Hayden

[Worthy Nigelton 1,037]

He's not up to much is he? Not bad, but all a bit 'meh' I think.

[Robert N. LiM 4,240]

Way too early to tell.

He looks off the pace at the moment, but what would you expect after so long out? - and after having had to play more minutes than anyone would have hoped on his return.

But it was very noticeable that Byram and McCallum were playing miles further up the pitch tonight, just because Hayden was available to slot in between the centre-backs. So just having him on the pitch made us better. (If those full-backs were a firing Aarons and Dimi, we'd look even better than that.)

 

[Branston Pickle 3,634]

I’m not sure yet - he looks to have something but also not ‘quite’ there yet.  Whether this is as good as he’ll be is the question.

[Petriix 2,834]

He's positionally sound, for 60 minutes. But he doesn't look for the ball, and won't play it to the feet of another midfielder. He needs to be giving the ball to Gibbs and moving into space, but he just goes back to the centre backs every time.

Weird that Kenny replaced McCallum and not Hayden. 

[Dame to Blame 95]

Jeez the guys been out of football for nearly a year. Its just a case of fitness and timing, im sure he will be a good player for us once up to speed. 

[cambridgeshire canary 6,675]

1 minute ago, Dame to Blame said:

Jeez the guys been out of football for nearly a year. Its just a case of fitness and timing, im sure he will be a good player for us once up to speed. 

I heard he puts his hands in his pockets.. Needs sacking from the team at once

[City 101 83]

Over hyped when he arrived .

[Dame to Blame 95]

Just now, cambridgeshire canary said:

I heard he puts his hands in his pockets.. Needs sacking from the team at once

LOL  

[KeiranShikari 1,409]

Clearly still getting up to speed but we're better with than without him.

[Dame to Blame 95]

Just now, City 101 said:

Over hyped when he arrived .

Was he, by who ?

[City 101 83]

4 minutes ago, Dame to Blame said:

Was he, by who ?

Just about everybody .

[mrD66M 99]

21 minutes ago, Petriix said:

Weird that Kenny replaced McCallum and not Hayden. 

Smith was afraid of losing the game. 

[AJ 1,218]

I was disappointed with his lack of pointing

[ZLF 271]

It seems that we are intentionally looking to get his fitness up to speed with longer pitch time each game.    However his pace is a little lower than expected and i thought he needed taking of at around the hour mark, if not before.   As petrix mention the natural swap was kenny for Hayden (the mccallum swap confused me completely as sam had another string game)

 

Despite this, his positional discipline and better reading of the game is proving a team enabler,  allow gibbs drive ahead and gives a shield that the cbs absolutely need at the moment.  Hayden Gibbs is a far better combo than Kenny Gibbs,  with stronger holding of a defensive shape and more consistent spacing / understanding between the two.     I suspect he will continue to improve as he gains match fitness,  hoping for a full functioning Hayden by the time we run out at swansea.  

[Norfolk Mustard 94]

Hayden looks to be coming on nicely to me! 

[TheGunnShow 5,932]

Chicken and egg scenario re. match fitness - he will look fatigued on occasion but he's not going to get match fit without spending more time in the middle. As ever, the main concern is striking that fine balance between gradually increased load to get him back to his peak, and overloading him too much to the extent another injury occurs.

He's what we need, he just working his way back - whether it's at the level we need is another story but so far, so good IMO.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

Hayden is exactly what we need in terms of his positioning and reading of the game.

He's not quite what we need in terms of his speed and athleticism yet - I'm hoping thats a fitness thing as I can;t believe he's quite so immobile when at full fitness.  One I hope that we will see flourish after the World Cup.

[Ian 1,129]

Got caught on the press way too much in the first half, I couldn't quite understand why he wasn't using his body to shield the ball and turning. Instead was playing blind short balls and getting caught out.

Much better second half as he actually kept possession and drove forward, but almost certainly off the pace in terms of match fitness.

Edited November 3, 2022 by Ian
Typo

[wesforprimeminister 25]

13 hours ago, Worthy Nigelton said:

He's not up to much is he? Not bad, but all a bit 'meh' I think.

He's not very good, nor is Gibbs. 

[Hairy Canary 668]

He did ok but to be honest I was hoping for more. Long way to go before he gets back to his sharpest but not sure we'll see the best of him.

Gibbs though I really like. Seems to be improving with every game and certainly putting Hayden in the shade at the moment .

[Nexus_Canary 1,016]

Blatantly behind the pace due to fitness and match sharpness but there is a player In there for sure.

[duke63 541]

This is the internet. Someone has to take the blame that we are not winning 6-0 every week. 
 

The more I read on here the more I think so many people must live in a sad miserable world trying to make things look worse than they really are. 
 

 

 

[Thumbbass 318]

1 hour ago, wesforprimeminister said:

He's not very good, nor is Gibbs. 

Gibbs played really well last night, but the previous two games I'd been to he was poor. In Hayden there are shades of a Tettey, right tiime right place, basic ball winner and mover, definitely short of fitness though. As has been mentioned the team's shape with him in it seems better balanced with more width from full backs. Watching Willock walk through that area of the pitch and nearly score from 30 yards was a worry though.

[hepphep 175]

I think Hayden was good in first half, balancing things. Being bit invisible is often good sign in that role. He clearly ran out of gas in around 50-60 minutes after which he became more visible because he was constantly a bit late. Think he should've been subbed at that point as it gave control of midfield to QPR. I think he will be improving every game as he gains the fitness.

[If wed kept Howie.. 199]

why can't Hayden be Bournemouth

[cambridgeshire canary 6,675]

53 minutes ago, duke63 said:

This is the internet. Someone has to take the blame that we are not winning 6-0 every week. 
 

The more I read on here the more I think so many people must live in a sad miserable world trying to make things look worse than they really are. 
 

 

 

It's like the users who pop up from time to time to tell us about how the binners and winning and how 'it's their season they will beat us next year for sure..' right bunch of oddballs

[ron obvious 1,499]

Good positional sense & tackling but my word he was slow! Hopefully he'll get quicker ... but I'm not at all sure he will.

I really, really miss Alex. 

[Capt. Pants 4,195]

6 hours ago, ron obvious said:

Good positional sense & tackling but my word he was slow! Hopefully he'll get quicker ... but I'm not at all sure he will.

I really, really miss Alex. 

Hayden has a better passing range than Tettey but doesn't cover the ground as well. He is deceptively slow and you can see why Newcastle are looking to offload him. His endurance can be trained, but not so much his speed.

[Gordon Bennett 780]

There is a reason players go through a gruelling pre season, Hayden didn't have one and didn't play for the first two and a half months or so of the season. Impossible to judge him after a handful of games, we'll have a better idea after the World Cup I'd gave thought.

[crispeduk 282]

Happy that he can only get better with improving match fitness and expect him to be a class act in the second half of the season. Don’t necessarily need pace in that role if the ability to read a game is there, although of course it helps. Bit worrying though if it really is assumed in the dugout that full backs are only allowed to get forward if he’s on the pitch – if so one or two rival coaches would soon sus that out and have him targeted for an early kicking. And as for a lack of pointing, I’m told he has been great at bricklaying down at Colney.