Williams and Heath

[Benji]

Heath certainly shouldn't be judged on goals scored.

49698[/snapback]

Exactly, he is primarily a defender, and not a very good one at that.

49703[/snapback]

Exactly, he is also not a midfielder! so if your going to disregard his goal scoring ability why not his passing

[Cobbo]

Heath certainly shouldn't be judged on goals scored.

49698[/snapback]

Exactly, he is primarily a defender, and not a very good one at that.

49703[/snapback]

Exactly, he is also not a midfielder! so if your going to disregard his goal scoring ability why not his passing

49750[/snapback]

Because the whole team needs to be able to pass, not just midfield

The scoring ability of a defender is a bonus, but certainly should not warrant them a first team place.

If he misses a header from a corner, so be it. If he gives the ball away cheaply in the middle of the pitch, it could set them up for an attack.

[Anish]

Heath certainly shouldn't be judged on goals scored.

49698[/snapback]

Exactly, he is primarily a defender, and not a very good one at that.

49703[/snapback]

Exactly, he is also not a midfielder! so if your going to disregard his goal scoring ability why not his passing

49750[/snapback]

Fair point, and I agree. But he does give the ball away cheaply - which is a bit of a problem.

As for Heath not being judged on goals scored - yes and no. Yes because he is a defender and is meant to keep goals out. But on the other hand if he scores regularly from set pieces like he has done this season why shouldn't that add in his favour? It's not like we are scoring many goals anyway, so if Heath is likely to score a goal from set pieces then that should be part of Levein's decision-making process. We look a lot more threatening from free-kicks and corners with him in the side.

[Benji]

the role of a defender is to tackle, head the ball and control the back

passing is as much of a bonus as scoring, if he is told to give it to someone else to pass a long ball, say nalis comes short, then there would be no need to fault his game

as a defender.... i personally think the poor heading claim(s?) is laughable.... he is hardly ever beaten to the ball in the air

his tackling then, it was poor but i saw it improve in the games before he was dropped, he was improving in general as a player which is why i can't see he was dropped. i'm almost sure it was against ipswich, bar the own goal, he helped completely silence a darren bent and kuqi partnership who have been and still are causing havock to all defences in this league

the thing is a lot of people have expectations in a different world, we are in the championship! strikers are not as good, attacking is hard to come by and in this league (i have already admitted he would struggle in the premiership) he was doing/would a sufficient job

the latter though, controlling the back is his main fault in my opinion, he doesn't talk at all but concentrates on his own game. So? that's why you use the second centre back to sort that out, i.e. dublin or keown who both do a lot of talking/clapping and general keeping the defence together.

Compared to the other defenders at our club, he is no where near as bad as he is made out

edit: this was not a reply to anish's i was writing that the same time as him

[Craig]

the role of a defender is to tackle, head the ball and control the back

passing is as much of a bonus as scoring, if he is told to give it to someone else to pass a long ball, say nalis comes short, then there would be no need to fault his game

as a defender.... i personally think the poor heading claim(s?) is laughable.... he is hardly ever beaten to the ball in the air

his tackling then, it was poor but i saw it improve in the games before he was dropped, he was improving in general as a player which is why i can't see he was dropped. i'm almost sure it was against ipswich, bar the own goal, he helped completely silence a darren bent and kuqi partnership who have been and still are causing havock to all defences in this league

the thing is a lot of people have expectations in a different world, we are in the championship! strikers are not as good, attacking is hard to come by and in this league (i have already admitted he would struggle in the premiership) he was doing/would a sufficient job

the latter though, controlling the back is his main fault in my opinion, he doesn't talk at all but concentrates on his own game. So? that's why you use the second centre back to sort that out, i.e. dublin or keown who both do a lot of talking/clapping and general keeping the defence together.

Compared to the other defenders at our club, he is no where near as bad as he is made out

edit: this was not a reply to anish's i was writing that the same time as him 

49756[/snapback]

10/10

[Cobbo]

To be honest, I don't think the centre halves are the problem in the team at the moment. I think both Keown and Dublin are better centre backs than Heath and Dabizas has more ability when he is playing alongside a comanding player.

I do not rate his heading when someone is challenging him, he doesn't get much distance on the ball and generally will leave us on the back foot if they win the second ball.

