Just Back

Quoted from Maringer

Truth be told, I don't think Hunt was as effective last season as many think. He had a brief purple patch which coincided with McAtee and Bapaga playing well and looked a good player then, but dropped off badly towards the end of his loan spell and I wasn't overly bothered when he left. Given his complete lack of an impact at Oldham, I was surprised that we went back in for him and paid a fee and he's barely put in a decent performance since then.

I see many comments that he's our most creative player, but is he really? At his best, he moves the ball forward quickly and accurately but it isn't really incisive passing (though admittedly, our forwards aren't the most dynamic to get into good attacking positions often enough). I've not seen Hunt have a definitively good performance since his return, though I have missed several home games in 2023 for one reason or another and haven't been able to get to an away game this season.

If Hunt is going to have an impact next season, he needs to improve a lot. First thing to do, for me, would be hit the gym and put on a few pounds of muscle. He's always going to be slight due to his build but doesn't look strong enough to me at the moment. A little bit more upper body bulk could go a long way to help him hold his own physically which might help him find some consistency. If your main attribute is accurate passing, flipping well make sure you pass accurately. He was really poor in this regard against Southampton, though the same could be said for the rest of our passing during that game.

The Cup run disguised what a poor team we can be at times as the passing through midfield is often absolutely shocking as often as not. I like Holohan as he's had a positive impact with his ability to nick a goal here and there and put in a real shift, but his passing is often very poor. Green another who has looked useful when fit, but not one who exactly has a silky touch.

With those two in the middle alongside Hunt against Hartlepool, I can't really see how we could expect to hold possession well enough to do anything, especially without any sort of a focal point up front.

Lots of work for Hurst to do in the summer to try and get that midfield sorted out. I don't think we even have a basis in there for a strong team at the moment.

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

No doubt our conditioning team will be working hard on Hunt pre-season; he's worth persisting with but at 22 next season is a massive one for him. It was age 23 when Harry really kicked on. Hunt has to break through as a regular starter at League 2 level otherwise he'll be drift to fringe League 2 / National League level.  There is potential for him to form a great combination with Harry at the core of our midfield next season, let's hope we see it fulfilled

Quoted from moosey_club

For Hunt....two very recent examples of how and how not to use him..
Hartlepool - absolutely no width , no runners from midfield and one striker to aim at...result....he struggles.  

Crawley - three up top ahead of him,  width  runners and he was central to what I think was probably our best League 90 mins of the season.

He can be key but if the manager isn't picking players in front of him then what's the point in having the best picker  of a pass and passer of a ball if he is only going to be passing it to sideways targets.

Quoted from moosey_club

For Hunt....two very recent examples of how and how not to use him..
Hartlepool - absolutely no width , no runners from midfield and one striker to aim at...result....he struggles.  

Crawley - three up top ahead of him,  width  runners and he was central to what I think was probably our best League 90 mins of the season.

He can be key but if the manager isn't picking players in front of him then what's the point in having the best picker  of a pass and passer of a ball if he is only going to be passing it to sideways targets.

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

Personally don’t think Clifton has the range of passing and quality of touch to be a stand out central midfield player and is much better suited to playing, as he normally does, on the left hand side. Hunt suffers, as others have said from a lack of forward movement and availability with our starting line up on Friday being a perfect example of this.

Speaking of midfield players I am slightly surprised to see that Khouri has not been afforded more game time as he’s always looked pretty useful in the cameo performances he’s had. No doubt it’s an area we need to strengthen in the summer as it’s hard to recollect too many home games where we have won the midfield battle.

Quoted from Limerick Mariner

Khouri is 20 - plenty of time yet. He'll get his big opportunity to shine next season. Midfield have done better away form home as the team has. We've strangled the opposition really well on the road.

We've 4 home games left; PH needs to just play the best eleven every game now, we've just two Tuesday nighters left and don't need to rotate, we can still can realistically finish 11th - that's the target.

Quoted from moosey_club

For Hunt....two very recent examples of how and how not to use him..
Hartlepool - absolutely no width , no runners from midfield and one striker to aim at...result....he struggles.  

Crawley - three up top ahead of him,  width  runners and he was central to what I think was probably our best League 90 mins of the season.

He can be key but if the manager isn't picking players in front of him then what's the point in having the best picker  of a pass and passer of a ball if he is only going to be passing it to sideways targets.

Quoted from ginnywings

I've always thought that Hunt would struggle in this current side, because of the reasons mentioned by others.

Those around him and in front of him don't make the movements needed for him to shine. We were like statues against Hartlepool and often only had one player in a forward position, with the others slowly making their way up the pitch. Efete and Amos were the ones who were supposed to provide the width, but very rarely do they get well ahead of the ball and often receive it from a squared pass instead of on the move like their left back did for their first goal. The few times they do get into a good forward position, the cross is abysmal. Not that there is much in the box to aim for if they did get in a good one.

They seem to be playing with the brakes on all the time and never seem to fully commit, even though we have three centre backs to cover for them. That's the whole point of having 5 at the back. It can be attacking, or it can be defensive, depending on the mind set of those in the team.

I desperately want to see us go out and put a team on the back front from the off, but it never happens. We are reactive, not proactive, and when we do get a goal, we seem to go back to wariness, instead of ramping up the pressure to get a second or third. It's so frustrating.