The problem with Hucks.

Those who have heard of Peter Beagrie will probably think of the guy who has recently begun appearing on Sky, having recently retire about aged 39. Those of us with a slightly longer memory will remeber back to the bery early 1990's when he was a fairly new kid on the block at Everton, having already played at teams like Sheff Utd and Stoke in the late 1980's with varying degrees of success.

At Everton, he was billed at the next best thing and managed to carve out a highly succesful career, though without ever hitting the really great heights. I begin to digress, but please stick with me...

The problem with Beagrie, was that for all his skillful and dazzling wing-play, it was common knowledge that he would drive his strikers to despair. The reason for this is that Beagrie would go to cross the ball, and then faint; come inside the full back (no puns pls!), then maybe another faint..... the cross would then usually arrive at the 3rd or 4th attempt. Imagine being a striker in this instance; you expect the cross at the first attempt, ie. the striker meeting the ball on the run (which, incidentally, is the hardest to defend against). The cross doesn't come so you have to halt your run and the prepare for the next cross, etc. From hereonin, whenever the cross eventually arrives it is much harder to attack (as you are not now 'on the run') and it is easier to defend against (you have had time to get back and organise defence, and less likely to be facing your own goal).

I can keep going on, but this, in my opinion, is a big big problem we have with Hucks; and I believe it is becoming even more apparent.

Go back to the wingers in the past, such as Phillips, Gordon, Fox, Eadie, Adams.... how many times do you recall them 'checking' back a few times before proceeding to cross the ball? Not many, certainly not if there are bodies in the box.

Posted By: Wayne Biggins, Dec 30, 23:09:48