Harwood-Bellis

[PotterLog]

Hello Rovers, I hope this is ok for a new thread, I had a good search round and couldn't find one on him.

Appears he's signing on loan for Stoke today, we're very thin on the ground for centre-halves, Harry Souttar being long-term injured and us having slightly mysteriously cut Ostigard's loan from Brighton short. And we were supposedly in for John Souttar along with yourselves, although that seems to have gone a bit cold. Just thought I'd ask for a bit of insight on Taylor.. he seemed to be well-liked here, any particular strengths to look forward to or weaknesses to be aware of? Did he play in a 3 or a 4 with you?

Cheers 😀

[Dreams of 1995]

Good player but Van Hecke is better 

[1864roverite]

The lad is quality and welcome to the forum 

[J*B]

Strong defender but more impressive moving forwards with the ball and picking a pass. Played in both a back 4 and 3. I think he suited the 3 more. Good player on loan. 

[only2garners]

I think I would have Harwood-Bellis as a better footballer than Van Hecke, although the latter has more old-fashioned blood and thunder defender about him. Thinking about it Harwood-Bellis might be a bit too sophisticated for your lot PotterLog!

Roverite - PotterLog is brfcs' special Chile based correspondent for Diaz updates.

[Hasta]

1 hour ago, PotterLog said:

Hello Rovers, I hope this is ok for a new thread, I had a good search round and couldn't find one on him.

Appears he's signing on loan for Stoke today, we're very thin on the ground for centre-halves, Harry Souttar being long-term injured and us having slightly mysteriously cut Ostigard's loan from Brighton short. And we were supposedly in for John Souttar along with yourselves, although that seems to have gone a bit cold. Just thought I'd ask for a bit of insight on Taylor.. he seemed to be well-liked here, any particular strengths to look forward to or weaknesses to be aware of? Did he play in a 3 or a 4 with you?

Cheers 😀

We had Branthwaite from Everton and Harwood-Bellis from City both on loan. By the end of the season it was clear than Harwood-Bellis was the better player. 
However the lad we have on loan from Brighton on at the moment (Van Hecke) is probably a better defender than both of them, albeit not as technical a footballer as Harwood-Bellis.

In summary quite good, will still be improving. If your desperate for centre halves as a cheap loan signing it’s not a bad shout.

Edited January 10, 2022 by Hasta

[PotterLog]

9 minutes ago, only2garners said:

I think I would have Harwood-Bellis as a better footballer than Van Hecke, although the latter has more old-fashioned blood and thunder defender about him. Thinking about it Harwood-Bellis might be a bit too sophisticated for your lot PotterLog!

Roverite - PotterLog is brfcs' special Chile based correspondent for Diaz updates.

 

Haha, cheeky swine. The Pulis reputation tends to stick with us, although as it happens one of the most fun memories from that era was making a sport of regularly battering Mowbray's self-styled Brazil-esque WBA team, leaving him most sour about it. 😉

A ball-player is exactly what we need tbh, we started the season with a very young back 3 of Souttar, Ostigard and Wilmot, all of whom are modern ball-playing defenders, and we played decent football out from the back, which is O'Neill's preference all things being equal. Then we got hit by injuries and form fluctuations and had to revert back to the errm.. "traditional" style of defending Danny Batth generally inspires. Sounds like THB should help us get back to a bit more dynamism coming from the back, lord knows we need it.

[PotterLog]

33 minutes ago, J*B said:

Strong defender but more impressive moving forwards with the ball and picking a pass. Played in both a back 4 and 3. I think he suited the 3 more. Good player on loan. 

 

Sounds perfect. Where in the 3 did he play?

[Ossydave]

He's a class act, thought he would have bossed the Belgian league but seems there's been a few daft issues.

[tomphil]

Did really well for Rovers very comfortable but we were playing a slow very possession based game.

[DeeCee]

He will get better the more experience he gets 👍

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Good footballing centre half. Not the finished article yet but one for the future.

[jim mk2]

6 hours ago, PotterLog said:

Hello Rovers, I hope this is ok for a new thread, I had a good search round and couldn't find one on him.

Appears he's signing on loan for Stoke today, we're very thin on the ground for centre-halves, Harry Souttar being long-term injured and us having slightly mysteriously cut Ostigard's loan from Brighton short. And we were supposedly in for John Souttar along with yourselves, although that seems to have gone a bit cold. Just thought I'd ask for a bit of insight on Taylor.. he seemed to be well-liked here, any particular strengths to look forward to or weaknesses to be aware of? Did he play in a 3 or a 4 with you?

Cheers 😀

Got yourself an absolute gem. Future England player

Wish he was still at Rovers

[JacknOry]

Was very impressed with him on loan with us, you can see he will be a top flight CB and possibly represent England in the future. 

[Ulrich]

Potter, don't listen to these guys they are just on the wind up. He was shocking and I struggle to believe that he will gain a career as a pro long term. Positional sense was awful, always backs off, never got a tackle in and he jumps like a stone. Good luck if you need better defenders 👍

[Kie_BRFC]

1 hour ago, Ulrich said:

Potter, don't listen to these guys they are just on the wind up. He was shocking and I struggle to believe that he will gain a career as a pro long term. Positional sense was awful, always backs off, never got a tackle in and he jumps like a stone. Good luck if you need better defenders 👍

Well that's just absolute waffle.

