Huddlestone's great talent......where is it?

[joey55]

Yes I did, as I said I have missed about 5 games in 3 seasons. I have no doubt that he has attributes and talents, I am questioning his ability to use them.

Joey55 pointed out that it was worth having players work harder to cover for Huddlestone because he has 7 assists in 11 games, how many of those games have we won? I am obviously not saying that it was Hudds fault that we lost but what I am saying is that having Hudd in the team seriously weakens us. This is particularly the case when we don't have the ball, we are effectively playing with 10 men because Tom can't get around the field and he doesn't have the courage or the skills to take the pressure off of us by holding the ball and controlling the tempo.

Last season he had the best points per game average of any of our midfielders. Also he was statistically (again in terms of points per game) the midfielder we missed most when he didn't play.

 

[walworthyid]

Last season he had the best points per game average of any of our midfielders. Also he was statistically (again in terms of points per game) the midfielder we missed most when he didn't play.

Lies, damn lies and statistics. Jol clearly never agreed because he never played that much.

 

[joey55]

Lies, damn lies and statistics. Jol clearly never agreed because he never played that much.

He was 19/20 last season and made 25 starts in a top 5 prem side.

 

[Damian99]

I know that certain members are going to want to kill me for having the audacity to question their golden boy, but I think that Huddlestone is shockingly poor. I am for ever reading about this wonderful talent, great passing range, vision etc. When? When does he show this great passing ability for so many people to rave about it? Or is it one of those myths that have become accepted truth?

He either passes it 0-10 yards or he passes it 30-50 yards. That is not vision, anybody can spot someone running at distance and knock a ball in that general direction. Equally, anybody can pass the ball to a team mate that is in front of them.

Now, I understand that our movement and interplay is not the best and it is not always easy to find those crafty little passes but great players MAKE things happen, they encourage players to make runs by holding onto the ball that little bit longer. Yes they will get tackled sometimes, just like a quarter-back in grid iron. But if they have the skills eventually their team-mates will start offering themselves and making little darting runs.

Watch Berbatov, he came off of the bench and straight away he started to make things happen from the midfield. He is a bloody striker! He held the ball, and held it, and held it, until someone made a move.He held players off, and held players off, and held players off, until someone made an angle. He FORCED them to make runs, he MADE things happen.

Huddlestone can't/won't run, he can't head the ball, he can't tackle, he has no positional awareness and worst of all he has no courage and is downright lazy. He refuses to recieve the ball when he is tightly marked and if he does he simply passes it to the nearest person.

Tonight's game highlighted much of what is wrong with Tom. Poor Jenas has to forget all about attacking when he plays with Tom, he has to run about like a blue arse fly doing both his and Tom's jobs. Even Zokora had to come out of the backline to pick up players that had wandered through the midfield while Tom stood and watched.

When a player came inside Lee and threatened to shoot from inside the box, what did Tom do? NOTHING. The player edges forward. What did Tom do? He turned his back, still in the same place he was when the player first came inside Lee. That is not acceptable.

When they scored, who was on the edge of our box defending and who was wandering about in the midfield waiting for the ball? Yes you got it, Jenas was on the edge of the box and Tom, well, Tom, was doing what he does, NOTHING.

This may be something of a rant, but I am absolutely sick of seeing him ambling around like he has this wonderful talent and that he was born to strut his stuff. Apparently he is an arrogant person away from the pitch, he certainly is on it. The trouble is that he doesn't have the right to be arrogant, he is just not good enough.

If I picked the team, he wouldn't make the bench.

Couldn`t be arsed reading that, but his ball to keane in the opening minutes of the first half tonight, if that sort of ball isnt good enough to even make your bench, then i believe you`ll have a very empty bench.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Firstly I'd love to know how many Prem starts he made becasue it wasn't 25. I would gguess it was more like 15. Secondly I'd also like to know where those 7 assists were ?

Joey, as you know, the points per game stat is the most irrelevant stat out there. He could (and often did) play wank every one of his games but the other 10 played well and won. And it's great making assists but counter balanced by the fact that he weakens us in every other aspect. he often makes a pass and then stands there admiring it. He may be 20 but if he can't run around a bit now he's never going to.

Huddlestone has passing ability without doubt, but he needs time and space to make it tell. And he isn't going to get that in modern football (apart from the odd game against shit euro sides - of which there are fewer than there used to be)

I just don't think he's mobile enough (of foot or brain). It's a fucking shame because he has ability (another "nearly" player in a "nearly" team).

