2024/25 Harrison Armstrong

[NathDogg]

Get him in and around the first team now, unless we are signing a bonafide starter in midfield, he has to be an option.

 

[degsy]

From what ive seen of him last season he's way off premier league quality at the moment. Which in itself isnt a criticism but standing out in a terrible Derby team is no great plaudit on its own. For.me the best idea would be to get him out on loan again to a top flight team in a European league like Holland or France.

He just been on loan, let them re-evaluate and if required loan him out again like you say

 

[blueloon]

I agree that passing stats aren’t everything. KDB for example will have a lower percentage than Rodri purely because of the risks taken with his passing.
Harrison only completing 3 out of every 4 passes does need improvement though imo

Well differing opinions abound of course , that’s fine. From your posts you’ve said you’ve got your opinions from reading the Derby forums and googling his passing stats. Stats miss out a lot of things . I watched him come on as a late sub for England u18s against Ukraine , a quick interchange in a short corner and he delivered a pinpoint cross to be headed home. His pass rate was likely 100% in those few minutes , plus an assist. As well as numerous assists at u21/u18 he scored a hat- trick in one youth cup game, he was a class above everyone else , it doesn’t make him a goalscoring No10 despite what the stats may say. At 18 I’m more excited about Armstrong’s ability to stroke 25 yard passes into the box, or thread a weighted ball through to Beto than I am about stats which are not in context.

 

[voodoobloo]

0 assists for Derby. I like that he appears to be a forward thinking player but let’s not get carried away thinking he’s going to be creating tons of chances, I’m not sure that’s his game at all.

I’m hoping he’ll be a more aggressive version of Rodwell when he was here. Rodwell had all the physical attributes needed but was ultimately a coward and used to hide from the ball.

To use the throwback phrase from the days of Pienaar - he’s assisted the assister a few time with through balls to wingers

 

[Ray Purchase]

Gone, and most definitely forgotten.

 

[Eggs]

Gone, and most definitely forgotten.

…maybe getting your Harrison’s mixed up

 

[Blast_of_Cannock]

Gone, and most definitely forgotten.

Ray bloody Purchase..

 

[salmon fingers]

If you take a look at Derbys revival this year it started when he was introduced to the team, he played against a good Boro side as defensive midfielder his first game which they lost 1-0 at the riverside and then went on a big run of picking up points. I am not saying he was the reason for the run just he was a part of it. I thought he was a attacking mid but was very disciplined as a defensive mid which to me speaks volumes about the lads character.

 

[Osamabindiesel]

The one thing I notice about him is he needs to beef up a tad. Not overly so but he just needs to fill out a little imo. And I'm curious what his best position will be at this level. Moyes will get a good look at him in training camp and decide if he is ready.

 

[Bedfordblue]

Talk out of FF that a loan to Roma might be in the offing. Option to buy too.

 

[SLAVEN BILIC]

Talk out of FF that a loan to Roma might be in the offing. Option to buy too.

Feeder club. Don’t tell the orange/lemon cat.

 

[blueblue]

Just been looking at some of the derby forums and they all really want(ed) him back next season.

Needs to up his passing accuracy and decision making. Passing accuracy % is pretty low. Comparisons with Wharton might be a tad premature but he’s definitely promising

He is 18 years old.

 

[buskwhi2]

He is 18 years old.

and I’d fully expect improvements to come, particularly in decision making. I don’t see a problem with highlighting areas for improvement at any age though

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

Gone, and most definitely forgotten.

Was my third favourite Beatle to be fair

 

[mistuhp]

Indeed. Saying “ passing accuracy % is low” without watching him is pretty pointless. One of the things I liked about Armstrong at Derby was his willingness to drop back into a position to receive a pass from a teamwork who was being closed down/ pressed, he’d happily play out of a difficult position with a turn into space and a short, accurate pass. If he moved forward with the ball he’d look for a killer pass and was less accurate, sometimes it worked other times he was on a different wave length from the player he’d hoped would receive it. I don’t recall him ever hitting a misplaced pass when he was under pressure.

This is pretty much it. Passing accuracy on its own is almost entirely useless as a statistic. I don't know if anybody has actually taken this into account in models on any public-facing passing stats on fotmob/whoscored/whatever, but generally speaking the highest passing accuracy numbers are from players who make a high volume of extremely low difficulty passes that pretty much any professional player can make at around the same level. This was pretty well established at least 10 years ago, which is why it's bonkers to me when I see "wow, what a game from this holding midfielder - he had 98% passing accuracy" posts after games; yeah, we all saw him make the same five yard sideways or backwards pass under little to no pressure 73 times in the game while doing nothing else of note. Players who actually play passes forwards or regularly attempt to break lines/create chances are playing such significantly more difficult passes that it renders the pure accuracy number irrelevant.