Massimo Luongo has arrived, apparently he's a holding midfielder. If he's arrived on Klug's advice I would imagine he may get a decent opportunity for many first team games. I certainly feel he will get more of an opportunity than Jake Livermore. Could be wrong. I THINK ( could be wrong ) Cheick Kourouma is another deeper midfielder. His signing looks imminent also, and he appears to be rated judging by him having been at clubs such as Genoa and Zaragoza. I can't imagine the club would go to such levels to sort out the compensation if he wasn't going to feature. Likewise, it wouldn't be in Cheick's interests either to join. Then we have Jimmy Bullard, who when plays due to legs/ fitness etc also plays in quite a deep lying role. Hyam also went to the Braintree friendly, where the majority of the senior players have gone to the other. So, what does this mean for Luke Hyam? Or am I simply reading too much into it?
I'm fed up of hearing about how Hyam is inexperienced. Well guess what, there's an easy equation to solve that...........time on the pitch = experience..........it really is that simple. If he is not going to feature much for us then he needs to go on a season long loan somewhere. Let us use another club for blooding our youngsters for a change. Purely defensive midfielders are a rare breed, I bet you don't hear many MF's saying "You know what Gaffer, I'm not interested in getting in the box or doing anything flashy, I just want to sit in the middle of the park and be a nuisance to the other team". Yet most successful teams have one, Keane, Viera and Makelele to name three who were equally important to their teams as the Thierry Henry's etc. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Luke could be important to us and he needs to get experience one way or another, unless we find a more competent defensive mid of course.
Agree with this, the only way a player will improve is by playing games. The reserve league is beyond a joke though - they need to sort that out or perhaps category 1 / 2 etc will help with that. Some of the teams our reserves have been playing of late are beyond bad! I just wonder what Jewell's thoughts are longer term with Luke.
I don't understand the situation with Hyam, excellent under Keane untill he got injured then frozen out, was part of the midfield of our most successful spell last season. So why have 2 managers been unwilling to stick with him and give him the experience he needs? When he was dropped in favour of Leadbitter at the end of last season i defended the decision saying that in all fairness whatever Grants intentions were he was playing well and scoring goals. then there was obviously the Card issue that might have played a part all i can say say is Luongo signed a new contract with Spurs so theres no possibilty of him staying past this season. (well i suppose there is always an option but you can only take the new contract as a sign of intent). Kouroma is an unknown, so presumably in the future it would be Hyam and Korouma competing for the position and that was the 'plan' but Klug suggested Luongo which we can only assume is going to be even better. Untill the season starts we cant judge, and ultimately its up to Hyam to prove to the coaching staff he has to be in the starting 11.
I have to say it is a puzzling one. There always seems to be players who us fans think deserve to be in the team but by both managers they've worked under they get frozen out!! Players like D Wright, Peters & Garvan etc!!
D Wright was a puzzler yes. Peters was horrific on the wing, however at full back he was strangely good. Garvan should have been better than he turned out. Waste and rightly gone.
Hyam is definately a strange case. There aren't many fans that either dont rate him or doesnt think he has great potential. He has been given an opportunity by two managers and in my mind he has impressed under both. He seems a fairly sensible lad when you hear him interviewed so Im guessing its not an attitude thing. But both managers have dropped him and they obviously see a lot more of the players than we do so they must see a failing that shows up in training. Are they worried by his size? his one dimentional play? a concentration issue or similar that has shown up in training. A drug/ gambling addiction. There must be something going on behind the scenes. Going forward, I think he would benefit from a loan IF he isnt going to play regularly here. Our reserve fixtures are a joke and hopefully if he can go elsewhere, play 30+ games this season then he can come back ready for a starting place for the following season. Whatever the reasoning behind it its pointless him twiddling his thumbs on the sidelines here.
Hyam is a young player learning his game. The expert proponents of a defensive midfielder i.e. positioning & reading the game to break it up are skills learnt through experience. To learn you do have to play but what if you're not experienced enough for the postition so you don't get played???? If you're good enough then you're old enough. It doesn't look particularly good for Luke as the player bought in is the same age. I don't think Jewell rates him...
If think Hyam is the type of player that needs a run of games just to put a shine on his game but not necessarily in centre midfield, I just wonder if playing him at Right Back would be good for him, he could learn to tackle without jumping into everything thus not picking up so many bookings. It worked with players like Dyer and Gerrard.
Luke Hyam is old enough and good enough. People are talking about it as if we'd be dropping Gareth Barry to play him. No, last season we'd have been dropping Bowyer or Leadbitter for crying out loud! This Spurs lad may be great, that's not my quarrel, but even so next season we're no further forward.
I've got to admit, centre of the park was somewhere I though we were worryingly thin on the ground, so this signing is a welcome one in my opinion. Having Drury and Hyam as (everyone's) preferred choice only left us with Stevenson, Lawrence and Bullard as alternatives, Young Byron being just that... Young and therefore a bit too much to ask him to stand in incase of a long term injury and Bullard in my opinion has no part to play at Ipswich anymore and I would be happy if he left Tomorrow, so this guy joining is a positive thing... although i would have preferred a more experienced holding midfield player as it seems odd to loan in a youngster in a role that is often successful due to experience, but if he's better than we have then so be it. And if Kouroma finally signs then he will be a great box to box option and give us some physicality so all in all centre of the park is covered now for an out an out winger a big centre forward and a young propect at centre half... Then I fancy us to be half decent this year
