Gareth Ellis

Gareth Ellis Can’t be Replaced

The Hull Football Club can’t replace Gareth Ellis, and Lee Radford will not be trying by changing his style of play.

Let us have a look at the role of loose-forward that is going to be opening up when Ellis, a living legend, retires.

Lee Radford Needs to Fill the Role

Thanks to the fact that Gareth Ellis, aka Captain Fantastic, will be departing his playing roll with the Hull Football Club, a middle role now needs to be filled by the coach, Lee Radford.

The question of who is going to be able to fill the void Ellis leaves begs answering.

With Mickey Paea coming in, Scott Taylor; Liam Watts; Josh Bowden; Brad Fash; Chris Green; and Masimbaashe Matongo need to understand that there is no replacement for this influential skipper possible.

Both on and off the football field, Ellis was first class for all of the time that he has spent with this club. As punters who enjoy FIFA World Cup betting will be able to attest to, it is no mean feat to replace a player of this calibre.

A Real Ball-Playing Middle Player

Coach Radford has an additional option thanks to Jordan Abdull, an authentic ball-playing middle player, but, in terms of Radford’s previous decisions, and how physical his approach to games is, it seems certain that the task will fall to other middle players that have already settled in the club, plus Paea, to try to stop up the Ellis-hole.

Ball-Playing by Middle Players a Lost Art, Too

A middle player who is able to play the ball seems to have become a dying art, as well. In fact, there is only Sean O’Loughlin left at football’s top level who has been able to prove year after year that he is worth his weight in gold to his club, Wigan.

Radford’s Powerful Approach and Direct Style

Coach Radford sets his team up with a forceful approach, a large physical side who face up to teams with a very direct style. The last ball-playing middle player inside the ranks of the Hull Football Club was Joe Westerman.

Selling him to Warrington was a clever business move as Radford started moving forward with his ideas about reshaping the team with an approach of through-the-opposition, but it is also very difficult to alter the manner in which a team has been playing for a number of years.

A Goal for the Hull FC Staff to Keep in Mind

Developing the Hull Football Club’s players’ skill-sets in order to allow for extra dimensions to be added to their plays is something which the team’s staff can focus on working on in the upcoming few months of the pre-season.

Ellis, after all, was developed right at the Club, and went on to become a player who takes no nonsense: running hard, and tackling even harder.

The challenges these players are going to be facing in 2018 is working hard in order to add strings to each one of their individual bows, since this is the only real way the hole left by Ellis can be managed.

There is no other way to fill it, and the task will be for the remaining footballers to adapt both on the field and off to compensate for his departure.