Doing ok. Won the ball back off Tiago to play a pivotal part in the goal. Shocking mistake by Allison, a mistake Caoimhin wouldn’t have made…
Absolutely. It’s that sort of attitude that lead to Wes Hoolihan getting far, far less caps than his talent deserved. He wasn’t trusted because of his size primarily I always felt. Which is bonkers when you think of it. Some of the greatest players have been relatively short. Maradonna and Messi in particular , and John Giles closer to home. ( and no, I’m not comparing Hoolihan, or especially Hodge to those players. Just making the point that you don’t have to be a six footer.)
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
Doing ok. Won the ball back off Tiago to play a pivotal part in the goal. Shocking mistake by Allison, a mistake Caoimhin wouldn’t have made…
Playing a bit further forward since Wolves subs and looking quite lively. Teammates seem to trust him. Thought there was a good example of strong positional sense when Wolves committed men forward on the counter, a lot of young midfielder would have joined in but when Liverpool broke he was really well positioned just in front of his defenders.
Great to see him play the full match against a fairly strong Liverpool side. Once again regularly showed for the ball and made some good tackles to disrupt play, most notably in the buildup to Allison’s error for the first Wolves goal. He’s not a dominant player but he’s not looking out of place or uncomfortable against elite opposition, and that’s not easy in a match like this at Anfield.
He didn’t change his position to my mind when the subs came on. He was always playing ahead of Neves prior to that and maintained that position. Best game in a wolves shirt. Apart from some misplaced passes, he passed the ball well throughout, defended tenaciously and never stopped running. Overall, he did okay, nothing ground breaking. But improving which is the main thing. He should start FA cup replay as well which will be good. Latvia game will hopefully further his development
Fair enough on the positioning. I hadn’t been watching the whole game, it looked to me like he was a bit further forward more often after the subs but may well have just been the shorter time I was watching. It’s just a shame he’s so small (and I’m all for playing small technical players but I just think there’s a limit to how many you can play together and we seem to have a team of hobbits coming through!!).
To be fair, we have plenty of tall keepers, man mountain centre backs and two genuinely big centre forwards in Idah and Ferguson. Maybe that's enough that we can accommodate a small midfield - something like Cullen, Hodge and Knight.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
First mention I've seen on the dial national forum on the England bigsoccer forum of wondering if hodge would switch back to them. Good indication of the amazing progress he has made considering he played his first game last March after a year out injured and missed another 6 months previous to that with his leg break. Delighted to see him play at that level tonight
Have they made a play for Ferguson yet? I saw a few English fans on twitter making the case that he was still eligible for them.
Mention of Knight - just watching him play for Derby v Barnsley in the Cup. Some very nice touches and intelligent play but he made a woeful decision to remain at League One level. Irish fans will wonder why we don't have the players to compete at international level. It is decisions like Knight's that answer that question.
No chance of him switching I'm sure. Was just wondering if their supporters were pushing for the English FA to ask the question. Some of them are still sore about missing out on Haaland as he was born in Leeds. (It's all hypothetical, but if Roy Keane hadn't smashed his dad's knee, he might be an England player now.)
Last edited by Eirambler; 08/01/2023 at 2:11 PM.
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