I'd like to pose a question to the BigFooty brains trust:
Would we be better off playing Patrick Dangerfield as predominantly a Forward, with just the odd cameo into the midfield?
We all know that Dangerfield is a contested beast, however he also boasts awesome speed, strength in the marking contest and continues to show himself to be more than capable around goals.
Whilst there's little doubt Danger wins a lot of clearances and finds plenty of the ball in his primary role as inside mid, however how much value do we truly get from this? His disposal is one of the worst in the league among the top ball winners and the majority of his clearances result in at best a 50-50.
But what about his pace/run and carry? How often do we actually see it these days? With the attention he receives from taggers and his inside role, we just don't see it, certainly don't gain much value from it. I was startled, or perhaps not so, to find that Paddy had recorded a grand total of 0 bounces this year. He might as well be Scott Thompson really, big and strong, wins clearances and has poor disposal offering nothing on the outside.
Today was a great example of how winning the hit outs and clearances are so meaningless without a decent outside game and forward structure.
Now whilst Paddy has great speed, his disposal prevents him from offering much as an outside mid.
However, like his predecessor in the 32, Paddy presents a unique target up forward. Strong enough both in body and overhead to play as a KPF, but with elite ground ball ability to make a mockery of any KPD placed on him.
Today, he was without a doubt our most dangerous forward, yet he played most of the game as a mid. He had 4 shots on goal before anyone else in our side, whilst we were getting hammered.
At the moment I feel our forward line lacks someone to make a contest in the air. Neither Jenkins, nor Lynch are contested marking types, they struggle to force contests when the ball enters the 50 without purpose. Leaving it all essentially up to Walker and believe it or not Betts!
This is where I think Paddy would benefit our forward line immensely. Not only would he relieve pressure from Betts and Walker to score goals, his ability to force a contest is elite, something which a player like Betts would just feed off of.
With regards to covering Paddy in the midfield, we have inside mids coming out of every orriface. Lyons, M.Crouch, Grigg, plus Kerridge coming back from injury, not to mention Thompson, Sloane, VB, Ellis-Yolman and Wright already being predominantly inside.
The question becomes, is Paddy's inside clearance/inside work worth more than the potentially 50-60 goals he'd kick as predominantly a forward, then the others he'd set up through his contested work and pressure taken off Walker/Betts?
Plus he could still have bursts through the midfield, especially if he's been quiet up front.
Personally, I just feel that since his breakout year in 2012, Paddy has struggled to have the true impact he's capable of. He always seems to be laboring a touch and as a result has just become a Thommo clone. Which is not to say that means he's a bad player, far, far from it, just that he's capable of so much more. He's the ultimate impact player, who's getting bogged down with the day-in day-out midfield roles and responsibilities, essentially the "inside mid grunt work" that could quite easily be adequately compensated for by another player.
Would we be better off playing Patrick Dangerfield as predominantly a Forward, with just the odd cameo into the midfield?
We all know that Dangerfield is a contested beast, however he also boasts awesome speed, strength in the marking contest and continues to show himself to be more than capable around goals.
Whilst there's little doubt Danger wins a lot of clearances and finds plenty of the ball in his primary role as inside mid, however how much value do we truly get from this? His disposal is one of the worst in the league among the top ball winners and the majority of his clearances result in at best a 50-50.
But what about his pace/run and carry? How often do we actually see it these days? With the attention he receives from taggers and his inside role, we just don't see it, certainly don't gain much value from it. I was startled, or perhaps not so, to find that Paddy had recorded a grand total of 0 bounces this year. He might as well be Scott Thompson really, big and strong, wins clearances and has poor disposal offering nothing on the outside.
Today was a great example of how winning the hit outs and clearances are so meaningless without a decent outside game and forward structure.
Now whilst Paddy has great speed, his disposal prevents him from offering much as an outside mid.
However, like his predecessor in the 32, Paddy presents a unique target up forward. Strong enough both in body and overhead to play as a KPF, but with elite ground ball ability to make a mockery of any KPD placed on him.
Today, he was without a doubt our most dangerous forward, yet he played most of the game as a mid. He had 4 shots on goal before anyone else in our side, whilst we were getting hammered.
At the moment I feel our forward line lacks someone to make a contest in the air. Neither Jenkins, nor Lynch are contested marking types, they struggle to force contests when the ball enters the 50 without purpose. Leaving it all essentially up to Walker and believe it or not Betts!
This is where I think Paddy would benefit our forward line immensely. Not only would he relieve pressure from Betts and Walker to score goals, his ability to force a contest is elite, something which a player like Betts would just feed off of.
With regards to covering Paddy in the midfield, we have inside mids coming out of every orriface. Lyons, M.Crouch, Grigg, plus Kerridge coming back from injury, not to mention Thompson, Sloane, VB, Ellis-Yolman and Wright already being predominantly inside.
The question becomes, is Paddy's inside clearance/inside work worth more than the potentially 50-60 goals he'd kick as predominantly a forward, then the others he'd set up through his contested work and pressure taken off Walker/Betts?
Plus he could still have bursts through the midfield, especially if he's been quiet up front.
Personally, I just feel that since his breakout year in 2012, Paddy has struggled to have the true impact he's capable of. He always seems to be laboring a touch and as a result has just become a Thommo clone. Which is not to say that means he's a bad player, far, far from it, just that he's capable of so much more. He's the ultimate impact player, who's getting bogged down with the day-in day-out midfield roles and responsibilities, essentially the "inside mid grunt work" that could quite easily be adequately compensated for by another player.
