Yesterday on the City v Cardiff thread, almost everyone wanted Harper in their starting 11 and today, everyone is saying he's ****. so, DO YOU LIKE HIM OR NOT!
I don't think people like him but at the minute he's all we have. Next season I hope he is a bit-part player.
I like him, he had a really bad game yesterday, especially by his standards. I know he doesn't do anything special like through balls or hard crunching tackles, but he does alot of work marking and closing down, plugging gaps, making runs, he gets all over the pitch and his usual simple passing game means he usually doesn't give posession away much. When he's playing well he helps keep the team together, specially when we just get hold of possession and we're being chased down and pressured, he keeps calm and gives other players a bit of time to make space. I can also hit a mean long shot when he wants to... Remember he's injured and having 3 injections in his foot to play so it's hardly suprising that he was crap yesterday. I think I'd rest him until he's fully fit, unless he is by Saturday, but I'd have him in the team when possible. I've watched him closely for alot of our games and think the work he does is usually un-noticed as I think his main attribute is working hard off the ball.
Harper isn't fit and it was a mistake to play him yesterday. I don't like the way he is scapegoated by some people, he stands out because he is the holding midfielder. It's always been like that at City, Ashbee was slagged off every season he was at the club. Koren and Evans haven't been at their best recently either, neither has Fryatt, and even Gerrard was looking shaky before he went off. I'd still leave him out v Forest but am not sure how they will organise the midfield without him. Like Midlands I watch the games closely and on the Tigers Player before passing judgements.
I've always thought he was terrible. Makes me sick that he gets a game every week when our best midfielder is at another club.
I don't think Harper is the answer to our prayers for a solid midfielder but will put up with him in preference to Bullard who has turned into an expensive joke.
As other have said he's not fit what with having to have injections in his foot, but at the moment he is the best option we have. Need a player like Jonathan Greening with some energy to boss the midfield if we are to grab that final playoff place. Big Nige will know this. Also to get in this lad Etuhu to give us some pace down the flanks now that Cameron Stewart is out for the season.
He's not good enough, but we're selecting him because we're very short of options(there's also no law against selecting the team you expect to see, or hope to see, then stating that one of those players didn't perform). Koren apparently wants to play in the middle, but he looks better for us on the wing. Cairney hasn't the confidence to direct things from midfield, he's too similar to Evans(but not quite as good). Belaid was poor in the previous two games. We're sadly lacking in the centre of the park, TWF suggests Jimmy is the answer(as he always does), but Jimmy isn't currently with us, he didn't look interested when he was and he played 90 minutes for Ipswich yesterday and they also lost 2-0. I wish a central midfield player was top of our shopping list, maybe Tom Ince is that player, but I'd be happier if it was Greening, we need a steady head in there.
Frustrates the hell out of me and I am still not sure it we are better or worse with him in the side.
Harper is absolutely nowhere near as bad as some will make out, he's not particularly bad at anything, he doesn't give the ball away constantly, he can strike it well, he has a massive engine and his tackling is easily the hardest at the club. Probably not the best, but hardest. He goes flying in a bit too much in fact if you ask me, I often feel sorry for the recipients of his challenges. My biggest gripe with him at the moment is the way he seems to lose concentration every now and then doing something stupid and frustrating in the process, and he was very bad for that yesterday.
Yesterday I watched Harper for ten minutes solid, never taking my eyes off him to see why some fans were fustrated by him. He is no way as bad as some fans suggest he played yesterday. That lad was up and down the park, closing down, tracking back, tried going forward, getting his foot in when he could, admittingly some of his passes were wayward. Yesterday because we played 3 midfeild, the midfeild was spread thin and considering the lad had had 3 pain killing injections to start the game, he certainly did ok under the circumstances. Had we played 4-4-2 maybe he would have had a different game. Ashbee,s gone, Harpers still here , get behind him and dont follow like sheep
Just watched first half from Saturday again on Tigers Player, Harper made two misplaced passes but they were both positive balls forward and was involved in three very good attacking moves, he did a lot of tracking and covering, and was involved in most of our play. He was getting to grips with the game a lot more than Koren, who seemed to go missing a lot from the play, leaving Evans and Harper to do most of the work. Haven't watched the second half yet but what I can remember from being at the game is that he ran out of gas, probably due to the injections in his foot wearing off.
