JJ or Thudd???

[rsmith]

I think we agree we need a new DM in January.
I think we agree that Modric will come good and be our AM
I think we agree that Bentley or Azza will play RM
I think we agree that Bale, GDS or Azza will play LM

Assuming we continue with one up top, that leaves one more place in midfield.

So, the question before my learned colleagues is this...
JJ or Thudd

JJ has the pace and stamina to cover every blade of grass, and does. Tracks back and helps out in defense and gets forward with a trademark one-two. He's good in the tackle and his tackle:foul ratio is good.
But, his distribution is negative and often wasteful. Doesn't really fill the vice-captain's armband for me.

Thudd, well in a nutshell he's the anti-JJ. All the things JJ does well, he does badly. But, his vision and accuracy is Hoddlesque.

If we could somehow merge the two of them, what a player we'd have. But we can't

So, gentlemen...

Will it be contestant 1, who seems to suck the creativity out of our midfield, but covers the ground of two men?
Or will it be contestant 2, who can play like a pub centre back one minute and Ghod the next?

The choice as they say is yours.

 

[nidge]

All I will say is that Jenas is the midfielder that consistently makes more passes than any of our other midfielders. He is the player in midfield that makes us tick at the moment. (Now whether he is good enough is not the point of this thread as it is a comparison between Hudd and JJ and who we would choose.)

For example in the game against Bolton he made 65 passes (9 more passes than our second highest passer which was Assou-Ekotto) with an accuracy of 91% so although I agree he distrubution isn't always positive (lack of movement ahead of all our midfielders has been an issue this season and last.) he certainly can't be described as overly wasteful, his season accuracy for passing is 88% which is the best in our team.

 

[Freezy Water]

Statistics dont tell the full story though. A player may have a 100% pass completion but if he only ever passes sideways or backwards he's not exactly doing a great deal for the team.

In my opinion the choice between the 2 would depend very much on who would play alongside them. With the right players & system both could be very effective. However if I had to choose 1 to fit into the system below I would choose Jenas purely because of Hudd's lack of speed

 

[guy]

if we could morph the 2 we'd have our very own Gerrard