4 replies to this topic

[Dorset]

Okay, he’s twenty years old now and League One isn’t exactly the ideal place to confirm your status as a potential Premiership player, let alone a Chelsea regular, but Liam Bridcutt seems to be doing just fine at Stockport County at the moment. Last night he turned out for them in the holding role against Tranmere Rovers and gave what can only be described as a perfect example of how to pull the strings like an experienced puppeteer from that position. The game was predictably frenetic with the Rovers players under a new [temporary] coach and therefore anxious, to the point of mania, to impress. As if dancing to a different and much quieter drumbeat, Liam dealt with the tidying up operation in front of his back four in a cool, calm and composed manner before distributing the ball forward [as opposed to sideways] with impressive accuracy, damn near all night.

Viewers were also treated to a couple of sweeping long balls to either flank that were about as pinpoint as you can get and it became increasingly clear that passing precision is an intrinsic part of the Bridcutt game. Also, having seen him a few times before, I know he is not afraid to get stuck in when needs must, although there was not much call for last ditch tackles against a numbers-conscious Rovers team reduced to ten men [for yet another goalkeeping error similar to Petr’s and the luckless Green] early in the second half. Nevertheless, that shouldn’t and didn’t detract from a commanding performance that even got several words of praise from Ian Darke on commentary - true to form though, no mention of him being on loan from us, of course.

If there is a darkish cloud to what could be a bright future for the lad it has to be his size and a lack of pace that is distinctly less momentum-building than, say, a smaller-sized Modric, but slightly more pressing than a burger-sized Huddlestone or, for that matter, a Mikel who appears to have less ability to play the incisive pass from midfield than the other three and is often less convincing as a direct [or indirect] result. I suppose our perception of what a holding midfielder should be will always be influenced by Maka and the fact that height and build were never problems in his case due to compensatory attributes of strength on the ball and uncanny positioning. That said, the best comparison with Bridcutt has to be Dennis and if he continues to progress, whilst adding Wisey’s inspirational urgency to his armoury, we really will have a player on our hands. Maybe the club sees things this way too - he is only on temporary loan until January.

[Fido Dido]

Good stuff . Thanks for the update

[mad_mac]

With him being on loan only until January, I'm wondering if we'll see him make a few appearances on the bench during Mikel, and Essien's hiatus to the African Cup of Nations?

I'd certainly like to see more of him, other than the few Chelsea TV clips of reserve games I'd ever seen him play in

[High Street Ken]

mad_mac, on Oct 15 2009, 00:14 AM, said:

With him being on loan only until January, I'm wondering if we'll see him make a few appearances on the bench during Mikel, and Essien's hiatus to the African Cup of Nations?

I'd certainly like to see more of him, other than the few Chelsea TV clips of reserve games I'd ever seen him play in

Doesn't sound like he's ready for the step up in class. We've got tough games, like Burnley away, during the ACN and he sounds a bit lightweight for that.

[mad_mac]

yeah thought I might be expecting too much for him Ken