The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

davealbon wrote:On the Hall v Hoban debate, even when he's not playing well, Claudiu still works hard on and off the ball, he still looks interested, and still wants to make something happen. Hall, on the other hand, mopes around looking thoroughly disinterested, putting next to no effort in unless the ball is right at his feet.

Before April I would've disagreed with this. I would still rather have a player that played a 7/10 every game than Claudio who plays a 9/10 once every 4/5 games and a 5/10 the rest, but this is an unpopular opinion that I hold.

ParcelFace wrote:

davealbon wrote:On the Hall v Hoban debate, even when he's not playing well, Claudiu still works hard on and off the ball, he still looks interested, and still wants to make something happen. Hall, on the other hand, mopes around looking thoroughly disinterested, putting next to no effort in unless the ball is right at his feet.

Before April I would've disagreed with this. I would still rather have a player that played a 7/10 every game than Claudio who plays a 9/10 once every 4/5 games and a 5/10 the rest, but this is an unpopular opinion that I hold.

By the time the season was coming to end I'd reached the conclusion that we were a poorer side with Andy Hall in it, culminating in the play-off final in which he was desperate. I'm not sure what the delay was but had Shawn Richards broken into the side earlier than he did we might have faced St Ives at home in the play-off final, rather than away.

BartonRaz wrote:

ParcelFace wrote:

davealbon wrote:On the Hall v Hoban debate, even when he's not playing well, Claudiu still works hard on and off the ball, he still looks interested, and still wants to make something happen. Hall, on the other hand, mopes around looking thoroughly disinterested, putting next to no effort in unless the ball is right at his feet.

Before April I would've disagreed with this. I would still rather have a player that played a 7/10 every game than Claudio who plays a 9/10 once every 4/5 games and a 5/10 the rest, but this is an unpopular opinion that I hold.

By the time the season was coming to end I'd reached the conclusion that we were a poorer side with Andy Hall in it, culminating in the play-off final in which he was desperate. I'm not sure what the delay was but had Shawn Richards broken into the side earlier than he did we might have faced St Ives at home in the play-off final, rather than away.

I meant the stuff about Hoban, not Hall - missed the comparison bit, sorry. I'm surprised Richards ever lost his place, he barely put a foot wrong. I think he's better than Claudio personally just because he's more consistent. If Claudio works on consistency and we keep Richards and Leslie, there is a space for a strong 3 in a 4-2-3-1, we just need to figure out who the 1 is.

ParcelFace wrote: I'm surprised Richards ever lost his place, he barely put a foot wrong.

We've been over this before. He made himself unavailable for a match where we beat Ware 3-0 so, quite rightly, the manager stuck with the same team in the next match and Richards found himself on the bench in many matches to later decide he wanted to play at a higher level with Rushall Olympic where he struggled to get much of a look in. By the time he decided to rejoin us our team was in a slump and it was only in the last month of the season that Richards regained his earlier good form.