Worried we will lose our passers

[stevenqoz]

A bit worried at the moment. We seem to be in danger of losing our best two passers in Huddlestone and Berbatov. Few of our squad come close to these two for vision and ability to deliver 15 -30 yard passes. O'Hara is a fair player but lacks the experience in the EPL. KPB is very inexperienced also.
Modric and Dos Santos look to be dribblers....as is Lennon and Tarbart
Jenas, Zokora, Tainio and Malbranque are just worker / runners. What do people think?

 

[Disconosebleed]

Modric.

 

[ckafetz]

I think Ramos has spotted early on that we have a team (similar to England National team) who are technically not great so I see most of our signings being technically very good such as Modric. We'll have a better passing team next season even without Huddlestone and Berbatov

 

[yanno]

A bit worried at the moment. We seem to be in danger of losing our best two passers in Huddlestone and Berbatov. Few of our squad come close to these two for vision and ability to deliver 15 -30 yard passes. O'Hara is a fair player but lacks the experience in the EPL. KPB is very inexperienced also.
Modric and Dos Santos look to be dribblers....as is Lennon and Tarbart
Jenas, Zokora, Tainio and Malbranque are just worker / runners. What do people think?

I understand your concern. Huddlestone is currently our best midfield passer of the ball, and I hope we keep him. Berba is our best "linking" striker, able to play a little deeper (like Kanoute in Ramos' Sevilla side), control the ball and keep attacks moving. So, losing these two would be a huge loss.

However, Modric is an even better passer of the ball than Huddlestone - certainly over short and medium distances. He's also a tough little blighter, who's shown that he can keep possession of the ball in very tight areas. I really hope Ramos plays him centrally, as our Fabregas.

If we swap Berba for Eto'o - as per the ITK - then Eto'o will lead the line, and we'll need to sign a new deeper linking striker or change formation to say a 4-2-3-1, with an ACM/Number 10. If we buy a new linking striker, it will probably be a Diego Milito type. Alternately, Modric, Dos Santos and even Robbie Keane are all options for an ACM/Number 10.

 

[Yid-ol]

As good as Hudd is at picking out some great balls, he more offten than not doesnt get it right and i dont atchaly think his passing % is that high compaired to most of the other players we have, also Modric looks like he can pick out a pass and not just dribble, no idea abotu dos santos though.

Berabtov doesnt look liek he is going yet, so i wouldnt worry about that and Hudd i think will only be loaned out (i hope) so we wont be losing him!

 

[Dharmabum]

So far Spurs have gained passers: dos Santos and, particularly, Modric are good passers. Neither Steed nor, particularly, Lennon, are good passers.
And with Bale back Spurs have yet another good passer in the team.

 

[Bobbins]

Modric's ability to retain and use possession outstrips Huddlestone's 1-in-5-works 70 yard passes any day of the week.

 

[cockyyid]

I'm not too worried about the so called loss of passers,with modric and dos santos and possibly bentley coming,the coming season is already feeling good.
If, and i say 'If' berbatov leaves,(gotta feeling he is gonna wanna stay,with the signings we have made, and may still make!)ramos is buying superbly.Young, gifted talent that technically will help the others,and drive us on to beat the scum,yeah....really beat the scum,knock the shit out of them, pummel them(sigh).............................................Calm down boy. Roll on august. Champions league here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[thejames]

...he more offten than not doesnt get it right and i dont atchaly think his passing % is that high compaired to most of the other players we have...

To be fair to him, his % is bound to be down purely because he attempts much more adventurous passes than those around him. Some will come off, some don't. Those that do, often create something dangerous.

 

[eViL]

As good as Hudd is at picking out some great balls, he more offten than not doesnt get it right and i dont atchaly think his passing % is that high compaired to most of the other players we have, also Modric looks like he can pick out a pass and not just dribble, no idea abotu dos santos though.

Yeah but comparing his pass completion compared to our other midfielders is pointless because they all pass sideways more often than not. Huddlestone is always looking for the killer ball from deep to the forwards so there's always going to be some balls that top class defences will pick off.

