woody

[Shanks]

I watched Football First, so got to see a fair bit fo the match.
The game was very dissappointing and we were on our back foot for the majoirty of the match.
Shame to see us so pegged back against a weakened Everton team.

Although for being in our own half for the majority (not sure on stats % wise), we actually looked assured and confident at the back, and didn't look like crumbling at all.

Woodgate and Huddlestone were very good against some very tricky strikers and attacking midfielders. Both impressed me a lot. Woodgate showed his class, calm, confident, reading the game well, and Huddlestone wasw doing the same, to say The Hudd doesn't have pace is wrong, because he wasn't get outpaced by Johnson who is a very quick player.

Woody MOTM, Hudd close second, although thats jsut from the spurs team.

Gunter didn't seem bad at all on the left although majoirty of the play came from his side, so he certainly had his work cut out. Enjoyed seeing O'Hara telling Johnson what for when he apparently dived.

 

[yanno]

Hudd has played 3 games there and I can only recall1 major mistake and that was tonight in the 2nd half when he let Johnson get the wrong side of him and Arteta slipped him in, thankfully Cerny come up with a big save.

I agreed with the rest of your post, and we both think the Hud at the back would be great for the likes of Darren Bent.

On the specific issue of the instance when Johnson got on the wrong side of the Hud on the edge of the box.... From the replays, it looked like Woodgate was too deep. We had a defensive line of Gunter, Hud and Chimbo, and the Hud allowed Johnson to go beyond him because he thought he'd be offside. However Woodgate was 2 yards deeper so Johnson was actually onside.

Now, primarily this is teething problems. I doubt our back four had even had one training session together, and given this they were excellent. Woodgate is a leader and a talker, and in time he should be setting the defensive line, and the rest of the back four should be taking their position off him.

But all in all, a very good performance from the defence.

 

[monkeynick]

I'm assuming that Wodgate can play in the UEFA?