 

[stevenqoz]

Walworth, you would have loved Hoddle especially in the season we were relegated!
You are right anyone can hit pass in a general direction, it is the ones like that to Keane for his second goal against Birmingham are special.
Huddlestone is no Hoddle but you must be joking when you fail to recognise that he has talent. We, right now, ignore last season,are a struggling team. Huddlestone needs a leader to follow. As you intimate you need to fight for time/possession in the EPL. It would if we had a hardman alongside him. Ince, Roy Keane, Graham Roberts or even a player like Yorath was at the end of his career would help.

 

[$hoguN]

Why do people keep suggesting huddlestone loses 2 stone... You can't change your natural build so this is just an unrealistic thing to expect

 

[yiddodiddodo]

All these he is class, he is shit , he is a wonderful talent, he is lazy posts its like having Carrick again.

 

[ollie_spurs]

Hudd is a great passer of the ball. Needs to develop other areas of his game and not be such a pussy. When he turned his back on that shot last night it made me embarrassed. That's the kind of thing you do at primary school! He's not the only one though, a few of our players are just too soft.

 

[walworthyid]

Walworth, you would have loved Hoddle especially in the season we were relegated!
You are right anyone can hit pass in a general direction, it is the ones like that to Keane for his second goal against Birmingham are special.
Huddlestone is no Hoddle but you must be joking when you fail to recognise that he has talent. We, right now, ignore last season,are a struggling team. Huddlestone needs a leader to follow. As you intimate you need to fight for time/possession in the EPL. It would if we had a hardman alongside him. Ince, Roy Keane, Graham Roberts or even a player like Yorath was at the end of his career would help.

Let me repeat again, he has got talent, but when is he going to use it?

The pass to Keano, great, brilliant, where are the other 5-10 passes per game? IF he produced those passes, like Scholes, Fabregas, Requelme et al and all of those have been producing the goods since they were younger than Hudd, then that would be fine, but he rarely does. This is without discussing the fact that other than his ability to pass he brings nothing else to the team.

I think as many others have said is that he cannot play in a 442, i a 5 he would be alot better without the burden of having to defend. But surely that means he is a limited player and for me that is just not good enough.

 

[idlepete]

He's just a kid. Give him a break.

 

[adiepf]

i to was gonna slate the hudd

but then i looked on wikipedia & realised he is not even 21 until december 28th !!

he has got superb ability on the ball, but he drifts out of the game to much at the mo for me

he will be class though

 

[DC_Boy]

he did ok last night - we had a really makeshift team out - in terrible conditions - away to the top seeds for a game they needed to win to be sure of qualifying - we got a fanttastic result against the odds - all the players played their part and Hudd did his bit too -

I don't think h'e a great player or anything near that -but he did a job and would, I hope, have learnt abit from this game too.

when we lost at home to Getafe (the third seeds) all the dynamics of the group went against us - this result has now changed they dynamics - put the pressure on the other teams - Hudd has played his part in that -yesterday - and during that fantastic come back v aalborg

 

[chrissivad]

He has some talent, that I won't deny, but how much do we lose as a result of people having to cover for him?

same can be said about...Chimbonda.. Zokora in midfeild..and maybe Kaboul :shrug:

 

[Flatters]

I offer an opinion backed up with what I see as evidence, you make silly cyber-warrior comments, who is the ****?

Your other thread's been deleted, so I'll say in here that this is where you clearly abused someone.

 

[walworthyid]

Your other thread's been deleted, so I'll say in here that this is where you clearly abused someone.

How? He called me a **** ans i asked him if a person abusing somebody for nothing was a ****? That is not abuse, I just don't see it.

You are ****. That is abuse! (I am not calling you a ****, by the way:wink

 

[chrissivad]

i think it might be a good idea to drop this. Try getting the thread back on topic or it will be locked

 

[Flatters]

How? He called me a **** ans i asked him if a person abusing somebody for nothing was a ****? That is not abuse, I just don't see it.

You are ****. That is abuse! (I am not calling you a ****, by the way:wink

You asked him "who is the ****?". It's pretty obvious that you meant he is rather than you now. He abused you and you retaliated. I'd say he was more in the wrong than you, but you were still in the wrong as well for retaliating.

 

[walworthyid]

You asked him "who is the ****?". It's pretty obvious that you meant he is rather than you now. He abused you and you retaliated. I'd say he was more in the wrong than you, but you were still in the wrong as well for retaliating.

Fair enough, but I was the only one that got warned:shrug:

I was threatened for questioning A an C and that is what he did not like? If I was warned, so should everybody else!

 

[Flatters]

How do you know you were the only one that got warned?