work.....just as important, if not more important is what you do with the ball when you have it. They pressed us hard but you have to be able to combat that by moving the ball well to retain possession and to pass your way out of danger...ie hitting some out balls so our more forward thinking players can at least work the channels and relieve some pressure.

By being good on the ball relieves the amount of off the ball work you need to do. We simply just had far too much off the ball work to do last night and as I've said before chasing the ball is much harder than keeping it, we had no spells of possession whatsoever. It was hardly surprising that we were knackered in the second half with ten men and couldn't relieve the pressure with any sort of possession.

Modric was pinpointed by Mourinho, a clear tactic - kill our play from source...there were 3 white shirst constantly swarming around him.
Had Hudd played he would of offered another option in terms of an outball and would of helped with possession.

Not saying it would of been game changing by any stretch, but we would of seen a bit more of the ball IMO and used it better which consequently would of relieved some pressure at least.

But this would only of been possible had he been fit...he wasn't, so it wasn't a realistic option.

Perhaps for the last 15-20 mins at a stretch.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

BC, I think Huddlestone would of made a difference, albeit perhaps nothing earth shattering, but a bit of a difference in terms of some effective out balls with his passing range...if nothing more he may well of earned us a bit more respite and enabled us to push up more often.

Madrid move the ball much quicker than Inter so I dont even think its a like for like comparison. It was easier to defend against both Milan sides although I concede our late reshuffle certainly didn't help not to mention the loss of one our few outlets.

This is exactly the reason Hudd would have struggled IMO. To be fair, I don't think he could have done any worse than Modric last night as he rarely got out of our third of the pitch but I don't get your reference to "what you do with the ball" because Modric passes the ball better than Huddlestone and I'm pretty sure even you wouldn't suggest we should played Hudd/Mod in CM last night ? So it could have only been one of them at best and that one was logically far better being Modric.

 

[Mr Pink]

This is exactly the reason Hudd would have struggled IMO. To be fair, I don't think he could have done any worse than Modric last night as he rarely got out of our third of the pitch but I don't get your reference to "what you do with the ball" because Modric passes the ball better than Huddlestone and I'm pretty sure even you wouldn't suggest we should played Hudd/Mod in CM last night ? So it could have only been one of them at best and that one was logically far better being Modric.

I would of lined up like this

Sandro
Hudd

Lennon
Modric
Bale

Crouch

Or given Lennon was out and VDV was going to play due to it being Madrid...

Sandro
Hudd

VDV
Modric
Bale

Crouch

In those systems you have someone being able to pick out forward passes and the you have an extra option in terms of an outlet in Modric further up the pitch.

The defence is well screened with Hudd and Sandro....the latter winning it more and giving to Hudd to distribute.

Irrelevant really though as he wasn't fit enough to start but its the way I would of gone had he been fit.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I would of lined up like this

Sandro
Hudd

Lennon
Modric
Bale

Crouch

Or given Lennon was out and VDV was going to play due to it being Madrid...

Sandro
Hudd

VDV
Modric
Bale

Crouch

In those systems you have someone being able to pick out forward passes and the you have an extra option in terms of an outlet in Modric further up the pitch.

The defence is well screened with Hudd and Sandro....the latter winning it more and giving to Hudd to distribute.

Irrelevant really though as he wasn't fit enough to start but its the way I would of gone had he been fit.

Normally I wouldn't grumble about that 4231 system being played with Hudd in the "2" with Sandro, but not last night. And in hindsight, with what happened I'm convinced it wasn't the right night for Hudd. He'd have spent all night chasing shadows, and he's not built for that.

 

[Stavrogin]

Normally I wouldn't grumble about that 4231 system being played with Hudd in the "2" with Sandro, but not last night. And in hindsight, with what happened I'm convinced it wasn't the right night for Hudd. He'd have spent all night chasing shadows, and he's not built for that.

I also thought there was little point bringing him on. I thought we'd do better simply focusing on backs to wall desperate defending.

Although that didn't actually work out in the end, so who knows? His presence might have jigged the midfield into a more workable shape. But he was probably not fit enough for such a game.

 

[Mr Pink]

Normally I wouldn't grumble about that 4231 system being played with Hudd in the "2" with Sandro, but not last night. And in hindsight, with what happened I'm convinced it wasn't the right night for Hudd. He'd have spent all night chasing shadows, and he's not built for that.

we were chasing shadows even before we went down to ten men....

and thats the whole point, better options with passing the ball would of cut down the chasing the shadows... we still had two banks of four chasing shadows last night, how could that of been any worse with Hudd playing...we just needed some respite, someone to pick the right sort of the pass at the right time....anything to get us up the pitch more.

Hudd is more adpet at playing the longer ball in the air than Modric too, so Crouchy could of got more ball to hold up from that point of view.

its were we differ in how we both see the game....

 

[Mr Pink]

I also thought there was little point bringing him on. I thought we'd do better simply focusing on backs to wall desperate defending.

Although that didn't actually work out in the end, so who knows? His presence might have jigged the midfield into a more workable shape. But he was probably not fit enough for such a game.

oh I agree he wasn't fit enough, but if he had of been his passing would of been useful in helping us push out more.

He would of been our best option in terms of hitting balls that would of bypassed their midfield...

 

[Black]

How can the best passer in our team not make a difference. Harry should have done everything he could have done to make sure hudd was as close to match fitness as possible.

He definitely should have got some minutes at wigan, and should have played some part in the madrid game.

Just crazy how how he did not play, harrys says a lot that we should be buildibg a team around bale and modric i really believe it should be hudd. You can always go out and buy another bale or modric but you dont find many hudd type players

BC likes to refer to his stats and all that but we all know when hudd plays we look like a much better team.

 

[StanSpur]

I would never EVER pick Hudd over Modric. Luka is world class Tommy is not even international class. Modric played ok and to suggest he is too lightweight is just stupid. He holds the ball up better than any of our players and has an ability to move out of trouble. He is genuine class and wanting Hudd to play just because he's a lump smacks of insanity, as much as i like Huddlestone he is not mobile, doesn't get stuck in and struggles under tight pressure, yes he can pass but he can't create the space he needs.

 

[MrWoolley]

I'm going to ignore the comments about Modric, but yes Huddlestone probably could of got 15 - 20 minutes last night. Couldn't of done any harm, could it?