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Yellow Rider

Deano & Hucks? Hope not!

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So Worthy''s preferred partnership is Ashton & Hucks.

We''ve been here before. Sorry but Hucks is NOT a striker, simple as that. He does not have either the physical ability (ever heard of a striker who DELIBERATELY avoids heading the ball??) OR the discipline to play as a conventional strking partner with anyone. Hucks is a free spirit who simply runs at defenders whenever he can and ALWAYS ends up drifting out wide left anyway.

If you play Hucks up front the reality is that you end up with only ONE striker in the middle against 3 or 4 opposition defenders. Hucks will be anywhere but where he should be as a conventional front man.  

I say play Leon with Ashton with Hucks left side as part of a 442 line up. Leon could link well with Ashton with both of them feeding off each other. That way when the crosses come in we will usually have 2 strikers to aim for in the box. Alternatively play Jonson up front with Deano.

With no proper support, Ashton will not score goals.

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Well the player u have described sounds very Henry like, i.e. not a great header of the ball, likes to drift out wide, but he and Arsenal seem to do alright for themselves!!! I am not for one moment suggesting that Hucks is in the same class as Henry but to say he is not a striker is just plain wrong!!! The bloke has been a successful striker for his entire career so I don’t really seem him changing much now!!! A striker does not have to be a big monster that plays disciplined role down the middle, have some imagination!!

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this is an often talked about subject and mainly down to not seeing all the games other than tv ones iam not 100% on this one.

I agree with the points you make about him not being a striker, but to counter he is not a winger either.  How often do we see him crossing?  Not very.

You are right though saying he is a free spirit and I think that is really the only way for him to be played, but at the moment we don''t have the strength in midfield to accomodate a 4-3-1-2 set up.  That means he has to play upfront or on the left.

ON LEFT - too easily marked out of the game.  Anything that goes left results in us losing the ball after a mazy run into two or three defenders.  Little or no crosses result.  Defensively the left back is left far too exposed.

UP FRONT - doesn''t header as you say, but he will draw players leaving room for Ashton, Jonson, Francis and whoever is playing left wing to come into.  Most teams have been putting one or two players on him all game.  If one of four defenders is on Hux and he is running all over the shop, plus both wingers and Francis getting into action this will leave Ashton plenty of space to use to our advantage.  All Hux needs to do is remember to always be directly in between 2 defenders thus drawing them both making it easier for Ashton and runners to find space.

Conclusion - Hux in a free role 4-3-1-2 behind the strikers with 3 in midfield would be the best set up, but with current injuries I would say starting him upfront with Ashton and making sure Francis and one of the wingers always get forward is our best bet.

if only the injuries hadn''t occured we could have played this:

                                  Green

 Eddy            Charlton                  Doc          Drury

                                 Helveg

           Jonson                                Francis

                                 Hux

                   Ashton                 McKenzie

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Of course he''s a striker. Strikers aren''t all like Iwan you know.

The fact that he can''t pass or cross puts him firmly in that category, as far as i''m concerned.

You don''t find wingers that don''t do any defensive work, either.

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But he won''t head the ball, he keeps drifting out wide left and his finishing isn''t consistent enough to be a top quality striker.

He isn''t either a winger or a striker, he''s Hucks. He is a GREAT asset to the team, but he is also difficult to accommodate for all the reasons mentioned above and previously.

Unless we can give him more support (on the pitch) we won''t get full advantage from him. It seems to me that he gets very isolated on the left, he often faces a wall of defenders and doesn''t have an easy ball to play.

Back to the point raised - I would prefer to see him behind a front two as when he plays up front he drifts left leaving the other striker isolated. 4-3-1-2 for me with Hucks as the ''1''

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We should play 4-3-2 and give Hucks a free-run of the park. Let him go wherever he wants, when he wants.

Just imagine him popping up all over the place. It''d give defenders nightmares

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Beds - I have to disagree with you - giving opponents a 1 player start is suicide - 4-3-2 indeed!!Personally I am firmly in the Hux up front camp. Henry is a striker and he spends much of his time on the left and rarely heads the ball too; the trouble is Hux doesnt finish as well as Theirry.However when did city create (and miss!) most chances? It was when Hux was playing as a striker. It gives him the option of playing across the pitch, and dragging a central defender out of position when he does so. This leaves Ashton with space to exploit with the remaining central defender and for Jonson/Francis to attack.On the flank Hux is easily double mark and does not create half as many chances - more of his runs are stopped to easily and he starts runs deeper causing less of a threat on the goal.Hux and Ashton should be good - but a lot still depends on how well the midfield passes.OTBC

