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'Lightweight' Luka

We haven't really recovered from losing him. We still need that player who can distribute the ball so well from the middle of the park. Bentaleb the only midfielder we have at the moment who can pick out passes in a comparable fashion to Modric. Of course Bentaleb can't feign and dribble with the ball as well (yet fingers crossed!). But we miss a player who can run the game by always being available to receive the ball, even if an opposition player was close, you knew he'd retain possession and pick a pass.

Modric didn't score enough goals for a player of his ability. The skill was there, but he often tightened up in front of goal and he could put more chances away. He could also be muscled off the ball in 50-50s, not often, but his small size was sometimes an issue in defence when he was isolated against strong attackers. But we still miss him.
 
How things have changed for our little Luka...

https://twitter.com/benbloomsport/status/419093472868442113
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https://twitter.com/RealMadrid_F_C/status/456572429070917632
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https://twitter.com/Itsjake_Rock/status/373099242606186496
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SpurMeUp said:
We haven't really recovered from losing him. We still need that player who can distribute the ball so well from the middle of the park. Bentaleb the only midfielder we have at the moment who can pick out passes in a comparable fashion to Modric. Of course Bentaleb can't feign and dribble with the ball as well (yet fingers crossed!). But we miss a player who can run the game by always being available to receive the ball, even if an opposition player was close, you knew he'd retain possession and pick a pass.

Modric didn't score enough goals for a player of his ability. The skill was there, but he often tightened up in front of goal and he could put more chances away. He could also be muscled off the ball in 50-50s, not often, but his small size was sometimes an issue in defence when he was isolated against strong attackers. But we still miss him.
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Swings and roundabouts. His smaller size probably makes him more agile and helps him accelerate quicker, meaning that he can dance around players like he does.
 
Robspur12 said:
My problem with Luka was he wasn't a dominant player who could pick the team up by the scruff of the neck, he didn't do enough imo, when we needed something special to unlock a team who were defending deep, unlike Bale. His set plays were not good enough, there were loads of games that I watched where his corners failed to clear the first man and I wanted him to take more of a risk with his passing at times, rather than just keep it simple, unlike Glenn in his pomp. I get though how important he was at keeping the team ticking over and not replacing him sooner after he left was a mistake. But I think that he can be replaced more easily whereas Bale was unique (well unique in that there are only 2 other players who can dominate games like he does). I think in time we will see Eriksen being as important a player as Modric was. I freely admit to being a biased Glenn Hoddle fan and I'm afraid Luka, good as he was, was just not as good as the master imo.
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Different players. Luka was Ossie-like...
 
Robspur12 said:
Yep and Ossie was replaceable -Glenn not so much. Probably analogous to Bale and Modric.
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I LOVED Bale…but I suspect we'd both agree that Glenn is the greatest midfielder we've ever seen…simply peerless. Perhaps Zidane in his pomp comes close...
 
I always felt Modric was over-rated by our fans. An excellent player, technically superb. Often quite slack defensively though (mainly for tracking his man) and as has often been said, not many goals or assists to his name. The over-rated thing, for me, comes from the people who thought he was more important than Bale. I know who I'd have back here, if we could only have one of them, and it's not Luka.

Credit to him though for coming good at Madrid. I did enjoy the fact he struggled a bit after leaving us (sour grapes on my part) but he has been excellent for them this season.
 
the dza said:
I always felt Modric was over-rated by our fans. An excellent player, technically superb. Often quite slack defensively though (mainly for tracking his man) and as has often been said, not many goals or assists to his name. The over-rated thing, for me, comes from the people who thought he was more important than Bale. I know who I'd have back here, if we could only have one of them, and it's not Luka.

Credit to him though for coming good at Madrid. I did enjoy the fact he struggled a bit after leaving us (sour grapes on my part) but he has been excellent for them this season.
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Yeah, that's why a 4-4-2 with him and Huddlestone worked so well against some top teams in the league.

Modric was the opposite of quite slack defensively. Just like he's been for Real Madrid. You really think what was effectively a 4-4-2 with Modric alongside Alonso would have kept out Bayern like that if Modric was quite slack defensively?

For a player with his ability I don't know of a harder working player in world football. Even after he wanted to leave, after it was abundantly clear that he was heading for much bigger than Tottenham Hotspur his work ethic was exemplary and many of our current players could learn a lot.
 
braineclipse said:
Yeah, that's why a 4-4-2 with him and Huddlestone worked so well against some top teams in the league.

Modric was the opposite of quite slack defensively. Just like he's been for Real Madrid. You really think what was effectively a 4-4-2 with Modric alongside Alonso would have kept out Bayern like that if Modric was quite slack defensively?

For a player with his ability I don't know of a harder working player in world football. Even after he wanted to leave, after it was abundantly clear that he was heading for much bigger than Tottenham Hotspur his work ethic was exemplary and many of our current players could learn a lot.
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Good post. I always felt that one of his greatest traits was that, even if things weren't going for him with the ball, he put serious miles in without it and was always a team player.
 
braineclipse said:
Yeah, that's why a 4-4-2 with him and Huddlestone worked so well against some top teams in the league.

Modric was the opposite of quite slack defensively. Just like he's been for Real Madrid. You really think what was effectively a 4-4-2 with Modric alongside Alonso would have kept out Bayern like that if Modric was quite slack defensively?

For a player with his ability I don't know of a harder working player in world football. Even after he wanted to leave, after it was abundantly clear that he was heading for much bigger than Tottenham Hotspur his work ethic was exemplary and many of our current players could learn a lot.
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I think he's been pretty good defensively for Madrid, in the games I've seen. But I felt he was often poor at tracking players back, more so against the lesser teams, rather than the top sides where we'd set-up a bit deeper and look to counter (hence Modric and Hudd doing well in some of those games).

Watching Paulinho take an eternity deciding which pass to make has certainly made me appreciate Modric more than I once did.
 
the dza said:
I think he's been pretty good defensively for Madrid, in the games I've seen. But I felt he was often poor at tracking players back, more so against the lesser teams, rather than the top sides where we'd set-up a bit deeper and look to counter (hence Modric and Hudd doing well in some of those games).

Watching Paulinho take an eternity deciding which pass to make has certainly made me appreciate Modric more than I once did.
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Man, everyone loses a runner once in a while - which if I remember correctly is what Modric occasionally got caught doing and got criticized for while playing for us.

Who are you comparing him to defensively? Sandro and Parker, or players more suited to a comparison with Modric? Who are these playmakers that were better than him at defending?

You could trust Modric to make that run back to defend every single time. I never noticed Modric standing around in the opposing half while they attacked. He got back, into his position to help the team defend. He made that run, he was dependable.

You could trust Modric to not shirk out of a tackle. He would close down, he would try to win the ball. I actually really liked the way he would hunch down as players approached him with the ball. He was like a cat looking to pounce.

You could trust Modric to generally defend intelligently. He wouldn't go steaming out of position, he wouldn't make silly mistakes by leaving massive gaps.

For a player like him that's really all I could ever ask defensively. And to me it goes a long way. And it's a lot more than you can say about some of our other players, then and now, including Bale, Eriksen, Townsend VdV, Kranjcar, Paulinho (so far), Sigurdsson etc.

In addition to those he was quick footed, often managed to nip in and win the ball. He was strong for his size and had a fantastic balance meaning that he often got out of duels with the ball.
 
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