Kevin Kilbane

K!LL!@N

Why is he continually allowed to pull on an irish jersey?
He adds absolutely nothing to the team.
He runs about the pitch, makes stupid tackles and passes the ball terribly.
He did nothing in the cyprus game and he did nothing tonight.

It should have been kavanagh and keane in the centre of midfield, tonight.

So can anyone justify kilbane's place in the squad?

Killian

mayordenis

yeah i whole heartedly agree. btw have you ever watched him play because he always kills himself for the team, he trys so hard and those contribute but most irish fans jump on his back when he makes a mistake but if robbie make 40 f*ck-ups no one says anything.

eirebhoy

mayordenis wrote:

but if robbie make 40 f*ck-ups no one says anything.

Robbie seems to be the most hated man on this forum.

K!LL!@N

mayordenis wrote:

yeah i whole heartedly agree. btw have you ever watched him play because he always kills himself for the team, he trys so hard and those contribute but most irish fans jump on his back when he makes a mistake but if robbie make 40 f*ck-ups no one says anything.

I never said he didn't try.
Sure he runs his guts out and fair play to the lad, i won't take that away from him but hardly anything comes from his runs.
He can fun 40-50 yards with the ball but he can't make a telling pass at the end of it.
Or he just ended up running the ball out of play.
He's no playmaker either, he can't pick out players in the way that duff can.

My main point is that there are others in the squad who deserve a place ahead of him.

Killian

super_furry

Typical. A bad result and the old reliables like Kilbane get singled out again. Nevermind the fact that Roy Keane was much worse than Kilbane on the night.

Thanx 4 The Fish

I think that Kilbane had a decent game tonight, he made a couple of good runs, played some decent passes and put it in for the 90. I think that he does get some unfair ribbing both here and in the media. In a poor performnce tonight, he did not play any worse than anybody else Bar Given who was the only person who plaed anywhere near their potential.

Keane's comeback was poor, Duff must have left it at home tonight and robbie, although unlucky for a couple of offside decisions was lacklustre.

The only good thing about tonight is that France did not hockey the Faroes and Viera was sent off.

cournioni

Anyone with eyes can see that Kilbane was brutal tonight. I don't know why everyone keeps standing up for him. I mean what the hell was he trying to do for the Swiss goal?! If he was in doubt he should have belted the ball into row z.

Keane worse than Kilbane?? Surely you're joking super furry. He held the ball up and slowed the game down I don't know how many times tonight when the pressure was on. Then he passed it to Kilbane and he put the pressure on again... :rolleyes:

eirebhoy

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Keane worse than Kilbane?? Surely you're joking super furry. He held the ball up and slowed the game down I don't know how many times tonight when the pressure was on. Then he passed it to Kilbane and he put the pressure on again... :rolleyes:

He effectively got Carr a booking with a poor pass which had Carr scared to tackle all night. He also made another blunder of a pass back which could have cost us. Keane is living on his reputation and if that was Kavanagh who put that performance in tonight he would be slated down to the ground.

The Clown Man

Kilbane has been consistently bad for years now. When I lived in Dublin we used to count how many fork-ups he made in a match, how many time he'd lose the ball, and how many times he'd run blindly into someone in a lame-ass effort to get around them. He used to have us all in stitches.

Ball control -3 points
Workrate +8 points
Humour Value +10 points


He's terrible. Period.

cournioni

eirebhoy wrote:

He effectively got Carr a booking with a poor pass which had Carr scared to tackle all night. He also made another blunder of a pass back which could have cost us. Keane is living on his reputation and if that was Kavanagh who put that performance in tonight he would be slated down to the ground.

Sure, he made a two mistakes, who didn't tonight? The fact is he didn't play half as bad as Kilbane. That is what we are talking about right?

eirebhoy

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Sure, he made a two mistakes, who didn't tonight? The fact is he didn't play half as bad as Kilbane. That is what we are talking about right?

Yes he did.

K!LL!@N

super_furry wrote:

Typical. A bad result and the old reliables like Kilbane get singled out again. Nevermind the fact that Roy Keane was much worse than Kilbane on the night.

