Hamza

[OntarioFox]

2 hours ago, Will1981 said:

In the two premier league games Hamza has started for us this season we have not conceded a goal while he was on the pitch.

He was my MOTM in that game against Palace. We were properly under the cosh that first half, but his intensity was the thing that kept us from being completely overwhelmed at the back.

 

Rodgers took him off, our shape went to pot and we conceded.

 

So I was having kittens when the same happened on Tuesday, but I was delighted to be proven wrong! He has a big role to play in the next few weeks, the job Brendan has is to make the right calls if he's the one to make way on the hour.

 

He gives us that bite we need from the start of games. He's unlikely to play a full 90 anytime soon, especially with a lack of recent game time, but having both him and KDH in there has made it far more difficult for teams to simply bypass our midfield and cause our defense problems.

[Blue Ed]

Can he play centre back?

[NewburyFox]

2 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

I think he's been criminally underused. 

 

He's at his best shuttling across filling in for attacking full backs ajd/or (as he did on Tuesday) doubling up with the full back. Last 3 games I recall him in were Tuesday, palace and prior to that a classy display away at Fulham 

 

Limited. But great engine. He'd always make a PL squad of mine....a squad can't all be leite players and I live the reliable likes of Big Dan, Hamza, Albrighton and even Perez (albeit a costly squad member) as part of a tight squad

I think he's miles off it personally. Woeful positionally and goes backwards every time he gets the ball. He can run around and that's basically it. 

[deep blue]

2 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

I think he's been criminally underused. 

 

He's at his best shuttling across filling in for attacking full backs ajd/or (as he did on Tuesday) doubling up with the full back. Last 3 games I recall him in were Tuesday, palace and prior to that a classy display away at Fulham 

 

Limited. But great engine. He'd always make a PL squad of mine....a squad can't all be leite players and I live the reliable likes of Big Dan, Hamza, Albrighton and even Perez (albeit a costly squad member) as part of a tight squad

I very much agree with these thoughts. He offers a different option to any of our other midfielders, providing a marauding, destroying presence in the middle. The number of games where our midfield has been overrun,  having no bite or aggression, shows that we need someone like Hamza as an alternative at times.

 

As far as his passing and forward-going play is concerned, it is very limited at the moment.  But he does look unsure of himself, as if his self-confidence has taken a knock.  That's not surprising after the Klopp incident 3  years ago when he was slated on social media, and simultaneously dropped from England u21 and our team.

 

He did put in some much more convincing performances under Puel.    I suspect he needs help to get back his confidence and develop, but the lack of game time makes that very difficult, and it's timing has coincided with the introduction of some real competition in the recent intake of new midfielders.

[Claridge]

1 hour ago, Jonaldinho said:

I think he's miles off it personally. Woeful positionally and goes backwards every time he gets the ball. He can run around and that's basically it. 

Awful,clueless player, stupid rash tackling and awful positional sense is why he doesn't play much

[Tommy Fresh]

1 minute ago, Claridge said:

Awful,clueless player, stupid rash tackling and awful positional sense is why he doesn't play much

If his positioning was that awful and his tackles are that rash I think he'd have a few more yellow and red cards don't you?

[An Sionnach]

If you ask opposition players about Hamza , I'm sure you would find a fair bit of grudging respect. He is no easy touch and along with KDH and an up to pace Soumaré gives our midfield the steel it has so often lacked. The EPL is no place for soft men.

[adam]

Has one good game and now people want him to play more Short memories.  

[An Sionnach]

Just now, adam said:

Has one good game and now people want him to play more Short memories.  

No, I never suggested that he's a first choice player. Like Dan Amartey , there should be a place in the squad for no-nonsense battlers. Flair players too often disappear up their own backsides.

[Lambert09]

I actually think this is his last chance. With wilf away we don’t have another screener and I’m really hoping we can see him back to his best. 
 

he’s done well for us in his last few appearances. 

[dynamark]

Watch closely spends a lot of time in space that isnt effective but he can cover the ground and be the covering player.Zero forward passing though

[Cincinnati Fox]

2 hours ago, Jonaldinho said:

I think he's miles off it personally. Woeful positionally and goes backwards every time he gets the ball. He can run around and that's basically it. 

Correct, but running around is what we need on occasion.

[MPH]

4 hours ago, Stadt said:

I said at minimum but roughly, yeah. A player’s ability isn’t that strongly correlated with their wages. We’ll be paying Bertrand a wedge to be a sack of shit.

 

there is no way we’d get even a bench warmer for 17k per week these days let alone someone good enough to play regularly 

[Bourbon Fox]

He only has this undeserved reputation as a reckless destroyer because of all those times he's gone in recklessly and destroyed people...

Edited 30 December 2021 by Bourbon Fox

[filbertway]

He's a league one player stuck in a premier league players body. His physical attributes might make him someone that will be useful to teams in a relegation scrap. Couldn't see him featuring regularly for a promotion chasing championship team though.