How many times do you see Zokora trying to split a defence with a pass? Or anything for that matter?

 

[nickchrissi]

I take it your not watching the Austria - Croatia game then?

 

[thejames]

I take it your not watching the Austria - Croatia game then?

I'm at work. How good is he? (I've just clocked that he scored a Pen)

 

[Hoowl]

I'm at work. How good is he? (I've just clocked that he scored a Pen)

Modric has been tidy and kept the ball moving. His penalty was right down the middle. He's been knocked off the ball once but it was arguably a foul.

 

[Yid-ol]

To be fair to him, his % is bound to be down purely because he attempts much more adventurous passes than those around him. Some will come off, some don't. Those that do, often create something dangerous.

When they do come off they do indeed normaly lead to a good attack or chance, but the key bit here is we can only have these chances if we have the ball, if he loses the ball 7 times out of 10 from these pass's then we are giving up the ball too many times

Yeah but comparing his pass completion compared to our other midfielders is pointless because they all pass sideways more often than not. Huddlestone is always looking for the killer ball from deep to the forwards so there's always going to be some balls that top class defences will pick off.

How many times do you see Zokora trying to split a defence with a pass? Or anything for that matter?

Well who else should we compair him with? all i can go on is other players in the team, and if we keep the ball that is the main thing IMO, we dont need him always looking for the killer ball from deep though, sometimes a simple ball rolled into someones feet will be more dangerus than a long ball, at times i think his decision making might be abit off and trying for the spectacular instead of the simple... hope he is still in and about the squad for next season though, as he is improving alot each time i see him play

 

[AngerManagement]

I have no idea what the stats are, but I would suspect over the course of a season Huddlestones passes are not that impressive.

He makes the eye catching passes that stick in the mind and leave a good imprint, but how often do these passes actually come off?

His general play right now is not good enough to be in our first team either, he is easily bipassed and often he is left chasing circles.

While he is has good abiltiy and technique there is alot of basic skills he needs to aquire (reading of the game, mobility, postioning) before he can reach his potential.

He has an eye for a flash pass and the abilty to play that ball, he is no Hoddle though and I suspect over the course of the season his completion stats may not be that good. Hopefully this will improve, personally I think he may need to move to another team now for the sake of his own developement (like Defoe did)

 

[There's always next year]

I think Ramos will want to keep Hudd. He may need to offload Malbranque and O'Hara to accomodate Dos Santos and Modric. For all their effort and commitment, neither O'Hara or Malbranque will take us to next level.

 

[MrWoolley]

Malbranque will be a very capable backup for the left wing.

 

[DJS]

It'll be interesting to see if we keep Huddlestone as there have been a few stories popping up about us wanting to cash in on him.

I'd personally prefer to keep him for start of next season and if he doesn't step up sell hime in Jan / or Summer.

In terms of passing ability Modric should replace Huddlestone and it'll be good to see Dos Santos in action who will also provide quality passing skills.

Lets just hope Berbs is still here to sample the delights of their passes... ray:

 

[stevenqoz]

Dos Santos looks like and out and out left winger who gets to the touch line and delivers....for us that will be a plus. Looking at statistics for a player like Huddlestone v Zokora would suggest the latter was the better passer....dubious at most. Huddlestone is creative in the sense that he can make a difference in a way that Tainio, Malbranque, Jenas, Lennon and Zokora cannot. Modric looks more of a buzzer type player who would complement the more static Huddlestone...if we kept him. I'd like to see --------------Keeper
---------------Hutton Woodgate King Bale
-------------Jenas-- Huddlestone--Malbranque
------------------Modric---Dos Santos
-----------------------Berbatov

 

[fortworthspur]

thought Croatia looked thoroughly uninspired today, but Modric impressed in a generally lackluster effort overall. moved constantly with great positional awareness, quick, crisp passes and some ambitious ones that didnt all pan out, but like I said, the entire side looked uninspired. one flash of brilliance when he beat the left back, played an awful ball but regained possession and laid a very nice ball right across the 6 yard box. Based on one game, I dont think he'll have any trouble cracking the starting 11.