What about Dan Harding in Midfield?

[doddisalegend]

As we seem to be a bit short in midfield at the moment does anyone else think Harding could do a job in midfield as cover. Mills has played well at left back in the last couple of games so I wonder if Harding could play Wotton's role in midfield. Dans got resonable pace, a decent tackle and a more skill than Wotton, as a fall back option I think he'd make a decent defensive mid-fielder along side Morgan.

 

Thoughts?

[instinct]

As far as I know he's always played as LB or LM, CM is quite a different role

[saintmonkey1979]

Why not put Harding on the wing, move Lallana to an advanced central midfield position and use Morgan as defensive midfield (he can play that position well) and use Gillett as a traditional centre mid while we still have him. This gives the ability to control midfield without losing width and with the advanced position it would allow Rickie or Lee to create havoc in the box. It would also help with defending as we would virtually be playing with 3 centre backs when not attacking. Just a thought

[Turkish]

probably one of the most ridiculous suggestion of all time on here. You obviously do not have a clue about football.

[fanimal]

To put Fonte in there instead of PWFG in front of jaidi and Perry, as he can tackle and pass! Morgan by him Adam and Antonio out wide, Ricky and lee up front. murder most sides!

[doddisalegend]

probably one of the most ridiculous suggestion of all time on here. You obviously do not have a clue about football.

 

Hey just putting the idea out there I find the idea that professional footballers can't play more than one postion rather amusing (with the exception of goal keepers). Lloyd James has spent half the season playing right back (not very well but still) and he's a CM. Thomas has played RB and he's CD. So Harding playing in midfield doesn't seem such a great leap to me. Dan has been one of our best players these season and I rate him. As some one pointed out he could play a good left wing role (better than Holmes?)

[Saint_lambden]

Yeah Dan Harding in midfield- what next?.....

 

Lambert in goal?

[Turkish]

Hey just putting the idea out there I find the idea that professional footballers can't play more than one postion rather amusing (with the exception of goal keepers). Lloyd James has spent half the season playing right back (not very well but still) and he's a CM. Thomas has played RB and he's CD. So Harding playing in midfield doesn't seem such a great leap to me. Dan has been one of our best players these season and I rate him. As some one pointed out he could play a good left wing role (better than Holmes?)

 

its like saying Antonio can catch, lets play him in goal, or Davis's distribution is quite good when the ball is passed back to his feet, lets play him as a creative central midfield player. Harding could do a job and only a job as a left midfield but no way on gods earth is he a central midfield player.

[SFC Forever]

AP has brought enough players to this club to make his own team. Yet we are still moaning about our poor defence. I wonder why.

It seems that half of the players are either not good enough or are incapable of playing more than one game per week.

Lambert, Fonte and Hammond were all good buys.

Harding reasonable.

[doddisalegend]

its like saying Antonio can catch, lets play him in goal, or Davis's distribution is quite good when the ball is passed back to his feet, lets play him as a creative central midfield player. Harding could do a job and only a job as a left midfield but no way on gods earth is he a central midfield player.

 

As I said goal keepers are a different case but outfield players should be able to play more than one postion if they have to. We've already played Thomas and James out of postion so I don't think it's as much of a problem as you think. It's not ideal but our midfield with James and Hammond out is weak. Many don't rate Wotton (although to be fair I don't think he's as bad as some say) so we're left with few options until we sign some one to fill the gap. Players do change postion during their carrers to, Chris Sutton and Kevin phillips come to mind.

[doddisalegend]

AP has brought enough players to this club to make his own team. Yet we are still moaning about our poor defence. I wonder why.

It seems that half of the players are either not good enough or are incapable of playing more than one game per week.

Lambert, Fonte and Hammond were all good buys.

Harding reasonable.

 

Harding has been excellent this season IMO he also cost a lot less than the other three.

[hypochondriac]

What about Kelvin Davis in attack?

[doddisalegend]

I guess thats a no then. Still LOL that people reckon players can't play more than one postion when we've played four out of postion this year

 

Papa - striker - right midfield

Lallana - midfield - left wing

Thomas - centeral defence - right back

James - midfield - right back

[cadiz saint]

What about Pardew letting us pick the team by a majority vote!!:rolleyes:

[hutch]

AP has brought enough players to this club to make his own team. Yet we are still moaning about our poor defence. I wonder why.