[Stadt]

44 minutes ago, MPH said:

 

there is no way we’d get even a bench warmer for 17k per week these days let alone someone good enough to play regularly 

Which is more the premier league’s economies of scale. £25-30k pw would be a significant pay rise for most players in France. Mendy and Choudhury are probably on £100k pw between them (possibly more) and we could definitely land a better player on less money.

 

Santi Comesana and Cheick Doucoure are two players that I think we should be looking at.

[Claridge]

2 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

If his positioning was that awful and his tackles are that rash I think he'd have a few more yellow and red cards don't you?

If it wasn't so awfu,I think he would get a few more games don't you?

[Tommy Fresh]

Just now, Claridge said:

If it wasn't so awfu,I think he would get a few more games don't you?

Yeah I fully expect him to start over Ndidi, Tielemans, Maddison and Dewsbury-Hall 😂 he's behind Soumare as well. I'm just pointing out he'd have more cards if he's all the things you've listed which you've conveniently ignored. 

[Claridge]

1 minute ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Yeah I fully expect him to start over Ndidi, Tielemans, Maddison and Dewsbury-Hall 😂 he's behind Soumare as well. I'm just pointing out he'd have more cards if he's all the things you've listed which you've conveniently ignored. 

He's been here longer than any of them and has played maybe 50 times of which many may have been as a sub in 5 seasons.. Complete headless chicken of a player who Rodgers plays if we are desperate. Perhaps my reasons are wrong, but he is no where near good enough for us

[Tommy Fresh]

Just now, Claridge said:

He's been here longer than any of them and has played maybe 50 times of which many may have been as a sub in 5 seasons.. Complete headless chicken of a player who Rodgers plays if we are desperate. Perhaps my reasons are wrong, but he is no where near good enough for us

I think you've mistook my post for saying he's a week in week out starting player .. I'm just stating your point about him being a reckless tackler is a lazy one based on a few managers calling him out as their players have come out on the wrong side of one of his tackles. Additionally if he was so bad positionally and such a rash tackler he'd have a lot more cautions then he actually does.

[Claridge]

1 minute ago, Tommy Fresh said:

I think you've mistook my post for saying he's a week in week out starting player .. I'm just stating your point about him being a reckless tackler is a lazy one based on a few managers calling him out as their players have come out on the wrong side of one of his tackles. Additionally if he was so bad positionally and such a rash tackler he'd have a lot more cautions then he actually does.

He usually only plays a few minutes of some games and he always seems to make rash, clumsy challenges to me and runs around like a headless chicken, maybe they don't always warrant a booking. Being out of position is an even more common trait of his, which is probably the reason he has so few games in 5 seasons. I really wish he was better, but making out that he is not  rash and out of position often is ignoring his performances in many of his apperances

[Tommy Fresh]

1 minute ago, Claridge said:

He usually only plays a few minutes of some games and he always seems to make rash, clumsy challenges to me and runs around like a headless chicken, maybe they don't always warrant a booking. Being out of position is an even more common trait of his, which is probably the reason he has so few games in 5 seasons. I really wish he was better, but making out that he is not  rash and out of position often is ignoring his performances in many of his apperances

If he's as rash as you're making out there's no way he wouldn't have more bookings then he has. 

[An Sionnach]

21 minutes ago, Claridge said:

He's been here longer than any of them and has played maybe 50 times of which many may have been as a sub in 5 seasons.. Complete headless chicken of a player who Rodgers plays if we are desperate. Perhaps my reasons are wrong, but he is no where near good enough for us

According to this forum more than half our players are nowhere near good enough for us. Our standout players on Tuesday , bar Maddison , were KDH , Amartey and Thomas. All have been dismissed as substandard recently. Man. Utd. are stuffed full of big name, big reputation players and they are not exactly cracking any pots at the moment. If we were a team of fancy ball players ,we would get blown away every match. For every Mahrez you need a Morgan. 

[OntarioFox]

Can't believe what i'm reading in here tbh, he's not nearly as shit as some of you think.

 

I accept his passing is substandard, but so is Wilf's and he's a fan favourite.

 

With him having to fill in at CB, and then off to AFCON, there's nobody else to fill the DMF role, and personally I think he's done well when called upon this season. I also have no idea what game you were watching if you thought he was 'woeful' or a 'headless chicken' on Tuesday. He was our second best midfielder on the night behind KDH, and our makeshift defense would have had a hell of a lot more to do without his harrying.

 

Sorry he isn't the box to box midfielder you expect everyone in a blue shirt to be. But the only one we have employed in that role right now is Soumare, and when we do use him in that role without someone like Hamza to do the dirty work, our midfield shape is non-existent.

 

He's there to do one job - win the ball back and recycle it to start an attack. He does that just fine. He's not a world beater, no, but the fact remains that we haven't yet conceded a goal in the time he's been on the pitch in the two matches he's started this year. With how utterly woeful our defense has been this season, that's a feather in his cap whichever way you slice it.

 

And, like it or not, you're probably going to see more of him throughout January. I'm confident he'll step up.

Edited 30 December 2021 by OntarioFox

[mrburns1000]

On a lighter note, watching the Liverpool game, my wife  said ‘ who’s Cloud Hurry?’ She really needs glasses….