For a centre half who is short he just needs to be able to jump higher then other players. Strength is the only thing that can be an issue
I agree. Captain Caveman at Barcelona is 5' 10" and he's been one of the best centre halves in the world for years.
Puyol has some redeeming qualities, but he's been a glaring weakness at Barcelona for a few years now. Cannavaro a few years ago would have been a better example of a brilliant undersized centre half. But they'd all have been more complete CBs if they'd been three inches taller...
Hobbs was good, great even, but Chester is better. The only way of separating them ability wise is you feel confident when Chester strides out of defence with the ball that he'll find a team mate with the ball, not so much the case with Hobbs. However, both have been immense this season, and that's not a criticism of Hobbs, I just think the all round game of Chester is better.
I'd say there weakness is the fact that the left back and right back spend too much time attacking leaving both centre halves exposed.
As a matter of interest, and perhaps related to this, did Daniel Ayala recover from his injury before the end of the season?
He is very prone to the odd schoolboy error. Back passes in particular. That will better with time and experience?
He came back from the bad knee injury, but only made two appearances before doing his hamstring, he only made seven league appearances all season.
The greatest centre back in the history of the game was 5ft 8, I refer of course to Franco Baresi. Yes Gazza may have been mental but he knew football and I loved his analysis: "The best player I ever played against. We all run around the pitch like idiots chasing the ball whereas Baresi just moved to an area that he knew they ball would drop to. He came off the pitch never sweating because he didnt have to run." The link was his first game back at USA 94 after a long injury. Dont let the penalty shootout miss blind you to the greatest centre back performance possibly in history: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boPQNpPvJq0
I thought Chester was prone to silly errors, short back passes etc. I always thought Hobbs was the better of the two in most games !
great clip, as a defender I can tell you it looks easy but it isn't.. it's timing, reading the game, experience and a cool head. Baresi & Maldini were the best. Vidic is the best currently. for City Turner, Jobson, McEwan, Gerrard & Chester have been top notch. Hobbs hopefully will come back as strong, he's doing well.
That's the point isnt it? He made it look easy. Back on to Chester and the worry for me would be if we sold him then we would be without either first choice centre back for the first 4 months of the season. Playing catch-up would be extremely difficult (yes I know Reading did it).
get real you ****ing muppets, chester is a gonner and why the **** are people talking about ayala. **** me he's rubbish. wake up you stupid ignorant prats.