It seems that half of the players are either not good enough or are incapable of playing more than one game per week.

Lambert, Fonte and Hammond were all good buys.

Harding reasonable.

Our "problem" at the moment is too many good buys and not enough goodbyes.

[Minsk]

To put Fonte in there instead of PWFG in front of jaidi and Perry, as he can tackle and pass! Morgan by him Adam and Antonio out wide, Ricky and lee up front. murder most sides!

 

I actually thought AP might have tried something like this (but with Seaborne alongside Jaidi in defence) for the Brentford match. I think, in hindsight, he believes he should have done this too.

[Barry the Badger]

Centre mid is not just a case of being able to pass a bit, it's a completely different game to left back. A few examples...

 

At left back you receive the ball in front of your feet, at centre mid you often receive the ball with your back to goal or into feet under pressure, an entirely different way of playing.

 

At left back you generally have limited passing options from which to choose, at centre mid the number of options can be overwhelming if your decision making speed is not up to scratch.

 

At left back you are generally given a bit of time on the ball, at centre mid you get little time on the ball.

 

At left back, when defending you can see everything in front of you. Defending in midfield is a completely different ball game as you need to be aware of everything around you.

 

Just a few reasons why though not completely impossible (Gareth Barry), a switch from LB to CM takes a lot more work than just "he's got a good tackle and a bit of pace, stick him in there".

[derry]

He is a decent footballer, fairly combative and not slow, breaks forward well and scores goals, he is a natural left footer and fairly tall, there is no reason at all why he couldn't play central midfield.

 

Does Pardew have the imagination to try it out? No, but I personally would like to see it tried if only to answer the question.

 

Wotton and James don't cut it for me and as we sign more players they will gradually disappear. Is Harding a better player than either? in my view yes.

[shurlock]

He is a decent footballer, fairly combative and not slow, breaks forward well and scores goals, he is a natural left footer and fairly tall, there is no reason at all why he couldn't play central midfield.

 

Does Pardew have the imagination to try it out? No, but I personally would like to see it tried if only to answer the question.

 

Wotton and James don't cut it for me and as we sign more players they will gradually disappear. Is Harding a better player than either? in my view yes.

 

Could James and Wotton be redundant even now with Puncheon, Schneiderlin and Hammond in the middle and Lallana/Holmes and Antonio/Papa on the wings? Hard to see either James or Wotton starting in the middle, though James might slot in on the right.

[derry]

Could James and Wotton be redundant even now with Puncheon, Schneiderlin and Hammond in the middle and Lallana/Holmes and Antonio/Papa on the wings? Hard to see either James or Wotton starting in the middle, though James might slot in on the right.

 

Probably, and I hope not, it's more pace we need not less. If Pardew is serious about the play offs we need to go for it, not put a team out to stop the other side. We won't win 15 games with the likes of James as an attacker.

[Window Cleaner]

Could James and Wotton be redundant even now with Puncheon, Schneiderlin and Hammond in the middle and Lallana/Holmes and Antonio/Papa on the wings? Hard to see either James or Wotton starting in the middle, though James might slot in on the right.

 

doubt it, James is a sort of binkie for AP.I'm afraid that one of our real values will be dropped to make way for him. It's like WGS with Telfer or Burley with Jermaine Wright.

[Window Cleaner]

I actually thought AP might have tried something like this (but with Seaborne alongside Jaidi in defence) for the Brentford match. I think, in hindsight, he believes he should have done this too.

 

I believe AP totally lacks the imagination to make such a move.Anyway he had all the options he needed at Brentford and chose to start with Wotton,James,Antonio and Lallana in midfield. No Morgan for whatever reason.

[Bad Wolf]

Harding is an excellant left sided player. He's proven to be one of our best signings for years (given that it was on a free) in that posision, why put him in a completely different one he's never played in? =/

[Minsk]

doubt it, James is a sort of binkie for AP.I'm afraid that one of our real values will be dropped to make way for him. It's like WGS with Telfer or Burley with Jermaine Wright.

 

I thought our problems began on Wednesday after James went off injured.

