'If it was the 1980's, he'd be a superstar'
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 8:39PM Back in March 2009, I posted this here, asking the simple question: Is Huddlestone incredible or just plain ordinary. Here's some extracts/questions asked at the time. I guess the aim of this exercise is to see if any of the questions have came close to being answered (something I attempted to do first time round). See how you get on.
Hulk or Bulk?
But is Tommy too slow, cumbersome and defensively a liability?
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Or is that an unfair description for the player, where his strengths are of a more offensive nature?
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If you stick him in the middle of the park and the Spurs midfield are under pressure, can he step up and get stuck in, much like the maligned Jenas is capable of doing (when he's on song)* by running up and down the pitch and hassling opposition players?
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Just because he can deliver clever balls and Hoddlesque passes, does this warrant an inclusion in our starting line-up? And if it does, what would it mean to the structure and balance of the team?
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So unless Huddlestone actually has an overwhelming negative influence on the team, there is no reason why he can’t play centre-midfield in a role that takes full advantage of his vision and skills. Yes? Or no?
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So how do we maximise Tommy boy? Huddlestone - the quarterback? Sat in the middle laying off balls to both wings or dinking them forwards, with Wilson in the role of fullback, protecting him. Sounds immense on paper. Yes? or no?
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So does Huddlestone - passing abilities aside - give us enough strength and assurance down the middle? Can he adapt to the pace of the game and the quality of the opposition?
When the original article was written, Hudd was a bit part player, but he's now a fully fledged first teamer. So simply this: Is he making the grade? Harry appears to think so. Do you?
*Does that still count re: Jenas? Does he even give us an on song performance nowadays?
Reader Comments (31)
I like Huddlestone. Okay, so he might not get stuck in often but he can still produce performances. I remember him dominating a spurs v chelsea game at the Lane a few seasons back, came on as a sub and dictated play. Would be gutted to see him playing for anyone else.
He's a kid, lets not forget.
He's decent, but he's not making progress to suggest he'll be anything more than what he is now. And that's good enough for us, not good enough for a top 4 side. Them the facts.
So how do we maximise Tommy boy? Huddlestone - the quarterback? Sat in the middle laying off balls to both wings or dinking them forwards, with Wilson in the role of fullback, protecting him. Sounds immense on paper. Yes? or no?
Worked in the first 4 games didn't it with Modric in the side. Perfect balance, lost when he got injured. I think Huddlestone has done well. I think the problem is when we lose its because more than 4 players have failed to impress and in a side that isn't ticking in other areas, Tom will struggle. Especially if we get bullied in the centre. Can't see him playing tomorrow. Don't throw rotten fruit but I think Jenas should be starting v City.
I'd agree. Jenas is required for the City game.
*ducks out the way*
If Tommy was knocking around in the 80s I hate to think how big he'd be. I'm talking about his waist, not his popularity.
its gonna go one of 2 ways we are gonna be sheer class or utter rubbish and get hammered......Midfield is the key to the game...huddlestone is not the midfield player that is gonna take us to the next level....simple as that......
Agree with south upper. I think Hudd is a good squad player but nothing more. Compare him to what the other top 6 or so clubs have in the same position and you start to see why we suffer in games of high tempo. Modern day midfielders like Eissen, Lampard, Gerrard they are different class.
Jan Molby
I'm glad someone remembers the fatties from the eighties. Huddlestone would have been boss back then.
In front of Jenas all day
How many times are we going to give JJ a chance to shine? It's when we expect and hope he does well when he disappoints. He'll flop against City tomorrow. Hudd for me too. As for the forcible future, Hudd for me again. Unless the boy Sandro can play if signed. Are we in for any other midfielders? Can't see us signing anyone else.
He is a good passer and has a triffic shot - but has a bad first touch, can't head, cant tackle, is slow, can't defend so I think you can guess where my vote goes.
Does anyone know how many matches Hudd started in, where we dropped points we shouldn't have.
Spooky I think the answer can be found in the fact you (we) ask this question time and time again. Same with Jenas. Neither will amount to much more. Huddlestone has a chance of improvement. Jenas is spent. He'll always be inconsistent.
Hudd / Wilson tomorrow please.
Finally an article asking the crucial question: IS Huddlestone good enough? In my opinion, no. Compared to teams in and around us in the league, excluding Birmingham unless you count Bowyer (just kidding), Huddlestone is a very average central midfielder. I think that one reason Sgt. Wilson hasn't been performing as well recently is due to the fact he does more of the running and tackling as Huddlestone just isn't quick enough for the modern game.