That's a load of crap.
Win, lose or draw kilbane should not be playing in an ireland shirt.
His performances just don't cut it at international level.

He's the one player that consistently performs to a lesser level than the others.
Others have bad games, they might have a couple bad games but they are off games, they're not a regular occurence.
These players can perform to a higher level.
Players like duff can have a bad game and still make a telling cross that leads to a goal, just as duff did on saturday and again tonight.

A good game for kilbane would mean he didn't make stupid tackles in the worst positions, he didn't give away the ball and his "runs" to the end line would result in an actual cross.
You know stuff like that.
Stuff that international footballers do regularly.

Robbie Keane and Duff haven't been performing to the their full potential, robbie in particular but you can't say they don't regularly perform to a higher level than kilbane.

Roy Keane is just back from injury and i think played quite well.
That pass, wasn't a great one but i think it had a touch from a swiss player which made it worse than it should have been.

Carr, shouldn't really be in defence.
He's been the cause of a number of goals since his joining newcastle and he's been dodgy for ireland the last 2 games.

But anyway, are you understanding what i'm saying about Kilbane.
He's just not an international footballer.

Killian

cournioni

eirebhoy wrote:

Yes he did.

What game were you watching? You weren't watching last years game on tape were you. Remember Roy Keane wasn't playing in that game.

jesus_thats_gre

Keane once again had a poor match... Against Bulgaria he played the exact same way but it was ok because it was just friendly.

His comeback has added nothing to the team, he should never have been allowed back but thats a different story. I am nearly glad they did not win tonight, purely because Keane would have ended up getting the credit considering he was missing for the previous Swiss matches..

Muppet of the highest order.

K!LL!@N

Keane has more skill in his little toe, the one with the ingrown nail, than kilbane has in his whole body.

Keane brings more to the team than kilbane ever could.

Kavanagh should have been in tonight instead of kilbane.

Killian

jesus_thats_gre

Keane used to do this. He is not at the moment!

cournioni

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Keane once again had a poor match... Against Bulgaria he played the exact same way but it was ok because it was just friendly.

His comeback has added nothing to the team, he should never have been allowed back but thats a different story. I am nearly glad they did not win tonight, purely because Keane would have ended up getting the credit considering he was missing for the previous Swiss matches..

Muppet of the highest order.

:rolleyes:

When the **** was hitting the fan out on the pitch tonight, and the Swiss were on top Roy Keane was the ONLY composed Irish player out there. How does that not bring anything to the team? If you don't like him, fair enough. But Ireland do need him. Whether you like it or not.

PHB

Kavanagh like Kilbane really give their all for the team and I think thats cool, but they just don't have the skill to compete at this level.
Unfortunately for Ireland, I can't name anyone at this moment in time who is better than them.
I think in the future they can be permenantly replaced by a Duff-Reid-Miller-someone combo, but until then we are stuck with them.

To compare Kilbanes preformance tonight with Keane is just silly.
While they both made two **** ups, if you ever watch Ireland build up, Keane is always open to get it, and quick to distribute. Kilbane unfortunately doesn't have that sorta skill and legs it at him with those huge **** off legs, normally gets a free kick out of it, and i'm happy
But its just a different league,
but ya gotta give him creds for trying

Dr Bolouswki

Zinedine Kilbane, collossus of the Irish game!

In fairness, I'd a played Reid and Keane in Cebntral midfield, Duff and Finnan on the wings (where they play for their clubs) and either had Kilbane or Maybury at left back (though its not much of a choice)

Kilbane played centre mid before in his career, but I don't feel its his best position, however, we don't have a huge choice.

I thought Keane (robbie) was poor tonight, also Roy Keane - but we played well til we got the goal and then went all negative and lost our way...

Wasn't it Roy keane that gave the ball away for their goal?

Give Kilbane a break, I'm not his greatest fan at all but I don't think tonights performance was even moderately down to him...

