McGeady is class - discuss

1mcampo1

I like McGeady and think some of the criticism he get's isn't fair, and imo, i think he's used as a bit of a scapegoat...

..but he is 25. He should be on top of his game. Yes, his final ball is ~60/40 miss/hit but everything else in his game a actually very good. Beat's his man/men more often than not, track's back and gives cover for the full back and has the right attitude towards the game.

McGeady - Better than most, but not world class

Jesus Shaves

1mcampo1 wrote: »

I like McGeady and think some of the criticism he get's isn't fair, and imo, i think he's used as a bit of a scapegoat...

..but he is 25. He should be on top of his game. Yes, his final ball is ~60/40 miss/hit but everything else in his game a actually very good. Beat's his man/men more often than not, track's back and gives cover for the full back and has the right attitude towards the game.

McGeady - Better than most, but not world class

Final ball, It is ****e

1mcampo1

darokane wrote: »

Final ball, It is ****e

No, it's not. It's hit or miss. Andrew's goal...

Jesus Shaves

1mcampo1 wrote: »

No, it's not. It's hit or miss. Andrew's goal...

And is hit or miss good enough?
Keane's final ball is ****e too

1mcampo1

darokane wrote: »

And is hit or miss good enough?
Keane's final ball is ****e too

Seems to be in the eye's of a few. Trappatoni to name one...

This is what i was saying, people just seem to dis him at any chance they get. Instead of crediting him for what he does (well), he get's slaughtered for the weaker side of his game

PARKHEAD67

Rooney10 wrote: »

World class? No, and I can understand why he has his critics but he is so important for Ireland.

He is very similiar to Nani/Ronaldo in their first couple of years at United, capable of beating a man in the blink of an eye and creating goal, but also capable of misplacing a 5 yard pass to a team mate.

I always have a soft spot for a player like that. If he can get some consistency into his game he could be a very, very good player.

He has been incredibly important for Ireland in this campaign, especially seeing as we have practically zero flair/creativity in the middle.

Sense.From a United fan.you truly are unique:D

MrStuffins

McGeady's been dropped for tomorrow's game v Estonia.

RoryMac

MrStuffins wrote: »

McGeady's been dropped for tomorrow's game v Estonia.

The tie is won, why risk our best player!!

Raskolnikov

MrStuffins wrote: »

This season he's played 16 games. He's scored 2 goals and had ZERO assists.

Now you've taken to making up lies about the player without even watching him!

MrStuffins

RoryMac wrote: »

The tie is won, why risk our best player!!

Risk what exactly? That if he plays tomorrow night he'll be too tired to play in June?

colly10

MrStuffins wrote: »

Risk what exactly? That if he plays tomorrow night he'll be too tired to play in June?

No, now that other teams know we're through they'll start studying us.
If we drop McGeady then there's a better chance that teams may not know we have a world class winger, then we can unleash him on them in the group stages and hopefully we may have a few points picked up before they realise.

FlawedGenius

Decent player, if he had a brain hed be even better. Nowhere near world class.

MrStuffins

Raskolnikov wrote: »

Now you've taken to making up lies about the player without even watching him!

I got my stats from here.

If my source is unreliable, all well and good. But the least you could do is apologise for over reacting and calling me a liar. It does nothing for your points.

MrStuffins

colly10 wrote: »

No, now that other teams know we're through they'll start studying us.
If we drop McGeady then there's a better chance that teams may not know we have a world class winger, then we can unleash him on them in the group stages and hopefully we may have a few points picked up before they realise.

Yeah........... that must be it .......

Raskolnikov

MrStuffins wrote: »

I got my stats from here.

If my source is unreliable, all well and good. But the least you could do is apologise for over reacting and calling me a liar. It does nothing for your points.

Sorry Stuffins, but if you're going to claim to be some kind of authority on McGeady, the very least you could do is watch him at his club.

MrStuffins

Raskolnikov wrote: »

Sorry Stuffins, but if you're going to claim to be some kind of authority on McGeady, the very least you could do is watch him at his club.

I have watched him.

If you could show me where I said I was an authority on McGeady then that would be great. Otherwise it would appear that you are now lying.

Of course, if I HAVE claimed to be an authority, I will be man enough to take back my assertion that you are lying.

But until then, throwing around accusations of lying and then lying yourself makes you look foolish.

bernardo mac

MrStuffins wrote: »

McGeady's been dropped for tomorrow's game v Estonia.

Am not surprised.Can be very good but his" unpredictabilty" is occasionally, an effective weapon

darkman2

McGeady is our best winger...anyone care to disagree?

ootbitb

darkman2 wrote: »

McGeady is our best winger...anyone care to disagree?

