Quote Originally Posted by Chick A Saw View Post
As far as i saw on Saturday, and sometime previously as well, Harkes was passing the ball just to get rid of it, and maybe was the reason Aberdeen had so many chances. More often than not, his longer passes were into areas where our players had not been for several minutes, which begs the question, is he taking time to look for the pass, or is he just getting rid of the ball and shifting the blame?
I watched Southampton v Everton today and spent most of the match watching Stuart Armstrong. I'm not comparing Ian Harkes to Armstrong because they're at a different stage in their careers. But they do both play pretty much the same position. If I was coaching Harkes I'd ask him to watch Armstrong in that 90 minutes and learn.

When the ball came out of the back 4 to Armstrong he didn't play it away immediately he waited until a red shirt was along side him or ahead of him. Then he followed the play and made himself available outside the box. He would take up position in space, offer for the ball, draw players to him and play it away, trying always to create for the forwards ahead of him. A couple of times he ran past the back line and got cross balls into the box for his strikers. It was a masterclass of midfield play and he didn't run around at 100mph to do it. He did it with an economy of energy, mixing short bursts with slower pace and patience. Sometimes I wonder if Ian Harkes thinks because Scottish football is played at a high tempo he has to always play in a hurry. It's definitely holding him back, he's a skilful player and maybe just needs to slow himself down a bit and wait to make a better pass. It'll be interesting to see if playing alongside Jeando imoroves him. Hope so because he seems like a great lad and I'd love to see him being part of a better team.