If we played 4-3-3 then maybe but it was clear AVB didn't rate him and it was never going to work really.
I think that a good test of whether we should have kept Hudd is whether we think that it is likely that he will get a move to a bigger club this summer. I doubt that he will.
Pirlo is available on a free this summer......still showing for Juve that he is up for it. Gerrard is simply doing what Pirlo has been doing for yonks
This is a really a discussion for another thread but I think that is exactly what our team needs. An experienced player, nearing the end of their career, who will immediately command respect from everyone in the dressing room. Alonso is another one who fits the bill, Xavi is meant to be off to MLS, that would be an amazing deal to hijack.
Either or both of them and I'll need to change my underwear.
Could Huddlestone have been out Gerrard this season?
I know that Huddlestone isn't as good as Gerrard but, with his passing range, perhaps he could have delivered strong performances in a similar role.
Just a thought.
3 games into the season if he didn't have a 100% pass record and 30 assists he'd have been called a "fancy dan" and a "Huddlestone what does he do" thread would've been strarted.
He's going to score the winner against Arsenal.
The higher level that a player is playing at the more their deficiencies are exposed. MotD did some analysis on Hudd a month or so back and highlighted how he was coasting through a game and not pressing up on the opposition.
I liked Hudd but he would not have got enough games to regain his form if he had stayed with us and his shortcomings will mean that he is not good enough any more to be a regular starter for a club with Champions League ambitions.
That don't wash
In the season we qualified he played a major part in reaching the Champions League. Playing in 33 EPL games, his most as a Tottenham player in a season incidently.
He played 2850 mins in those 33 games at a rate of 86 mins avg.
Of the other 5 games in the league he was on the bench once, the remaining four he was either rested, injured or dropped.
To top that off, Tom appeared in 10 domestic cup games, 2 of the 10 he was a Sub.
About the same time he got 3 England caps.
Its not the ability that has held him back, its always been his fitness, the one season he was fit, we made the Champions League.