Duff not as quick as he once was but I would place him way in front of McGeady still.

Slattsy

ootbitb wrote: »

darkman2 wrote: »

McGeady is our best winger...anyone care to disagree?

Duff not as quick as he once was but I would place him way in front of McGeady still.

Nonsense. All Duff does now is go backwards.

Drummerboy2

He has improved this campaign. Had one bad game against Armenia at the Aviva, when he had just come back from a lengthly injury. Overall the move to Russia, has really improved his overall game.

Pro. F

ColeTrain wrote: »

He's not a ****e crosser at all. Not the best in the business by any means but nowhere near as bad as you're making out.

He is a shìte crosser. He hits the first defender or completely mis-hits his cross far too much. It's not even up for debate.

ColeTrain wrote: »

He has good technique, pace and trickery. Add that to your list.

That's what I mean by saying he is a good dribbler.

ColeTrain wrote: »

He can only play against what's in front of him. Who else has done better consistently?

I'm not thinking he's a superstar at all. He's a good player, fu*k knows why you can't see that.

I mentioned the quality of the recent opposition because people have been talking about him having improved recently.

Nobody has done better consistently. That doesn't prove anything about McGeady's quality. Duff, our best crosser, has been stuck on the wrong wing and Coleman hasn't been given a chance.
Neither have McCarthy or Hoolihan, two other good creative players.

So you are really asking who has done better consistently out of Duff and McGeady. Well McGeady adapts to playing on the wrong wing much better because of his style, but Duff still has more quality about him.

ColeTrain wrote: »

Here's a question for you, what has Duff done better than McGeady in this campaign. Damien can do no wrong. The teams shortcomings in attacking is pinned onto McGeady by some - even when he's doing well.

Nobody pins the shortcoming in attack on McGeady. What a ridiculous idea. It is clearly caused by Trap's tactics.

Duff has passed the ball and crossed it better than McGeady in this campaign. But it's true Duff hasn't been at his best and struggles to get involved now. He is completely screwed when playing on the wrong wing and left isolated.

ColeTrain

orourkeda wrote: »

World class footballers (and top class sports people in general) have the uncanny ability of making the difficult look remarkably easy.

Aidan McGeady is the opposite. He sometimes makes the relatively straightforward tasks look more difficult than they really are.

I'm not a particular fan of Roy Keane as a person but as a footballer he made a successful career out of doing the simple things very effectively and made playing top level football look easy. We all know it isn't but it looked that way when he played. He is a very good example of this. Aidan McGeady might do
well to learn from this and apply it.

You can't compare Roy Keane and Aiden McGeady. Keane was able to play the simple ball all the time because of his position. Not like McGeady could get away with that, it's his job to beat his man/men and get a ball into the box. Hardly a simple thing to do.

simonw wrote: »

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/player/_/id/42414/aiden-mcgeady?cc=5739 is where i got the spartak stats, and according to that he has 6 assists for Ireland in total. That's still played 45, 2 goals, 6 assists in a green shirt. Gareth Bale has 5 goals and 6 assists for Wales in 32 apps, and they are hardly a free scoring team

We're hardly a free scoring team either and who cares what Bale has done.

Kingdom Bhoy

Aido has definately improved with Ireland.

1mcampo1

David Silva,
Ashley Young,
Wayne Rooney,
Cristiano Ronaldo,
Aiden McGeady
3 assists each during the qualifiers

Ruud van Nistelrooy,
Fernando Torres,
Frank Lampard,
Hamit Altıntop,
Aiden McGeady
2 goals each during the qualifiers

Aiden McGeady is not world class. But saying that, he is one of our better players, along with Given, Dunne and Keane, and get's way, way too much stick from Irish fans. Give credit where credit is due

Jayob10

ootbitb wrote: »

Duff not as quick as he once was but I would place him way in front of McGeady still.

McGeady is more important to the Irish team than Damien Duff right now, i dont see how that can be disputed.

Duff is overrated by us Irish, even at his peak he was a tremendous dribbler but his end product was never hectic. He is brilliant at beating his man, going on aimless runs turning full backs inside out, before hitting the first man with his cross or scuffing his shots.

sound like anyone?

Paparazzo

Would have like to see a poll.
Is he world class. Yes or no.
I don't think anyone can seriously say he's world class.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Jayob10 wrote: »

McGeady is more important to the Irish team than Damien Duff right now, i dont see how that can be disputed.

Duff is overrated by us Irish, even at his peak he was a tremendous dribbler but his end product was never hectic. He is brilliant at beating his man, going on aimless runs turning full backs inside out, before hitting the first man with his cross or scuffing his shots.

sound like anyone?

