The next Fulham player to stand in front of my court of opinions is our Magherafelt born centre back, Aaron Hughes. An unfortunate member of the Sanchez era, in which it seemed half the Northern Irish side were drafted in whilst dirty Sanchez himself tried to fumble together a squad capable of avoiding relegation.
Some say the unsung hero of our defence, others say the weakest link in our otherwise strong back line. Perhaps a middle line should be drawn, reliable, but nothing special. Reliable is good though; Right?
Yes. It is. Mistakes are not part of Hughes’ vocab, which can only be a good thing. Yes, he may not be the best in the air, or the best tackler in the world, but when it comes to it, he can cope. There are faults in his game, don’t get me wrong, but you have to dig deep to find them. You’d be hard pushed to think of a centre back that has made less calamitous mistakes then this guy. Composed is a sublime word to describe our humble centre back.
The way I see it is that our defence is made up of brains, and a beast. Hangeland being the beast, and Hughes being the mightily intelligent brain! Hangeland is dominant in the air, whilst Hughes’ positional play and marking skills are top drawer. Again, not the best, but certainly well capable of being a good Premier League centre back; But that begs the question, surely we can do better?
And again, I can only answer yes to that question. It works well, having a mentally sound player, and a dominant player like Hangeland, but wouldn’t we be better off finding another centre back that can carry out both roles, just like Brede does at the moment?
I will leave that question un-answered, and hopefully let you guys, the loyal support, resolve it.
Share this article
