Mcgeady

plasmaguy

noodler wrote: »

Your agenda against the player in the face of the team's wider problems is laughable.

I'd love to be watching the Ireland you see, with wingers getting ball after ball to waste.




Hah, so McGeady didn't do a serious amount of "other good things" in the Slovakia and Russian games?

A half dozen vital trackback and tackles ring any bells?

My agenda is to see Ireland win every game by the widest possible margin.

What's your agenda apart from having a Celtic player current or past in the team, regardless of what he contributes.

He has always had a problem in an Ireland shirt with his final pass/cross in the last third of the game.

Fair enough when he was younger, people said he was still young, a lot to learn and all that.

But he's in his mid twenties now, and those excuses can't be used any more.

Like I said I want Ireland to score goals and create chances, and McGeady doesn't create scoring chances, largely because he can't cross, shoot or pass.

noodler

plasmaguy wrote: »

What's your agenda apart from having a Celtic player current or past in the team, regardless of what he contributes.

Your Celtic attack doesn't apply to everybody.

plasmaguy

noodler wrote: »

Was about to give another speech about how he only does this for Trap (and that Trap trained him to do this kind of leg work) until I saw your next line..

But since you ask about the rest of the team, we are stuck with a lot of them.

Maybe putting McCarthy in midfield might be an option, but he's only 20 or 21 and seems a bit immature in general.

Would he have done what Andrews done yesterday and put his body on the line to stop a probable goal (and Andrews has done that a lot in the past). Andrews is basically a 5th defender playing midfield, and Whelan is also another defender/midfielder.

We concede an awful lot of possession, and yet we hardly concede any goals and are virtually impossible to beat. As a defensive unit we are one of the best in Europe.

I don't think we have in the squad a serious alternative to Andrews and Whelan, McCarthy is too young for these big international matches, Coleman is injured, and so on, so we are stuck with the two we have for the moment.

Up front, I'd have Hunt a starter when Doyle is out of sorts. He has proven himself to be up to this level. I'd keep Robbie for his ability to nick a goal. Duff would be the first name on my team sheet.

And that leaves the McGeady question and whether he deserves to be in the team. For me he is a luxury player who while he can beat players, does nothing with the ball once he beats them. The alternative is Hunt, who is very quick and showed yesterday he is able to run past players, but crucially he's also able to cross and pass in the final third and get the ball in the box. That's all we want from a winger, someone who can create scoring chances when they pass the half line. It's all well and good tracking back, but really if you can't pass, shoot or cross, you can't seriously be called a creative player.

And we are talking international level here not a mickey mouse game against St. Mirren.

flas

am i the only one who has not seen one person mention celtic except people giving out about the club and then keep coming back to that point?

Cypher_sounds

He scored there today.

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pickarooney

Sweet cross.

Raskolnikov

Still strange seeing the name on the back of his jersey in Cyrillic script :P It really is a big shame that Trap has him operating nearly as a full-back when he plays for us.

Oat23

Scored again in the cup today against Volga. HT right now.

Raskolnikov

plasmaguy wrote: »

Like I said I want Ireland to score goals and create chances, and McGeady doesn't create scoring chances, largely because he can't cross, shoot or pass.

Spartak played their last game over the weekend, a key game in the championship play-off against Lokomotiv Moscow which Spartak absolutely had to win to have a chance at Champions League football. Spartak won 2-0 with McGeady setting up both goals. The first assist was a well taken corner, the second was a peach of a cross.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDtO5oUC62E

In my opinion, steelcityblues understands that the system that we play doesn't suit McGeady (or Duff, Hunt, McClean for that matter). Even before Trap, Kerr and McCarthy would have had our wingers playing defensive roles. Trap has probably gone one step further and has them pegged back more like wing-backs. That is why no matter what player we have on the wing, their assist/goal tally is never going to be high.

theteal

Raskolnikov wrote: »

the second was a peach of a cross.

it certainly was. effortless too. maybe time to start playing our wingers on their natural flanks instead of having them cutting back inside or attempting crosses on their weaker foot?

pickarooney

The through ball to McGeady was sublime. Very well worked goal all round, making it look easy.

plasmaguy

Raskolnikov wrote: »

Spartak played their last game over the weekend, a key game in the championship play-off against Lokomotiv Moscow which Spartak absolutely had to win to have a chance at Champions League football. Spartak won 2-0 with McGeady setting up both goals. The first assist was a well taken corner, the second was a peach of a cross.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDtO5oUC62E

In my opinion, steelcityblues understands that the system that we play doesn't suit McGeady (or Duff, Hunt, McClean for that matter). Even before Trap, Kerr and McCarthy would have had our wingers playing defensive roles. Trap has probably gone one step further and has them pegged back more like wing-backs. That is why no matter what player we have on the wing, their assist/goal tally is never going to be high.