Damian Duff has been consistently brilliant for Ireland for the last ten years. How you can say this amazes me. He, more than other player we have, rarely does something stupid with the ball. He is a constant problem for full backs, was brilliant on Tuesday too, our best player. He is the player McGeady should aspire to be, at least in his peak when Duff was one of the most exciting players in the Premiership in full flow.

I don't even know what "his end product was never hectic" but I presume its some criticism of his final ball. Well I will just point you to his pass to Keane in Paris 2 years. The run is brilliant for starters, takes the full back out of the game. But he kept his cool, and his poise, to just lay it back for Keane. Honestly I don't think McGeady would have had done the simple (yet brilliant) thing in the same situation, probably just whacked it across goal into a French defender.

Trust in Duffer. I never worry when he is on the ball.

1mcampo1

niallo24 wrote: »

I don't even know what "his end product was never hectic" but I presume its some criticism of his final ball. Well I will just point you to his pass to Keane in Paris 2 years. The run is brilliant for starters, takes the full back out of the game. But he kept his cool, and his poise, to just lay it back for Keane. Honestly I don't think McGeady would have had done the simple (yet brilliant) thing in the same situation, probably just whacked it across goal into a French defender.

They very 1st things McGeady done when he came off the against Estonia bench was play a killer reverse pass to Keane, which should have been buried in fairness...

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

1mcampo1 wrote: »

They very 1st things McGeady done when he came off the against Estonia bench was play a killer reverse pass to Keane, which should have been buried in fairness...

Yeah that's fair enough. Just on a more consistent basis please.

1mcampo1

niallo24 wrote: »

Yeah that's fair enough. Just on a more consistent basis please.

Same could be said about Duff really

MrStuffins

1mcampo1 wrote: »

They very 1st things McGeady done when he came off the against Estonia bench was play a killer reverse pass to Keane, which should have been buried in fairness...

Very true.

He then, 2 mins later, had the ball with 2 defenders in front of him and a player overlapping down the right side. Rather than do the smart thing and play the ball out to the man overlapping he cut inside, trying (and failing) to beat the defenders and hit a horrible shot wide.

While he can do some nice things (like the killer pass which I was impressed by) he also makes a lot of bad decisions on the field (and has poor shooting abilities)

MrStuffins

1mcampo1 wrote: »

Same could be said about Duff really

Duff has been one of the most consistent performers i've ever seen in an Irish Jersey.

noodler

Some absolute nonsense in the last few posts.

Duff's contribution, even in the last two campaigns, has been so far above McGeady's it is not funny.

He pisses all over McGeady for assists for a start.

More to the point though, he always retains possession, never wastes a ball, never runs into a stupid dead end and invariably gets a cross in when given a chance.

Christ, anybody thinking McGeady is our best winger hasn't watched the last two campaigns.

1mcampo1

MrStuffins wrote: »

Very true.

He then, 2 mins later, had the ball with 2 defenders in front of him and a player overlapping down the right side. Rather than do the smart thing and play the ball out to the man overlapping he cut inside, trying (and failing) to beat the defenders and hit a horrible shot wide.

While he can do some nice things (like the killer pass which I was impressed by) he also makes a lot of bad decisions on the field (and has poor shooting abilities)

Name one player who doesn't though. While he may do it more often than others, he will still pull out something special out of nowhere. I'd be happy if he created just 3/4 chances in a game but lost the ball 4/5 times.

MrStuffins wrote: »

Duff has been one of the most consistent performers i've ever seen in an Irish Jersey.

I was talking about the now, and the qualifiers. McGeady has 3 assists and two goals. Duff has 0 assists and 0 goals. I know stats dont say everything (Duff vs Estonia) but they have to say something...

I'm not dissing Duff by the way

MrStuffins

1mcampo1 wrote: »

Name one player who doesn't though. While he may do it more often than others.......

This is the point. he does. A LOT more than others.

I was talking about the now, and the qualifiers. McGeady has 3 assists and two goals. Duff has 0 assists and 0 goals. I know stats dont say everything (Duff vs Estonia) but they have to say something...

I'm not dissing Duff by the way

And i'm talking about now too.

Anyway so what? Why is anyone talking about Damien Duff?

it seems that those who think McGeady is the badgers nadgers think all they need to say is "Well, there are other players who he is better than" to nullify the points being made by those, like me, who think his crossing, shooting, decision making and end product leave a lot to be desired.

It's an argument that does not work i'm afraid.

1mcampo1

noodler wrote: »

Some absolute nonsense in the last few posts.

Duff's contribution, even in the last two campaigns, has been so far above McGeady's it is not funny.

He pisses all over McGeady for assists for a start.

