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Gone: Downing shows real loyalty to us


andykeenan

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I thought he did quite well, he's still a 'bottler' which means central midfield won't ever be a long term position I'd imagine. I think he could definitely play there if he was stronger and more willing to tackle. That said, he did well yesterday and he seemed to enjoy that extra responsibility. He knows how to play football so slotted in fine and positioning was good, he works hard and of course with the ball excellent, if he was just able to show some more heart like for example, Milner would never go half arsed into a challenge, he could be a very good central midfield player.

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Downing for me will always be better player in the middle of the park. Out on the wing if hes on the right the defender can just play him onto his right foot and if hes on the left the defender does the same and plays him onto his right foot. For me football has a lot to do with balance you need to be able to attack a team from every angle like tottenham can do with bale on one side and lennon and the other. But with downing playing on the right that balance has then gone. It is like when we played cuellar right back and gave him the ball more than any other player (because teams would know that was our weakness and get us to play down the right) he would just close down the attack and we would have to go back. Its the same with downing playing down the right he just shuts down the play then we have to go back. A good example is when we played blues in the cup we had alot of the ball but because we didnt have that balance we were just going back and fore accross midfield. I can understanding people saying well hes playing out of position on the right fair enough but i cant understand a pro footballer that plays football ever single day a england international that cant use his right foot. I just find that shocking myself i cant see why managers dont get him to use his right foot in training. Thats why i think he would be suited more to the middle as he is a very direct runner with the ball and does run at teams, and he can take players on and its alot hard to play some one onto their weakerside when their in the middle. He would have to play in a three in the middle though as he cant tackle but i remember his first game for us it was against portsmouth away in the cup. He came on and played in the middle with milner and petrov and he scored a header but i always said that was his best position.

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Didn't see the game - followed it on twitter though. Henry Winter was very impressed with Downing:

"What a game Downing's had...passing, tackling, blocking, outstanding. #avfc 1 #mcfc 0... De jong shot deflected off Clark onto post...6 left"

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His right foot is pretty decent, he has scored a few goals with his right foot in his career, I remember one from about 25 yards for Middlesbrough, also against Burnley last year...as well as the cross for Heskey vs Chelsea. Also said it before, if you watch the warm up when they do shooting, Downing's right foot is always pretty decent, strikes it pretty well. There are far, far, far more one footed players in world football, Premiership and Aston Villa than Downing.

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Why is Bannan trying to run with his eyes closed?

Stupid comments like that which cause problems.

Can't you see he is using his magic powers?

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This is a guy that has played over 200 games in the premiership and your saying because he scored the odd goal with his right foot hes both footed. Just watch the games yeah not the warm up !!

Firstly, I have never once claimed he's both footed. Just his right foot is pretty decent, especially compared to the weaker foot of many other players.

Also, a warm up is a pretty good indication, any player in a game tries to automatically use their stronger foot. Even the likes of Milner who is as 2 footed as they come really still mainly looks to get the ball onto his right foot because it's naturally still stronger.

If a player can hit the ball accurately with power in the warm up, that shows he's got a good right foot, just clearly he'd rather use his left foot. If he has to use his right foot though, he has a decent right peg.

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If a player can hit the ball accurately with power in the warm up, that shows he's got a good right foot, just clearly he'd rather use his left foot. If he has to use his right foot though, he has a decent right peg.
:shock: I dont really care how hard or straight he hits the ball during the warm up ive seen john carew balance the ball on his head before a game doesnt mean he can do that in the match. People that say hes got a good right foot really need to start watching the games. He cant even cross with his left.
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Didn't see the game - followed it on twitter though. Henry Winter was very impressed with Downing:

"What a game Downing's had...passing, tackling, blocking, outstanding. #avfc 1 #mcfc 0... De jong shot deflected off Clark onto post...6 left"

Tackling??

According to Guardian chalkboards he attempted one tackle in the whole game, even though we had such little possession and he was in cm!

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