Drop Hucks and Leon!!!

[Yellow Rider 0]

Hah, hah - thought that would make you all jump in on this thread!

Only joking, but there is a serious point to be made here. Last season (and in first two matches this), it is all too apparent that both players are very one dimensional in key facets of their game and, once again, I blame the coaching they receive (or more likely, don''t receive!).

HUCKS

He was a tremendous signing when we got him on loan and has got us ''out of jail'' on many occasions. Problem is that he is NOT a team player and defences know exactly what he is going to do. He hardly ever plays an early ball because he has his head down all the time in his usual rampaging, ''let''s try and beat as many players as I can style''. Although he will often win us several yards of advanatge in getting the ball from deep right up well into opposition half, there is no end product. Yes - I know he creates many goals but have we ever had a player who has so much share of our posession as he does? Our defence look for him all the time with long balls and the opposition know that we never vary the tactic. They put two men on him and channel him down a cul de sac. Why is he not told to play with his head UP and sometimes play others in who have made good runs? He can do this (Leon''s goal v Man Utd. is perfect example), that was the exception though and not the rule.

LEON

I love the guy to bits for his fantastic commitment and ability. His goal last night was a real, quality finish, he created it out of nothing. Critics point to his first touch - I agree, not good, and that ''he misses chances'' (of course he does for christ sake, he''s a striker!). Look at his goal scoring record since he''s been here and it''s pretty good!

The infuriating aspect of his play is that most of the time he is NOT in the middle where a stiker should be (generally speaking). Every game he wanders out wide right and goes on these mazy, dribbles tight to the corner flag / touchline and often goes past opponents in impossible situations. Surely though this should primarily be the job of a midfielder / wide man? Should  a central stiker (which he is) spend so much time doing this? 

Again, Leon is all action and largely plays with his head down. 

REMEDY

Better coaching and encouragement to bring others into the game much earlier and vary their styles of play. I would have Brennan on the bench every game and take Hucks off on about 60 mins.if he can''t vary his style. Brennan has been very badly treated here and deserves opportunties. He has a wonderful left foot (remember that fantastic goal at Coventry?), can add bite to left side of midfield and can cross well.     

ROLE MODEL

John Deehan. When he came to the club in 1981 he displayed so much ''time on the ball'' becuase he played with his head UP and was always aware of other players positions and movements. Nowadays I accept that the game is much quicker but the same quality is needed. Even in midfield the current obsession is with 6 foot, 13 stone muscle men (even Rick Waghorn of the Pink Un thinks this is the way forward). Its'' NOT (as we saw last night), someone has to provide that vision, touch and thinking ability to ''do something different''. Trouble is we have a manager who we all know is absolutely obsessed with.......''work rate,effort, energy level, tempo'' etc. IT ALL MEANS THE SAME THING i.e. RUNNING AROUND AT 100 MPH AND PLAYING 100 MPH FOOTBALL. If the team produce that, he has nowhere else to go in his strategy or thinking (his post match comments prove that).     

This is NOT a Worthy OUT post but he MUST learn from last season (and previous seasons). THERE IS PRECIOUS LITTLE SIGN THOUGH OF HIM DOING SO.

[Trent Canary 0]

YR - Just wrote this on another topic..

"Hucks often takes the wrong option. Shooting when he should be crossing and vice versa. Too often he tries to beat two defenders, loses out, then inevitably falls over looking for a free kick or gives one away. This is why we need a passing central midfielder, when hucks has three men on him we need someone central that hucks can pass too, then that player can spread the ball to the right hand side where there will be lots of space!

The one thing that really annoys me about him though is he always seems to walk back from an attack, too many times we win the ball back and hucks is still in an offside position, I wouldnt mind as much if he wasnt our left winger!

Still a top player though, and even higher in my estimation as he rejected "big clubs" to stay with is."

So although he is a great player for us, he can still improve areas of his game. Another thing that annoys me with him is that he will beat a defender, then beat him again, and again.. then gets hounded off the ball and will lose it.. When everyone is screaming for a simple cross!

[Plastic Scouser 0]

Another excellent post - is it me or have last nights events brought out a more reflective side to our postings?   There seems to be less ranting and more dissection and suggestion on the board today?

[Dean Coneys boots 1,531]

I think he is in the wrong postion.......but we''ve been there a thousand times before!!

[First Wizard 0]

Any criticism of Hucks, is, in my opinion, high treason!.

The perpetrators of such a dark act, should be flogged with a wet Lowestoft kipper, in front of an assembled Barclay on Saturday!.      

[sheded 0]

[quote]I think he is in the wrong postion.......but we''ve been there a thousand times before!![/quote]

Get down on your knees Vicar , and pray that  the almighty one  will smack Nigels head  , and tell him  not to be so predictable !  every club from here  to Korea  knows where to find Hucks , and knows the formula  to  negate him !! 

A poster , who shall remain annonymouse ,  whimpers that Hucks always plays with his head down  ... give me strength !   so he should be  watching the clouds go by whilst he`s  guessing where the ball is  at any split second ? ....  the head up approach ONLY works when the player has the time and space to look around ... a luxury that is very rare for  Hucks to find himself in    note that he is almost invariably dogged by two defenders ... why do you think this is so ?

