Harper heading

[Wax Jacket]

Harper's usually the first man when we're defending corners, and he quite often gets distance on his clearing headers.

He does make tackles, but he very rarely 'gets stuck in' as they say, and usually shirks a lot of 50-50 balls.

He runs more than any other player in our team though, and that is an asset in itself. His work-rate and closing down are sometimes more effective than diving in with a challenge and giving away a freekick.

he doesnt fly in two footed into challenges, no
but then he doesnt miss those challenges end up on his arse with th eplayer passed him either
invariably he makes sure he gets into the correct position 1st and shields the passing options of the opposition often forcing them into less dangerous areas,
this work is pivotal to the way we are set up
its not barnstorming like sids often does, but no less important

spot on

if footballers listened to the village idiot opinions of fans such as "get stuck into him" and "break him" they'd never be professionals. tackles are a last-resort option, effective shielding of the ball and options is much less likely to open up space for an attacker or give away free kicks.

[RoyalBlue]

Harper's usually the first man when we're defending corners, and he quite often gets distance on his clearing headers.

He does make tackles, but he very rarely 'gets stuck in' as they say, and usually shirks a lot of 50-50 balls.

He runs more than any other player in our team though, and that is an asset in itself. His work-rate and closing down are sometimes more effective than diving in with a challenge and giving away a freekick.

he doesnt fly in two footed into challenges, no
but then he doesnt miss those challenges end up on his arse with th eplayer passed him either
invariably he makes sure he gets into the correct position 1st and shields the passing options of the opposition often forcing them into less dangerous areas,
this work is pivotal to the way we are set up
its not barnstorming like sids often does, but no less important

Spot on. Players are encouraged to avoid going to ground when tackling, as once they are on their backsides they're out of the game.

IMO Harper saved our skins on quite a few occasions against Portsmouth. As we pushed forwards in search of a goal, we became increasingly vulnerable to the quick counter-attack. On several occasions Portsmouth broke quickly forward in numbers and more often than not it was Harper who raced back and help up the player in possession for long enough for his team-mates to get back and cover. A very under-rated player in my book.

As for the suggestion that players can't improve their weaker points through practice.......!!!

[1960]

When a footballer has a weakness shouldn't he practise to improve it? I'm pretty much a fan of Harper, but he just can't head a ball (or tackle for that matter). At one point in the second half yesterday we had a corner or freekick wide on the left. All our players had bombed up into the area, the ball bounced about a bit and Harper made a feeble attempt to head it. Missed it completely and the defender headed out, setting up a breakaway with most of our players stranded. Fortunately the defence managed to cover, but it could have been disastrous.

So Harps - you're brilliant at what you do, but please practise what you're not good at.

One missed header and it's a weakness that needs practice??? Do you believe that everything must happen correctly 100% of the time and it's an unerring indicator of poor industry if it doesn't? In the heat of a professional football match - or any other football match, for that matter - all sorts of things should happen, but don't due to being off balance, pressured by opponents, left short by teammates etc. Of course, things are practiced in training, as they rightly should be, but to pick out one isolated incident in this way smacks of nitpicking for the sake of it.
I bet he, and others, will miss headers in future games that DON'T lead to dangerous breakaways. It's something of a lottery when it comes to that.
As mentioned elsewhere, Harper patrols the near post at corners and anything delivered poorly into that area is met with a header from him which more often than not makes it into touch without bouncing. He did indeed score from 18 yards out last season with a header that was forced up and over a crowded box and cleared the defender on the line.
The last time you made an error at work, how many people suggested that you might like to go away and run through it a hundred times until you were perfect and therefore absolutely immune from ever doing it again?

The "one isolated incident" was in fact an example of a general weakness with Harper. When I used to play football, at a crap level, I found defensive headers a piece of piss. Just more or less head it back where it came from. Put your head in the way and even if you mis-time it, it will still hit you on the head. What I could never master was the ball coming in from the wing, heading for goal, getting the timing right, twisting and tensing my neck and do all this while jumping - I just couldn'd do it.

While I agree with you about Harper's defensive headers, I will challenge you to find any occasion when he wins a disputed header or when he has to jump to head it. All your examples are with his feet on the ground with no challenge coming in and more or less heading it back where it came from.

[3 veesinarow]

Oh, OK, goalpost-shifting time.

Nowhere in your original post did you differentiate between defensive, attacking or distributive heading, you just said Harper is crap at heading, full-stop, no doubt. Read it back and tell me where you made the distinction.

[frenchroyal]

Harps' problem to me seems to be that he's scared of getting hurt.

In the same way he loses out in every 50:50 tackle he goes near (if he even bothers) when he's jumping with someone he takes his eye off the ball and twists his body to protect himself from the opposition player.

Clearly demonstrated in the picture of Harps on this link to photos from the pompey game. Ninth picture down if I remember correctly

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 83,00.html

[readingbedding]

Harps' problem to me seems to be that he's scared of getting hurt.

In the same way he loses out in every 50:50 tackle he goes near (if he even bothers) when he's jumping with someone he takes his eye off the ball and twists his body to protect himself from the opposition player.

Clearly demonstrated in the picture of Harps on this link to photos from the pompey game. Ninth picture down if I remember correctly

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 83,00.html

A professional footballer afraid of being hurt.

He wouldn't have been a professional footballer if that was the case.

[URZZ]

"...And Murts can't believe he scored with his head!"

[RoyalBlue]

Harps' problem to me seems to be that he's scared of getting hurt.

In the same way he loses out in every 50:50 tackle he goes near (if he even bothers) when he's jumping with someone he takes his eye off the ball and twists his body to protect himself from the opposition player.

Clearly demonstrated in the picture of Harps on this link to photos from the pompey game. Ninth picture down if I remember correctly

http://www.readingfc.premiumtv.co.uk/pa ... 83,00.html

Twisting his leg away to avoid getting a set of studs into his knee cap and a potentially serious injury - how stupid?!

A real man would have left it in there and put up with the pain and several months out of the game.

On the other hand it might just be a natural twist of the body as he hits the ball with the inside of his right foot.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

he doesnt fly in two footed into challenges, no
but then he doesnt miss those challenges end up on his arse with th eplayer passed him either
invariably he makes sure he gets into the correct position 1st and shields the passing options of the opposition often forcing them into less dangerous areas,this work is pivotal to the way we are set up
its not barnstorming like sids often does, but no less important

Looking at the highlighted bit, I think you're confusing it with backing off, backing off, backing off and letting the player run through our entire midfield to within shooting distance

[Millsy]

People might remember I attacked Harper quite harshly last season. And I've never really been a fan of his sidewards football...

But even I have to admit that especially in the Prem and in a good team, he is a class player. Easily Prem quality. Like everyone else he may have certain weaknesses but at the end of the day he is one of the backbones of the seventh best team in the country.

I suspect he may be massively under rated.