[Ash]

I still don't think Williams is 100% fit yet

[MADLEVEIN]

everone (almost) is slagging off heath yet he is a member of the youth team which most senior members on this board keep going on about being introduced to the first team, dawson, wright, stearman etc, jordan stewart in my opinion is crap he cannot go by a defender without showing him which way he's going with his feet first and several months ago everyone was on this bandwagon.

now all of a sudden after a few decent performances he is the dogs bollocks .

so why cant heath develop his game the way jordan has ? i agree he isnt the finished article but with some decent coaching and enthusiasm and a decent spell in the side he would improve.

nuff said

[davieG]

everone (almost)  is slagging off heath yet he is a member of the youth team which most senior members on this board keep going on about being introduced to the first team, dawson, wright, stearman etc,  jordan stewart in my opinion is crap he cannot go by a defender without showing him which way he's going with his feet first and several months ago everyone was on this bandwagon.

now all of a sudden after a few decent performances he is the dogs bollocks .

so why cant heath develop his game the way jordan has ? i agree he isnt the finished article but with some decent coaching and enthusiasm and a decent spell in the side he would improve.

nuff said

49918[/snapback]

Agree.

[Scow]

everone (almost)  is slagging off heath yet he is a member of the youth team which most senior members on this board keep going on about being introduced to the first team, dawson, wright, stearman etc,  jordan stewart in my opinion is crap he cannot go by a defender without showing him which way he's going with his feet first and several months ago everyone was on this bandwagon.

now all of a sudden after a few decent performances he is the dogs bollocks .

so why cant heath develop his game the way jordan has ? i agree he isnt the finished article but with some decent coaching and enthusiasm and a decent spell in the side he would improve.

nuff said

49918[/snapback]

The frustrating thing with Jordan Stewart is that we all knew he has the ability - But there has always been a bit of an attitude problem with him. He's very much a confidence player and excels when the crowd gets behind him. Another problem with Stewart is that he is very head down, and often tries tricks which don't come off instead of putting the ball in to the box.

On the otherhand, Matt Heath is generally a poor player. His height ensures that he can win headers in the air, but the accuracy and distance on them leaves a lot to be desired. He also gets turned very easily and his positional sense is a bit cack really. He doesn't fill me with any confidence at all. Football is evolving in to a game where all players are expected to be comfortable on the ball, and Heath is certainly not that. You may argue it's the Championship, but if we harbour any realistic aspirations of challenging for promotion, we need players who can retain the ball comfortably. Heath is too nevous and often rushes a lot of things, simply because he doesn't have the ability.

[Sparky]

i would love to see heath do well as hes a leicester lad but ive studied heath several times and i just think that heath would struggle even in league 1 and 2 .

whenever heath gets the ball he panics and 9 times out of 10 he will give the ball away.

for a centre half he isnt aggresive enough , last seaon zat knight gave him a bit of a nudge at a corner and after that heath was SCARED to get within 10 yards of him

for his size he doesnt win enough in the air and is usually out muscled for important headers .

and he can not cope with pace , he either stands off and gets skinned or he dives in .......and gets skinned

heath please prove me wrong , but i cant see it

[davieG]

You may argue it's the Championship, but if we harbour any realistic aspirations of challenging for promotion, we need players who can retain the ball comfortably. Heath is too nevous and often rushes a lot of things, simply because he doesn't have the ability.

Unfortunately I don't think our other centre backs offer us what we need for a real chance at promotion. I guess it all depends whether CL thinks MH's weaknesses can be strenghtened as there is no future with Keown, Dublin or Dabizas whether we get promoted or not. At the end of the season they will be yesterdays people, MH may or may not be. CL will have enough players to repalce wherever we end up if MH can be one that he doesn't need to by good coaching that would be a bonus.

[TrickyTrev]

I don't know why people would want to change our centre back partnership, Keown and Dublin have been muchmore secure than anythign we have had since Eliott and Taggart.

I am not a fan of Heath and that is not just for his distribution, which is reaon enough alone to keep hjim out of the team, but because of his dire positional sense. He is just not a natural defender or a footballer.

Williams should be given a chance, Nalis and Gudjohnson are both playing poorly at the moment and it is at least worth looking to see if Williams has the ability. I am not expecting too much though, he was awful at the start of the season.

[Scow]

Heath was awful today, what a joke for their first goal. One of their strikers ran at him on the break, and instead of holding his ground, or even going to close him down, he moves sideways and lets the striker run past him on goal!

Not good enough at the end of the day, and probably never will be.