I'm not a Celtic fan, however, I know a lot of Celtic fans (and Ireland fans) admire McGeady and his work rate and his efforts...he's an honest player, hard worker, tries his best...but a lot of Celtic supporters and Irish supporters found him a very frustrating player because of his inability to get the ball into the box when needed.

Now granted his cross in Latvia for Andrews was a peach and lately/in the last year, his crossing has improved vastly.

I like McGeady, I've nothing against him, and have said he has the making of a great player if he could solve his inability to cross. He's making strides in that direction which is good.

pbowenroe

has anyone mentioned that he was the irish player with most assists in qualifying?

plasmaguy

pbowenroe wrote: »

has anyone mentioned that he was the irish player with most assists in qualifying?

Source?

pbowenroe

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=2012/statistics/round=15171/players/type=assists/index.html

pbowenroe

any thoughts about that fact, all those who think he is crap?

plasmaguy

pbowenroe wrote: »

has anyone mentioned that he was the irish player with most assists in qualifying?

He had 3 assists, one of which came in the playoffs if I'm not mistaken, so he had two games more than most of the other players.

Secondly, Duff was injured a lot of the time.

Thirdly, 2 assists in 10 games is hardly something to boast about now is it especially for a winger.

His final ball was poor for many games in the Euros, even his biggest fans would admit that.

He came good in the play offs.

Kirby

Most teams would kill for a player like McGeady. Seriously.

His delivery can often be wasteful. He often runs down blind alleys. He doesn't score many goals. But his positives far outway any of this and I'd have him in my team any day of the week. He has brilliant feet, is very direct with his play, is an excellent dribbler of the ball and is very quick. We have a very, very slow team with Long and McGeady the only pacey players. We need them.

Ask any liverpool fan what they have wanted most for the last few seasons and they will answer an out and out winger who is not afraid to take on his man. Thats exactly what McGeady offers.

In every single game Ireland played in the qualifiers, opposition players double and trippled up on him. They recognised the danger and that alone is reason enough to have him in the team as it creates so much space for the rest of the team.

plasmaguy

Ah now in fairness there was plenty of times when there was no-one around him or he had a perfect chance to put the ball in the box and he messed it up. Let's not all put on rose tinted glasses re McGeady. His delivery has been dire for Ireland up until the last few games even when he was in loads of space to get in a cross.

Kirby

plasmaguy wrote: »

Ah now in fairness there was plenty of times when there was no-one around him or he had a perfect chance to put the ball in the box and he messed it up. Let's not all put on rose tinted glasses re McGeady. His delivery has been dire for Ireland up until the last few games even when he was in loads of space to get in a cross.

As I said, its a poor part of his game but every winger out there has that issue. Find me a winger with brilliant delivery. You will struggle to list more than a dozen in world football. United have two with Nani and Valencia but any fan who watches them will tell you they are streaky and can be muck. Arsenal fans bemoan Walcott for it. Spurs fans bemoan Lennon. Young just wants to do stepovers and slow dribble. DiMaria wants the perfect ball every time and is more likely to fall over clutching his face/foot/leg/thumb than deliver the perfect ball.

Lots of top wingers don't have a great final ball. Thats not a reason to keep McGeady out of the team. He will be hit and miss but what winger isn't?

theteal

pbowenroe wrote: »

has anyone mentioned that he was the irish player with most assists in qualifying?

please be true. i've a group of friends who are completely blind to anything good he does and are astounded by my defence of him. i know he can frustrate and generally his crossing success rate is ~1/5 (i.e. getting a dangerous ball in) but he has super feet, works his sock off and is clearly the preferred outlet for every irish player when trying to work the ball up the pitch

plasmaguy

I'll concede he's had a number of fine games for Ireland recently such as against Russia and Latvia away and a couple others as well.

To be honest, and I've said this dozens of times about McGeady, its pointless beating a man and getting into a good position for a cross, if you cannot actually deliver a good cross.

Ryan Giggs, Gael Clichey, Valencia of Utd, and many many more wingers, wing backs and wide players are able to consistently deliver good crosses into the box.

I'm not overly criticising McGeady, it's just an aspect he needs to improve to become what people would consider a great winger.