I, and a few others , have often said that  Hucks should be moved from the left wing , if anything he should be a centre forward !   imagine  the fear he would cause defenders  if he was lurking near their penalty area !!!!  

[Trent Canary 0]

[quote]Get down on your knees Vicar , and pray that the almighty one will smack Nigels head , and tell him not to be so predictable ! every club from here to Korea knows where to find Hucks , and know...[/quote]

Or you could have him playing behind the front two, very attacking but might make better use of his talents because as you say its getting predictable!

Two possible formations being: -

 Marney  Safri  Jarrett

           Hucks

     Leon       Dean

Quite a central formation with three centre-mids, but Marney and hucks can wander off to the wings if the play at the time dictates they should do. 

 

        Shacks    Flem/Doc   Colin

MLJ                                           Drury

              JJ               Safri

                     Hucks

            Leon               Dean

A very attacking one here, using wing backs.  Drury wouldnt get forward as often as MLJ, but I think this could be a pretty useful formation at home when we are in control of the game but cant seem to get a goal.

[LinkNR9 0]

I like the set-up, Trent, but with a couple of changes:

                     Greeno

         Colin    Shax    Charlton

Marney / MLJ                   Brennan

               Jarrett     Safri

                       Hux

             Leon           Deano

 

This would give us a better defence; it would get MLJ forward and remove the liability at right back that he creates. It would also mean more crosses from wide, upon which Leon & Deano would thrive. 

[nik wyer 0]

Excellant post yellow rider, i tend to agree with most things you say, like yourself i am huge fans of Hucks & Leon,and would always have them in my starting eleven however no players are beyond critisism albeit constructive.

[Mark .Y. 375]

OK, I posted towards the end of the Summer a formation I would like to see trialled, now we have a settled (for the moment ?) squad I would like to see this team given a go. The reason is that we must stamp our authority on other teams the way some of the Prem teams did to us. We need to put them on the back foot and make them almost forget about attacking because they are too busy defending, the pressure then comes off the defence and defending (surprise, surprise) becomes much easier.

                               Green

          Colin             Shackell         Charlton

      Marney       Safri        Jarrett          Drury (?)     

                               Huckerby

              McKenzie                     Ashton

Shackell told to take charge of the back three, Charlton will help him along as he has experience (and is an intelligent footballer). Marney works the right flank with Drury (or A N Other) working the left. One of Safri and Jarrett gets forward to attack in turn whilst the other "holds" midfield. Huckerby has a free role behind the front two. This is a "fluid" formation that should give most CCC teams more problems than they can deal with.

Mark .Y.

  

[Kristian Clarke- Frary 0]

I like Mark. Y.''s formation but peronally i''d play Brennan instead of Drury if not probably Hughes.

C''mon Worthy, we''ve got the players, USE THEM EFFECTIVELY!  

[StevenageFan 0]

excellent post from yellow rider and some really good follow up''s.   I would like to see any of the formations that have been put forward tried out.   Eveyone talks about us having a scary attacking front 3, making it an attacking 5 would be even better and you are right teams would have no choice but to concentrate on defending first and foremost.

[Putney Canary 0]

I suggested a formation on another thread.

Dropping to 3 at the back would make me nervous, and wouldn''t Hucks drift left even when given a free role anyway? Would the following work?

--------------Green-----------------

MLJ-------Flem-----Shacks-----Drury

---------------Safri-----------------

----Marney----Jarrett------Hucks----

---------Leon---------Deano---------

Safri linking up defence to attack, he can break up play (protect the defense) and distribute well, enabling the defense to push forward more quickly (we defend too deep). Marney/Jarrett/Hucks to push forward when we are in possession to feed Leon and Deano (take advantage of their pace). They pull back when we are not in possession. If we are struggling to get possession in midfield (other teams will play us by stuffing the midfield) we can drop Leon and play Hughes to win the ball there, turning to a 4-1-4-1. Or put Hughes next to Safri making a 4-2-3-1. Or drop Leon back to make 4-1-3-1-1. Would these formations serve us better than the old 4-4-2? Would we be sacrificing width? Or have I been playing Football Manager too much?

[Trent Canary 0]

A good number of suggestions here. The fact is Worthy likes 4-4-2 (Sorry, Howard Wilkinson likes 4-4-2) and its unlikely he will ever drift away from it. However as someone said earlier we are getting so predictable, and teams can plan effectively against us. It also seems as though we have no thorough Plan B/Plan C in place for when things go right or wrong.

Another suggestion, copying Chelsea would be: -

   MLJ    Colin    Shacks   Drury

     Marney    Safri    Jarrett

            Leon    Hucks

                Ashton

Safri could play a makelele role, Jarrett bombing back and forth like lampard. Leon and Hucks doing the Duff/Robben/Cole/SWP/Whoever else they have bought type position. Which could work as Leon likes to hang about on the wings too.