If he had the pace to match his ball skills, I don't think he'd have come to city in the first place he'd have been in Spurs first team, must be well known around the Epl and the Championship by now that his Achilles heel is his lack of pace. that why I don't think we have to worry about losing him in the window, honestly don't believe we will get any offers for him, unless we let him go on a free.
Lack of pace means **** all. Ash was no quicker yet everyone ****ed over him. He's a footballer not a 100m sprinter.
Ash seemed to cover the ground though and was also a great tackler as well as filling the gaps, not to mention being a leader of men, Huddlestone is none of these things and his skills don't make up for it
In the 3-5-2 when he sat deep without having to cover the whole pitch, he was excellent at breaking up play, but it was ignored, people just chose to pay attention to his sparkling technical ability. I think he'd work a lot better in a two man midfield if Jake or whoever his partner is was told to keep back and be the protector. As it is Jake seems to be the one told to venture forwards despite being ****ing ****e at that end of the pitch. When Tom played and excelled for top 4/champions league Spurs he played in a two man midfield with Wilson Palacios sitting back doing the dirty work, that's how we should be using him. Bruce does the opposite.
I'm not sure why Huddlestone will go in January, what pl scout would have watched him this season and thought "yes he'll improve our team". That's when he's been in our team of course. If we then look at it from another angle "he's to good for the championship" what was his form like last season......no that wasn't good either, so all in all if a scout recommends him he wants putting down Thudd will leave in the summer on a freebie
I think Huddlestones last best match (clutching at straws here) was in the 2-2 draw against West Ham, where he sat deep in a diamond, I think we play him deep but in what should be an attacking position, if he's going to play deep, he needs to be in a deep position. Sergio Busquests isn't the quickest of players alive and ive never seen him burst forward (very little) but Barcelona always play him in deep position where he is more effective with either an attacking midfielder in front or two to pick out. If we are going to play Huddlestone deep, then do so but get attacking midfielders around him. We have the right players, I just don't think the manager is using them in the right way at all. I'm not saying I'm better than Bruce, he's doing something right but I think he's terrible when it comes to certain players and where to position them.
His last decent game for us was actually the cup game against Leicester, but he was playing at the front of a three man midfield with Hayden and Taylor behind him.
I don't see he could be effective there! He's too bloody slow. But if you thought it worked, I don't understand why Bruce doesn't keep trying it, he sticks to the same thing, like putting Aluko up front, and elmo at RB and Robertson at Lb, Diame upfront, non of these things have worked but we keep seeing it!
It did work well but bizarrely Bruce has left Hayden out mostly ever since and even Taylor looked OK in that game too, hard to know what Bruces thought process is or if he is taking on board the things that actually work before his team selections because the Leeds lineup was garbage
Huddlestone is a puzzle, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in an enigma.....probably explains why he is so slow. Seriously, he has to be one of the most talented English midfielders of his generation, but **** knows how you get the best out of him.
Why all this speculation about losing Huddlestone, we had a full close season and up to the first transfer window, and how many bids came in for him ? Now if he had been outstanding since then I would have worried, but his form this season hasn`t exactly been astounding has it, I suspect we`ll have a similar amount of bids for him this transfer window as we had the last, exactly zero !
Only one place to play him and use his passing skills is to have him sat in front of a back three! It's there or nowhere.
Yeah putting him in midfield as part of a two isn't going to ever work as its giving the other guy with alot to do, because Tom cant run and can't track back quickly. It's worrying that Bruce isn't seeing this. Either play him in a midfield such as: -------------------Huddlestone------------- Meyler-----------------------------------livermore Or ---------------------Huddlestone------------------ Elmo--------------------------------------------Clucas --------------------------Diame----------------------- But never Elmo----Huddlestone---Livermore------Clucas
