Match footage of Hackney:
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Hayden Hackney vs Wigan Athletic (H) - 26/12/2022
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Hayden Hackney vs Norwich City 2023
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Hayden Hackney | Middlesbrough vs Burnley 2023-04-07 Match Highlight | Every Touch
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Hayden Hackney | Middlesbrough vs Preston North End 2023-03-18 Match Highlight | Every Touch
Plenty more available on Youtube.
Nice footage. Lovely passing range, positionally responsible, solid defensively, press resistant, good touch. Game intelligence, good weighting of passing. I really like him. Seems like he's learning a lot from his manager, their styles are very similar.
He strikes me as more of a playmaker holding #6 than your defensive shield DM, which is fine as it's the sort of profile we need if we're getting rid of Hojbjerg this summer. That said he doesn't look poor defensively at all - he's a stocky lad and seems willing to get stuck in.
Only concern is according to Boro fans his form seems to have tailed off a bit recently. But it's clear he's got the raw attributes. #6s at 21 are rarely the finished article and he looks like someone we could develop.
As a Hojbjerg replacement I really like it. As a DM who's going to come in immediately and own the #6 role in a UCL challenging side I'm less sure, but with a fully-recovered Bentancur, Bissouma and potentially Sarr perhaps we don't need one to come in and make an immediate impact. Especially as there's no obvious #6 on the market who'd come in and instantly improve us. Very keen for us to get this one done personally.