In fact he is a good enough on the background of everyone else.He is not top 4 middfilder or word class but have a brain and improve his play compair to last season.Is he the One to pick in all this bunch of high geting paid weak players?Last season-we had something to hold on to-defencive home record,improving tackling middfilder,back from bottom 3 to 8th.What we got this season???shakey defence with injured prowns,bad luck with our best creative player,Niko coming to feel the gap,Wilson lose a bit of his target,Tom-JJ-Bentley no idea how to talk them true and front size of major blows!yeah-thats where we are so funny-Defoe,wish he have some brain at ome point at his life,so mix performances -so much remind me of Glen Hoddle talking about Andy Cole-'i dont need striker who need 6 clear chances to score 1'-well Glen A.Cole and Defoe may turn to twins-even when he score 5 and we win 9-1,it was 1:0 half time and he miss all this first 5,he miss an opener agains chelsky,he miss alot agains Everton-in fact it was 6 chance he got to open the score(dont want to go into to penalty story),make the game agains Burnley drama win in 95 min even if we had him 1st half alone agains goalkeeper and robbie next to him alone-none goal or pass for goal.CROUCH-16 game so far,may had a chance to play row in 8 of them -1 goal.im sorry to say that-i dont like you Daren but i miss you much and you look younger and prolific compair to Peter.Robbie Keane-done and dust it before he left last season-he blow us agains Arsenal away when we had them at 1:1-hit the bar and miss penalty so we can nicely lose 2:1.Roman not playing-well probably not smelly good so Arry dont fancy to give'im a hug.Front-one done,one not able to play anymore at this level- a legend with liverpool heart,9million 7 club player -a header master,and Defoe-no brain,never been able to make corect decision or win a game and one Arry dont work with his agent.Defence-well Villa look funny agains us but well done-home under presure them GK and defence never let an easy goal-wish i cld say that about us agains Everton.Alot of no needen player without character of a man-i think only 2 who can be count as mans characters are Gomes and Palacios.60% of goal we recieve true our left defender-for some reason he like to bendover from 10 yard distance or more on every single opposite cross.well-here we go-60% sneak on your back.Dawason,Charlie,Basong-try and almost every game give them best,Niko is showing his vision and geting back on track,Aaron still run like Forrest Gump-no approach,but doing well winning us 2 games and doing time2time assists,Wilson need partner-no is not Tom,even worst with JJ and the manager need to work on new STRATEGY-hugs are old fashion,triffic player beggin to disapoind.good results so far-some lucky some not-old same spurs since 1990 till now.Daniel gone,Arry around doing some work make sure he is healthy b4 retire.god bless him-one day may stop subing on any score right defender with right defender.what type of team we are-well hard for me and believe most of our fans to answer dunno about the others.Jewish?nothing wrong with that,much more nicer if its football team tough.good luck us-new decade-may be some billioner will buy us and triple the amount for transfers-other way soon will be no 8th place in Premier league-will be named Spurs:)
He's too slow in body, but most importantly in mind. He needs far too much time, which is in short supply in the PL.
Atlist after 30 years supporting love of heart-Spurs i can dream on and say what is my dream!!!
Gomes perfect.
crying for left full back.no idea who that will be-we was after A. Cissokho from Porto-miss him gone to Lyon.Bastos is taking row at Brazilian national team-miss him gone to Lyon.Taiwo from Marseille?Charlie doing well on the right-Hutton-OUT.Dawson,Bassong,G.Cahil to build with some help from old ladys L.King on 70 000 for 2 more and Woddy-nice player just not strong enough and geting to stage where could make no come back.
Middfield-M.Petrov in ex-change deal with Bentley,Aaron with Niko and Luka able to cover this areas.Chance for Gio to improve also.Tom back up,JJ well out,Mouisa Sissoko form Tolouse-may be 25£-but french-high % proven to be quickle on track in Premier League,for god sake-HE is DM with 6 goals so far for his club,kick out Viera from national team,and he is 20!!! and sandro back up as wellso 4 CM plus aaron petrov wings and Niko&Luks playmakers or possible wings replace.Front-uh oh ...Guess need to keep with Defoe and Roman,Peter backing and Keane shiping far-far away to be close to Liverpool and far From his best form.So 4th striker needing-could be Gio also,so much still missing Obefeme Martins with this low price,some young and already close to his best striker.and fulham or everton manager coming as well to let Arry save some other bottom 3 club:)Dream on
Net-it is Davspurs without the ephedrine - genius!
i miss dav , he rated thudd because he did not run like he was possesed , in dav's eyes Hudd was clean
In my eyes he's just not in the best of shape , no that's not fair , i ll change it. He's in the best shape possible for him. I love the qb passing but in modern day football it takes more
I used to be the same kind of player (but a fair few levels lower) depending on passing alone , but i had to learn to fight, tackle and run. Something he does try but fails often. As mentioned above i would also be gutted to see him go but he flatters to deceive far too often
I think that the presence of our lil man helpen the whole team in the beginning of the season and even our much maligned JJ would have looked like a decent player in stead of the headless chicken with an enormous workrate we see (or claim to see) nowadays ...
net-it , i read your post and it gave me a headache so early in the morning (punctuation mate)
But you do have some valid points , in fact the Toulouse Sissoko is very strong for such a young age but his passing is a bit below standard for the moment.
For the record (and no suprise for a few here) I would like to point out that Hudd has one thing that neither JJ nor wilson have that for me makes up for our deficiences, namely vision. It is the one aspect of his ability to make a pass that is often overlooked. A lot of midfielders have the ability to make pinpoint passes, but to have the foresight and vision to see the run and to put it where the team mate wants it is still rare in this day and age.