K!LL!@N

PHB wrote:

Kavanagh like Kilbane really give their all for the team and I think thats cool, but they just don't have the skill to compete at this level.
Unfortunately for Ireland, I can't name anyone at this moment in time who is better than them.
I think in the future they can be permenantly replaced by a Duff-Reid-Miller-someone combo, but until then we are stuck with them.

To compare Kilbanes preformance tonight with Keane is just silly.
While they both made two **** ups, if you ever watch Ireland build up, Keane is always open to get it, and quick to distribute. Kilbane unfortunately doesn't have that sorta skill and legs it at him with those huge **** off legs, normally gets a free kick out of it, and i'm happy
But its just a different league,
but ya gotta give him creds for trying

That's the point.
He's a workhorse, but that's where it ends.
Kavanagh isn't a vast improvement, but at least he can pass the ball.
The amount of injuries at the moment really put a strain on the squad and fair play they did ok.

Killian

cournioni

Nope, it was Kilbane who gave the ball away for the goal.

Keane's pass was deflected to Rey who was through on goal only for Given to save with his foot.

Dewey

I should of expected this from this forum. Once Ireland play bad and its "Kilbane should never be wearing the shirt." Amazing.

KILBANE IS NOT A CENTRAL MIDFEILDER! he was asked to do a job there and didnt have the best of games but he always gives 100%. And tell me something, Carr didnt play well, Keane x2 didnt play well, Reid didnt play well should they never where the shirt again??

It was Roy Keane's first match for 3 weeks and because it was a bad one everyone is like " he doesnt bring anything to the team." lol. I bet most of you we have to eat humble pie over you remarks about Kilbane and the 2 Keane's.

K!LL!@N

Dewey wrote:

I should of expected this from this forum. Once Ireland play bad and its "Kilbane should never be wearing the shirt." Amazing.

Eh, no.
I didn't think he played well after we beat cyprus.
The result tonight is irrelevent in the context of kilbane's performance.

If he was playing for another nation, against us, we'd all be laughing at his ineptitude.

Killian

knobbles

if we had some video editor wiz swap the heads of kilbane,reid and keane around and showed you the new video of tonights match i swear the same critics above would single out the player with kilbane's head as the worst. :rolleyes:

Neither roy or kilbane had a great game, both made mistakes but both gave decent performances, worked hard and had their good moments.

I was hoping from better from the midfield as a whole but to have a thread singling out Kilbane is ridiculous. Very true what someone said earlier about opinons on roy being based on reputations and i still think people can't see past the frustrating kilbane player of two seasons ago.

K!LL!@N

knobbles wrote:

if we had some video editor wiz swap the heads of kilbane,reid and keane around and showed you the new video of tonights match i swear the same critics above would single out the player with kilbane's head as the worst. :rolleyes:

Neither roy or kilbane had a great game, both made mistakes but both gave decent performances, worked hard and had their good moments.

I was hoping from better from the midfield as a whole but to have a thread singling out Kilbane is ridiculous. Very true what someone said earlier about opinons on roy being based on reputations and i still think people can't see past the frustrating kilbane player of two seasons ago.

Perhaps you could get that same video editor wiz to string together clips of kilbane displaying the great skills that have propelled him to the heights of international football.

I'm not singling out kilbane because i'm unhappy with the result of tonight's game.
I'd have singled him out on saturday if i'd had access to a computer after the cyprus game.

Killian

eirebhoy

K!LL!@N wrote:

If he was playing for another nation, against us, we'd all be laughing at his ineptitude.

I actually think he's rated highly by the foreign people who know Irish players (most of us rate van der Meyde highly but the Dutch think he's crap). For example, tonight Kilbane was one of two or 3 players to get his shirt swapped with. It could have been him that asked but who would he ask for? Yakin was of the pitch at the time.

The Clown Man

I actually thought kilbane played better in the central role than he does on the wing. I mean what does he usually do on the wing? Runs straight into a challenge and loses possession. Sometimes he might get a pass out if he's very lucky. Never a cross. He's a winger but have you ever seen him cross?

As for his dribbling skills, yea, he's a real twinkletoes.

