im not too sure about everyone else, but i gave guly a 7 cos of his vital equaliser, otherwise it would have been a 5 and i agree about harding
cant believe people are slagging off harding - he had a good start to the season, had an injury and he was in league 1 team of the year last year so that says something
I've been trying to restrain myself as much as possible (why bother getting into it, everyone knows what little I think of Harding!), but I'll come in on this. Firstly, it was L1 team of the year - hardly the PL team of the year. Secondly, it potentially says more about the other LBs in L1 last season than it does about Harding. The league wasn't exactly full of top LBs last season. But any way, as I've said before, Fox is here now.
My overview: Harding did well. When he did gallop forward into that left hand space in their half, he did ok; not spectacular, but did well and I can't remember a barrage of crosses from their right winger. Guly was frustrating last night as in the first half, he couldn't trap a bag of cement and seemed a little worried the temperature might drop too cold. At half time everyone near me was slagging him off, but I said that becasue he was poor first half, he'll score!! He is vital to us, but not a great showing from him last night. Frazer was very good. Steve De Ridder looks like he could destry people, but a couple of times he didn't cross when he could have. Morgan was accomplished on the ball as expected, but he is not a wide midfielder. Deano and Corkie didn't get the time they like on the ball. CB's were pretty good Lambert was ok, not his best, but still did ok. Lallana showed glimpses of what he can do, but in the first half, I thought their full back played him very well. Second half Adam had more joy. I thought the biggest credit should go to Hull and how they had a game plan to stop us playing flowing football and it worked. With Koren "cheating" by playing between the CB's and CM's, he continually found space. If they had more of a cutting edge they would be contenders. For 10 minutes after half time we came alive and looked good. Good win and still top!
Dickson = better cover than Harding. I know Harding is decent going forward, but he has no idea how to defend! He makes everything look difficult, has the positional sense of a headless chicken and he's often the wrong side of his marker. He's certainly the weak link in the team.
Yeh i prefer Dickson over Harding as well but Adkins obviously sees the best 2 as Fox and Harding so out of them two it's deffo Fox all the way.
If you want to discuss Harding, Dickson & Fox make your own thread, this is a match ratings/discussion thread for last night so leave it there
i just think you can make your own thread of it and no he wasnt the worst defender actually, they were all good last night
Have to agree. I thought Harding would be the next player to be accused of racism, he didn't go anywhere their number 2 on the right wing all night!! in fact he was always a good 15 yards off him.
in the words of adkins: we have four exceptional full backs, and ryan dickson the 5th and full backs arent necessarily defensive in the modern game (or something along them lines) in todays echo and its funny the people who moan about harding being the weakest player are the ones who moan at me for singling players out so double standards really, although i suppose thats what happens on the internet
yeah i did your right - sorry, i had to rush there was something else i forgot to add as well so apologies
I will always disagree with you about Harding, last night he didn't put a foot wrong in my opinion, you don't have to be treading on a wingers bootlaces to prevent him from doing what he wants, Fox and Harding are equals but different, I would have preferred Harding to have played at Bristol City, his style suited that game better. Frazer Richardson was the MVP and should have an 8 at least. Flame me if you like, but my bias towards DH is as strong as yours is against him, that is my right.
If you want a lesson in backing off a winger, look no further than fox for bristols first goal. Harding would have been strung up for that. Yet no1 mentioned it. Also he was partly at fault for their second. Harding defended well last night, if someone resorts to complaining about him not marking their number 2 (their fullback!), I despair!
Yesterday's game was not unlike the Bristol City game. They had all the energy and we looked tired. They did not give us a moment on the ball and pushed up high to compress the midfield. We couldn't get our passing game going and our players were constantly receiving the ball facing our goal so that they had to turn to run at the opposition which gave them plenty of time to close us down and put in a winning tackle. The only time we looked threatening was when the ball was played in frnt of our players for them to run onto. I have to say that most of our passes were back or sideways and at time we did not know what to do hence all the faffing about with the ball being passed back and forwards between our defenders who were being closed down each time. The real truth at the moment is that we are very slow turning possession into attack as we have no pace and I am not sure De Ridder is the answer. He has to beat his man twice and often his final ball is poor. So my ratings: Davis - OK but with the occasional lapse - 6 Richardson - full of running and opened up the game as it seemed only he and Lallana were prepared to run at Hull - 8 Fonte - OK but Hull were not much of an ariel threat - 7 Jos - as above - 7 Harding - I like him as a player but prefer Fox who is a great crosser of the ball but he was skinned all afternoon at Bristol - 6 Morgan - I just love the guy and he puts in a shift even when out of position. Made several good cross field passes. - 7.5 Cork - Ran around but couldn't get in the game - 6 Hammond - I just wish he would pass the ball forward sometimes but he did break up a lot af attacking moves by Hull - 6.5 Lallana - as usual ran himself into the ground and worked hard all evening with some great touches - 8 Guly - He it seems is like marmite you either love him or hate him. He is keeping this team rolling at the moment and without him we would not be top. his first touch though is terrible but when the mood takes him he wins the game for us. He doesn't attack the ball enough for me. - 6.5 Rickie - It was obvious at Bristol and again last night that he is carrying an injury. He looked tired and jaded. Being him though he put himself about. - 6.5 De Ridder - frightened them with his pace and that is all - 5 Barnard - tried and ran about a bit got pretty poor service. - 5 Holmes - made a lot of space for himself but did not see a lot of the ball. - 5 Without doubt we have lost a bit of form and need to think about how we cope with teams who close us down, compress the midfield and are full of running. If we don't then we are going to get a few hidings and let us hope that we don't get one from our neighbours.
