Ok, so obviously I think all of this praise is ridiculous. His goal yesterday was excellent, and one hell of a surprise. Not to see him hiding outside the box, that's not overly unusual but he actually kicked it. Hard. Quality goal and then a quality cross for Murray's goal - my criticism of him is that he doesn't affect the game at all, but in those two moments he turned the game for us yesterday and deserves high praise for it. It's like with Skalak, he often isn't in the game at all but then we get a set piece and he directly impacts the game with a delivery. Overall, his performance was as it usually is, he's a runner on a football pitch. Ineffective up against any opponent at all, no real ideas on the ball and if he were to win the ball back he'd only lose it immediately anyway because his a game is to pass to Murray, the b is to pass to Knockaert or if neither of those things are possible, he'll try to win a free kick.
All the praise of his "defending from the front" is generous at best, he runs around without doing anything. Maybe 1 in 5 the opposition player will misplace a pass or shank it out of play, so fair play, his running around has had an impact. But the rest of the time it doesn't make a difference. Nobody has mentioned the numerous times a move broke down because he couldn't keep hold of it, and nobody has mentioned that when Baldock tries to intercept a pass he misses, but Knockaert at least twice made an interception which actually got us the ball back. His effort actually had results.
As usual, I really think people should post where they watched the game from. I sit in the East Stand Upper, so I can see the whole game. If you sit in a lower tier or behind a goal, you don't have the same view, so you won't hold the same opinion. I'm very clear in my opinion, which is based entirely on his performances. He also needs to pack in getting in the faces of opponents and then having a cry to the referee when they tell him to piss off, he comes across as a tedious little man who is carried by the team. Yesterday he won us the game, obviously I'd be more than happy if he did that every game but he won't - he did nothing at all against Aston Villa but that's conveniently ignored and he did nothing in the first half yesterday, also not mentioned. But he was a worthy man of the match for the excellent goal and brilliant cross, it's just a shame it's completely out of character.
Aaron Mooy and Elias Kachunga are very lucky to be included (in Ian Holloway's Championship top XI), Mooy has actually been on the bench a few times lately. Huddersfield are not going to finish in the top 6. I think they'll do well to be in the top 10 come the end of the season.
Agreed, thought the whole team played well. Stephens and Duffy also top draw.
Copyright [MENTION=13055]Ninja Elephant[/MENTION] November 2016
Just for laughs, here's another belter from the same author:
'Runs around without doing anything'...................
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It gets my vote for goal of the season - what a superbly taken goal.
If that had happened in a Prem game, the pundits would be wetting themselves
Baldock is a bag of onions? Am I missing something ::
I've been Team Baldock for a while now, but I wasn't 100% impressed when we signed him, however I would say he's the most improved player we've got. Maybe it took him a while to find his feet or maybe Hughton is just a brilliant coach (or maybe a bit of both), but boy do we miss him when he's not playing. That first touch last night for his goal when the ball was dipping over his shoulder was superb.Saw him a few times at City and was really excited when we signed him. Taken him 2.5 seasons, nearly half of which injured, but now I am seeing the player I saw at Ashton Gate, just a division and a half higher.
Almost scored another great goal as well.
But apart from that, what does he do?
@NinjaElephant