This criticism is not becuase of is last few performances. He has not done as badly in a central role as he usually does in his "natural" position. He has got some good passes together in the last few games but even at that, maybe 50% of his passes found the man correctly.

However, I hear he is a really really nice guy. I think maybe TV presenting might be a good early career move.

Horsefumbler

yeah he's pretty bad alright. I've always thought so. Runs blindly down dead ends on the wing. Rarely gives a decent ball in at the end. And when he takes a shot it's normally a comical ballooner over the bar

He's definitely not a central midfielder, don't know why he was put there tbh. I think the reason he gets is game is because there isn't really anything better to replace him with. tbh I think there's a few in the ireland squad like that. I wouldn't have someone as slow as cunningham on my team if i didn't have to but no we've no choice atm. So untill a player comes along who's better in his position I'd say just get used to havin him there

Big Nelly

Kilbane had a decent game last nite and on Saturday! played better than Keane last nite who had a very average game and didnt look fit but this is to be expected after his injury and still has cracked ribs but played thru the pain!

Kilbane is actually playing better in the centre than he did on the wing.....some of his best performances for Sunderland/Everton have been in the centre! has been playing there for the last season for Everton and has been one of there most consistant preformer! have slated Kilbane in the past but he ia actually starting to be a good prefromer so deserves his place in squad/team!!

LFCFan

Apart from Given, nobody had a great game last night. It was nervy and tense because of the previous results but one thing is for sure, Roy Keane is needed for these qualifiers. I made it a point to keep an eye on him to see how he played and a couple of bad passes aside, he played pretty well. People are only slating him now because they don't want him in the side. I'm a Liverpool fan and I HATE United with a passion but I realise what Keane brings to the side and it can only be good for Ireland. Kilbane is not a central midfielder and Carr was probably the worst player on the pitch last night. When O'Shea is fit again, Finnan should be give the right back role. O'Brien and Cuningham in the middle and O'Shea on the left. Miller will be a regular in the middle with Roy for the qualifiers with Duff on the left and Reid on the right. Robbie and Clinton up front.

dirkey_wynne

I don't think Kilbane is an international footballer by any stroke. But I have sympathy with him being singled out after last night. He's not a central midfielder. However he definitely performs better in there than he does on the wing - go figure! But the thing about his central play is - and this was singled out last night in the commentary - his positional play is poor. There was a move last night where Roy Keane played it to Duff/Finnan (can't remember) on the left, and surged ahead of that person up the wing. They got blocked and had to turn around to play a ball inside. This is where a proper midfielder (Keane/Kavanagh) would come short to receive an easy pass. Not Kilbane. He went haring past up the pitch - basically to no mans land, leaving the guy with possession with noone to pass it to.

To defend him on last nights performance is appalling. He gave the ball away constantly, as always, and many free kicks too. He's just not good enough. I'd like to see him played more often at left back - I don't think he's too bad for that. He can tackle, is strong and willing. Good in the air. But in the middle, or on the left he's not up to it.

Roy Keane was definitely our most composed player on the field, getting control, linking defence with attack, slowing it down. And this wasn't a particularly good game for him. But I think there are many out there who are just all too determined to jump on his back after Saipan.

K!LL!@N

It's not just about his performance last night.
I was just reminded last night and posted about it.
It has nothing to do with the general performance of the irish team.
I just don't think he's international material and i posted about it.

Killian

Pigman II

Kilbane is a class act! People having been drawing the knives against him ever since the emergence of Duff but the lad has always managed to hold a place and that has to show he has a definite worth out there, especially considering theres been a change of manager since his intro.

After Cunningham and Duff, Skillbane is my first name on the teamsheet and I hope he'll be with us for another couple of years at least.

dirkey_wynne

I agree totally Killian. He's not good enough. End of story. To make a case for him, as some people have been doing on here, because he "tries so hard all the time" is just ridiculous!

Chong

In regards to the brutality of how kilbane plays is a joke. May be so he plays atrociously at national level, but at club level you ask any everton fan what they think of kev, they'll tell you that man absolutly runs his guts week in week out and he is probably one of the more consistant players at everton. Also if you watch sky sports, anyone who commentates on an everton game or analyses it will mostly always have something good to say about Kev. His work rate is magnificent.