I'll give you a non-spurs example, Paul Scholes, possibly one of the best midfielders in the last decade (and massively under-rated, mostly because he doesn't care about 'off the field press') we yet we all know he can't tackle, so the ability to run around the pitch snapping in tackles is more likely to lead to cards than to being effective, but he occupies and moves into good spaces and positions, and has the vision to see a pass before it needs to be made. In his prime it was never 'telegraphed' and was usually a critical part of the build up appraoch play.
The reason we had this etherial 'balance' that was cited at the beginning of the season was because we had Wilson providing the defensive 'bite' to break down play, modric the creativity on the ball and the ability to drift past players with trickery, lennon our fying winger and Hudd, with the vision to see how the attack was going to build up and to make the pass early and with enough precision to put the opposition under pressure.
The thing that has frustrated me since Carrick's departure was our inability to quickly turn defence into attack, the speed of decision making, the vision and the ability to make that pass that automatically puts the oppositon on hte back foot was never present in JJ or zokora, we were slow to counter and make best use of our best 'weapons' (in Lennon and latterly modric).
Now you can look at all the stats you like about points made / dropped when one particular player is on the pitch, but what's the point? if any player (including Hudd) has an off day the become the weak link, and the if the opposition exploit it then the whole team is exposed. Any one player can have a blinder and the team can still lose.
Forget the fact that he is young, I also don't see the 'immobile' tag, as when I watch him play he is looking for the 'space he needs to occupy' and if that happens to be only a few yards away then he'll take it. Ok at times it will leave us exposed but that's what the Sarge has to be good at, protecting hte back line.
I accept he has his deficiencies, I too would like to see him actually get a grip on more games rather than the occasional one, but without him we look less direct (and even directionless) and less potent when going forwards. And that's before you consider the fact that he has a mean strike on him given half a chance, let's hope he repeats his goal from the City game almost three years to the day.
Wnat a reminder to cheer you up going into this evening's match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J84KYkmPs2Y
Morning all. Huddlestone is not a player that will accept his position as a bit part player, as also will Jenas. Both will demand to be playing or ask to leave. Personally my opinion is let them, as they are not quite the standard, but that's my opinion. I think we can do better. Roll on tonight, and let's hope it's not too cold..
Tricky, you are fucking awesome.
the problem is we don't have anyone else to replace him. He's a mid-table team player so if we're happy finishing around 7-8th place he's fine. If we want to push on, we need to find someone better.
The simple question to ask is would Chelsea, ManU, Woolwich or even Liverpool have him in their team? Answer is probably NO on all 4 so why do we think he's good enough for a top 4 team? The funny thing is he'd probably be outstanding in Champions League football where he'd be given more time but he'd still struggle with his pace.
Great post Tricky.
tricky , you did not let me down.
i was expecting your Hudd defence by noon but you are surprisingly early ...
And even more suprising is the fact that i tend to agree with what you said , but maybe you are just playing mind tricks on me.
I think if you have to ask the question Is the Hudd good enough? then the answer is no. Plus you should know I met him in Faces (I know - don't judge me) where he told me I had him mixed up with someone else - he is a Chelsea player. Hilliarous. P****k.
Maybe we as fans at times have to accept that there are things that manager see in players that we don't.
Capello is not exactly a bad judge of a player and publicly said that Hudd has the potential to be a part of england's future. It was one of the reasons why I was disappointed not to get Barry, as I could see those two working together well and complimenting each other.
That fact that he is always going to be debated is not because he has detractors, but that he has his supporters. As I said I can see his defficiencies, but know that part of those will be reduced with increased experience, and more specifically the experience of playing those 'bigger games' and knowing how to have more of an influence.
Now he'd better go out and put a decent display tonight or those with the 'one game mentality' (can I trademark than one Spooky?) will be casting aspersions as to my charachter. Ireland, barry and de jong are all class players, and city as a club is one which is comparable to ours in some regards (relation to 'neighbours, attacking style of play, managers still maligned by sections of fan base, generally well supported by a large local demographic).
Tonight is not the be all and end all of our season, ok it's a good benchmark, but that won't stop sky and other media pressing 'the importance of this game'. Were I cynical I might suggest that it is driven more for their own purposes of selling more papers / advertising space than for any other reason.
'one game mentality'
ooh liking that
And agree, losing isn't a disaster, but as our players remain so mentally fragile a win might see us go on another great little run.
Hudd has shown progress this season, something I wasn't expecting at all. I guess the debate of him or Jenas is a tricky one; it all depends on the opponents really. Want speed and energy? Jenas. Want proper distribution of the ball? Hudd.
COYS!
I wonder what the consensus is now that Hudd has played all 90 mins in the last 2 games and contributed to at least one of the 5 goals scored.
Tricky made a great point about Hudd needing more experience in the big games. The more he plays the more his confidence rises, and the better he gets. He reminds of John Mikel Obi of Chelsea in the sense that they are both not exactly fast players but when it comes to shielding the ball, accurately pass the ball, or slow the game down, they are masters of the craft.