Towler v Pollock

Quoted from mariner91

Towler is classy. Reads it well, calm on the ball, has a yard of pace to allow him to recover very well (made a great late tackle second half yesterday) and yesterday showed he can go toe to toe with big physical forwards too. He has it all. He will play comfortably top half of championship, if not higher. Much better than Pollock who was very willing but limited.

That tackle in the second half was fantastic. It was exactly the type of situation we’ve been winning penalties from, but having someone if that quality at the back meant we had the pace and timing to deal with it without conceding a foul.

He strikes me as a young man who’s going to make a lot of money from football.

Yeah Towler streets ahead of Pollock for me, and that's not me knocking Pollock. He was a strong lad but for a youngen he really lacked pace. Towler has it all, even the Mrs likes him  

Quoted from LN8Mariner

Lever or Handyside? Such an odd combination, they were nothing like each other.

Agreed, Handyside and L ever were like chalk and cheese, completely different players to each other, which is probably why they complimented each other so much.

Towler for me & i was a pollock fan but this kid will play prem football in the future how we got him i will never know but enjoy watching him & waterfall play they are both determined to keep the ball out of our net

Towler is one of the best players we've had in years, fantastic on and off the ball, defensive skills superb, good at moving the ball about too. Pollock is very similar to Waterfall, very strong and a good header on him, good positioning skills too. Pollock will always be limited by lack of pace though and I think that's one reason him and Waterfall never worked as a pairing.

Waterfall looked much better this season and I think one reason is Towler being there allows him to play his game without being exposed too much because Towler is always there to cover where Pollock was not. Kind of like how Pearson became much better in his last spell in L2 when Collins came in over playing alongside Gowling as Pearson had more room to play his game with Collins there to sweep everything up.  

Towler no contest, got all the makings to become a very good level CB.

Yeah I would agree with all of the above, towler is absolutely class at this level - quick enough, great touch and passing, good awareness, good in the air. As others have said he seems to have so much time and space on the ball.

Pollock was extremely good for his age, great in the air, strong  as an ox, good positionally but he was slow and his passing was poor as well. He did carry more goal threat than Towler to be fair though.

Not really a fair comparison, is it? Pollock was a player of great potential in a very poor team, Towler probably more polished in a very good team.

Horses for courses.

Towler is more like a Hansen or VVD and similar stylish players.  Quick and reads the game well.  That tackle on Sat in the pen area!

Pollock is more of a no nonsense lionheart type, John Terry or Terry Butcher,  Great in backs to the wall, hard bloody encounters.(Butcher for England in Italy).

Both players and styles have their advantages in a good team.  We are fortunate to see both players in a Town shirt.

They’d be a great pairing!

Towler looks a great prospect and will definitely play higher up.

Pollock is completely dominant in the air, has great strength, is a decent footballer and a really good reader of the game. His only shortcoming is his lack of pace. Currently doing well in League 1 and will probably kick on to at the very least championship level.

Towler has a handful of games outside of league football, looks a great prospect, but the standard is certainly less challenging.