Third_Echelon

Kilbane of old a few seasons ago was a very shaky player lacking confidence. His last season for sunderland and last year for everton he was a very consistent player both on the left wing where he mostly plays for everton and the odd occasion where he has had to play in the middle due to injuries etc...

He has also weighed in with some very important goals from midfield. A lot of his runs do have a product at the end. I've watched him a lot last year as I am an Evertonian. I was one of the doubters when moyes bought him, but i thought he deserves a chance and he has taken it and proved his worth... He can also fill in at left-back as well, so overall hes a good player to have in your squad...

I was at the Hungary friendly game a few weeks ago in Landsdowne and kilbane was one of the best players on the pitch. I thought Roy also played ok in that game, but most of the play came through kilbane. He had a decent game against cyprus. Some of his passes didnt make it due to being under pressure from players etc, but people here are over-exagerating the bad points of kilbane.

Against the swiss there were a lot of players that were not performing well. Notably Carr, Cunningham, Reid, Roy Keane, Robbie Keane. The 2 keanes haven't played a lot of football recently and it showed. Robbie's touch was woeful. He just wasnt clued in at all. Pointing the finger at kilbane is just the easy option for a lot of people. He was playing out of his regular position. Runs he made from midfield were promosing on occasions..

Kerrs tactic were strange. He is a cautious manager at the best of times, but the defence was playing way too deep. That was the root of the problem. There was very little link play between midfield and attacke, ultimately because they were playing too deep. The back line was virtually playing from the 18 yard line..

On the Roy Keane issue, I'm glad to see him back, but i think there are too many red-tinted glasses when it comes to his performances in here from the man utd contingent. You may the same to me with regards to kilbando but im realistic about his talents and limits... Ireland would be worse off without kilbane... There will be a lot of people on this forum swallowing a lot of words in the internationals to come.. you have been warned..

(PS. Its not that well known but kilbando is actually brazilian )

Paladin

Third_Echelon wrote:

Kilbane of old a few seasons ago was a very shaky player lacking confidence. His last season for sunderland and last year for everton he was a very consistent player ...

LOL
Consistantly bad.
Sunderland fans used to boo him for cripes sake. Only got picked cause of Mick McCarthy. Can you imaging how bad you must be for your own fans to boo you? And this was a regular thing, not just a once off match.
For example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/sunderland/2171965.stm
When he got in trouble for giving the finger to his own fans because he was so sick of being booed off (and this was a bloody friendly!)

Dunno who else said they had a game where they used to count the times he lost the ball - my friends had a similiar game except we counted the times he DIDNT lose the ball and it was a much much lower number
Nice fella, hard worker, terrible with the ball. Find it funny he plays in the premiership.

The Clown Man

Lol I'm waiting for the "Kilbane is my uncle" post!

eirebhoy

Paladin wrote:

Find it funny he plays in the premiership.

Not only does he play in the premiership but he's one of Everton's best players. The old Kilbane is gone, forget the past and move on. He's a different player now. The Kilbane that played for Sunderland was consistently low in confidence which also transferred itself to internationals. He was no worse than Carr last night and has been playing well in previous matches. This is his first bad game for Ireland in ages and he gets a new thread opened up.

The Muppet

Kilbane is not and never was good enought for International football and he is keeping better players than himself on the bench. Roy Keane is not keeping a better player than himself out of the team even when he has a bad game. If we were to drop all the players that played poorly last night we would be starting with a blank sheet for the outfield players.

BTW JTG we got a point more than we did without Roy.

jesus_thats_gre

See, there is always the muppet to brighten your day!!

Thanx 4 The Fish

The Muppet wrote:

Kilbane is not and never was good enought for International football and he is keeping better players than himself on the bench. Roy Keane is not keeping a better player than himself out of the team even when he has a bad game. If we were to drop all the players that played poorly last night we would be starting with a blank sheet for the outfield players.