 

He also scored a cracking goal,m to add to the one a few weeks back and was unlucky not to score with a great effort late on against Ipswich. I honestly believe he is a better player than many (except for AP) give him credit for.

 

I, personally, rate him above Morgan. The latter is great at passing the ball but that is all I have seen him do. James creates and scores goals, tackles back well and is not afraid to mix it up when needed, which is what I like to see midfielders do!

[derry]

I thought our problems began on Wednesday after James went off injured.

 

He also scored a cracking goal,m to add to the one a few weeks back and was unlucky not to score with a great effort late on against Ipswich. I honestly believe he is a better player than many (except for AP) give him credit for.

 

I, personally, rate him above Morgan. The latter is great at passing the ball but that is all I have seen him do. James creates and scores goals, tackles back well and is not afraid to mix it up when needed, which is what I like to see midfielders do!

 

If Pardew keeps playing James with everybody fit and we don't win the playoffs he will be out of a job. James is not good enough. We need to set our sights a lot higher than him he is reserve quality only. We also need to replace the centre midfield as all round that isn't up to it either, unless the wide players make it better.

[up and away]

What about actually getting a player in for the positions we have real problems with? I really cannot understand what Pardew is up to, he freely admits midfield is the problem area, then ignores it to add another coat of gloss to every other position on the field. Just surprised we never got an improved goalie to sort things out. This is very simple, we have one pronounced weakness, midfield control. Solve that problem and we will create more chances than most other teams and have a defence more capable. Without that midfield control we cannot get the ball sufficiently to the forwards and our defence gets dragged down to conference level.

 

If we fail to get to the play off's, Pardew deserves to get kicked down the road for failing to act on the bleedin obvious for so so long.

[doddisalegend]

Harding is an excellant left sided player. He's proven to be one of our best signings for years (given that it was on a free) in that posision, why put him in a completely different one he's never played in? =/

 

Becuase we're lacking in that postion and we have good cover for left back in Mills. I'm not suggesting this as a long term thing just as a short term fix until we get some proper midfielders in. Harding is a better player than Wotton. It's not like we haven't done it already this season with other players in different postions.

 

At some stage some manager had to take a risk that Chris Sutton might make a decent foward instead of a defender (the same with Kevin Philips).

[Barry the Badger]

I love this. I spent the whole Burley era reading people on here *****ing and moaning that he was not playing players in their proper positions, and now here's a thread suggesting we play a left back at centre mid.

 

Ridiculous.

[doddisalegend]

More ridiculous than playing James at Right back? or Papa as a winger? I don't think so. I don't buy it, that highly paid professionals can't be asked to stand in during difficult times. It's like your boss asking you to use a computer with windows 7 when your used to using windows XP the basic skills are there you just need a little extra coaching to figure out the changes. You said yourself that it's not impossible you even gave an example and no one would say Barry is crap.

[doddisalegend]

As for Wotton, he was the poorest player on the pitch and actually caused our midfield to be non existant and provide no service, movement or skill.

A quote from yesterdays match thread can Harding be worse? I don't think so.

[supersonic]

I full expect Harding to be at left back next saturday

[Barry the Badger]

More ridiculous than playing James at Right back? or Papa as a winger? I don't think so. I don't buy it, that highly paid professionals can't be asked to stand in during difficult times. It's like your boss asking you to use a computer with windows 7 when your used to using windows XP the basic skills are there you just need a little extra coaching to figure out the changes. You said yourself that it's not impossible you even gave an example and no one would say Barry is crap.

 

But as I also tried to demonstrate. It is a completely different game in centre midfield.

 

Yes, occasionally you do get a player who can make the switch to a different position and cope with it, but with the case of Gareth Barry he had always been a versatile player and had played in numerous different positions whilst learning the game. He had more of a basic understanding of playing different roles on the pitch.

 

To my knowledge Dan Harding has only ever played at left back, and you want to move him to the most difficult position on the pitch.

 

Harding would not be better than Wotton at centre mid, he would be lost, IMO of course.

[Burger]

Always makes me wonder if players try different positions in training. How do you know the best position of anyone? Kevin Philips a fullback? Wayne Bridge a winger.....Dion Dublin - did he play upfront or centre back as an experiment. Always though JPS would have made a good cente forward .......