Running down blind alleys is all well and good but not much use to Doyle and Keane.

theteal

Kirby wrote: »

In every single game Ireland played in the qualifiers, opposition players double and trippled up on him. They recognised the danger and that alone is reason enough to have him in the team as it creates so much space for the rest of the team.

you know the damage that could be done if we had an overlapping left full? i've argued this for a couple of years now. we'd probably be screwed on the break though

i am by no means saying he is world class but he is very much a notable threat even if a substantial portion of the irish public don't agree (although most opposing teams are fully aware of it :rolleyes:)

Kirby

Ward gets forward for wolves but the problem is he doesn't have the pace or stamina to get back if we lose the ball. No chance Trap will let him past the halfway line.

the realpigiron

sugarman wrote: »

+1, can I also add his tracking back to help in defence. Particulary against Russia helping out Ward.

McGeady played a huge game in Moscow, he was on a par with Given and would've been man of the match but for Dunne's performance. McGeady is well worth his place in the starting line up.

Sútalún

plasmaguy wrote: »

I'll concede he's had a number of fine games for Ireland recently such as against Russia and Latvia away and a couple others as well.

To be honest, and I've said this dozens of times about McGeady, its pointless beating a man and getting into a good position for a cross, if you cannot actually deliver a good cross.

Ryan Giggs, Gael Clichey, Valencia of Utd, and many many more wingers, wing backs and wide players are able to consistently deliver good crosses into the box.

I'm not overly criticising McGeady, it's just an aspect he needs to improve to become what people would consider a great winger.

Running down blind alleys is all well and good but not much use to Doyle and Keane.

Since when?
Even if one was to disregard McGeady's obvious talent and worth to the Irish team, who on earth would we have to replace him with?

pbowenroe

the stick that people have been beating mcgeady with (no end product) has been dis-proven. he works very hard and scores and creates goals and should be in the team

MD1990

McGeady is our most talented player
so he will obviously start

Eathrin

MD1990 wrote: »

McGeady is our most talented player
so he will obviously start

First part may be true,
Second part not necessarily so! We have plenty of talent in the pool that wasn't even selected for the squad.

Pighead

James Appell ‏ @jamesappell
Spartak winger Aiden McGeady makes Russia's annual top 33 players list for 2011-12. He's second-best right-winger, whatever that means...

Kingdom

Pighead wrote: »

James Appell ‏ @jamesappell
Spartak winger Aiden McGeady makes Russia's annual top 33 players list for 2011-12. He's second-best right-winger, whatever that means...

Two years in a row now. We're lucky to have him.

LuckyLloyd

The lad moves over to ****ing Russia (how do YOU think you'd get on working over there?) and is making a good fist of it yet you still have people coming out of the woodwork to speak negatively of him.

Why does this nation hate its best players time and time again?

dsmythy

Pighead wrote: »

James Appell ‏ @jamesappell
Spartak winger Aiden McGeady makes Russia's annual top 33 players list for 2011-12. He's second-best right-winger, whatever that means...

Goalkeepers: Vyachelsav Malafeev (Zenit); Igor Akinfeev (CSKA); Anton Shunin (Dynamo)

Left-backs: Domenico Criscito (Zenit); Cristian Ansaldi (Rubin); Vladimir Granat (Dynamo)

Center-backs (left): Nicolas Lombaerts (Zenit); Vasily Berezutsky (CSKA); Salvatore Bocchetti (Rubin)

Center-backs (right): Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA), Tomas Hubocan (Zenit), Taras Burlak (Lokomotiv Moscow)

Right-backs: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit); Alexei Berezutsky (CSKA); Roman Shishkin (Lokomotiv)

Defensive midfielders: Igor Denisov (Zenit); Denis Glushakov (Lokomotiv); Bibras Natkho (Rubin)

Left midfielders: Yuri Zhirkov (Anzhi); Miguel Danny (Zenit); Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak)

Central midfielders: Roman Shirokov (Zenit), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA); Mbark Boussoufa (Anzhi)

Right midfielders: Alexander Samedov (Dynamo); Aiden McGeady (Spartak); Gokdeniz Karageniz (Rubin)

Left forwards: Seydou Doumbia (CSKA); Lacina Traore (Kuban); Andriy Voronin (Dynamo)

Right forwards: Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit); Samuel Eto'o (Anzhi); Emmanuel Emenike (Spartak)


Alexander Samedov is the man who beat him to top right winger. Odd way of making a players of the season list but there you go.

ColeTrain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlwkS3ueY6k

McGeady on the scoresheet with a nice finish today. Goal is about 1:10 in