 

[rigger]

25 minutes ago, Kie_BRFC said:

Well that's just absolute waffle.

 

I think that was more along the lines of, sarcasm.

[riverholmes]

It's hard to judge fully because the Rovers team last season was extremely dysfunctional. We played a 4-3-3, with wingers who were strikers and who didn't track back effectively and full backs who struggled to defend. Hence, we had Adam Armstrong and Harvey Elliot amongst the top goal scorers and assist-makers, respectively, in the league and, yet, we were headed for a potential relegation fight.

Harwood-Bellis came in in the Jan transfer window and improved our defence a lot, overall, and was key, I feel, to guiding us to 15th in the league. He complemented Darragh Lenihan, who likes to play the somewhat more passive sweeper role, by being aggressive and on the front-foot. In a team with a structure, I think he should be very good. I would've wanted him back at Rovers as he looked like he could play LCB. which, for us, after Wharton, I'm not confident we have someone who can do that, in a back three. 

Edited January 11, 2022 by riverholmes

[SBlue]

I'm going to go against the grain a bit and say - he was alright.

Decent footballer but some on here making him sound like Sergio Ramos.

Not all down to him of course, but we still conceded a load of crap goals with him in the team.

[MarkBRFC]

We were 8th, on 39 points from 26 games when he signed.

He played in 19 of the final 20 games for us, and we finished 15th on 57 points.

Make of that what you will....

 

[Admiral Nelsen]

Not much to add to the above, other than he impressed in a season where other defenders found it pretty difficult to. I think this has just as much to do with how we set up as it does the ability of the players, but even so he put one or two more established players to shame a bit last season.

 

I can see where @S8 & Blue is coming from though if there's no chance of getting him beyond the end of the season. His potential is fantastic, but for the window we had him he was a good level Championship defender. 

[RoverCanada]

4 hours ago, S8 & Blue said:

I'm going to go against the grain a bit and say - he was alright.

Decent footballer but some on here making him sound like Sergio Ramos.

Not all down to him of course, but we still conceded a load of crap goals with him in the team.

Have to agree with this... . 

I think some of the impression is due to relief that THB looked 'decent' in comparison to Branthwaite, who was good for a few games and then suddenly had a couple very wobbly games. (I think both will turn out to be decent PL defenders in the long-run).

We were 4-5-8 in games he started (he was also a sub in two losses, but I won't fault him for those), which is borderline relegation form, and we averaged 1.3 goals against in those games. We averaged 1.1 goals against otherwise...

That record was of course more due him joining a team that was fraying at the time. He was fine, but hardly a catalyst that 'saved us from relegation' or whatever way some may spin it. I wouldn't have minded him back on loan as we did need CB cover and he is at least an okay Championship defender. Quite happy to have brought in van Hecke instead.

Edited January 11, 2022 by RoverCanada

[riverholmes]

3 hours ago, MarkBRFC said:

We were 8th, on 39 points from 26 games when he signed.

He played in 19 of the final 20 games for us, and we finished 15th on 57 points.

Make of that what you will....

 

Somewhat misleading regarding Harwood-Bellis as, although he signed on 1 Feb 2021, from what I can tell, he only made his starting debut as a centre back (alongside Branthwaite) on 20th February, against Nottingham Forest, by which time we'd dropped to 12th. That was after a period of three defeats, including losing to Preston and Barnsley.

The team capitulated around this time and, eventually, Harwood-Bellis established himself as first choice, alongside Lenihan. Incidentally, the line-up recorded by the BBC website for the 17th February 2021 defeat away to Barnsley, when Harwood-Bellis made his starting debut, speaks volumes for the utter confusion amongst management as to what the strongest line up and formation was. According to that site, Gallagher was left wing, Elliot Bennett right wing, Stewart Downing central midfield, alongside Travis, with Harwood-Bellis and Douglas the full backs. Rothwell, Brereton and Buckley were on the bench. It would appear that a few might have been unavailable, such as Elliot and Nyambe. A few games later, a 1-0 defeat to Reading, eight changes had been made to that starting eleven.

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by riverholmes

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

6 minutes ago, riverholmes said:

Somewhat misleading regarding Harwood-Bellis as, although he signed on 1 Feb 2021, from what I can tell, he only made his starting debut as a centre back (alongside Branthwaite) on 20th February, against Nottingham Forest, by which time we'd dropped to 12th. That was after a period of four defeats, including losing to Preston and Barnsley.

The team capitulated around this time and, eventually, Harwood-Bellis established himself as first choice, alongside Lenihan. Incidentally, the line-up recorded by the BBC website for the 17th February 2021 defeat away to Barnsley, when Harwood-Bellis made his starting debut, speaks volumes for the utter confusion amongst management as to what the strongest line up and formation was. According to that site, Gallagher was left wing, Elliot Bennett right wing, Stewart Downing central midfield, alongside Travis, with Harwood-Bellis and Douglas the full backs. Rothwell, Brereton and Buckley were on the bench. A few games later, a 1-0 defeat to Reading, eight changes had been made to that starting eleven.

 

All part of Tony’s master plan.

[PotterLog]

Well he’s finally signed. Sounds like just what we need, but good to read some moderating opinions there as well so we don’t get too carried away... Seems like he'll slot in on the left of our three, which unfortunately still leaves us with big bad Batth in the middle. But still a definite improvement.

Cheers for the feedback, I’ll let you know how he gets on.