What has gone wrong with him this season ? Last season he played probably the best all round complete game I have ever seen by a City player at home to Fulham and he scored a goal in that match. He was touted for the England World Cup squad by many. This season he should not even be in our squad and is only selected because of injuries to Diame etc and some sort of misplaced loyalty from SB. He is slow, overweight and does not seem interested. He rarely shoots at goal as is never on the edge of the box to hit a poor clearance from the opposition defence back towards goal. He is not PL class on this season's form and should be dropped for the Burnley game as Dyche will have watched us on Monday evening and told his hard working players to chase him down and give him no time on the ball. We will play much better on Saturday with Gaston who is much quicker and plays better defence splitting passes to the strikers. Livermore also plays much better without Huddlestone in the same team as he did in the games Thudd was suspended.
He's a victim of his own success. Last season he played superbly. I don't think he's been as bad as everybody has made out this season, he just hasnt hit the standards he set himself last season. Talk of dropping him for Meyler (who to his credit came on and played well on Monday) is ******ed. He's our best midfielder and we can't afford to not have him in the side. He will look at his performance on Monday and be disappointed, then he'll be sure not to make those mistakes again.
The biggest problem with thudd is in my view he's playing too deep! I'd prefer to see jake sitting deeper and thudd further upfront! He's more dangerous playing further forward but he needs someone to do the graft behind him so we get the best out of him.
He was sensational against Liverpool, good against Palace. He's recently just found his form and had an off day against Arsenal. As for him being overweight, that is beyond silly. He just looks bigger because of his frame, he covers a lot of ground for us
I'm genuinely of the belief that Bruce doesn't like too many solely creative players. I notice he never really has Quinn and Ramirez merely one or the other. Granted similar players but Bruce does prefer a grafter like Meyler over 1 of the 2
More of a wing back in my book too! Thudds our best midfielder but he gets caught out tracking back making daft tackles because jakes playing inside right. It just needs a bit of tweaking that's all.
So in which part of the formation line-up would your 'wing back' be? Would he be in the 3 named as defenders or the 5 named as midfielders?
Midfielders! Jake in front of the back 3 thudd & Quinn in the middle. But they get their arses back when we've not got the ball! Simple.
For me, the word back in 'wing back' answers that. I'd count him as both, but I think Huddlestone is the better footballer.
