I have made my own mind up - I played up front so I am aware of the different aspects of being a front player, *especially* a lone front player. His heading isn't great, his finishing isn’t great, his touch isn’t great, but he *does* both hassle defenders relentlessly, and he *does* come short and attempt to link up play.
Even if he comes short and miscontrols the ball, he has already added value to the team pattern. Rich, I believe you said before you also played up front, did you ever play at centre half too? Either way, defenders absolutely hate having to chase someone up the pitch, it leaves a massive hole behind, they hate having to turn around and run back into that hole, it means the other defenders (should) have to move around to accommodate that gap. Often they don’t, so that tactic, coupled with getting the ball wide and other players forward is actually a very useful tactic. And despite the rest of his failings I haven’t seen anyone else in a Leeds shirt able/willing to play that role in a long time - maybe Smith was the last time off the top of my head. Anyway, what I was saying before is that managers like Grayson and mcallister, not only ex pro players themselves, have played at the highest levels, they have been coached by great managers, and they have been on coaching courses. They can see stuff like this, they can see the benefit of breaking up the defensive "unit". Perhaps you need to look at what the defence are doing when Becchio drops shorts and controls it off his shin. Even if they laugh so much they get a stich its at least 25% of the defensive unit out of action... -----Original Message----- From: Richard Walker [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 30 August 2010 07:54 To: Mark Humphries Cc: Andy Clayton; list leedslist Subject: Re: [LU] Watford You have fallen into the trap that the others who defended Becchio did. You said that just because Becchio and McCallister picked him he must be good enough. Can't you make your own mind up ? You then went on to say we need a striker who is good in the air. Isn't that supposed to be Becchio's strength ? Another Becchio myth. You then go on to say we should look at what other teams have up front. Well Rob Hulse was in a different class for starters and in my opinion Becchio wouldn't get into many teams in this league, he's not good enough. You've got to score more than 10 goals at least and he won't do that this season. _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER
