I posed the original question because opinion is quite varied and i do rate both players its just that i think Harding is fairly underated in general and he has served us well and rarely lets us down
Fox has been our best signing, in my opinion. Has got a quality delivery which adds to our options from set pieces. Better defensively than Harding and more attacking. Its a no brainer who to have as first choice left back. Harding is Championship level at best where Fox can cut it in the premier league.
I agree with this. Before Danny Fox was signed we quite often had Rickie Lambert having to take corners, which was ridiculous. Now we have different options at set pieces which we didn't have before.
I remember the first game I saw Harding play, I thought he was fantastic. He was fantastic attacking, and made all the runs back you'd expect from a good defender. He is prone to a few mistakes, but I can't understand why half our fans don't like him. He's not lazy, he runs and links up with Lallana far, far better than any other left back. He was a fantastic player last season, and made team of the year. He is a fantastic player in this league. Apart from a better delivery, I can't see how Fox is much better
Sorry but I dont see that at all. Fox has a quality delivery from set pieces yes, no question. Fox very rarely goes further than 10 yards into the opposition half before playing one of his Hollywood passes to the other wing. You can count on one hand the number of times he gets to the bye line like Fraser and Harding do. Fox leaves the guy he is marking with so much space its almost embarrassing. He is usually miles away from him when the opposition are attacking, far too much room left behind him. Fox's interplay with Lallana is almost non existant. He would rather hoof it across the pitch than play a simple give and go with Adam. For all his faults I would sooner have Harding any day. They are both NOT premiership standard but both adequate Championship standard IMHO. For me though, Harding suits our style of play more, esp Lallana's.
It's a good thing that Fox doesn't bomb down the left-flank all game. We've already got Frazer doing that on one wing, so to have both full-backs doing it will just leave us exposed. Adkins clearly likes the one-holing, one-bombing full-back combo, as last season it was Butterfield-Harding and this season it's Richardson-Fox. And yes Fox does have a tendancy to punt the ball long, but as I've said before, if Adkins didn't want him doing that then he'd have either told him not to or dropped him - so Adkins is clearly ok with it. And that's good enough for me. Hell, it might even be telling Fox to do it (after all, it's not like Hooiveld and Fonte don't like the odd punt as well). Harding can't defend for his life, and whilst the jury is still out on Fox's defending in my opinion, he does so far look to be a better defender. And there is absoloutely no doubt that Fox's delivery is better than Harding's. Corner's and free-kicks now have Lambert anf the CBs licking their lips.
I should add that I completely agree that Harding works well with Lallana; he works very well with him. But that alone is nowhere enough to get him in the team. Moreover, I also agree with people saying that Harding gives it his all and is enthusiastic etc. I think he generally puts 110% effort into games. Unfortunately effort alone isn't enough. You also need some ability. To use a couple of our past examples, I would have Rasiak over Ormerod any day. A striker's job is to score goals - one of those guys could do it, they other couldn't. Didn't care that the one who can score also happened to be much, much lazier.
You've hit the nail on the head. The thing with a team is you pick the best team not necessarily the best players. I think Fox is a better player than Harding in terms of defending and attacking but certainly does not suit the team or Lallana better than Harding. He links up with Lallana poorly. Harding is a much better option imo
"It's a good thing that Fox doesn't bomb down the left-flank all game. We've already got Frazer doing that on one wing, so to have both full-backs doing it will just leave us exposed." Surely it is not that difficult to have one back dashing forward at a time. If either left or right back has run forward with the ball why does the other one need to without?
Going back to players who link well and compliment each other though Rasiak could score goals you could'nt have played him with Beattie as Ormerod was the perfect foil for him did a lot of donkey work and was in your face and busy which maybe allowed Beatts to score as many goals as he did at that time.Maybe Fox is the more talented but is Harding Lallana the better match up down the left
Isn't that because he hardly moves? He's here because Lambert is the only other player in our squad who can take an indirect free kick. We should have just got a decent winger with that ability.