BTW JTG we got a point more than we did without Roy.

Funny that I was under the impression that Roy did not play on the weekend and we got three points, which is more than one point isn't it.

Last night we had a number of people who did not play in the previous swiss game.

Good thing that he recovers so quickly from those injuries eh, seems alot like the Roy of old.

cournioni

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

Funny that I was under the impression that Roy did not play on the weekend and we got three points, which is more than one point isn't it.

Last night we had a number of people who did not play in the previous swiss game.

Good thing that he recovers so quickly from those injuries eh, seems alot like the Roy of old.

*sigh*

Some people can never forgive and forget. :rolleyes:

Thanx 4 The Fish

*Sigh even more just for added effect*

Forgive and forget what exactly?

As far as I am concerned whenever Roy Keane is fit to play for Ireland he should play, if he plays to his full potential then he is obviously an asset to the team, Wednesday he was no better than Kilbane or Carr or Finnan or anybody else on the pitch.

cournioni

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

*Sigh even more just for added effect*

Forgive and forget what exactly?

"Good thing that he recovers so quickly from those injuries eh, seems alot like the Roy of old."

Seems like a bit of a dig at him.

Thanx 4 The Fish

I was just marvelling at his incredible recuperative abilities. Now any more comment on how bad K squared was ?

Third_Echelon

Kilbando's OPTA index stats from last season:

Appearances: 30
Minutes on the pitch: 2361
Bookings: 1 yellow

Offences:
Offsides: 1
Total fouls conceded: 31
Fouls in danger area: 3
Penalties conceded:0

Defensive:
Total tackles made: 88
Last man saving tackles: 0
Tackles won percent: 30
Corners conceded: 11
Interceptions: 12

Passing and Crossing:
Total passes: 922
Pass completion: 71%
Total Crosses: 101
Cross completion: 13%

Dribbling:
Dribbles: 209
Dribble completion: 53% (How do you complete a dribble?)

Goals:
Goals scored: 3
Goal assists: 1
Goals inside box: 2
Goals outside box: 1
Goals to shots ratio inside box: 12%
Goals to shots ratio outside box: 6%
Goals to shots ratio overall: 9%

Shooting:
Shots on target: 13
Shots on target inside box inc goals: 6
Shots on target outside box: 7
Shots cleared off the line: 0
Shots of target: 21
Shots off target inside box: 11
Shots off target outside box: 10
Shooting accuracy inside percent: 35%
Shooting accuracy outside: 41%


Now i dont know about your opinion... but they are not the stats of a shockingly bad player who isnt fit to play football... :rolleyes:

eirebhoy

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

I was just marvelling at his incredible recuperative abilities. Now any more comment on how bad K squared was ?

Man U dropped 4 points while Keane was away so I think its unfair to say he's only playing the important games. He came over for the Poland game which almost everyone missed and was sent home by the FAI medical staff. He played against Romania and Bulgaria.

The Muppet

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

Funny that I was under the impression that Roy did not play on the weekend and we got three points, which is more than one point isn't it.

Last night we had a number of people who did not play in the previous swiss game.

Good thing that he recovers so quickly from those injuries eh, seems alot like the Roy of old.

When did you change your username?

I was replying directly to Jesus Thats Greats Quote below and to put my comment in context the game I was referring to was the last time we played Switzerland without Roy but hey dont let that get in the way of having a go eh!

Jesus Thats Great wrote:

I am nearly glad they did not win tonight, purely because Keane would have ended up getting the credit considering he was missing for the previous Swiss matches..

Seaneh

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Sure, he made a two mistakes, who didn't tonight? The fact is he didn't play half as bad as Kilbane. That is what we are talking about right?

Roy and Robbie Keane, along with Carr were Ireland worst players, Reid was close behind them.

Thanx 4 The Fish

So how many of the people who say that Kevin Kilbane is not good enough to play international football would like some sauce to eat their words with ?

He was superb on Saturday, great running, good passing and all the stepoverlike skill of C Ronaldo. Any nay sayers aftre his MOM performance on Saturday ?