Guest Col city fan Posted 20 February 2015 Posted 20 February 2015 With Hammond 1.3ppg Without Hammond 0.26ppg A defensive mid is a key position in the Prem, those players are usually unsung heroes but are essential in the modern game The fact our defence has received such poor cover from Cambiasso, King, Drinkwater & James means a defensive-minded midfielder is even more essential Would also like to see stats with & without Nugent... The team generally seems to play better & at a higher tempo with him than without him Why play a DM? Only Chelsea, Man City, Everton, Liverpool, West Ham, Southampton (and more) do this... In fact, most of the top sides do... Not us...
RedSoxUK Posted 20 February 2015 Posted 20 February 2015 Thought we were too good for Hammond last season, and going in to this season I could see how his experience could be helpful, but again thought we would be ahead of him. He definitely isn't our future, but is more than capable of 'filling in' or 'being the extra man' kind of thing, and if we go down i'd love for Hammond to be on the bench for us for another year. Right now, and it pains me to say it as I can't help but see him as a major attacking flaw... but we need him in the starting 11, especially away from home. I would feel so much more comfy that a good result was incoming if we had an extra midfielder instead of a defender. Someone who can easily slot into defending and attacking phases. It's been proven that our CMs have been the ultimate weak-link in our team, even though the defense has been making the mistakes. Our lack of possesion / domination at home frightens me, especially when the final figures come out as 40/60 because the 60 team has already wrapped up, it's usually 35/65ish up until the final 20 mins in the games we're losing. Sure up that midfield and get the extra man in, a defensive man in Hammond. We have to play our stronges 11, and that needs to compensate defensively by playing 5 in the middle. Hamer Konchesky Wasilewski Huth DeLaet Schlupp James Hammond Cambiasso Mahrez Kramaric
shen Posted 20 February 2015 Posted 20 February 2015 I wonder if the ineptitude of our current central midfield pairings make the 'Hammond-effect' seem greater. He might not actually have been that good early season, but he's miles better than the performances we've seen this year in central midfield...
CosbehFox Posted 20 February 2015 Posted 20 February 2015 I wonder if the ineptitude of our current central midfield pairings make the 'Hammond-effect' seem greater. He might not actually have been that good early season, but he's miles better than the performances we've seen this year in central midfield... I wouldn't necessarily say it's down to the particular player. It's the role of having an anchor in front of the defence sweeping up. Wingers can be a bit more care-free and defenders feel more protected. Hammond seems the only player happy to do it whereas Estaban gets a little carried away going forward in an attempt to make up for his team-mates lack of quality.
cc_star Posted 20 February 2015 Posted 20 February 2015 I wouldn't necessarily say it's down to the particular player. It's the role of having an anchor in front of the defence sweeping up. Wingers can be a bit more care-free and defenders feel more protected. Hammond seems the only player happy to do it whereas Estaban gets a little carried away going forward in an attempt to make up for his team-mates lack of quality. Exactly, it's down to playing a CDM or two, not who that particular person is. Your CBs & CDMs act as a defensive 4, it also helps combat attacking players who drop deep in the modern game, while freeing up your fullbacks to get forward giving opposing wingers something to think about I thought the whole point of signing Cambiasso would be to play that role while using his vast experience to help someone else to too, but Cambiasso just has nothing physically and isn't up to it, regardless of how good or great he was before joining us this is the glaring problem with NP in my eyes. CDMs are critical. and they allow the attacking players to focus on attacking rather than be in two minds all the time
Renart Posted 20 February 2015 Posted 20 February 2015 I wouldn't necessarily say it's down to the particular player. It's the role of having an anchor in front of the defence sweeping up. Wingers can be a bit more care-free and defenders feel more protected. Hammond seems the only player happy to do it whereas Estaban gets a little carried away going forward in an attempt to make up for his team-mates lack of quality. I agree with this. There has been a lot of talk of how 'bad' Cambiasso has been. I just don't see it. He picks out great passes and sprays the ball around quickly and accurately (ok we all have bad days - Villa). The combination of Him with Hammond works well because he is less exposed defensively; look, he is 34 years old and needs to be played in the same way that all managers play veterans. The problem is that Hammond got injured at a key time and there was no one to play that role (the other midfielders could not step in). Hammond has been great for us and I also think that Cambiasso has also been our best midfielder this season but he needs support (of course he does). However, a team with either, or both, of them in is better than one without.
I blame Wellens Posted 20 February 2015 Posted 20 February 2015 What a load of old tosh? Desperation, clutching at straws, scraping the bottom of the barrel. Hammond a good professional but hardly the answer.
yorksfox Posted 21 February 2015 Posted 21 February 2015 Hammond is the missing ingredient, gives us that balance and protects one of the poorest defences ever seen at this level.
st albans fox Posted 21 February 2015 Posted 21 February 2015 It's not just a defensive screen infront of the back four - he is also the available pass for the back four when they get possession. Currently, it's just a hoof as they get closed down.
shailen Posted 21 February 2015 Posted 21 February 2015 Sometimes stats can be misleading, but in this case it's evident we are missing someone in his position. Most teams in this league play a creative midfielder behind the striker, like Silva, Eriksen, Coutinho...etc and so someone needs to be in this position to nullify their threat. In the Championship you can get away with playing in straight lines with two banks of four, and two up front, because the quality of players are not that great. I think we could have done with someone more commanding than Dean in this position, but he is the best we have in this position atm, so he should be playing especially against the better teams.
Foxhateram Posted 21 February 2015 Posted 21 February 2015 I still think Hammond and King are our best pairing. I realise I will take some stick for that statement, but I draw your attention to early in the season when these were our only fit midfielders, points were won. King has an attacking threat while Hammond is happy to slot in. Would love to know the stats of those two as the cm pairing. They played together at Everton, chelsea, Arsenal, stoke and part of the Man U game. 8 pts from a possible 15 after playing 3 teams from the current top 4. Just saying.
ScouseFox Posted 21 February 2015 Posted 21 February 2015 it's easy to point at stats like that though, how many points we've got when X was on the pitch etc etc. liam moore played centre half in all those games, de laet was at right back, nuge played them all too. mahrez basically missed the two early season wins. imagine if nige put moore back in for wasyl, left mahrez out and played nuge and ulloa instead of kramaric etc. would everyone be happy with that because they got us points early on or is that just a coincidence? hammond does a good job but he's not our best midfielder just because we won a few points when he's been playing. i'd have him in for some games and not others, but i can see why he's not first choice, because on paper he's probably our 5th best central midfielder, just a combination of others not performing and the team shape being a bit more solid when he's played means we tend to get more points. can see either side of the argument.
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