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I totally agree with you Yellow rider. Notts Canary do you regularly watch the canaries? If you did you would know that Huckerby and the team have struggled nearly everytime Hucks has played up front. I was horrified when Worthy said he wants to play him up front with Ashton as we may say it now ''that Ashton is rubbish''!!!!!!! Each and every player who has played up front with him has played poorly, Docherty, Svensson, Mckenzie. We cannot compare our players or formation to those of Arsenal or Chelsea. These teams have such good possesion their players can drift out to any position and be found unfortunately being at the level we are even if we play good football there are still gonna be long balls out of defence when we''re under the cosh. When Hucks is standing on the left wing 30 yards from his partner it impossible to play as a pair and very easy for the defenders to have one in front and one behind our central striker so we can''t get the ball to him a luxury teams can''t afford when two players are down the middle. Does Henry stand on the left wing when the balls in Arsenals defence, NO he is central giving the players a target then when they get good possesion he drifts out wide. This is something Huckerby must have been told but due to him being a ''free spirit as you put it it stays wide. I believe he should play wide left and  think hes worked very hard defensively, he carries the ball out of danger when we''re under the cosh and I would say most right backs have struggled against him this season. Don''t think hardly any of the goals conceded have been anything to do with him as if you watch the opposition right back cannot attack us as he has to stay back with Hucks.

HE MUST PLAY LEFT OR BEHIND FRONT TWO BUT NOT UP FRONT.

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So basically, what we''re saying is he doens''t defend well enough and can''t cross well enough to play wide left, and he doesn''t finish well enough to play up front. So apart from being good on the ball, what is he good for?!?! The fact is, we need to learn to mix it up a little. If we didn''t give Hucks the ball every time we got it, opposition teams wouldn''t necessarily put two men on him as that would leave them short in another area of the pitch. Whether he plays wide left or up top, we need to remember there are nine other outfield players on the pitch that could help build an attack.

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Pottsy, do you watch Norwich at all?Huckerby hasn''t been a threat since he was moved - it''s really that simple.He tore Spurs apart, among others, at the beginning of the season. Now he just looks tired, unhappy and out of position.Let''s just wait and see - I reckon if he gets 6 games up front with Ashton, we''ll see the real Darren Huckerby back to form and scoring.

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Watch Norwich at all. Urrrrr let me think only every game for last 10 years. Give or take a few. So we''re playing Huckerby on the left where he played last season and you think he can''t play there and is unhappy there? You obviously think worthy doesn''t know what hes doing otherwise why would he of played him there? Were u at the game Saturday? Hucks played up front and apart from once where he broke offside trap and MISSED

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Do I go to watch Norwich? errrr let me see. Only nearly every match for last 10 years. Were you at the game saturday? Apart from one run through on goal when Hucks MISSED

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Lets try again. Tried and failed twice. Do I watch Norwich at all. only nearly every game for the last 10 years. Were u at the game saturday? and apart from the one time he got through and MISSED? Did u notice our best player was playing? Just ask Steve Finnan and Tony Hibbert whether they think Huckerby the most fouled player in the PREM is not a threat from the left. Question, did Huckerby not play left wing last year when he was amazing? Were u at Birmingham away? 1st half we played him up front and both he and Svensson looked terrible.2nd half we played Mckenzie and Svensson who played as a pair (like strikers should) and hucks on the left). We improved 300%.

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[quote]this is an often talked about subject and mainly down to not seeing all the games other than tv ones iam not 100% on this one. I agree with the points you make about him not being a striker, but to c...[/quote]

Stevenage Fan,I agree that''s our best side with all fit.With Charlton and Helveg injured though just replace them with Flem and Brennan and voila :-

Green Eddy Fleming Doc Drury Francis Jonson Brennan Hux Ashton McKenzie

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Pottsy, didn''t mean to offend you. I only wrote that to counter your similar accusation to another poster.We all have different views on Hucks'' best position - I would agree he is at his best when running from deep BUT this does not mean we should PLAY him deep.He should start as a "forward", but go and make trouble wherever he can - in midfield, and out left and right.This way nobody will know who is supposed to be marking him, but we can still keep the depth of the midfield with four men.

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I reckon that now Holt seems to be coming back sooner, he would replace Brennan in this formation (maybe not in time for the weekend though)

                     Green

Eddy   Flemming         Doc     Drury

                      Holt 

           Jonson         Francis

                   Huckerby

        Ashton                  McKenzie

with Jonson,  Holt and Francis playing more as a 3, but Holt as the holding man.

On the topic of Huckerby he does play better when upfront than on the left.

I also hope Svensson gets back sooner rather than later because him partnering Ashton with Huckerby playing behind them would be quality, I had forgotten about Sven (sorry) and would definitely replace McKenzie with him if everyone was fit.

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