Some thoughts on missing Huddlestone

[davidmatzdorf]

I don't agree that Huddlestone "controls games". Modric sometimes controls games. Huddlestone doesn't.

It depends what one means by "controls games". If you are looking for the incisive moment, the run or flick that unlocks a defence and gets the crowd all excited, then Modric is more likely to do that.

But I don't think that's what most football people mean when they talk about a player "controlling the game". They usually mean the quiet, constant, inconspicuous work carried out in the middle of the park, being constantly available, receiving the ball several times in each period of possession, choosing which direction, length and speed of attack to start, or just recycling the ball with simple passes to a teammate in space, making sure that your team keeps the ball a bit longer. That's how tempo is set, that's how the decisions are made about whether to attack up the flanks or through the middle and that's how the defence is protected and possession is regained. My favourite examples from recent history of this style are Jan Molby and Tugay. Michael Carrick does it, too.

That's Huddlestone all over. Modric can do it, when Hudd isn't available, as he showed when he played deeper than Jenas recently (against Blackburn?). But it's really Huddlestone's main role.