Royal Prince I prefer Shorey, but I'm a bit fed up with people knocking Harte defensively.
Yes he's getting towards the end of his career and lacks pace, but lets be honest he never really had any to begin with. Instead he's an extremely clever defender, not only with great positioning sense, but he also knows just about what he can get away with to get the better of his opponent. Yes it's not always pretty but it's bloody effective.
Just the other day he came up against one of the quickest and most nimble players in the league in Dyer, but he had him in his pocket all afternoon. Not once was he seriously caught out, and that's not just down to our overall team defensive mentality. Throughout the game Harte was constantly aware of the threat from Dyer and he'd do everything he could to negate it. On several occasions when Dyer laid the ball off and tried to turn Harte was tight enough to his man to stick out an arm/leg to catch him. You could see how hacked off Dyer become as the afternoon grew longer, but despite his complaints to the ref Harte eventually received a final warning but no more.
Sorry to rattle on about one game, but I guess it illustrates my point. Yes I prefer Shorey, but Harte is possibly the most intelligent defender we've had at this club for many a year so to knock him defensively surprises me.
I'd agree he's well aware of what he can get away with and uses his knowledge and experience to compensate for other deficiencies but I wouldn't agree his positioning is that great.
He often is positioned to save getting himself exposed and not necessarily for the best of the back four. He's also, like any of our other defenders, prone to getting caught out of position. A perfect example was the Silva chance that Federici saved at Eastlands. Harte was 2 or 3 yards too deep and playing Silva onside.
He's not as bad as some will make out, but his presence in the side does change things for the worse and I'd go with Shorey every time of he's properly fit and available.