More to the point though, he always retains possession, never wastes a ball, never runs into a stupid dead end and invariably gets a cross in when given a chance.

Christ, anybody thinking McGeady is our best winger hasn't watched the last two campaigns.

Chill your nips. Duff has been on the scene longer than McGeady, obviously has more assists. Duff may be ahead of McGeady this campaign, but only just really. The qualifiers - McGeady (3) (2) Duff (0) (0). McGeady 'pisses all over' Duff there..

Never said who's the best/worse winger for Ireland. McGeady is stronger in some aspects of his game than Duff, and vice-versa

noodler

1mcampo1 wrote: »

Name one player who doesn't though. While he may do it more often than others, he will still pull out something special out of nowhere. I'd be happy if he created just 3/4 chances in a game but lost the ball 4/5 times.



I was talking about the now, and the qualifiers. McGeady has 3 assists and two goals. Duff has 0 assists and 0 goals. I know stats dont say everything (Duff vs Estonia) but they have to say something...

I'm not dissing Duff by the way

I'm not dissing McGeady either by the way. Duff gets an assist for the first goal against Armenia by the way.

In the WC Campaign, Duff setup Keane in both Cyprus games, the Georgia game, the France game.

McGeady has his best campaign to date but I really think its is wrong to say he has suddenly surpassed Duff, Duff's attitude, efficient passing, tracking back, pressure relieving play and ability to win FKs when we need them most (sometimes softly) mean he is far more important for me.

1mcampo1 wrote: »

Chill your nips. Duff has been on the scene longer than McGeady, obviously has more assists. Duff may be ahead of McGeady this campaign, but only just really. The qualifiers - McGeady (3) (2) Duff (0) (0). McGeady 'pisses all over' Duff there..

Never said who's the best/worse winger for Ireland. McGeady is stronger in some aspects of his game than Duff, and vice-versa

Well as I said, Duff has four in the last campaign and McGeady one....and Duff has one you missed this campaign.

McGeady can be effective against Macedonia and Andorra but Duff is effective against everyone. In the system we play, it had to be recognised that although Duff doesn't raid the wings like he used to, he does far far more.

1mcampo1

MrStuffins wrote: »

This is the point. he does. A LOT more than others.

Anyway so what? Why is anyone talking about Damien Duff?

it seems that those who think McGeady is the badgers nadgers think all they need to say is "Well, there are other players who he is better than" to nullify the points being made by those, like me, who think his crossing, shooting, decision making and end product leave a lot to be desired.

It's an argument that does not work i'm afraid.

Was quoting Niallo24 in relation to Duff

Again, not saying that X is better than Y. Aiden McGeady gets WAY too much stick for what he does wrong, but gets very, very little praise for what he does right

MrStuffins

1mcampo1 wrote: »

Was quoting Niallo24 in relation to Duff

Again, not saying that X is better than Y. Aiden McGeady gets WAY too much stick for what he does wrong, but gets very, very little praise for what he does right

I disagree with this. I think everybody appreciated his contribution in the first leg.

The thing is, most people are realistic when he does something well wheras there are a small amount of people who will jump on a good contribution of his and make it out to be some sort of Messi move.

Case in point, someone earlier in this thread, when asked to prove their theory that McGeady was a good shot taker, used 2 examples. 1, his goal against Macedonia (a shot, if you'll remember, which was average but saw the goalkeeper make a mistake and let the ball in) and his shot at the begining of the move for Jon Walters goal againsy Estonia, one which was right at the keeper.

Some posters tried to claim that McGeady set up or was even responsible for this goal, which is very very far from the case.

You've got posters like Darkman2 who, if you read the first few pages of the thread, made some silly claims about McGeady and refused to answer my questions about them (even after I answered his as a proviso) because he couldnt back himself up.

They might not agree with what is being said about him, but jumping on contributions and trying to make out they're bigger than they are is just silly and doesn't help them.

Jayob10

niallo24 wrote: »

Damian Duff has been consistently brilliant for Ireland for the last ten years. How you can say this amazes me. He, more than other player we have, rarely does something stupid with the ball. He is a constant problem for full backs, was brilliant on Tuesday too, our best player. He is the player McGeady should aspire to be, at least in his peak when Duff was one of the most exciting players in the Premiership in full flow.

I don't even know what "his end product was never hectic" but I presume its some criticism of his final ball. Well I will just point you to his pass to Keane in Paris 2 years. The run is brilliant for starters, takes the full back out of the game. But he kept his cool, and his poise, to just lay it back for Keane. Honestly I don't think McGeady would have had done the simple (yet brilliant) thing in the same situation, probably just whacked it across goal into a French defender.

Trust in Duffer. I never worry when he is on the ball.

everyone loves Duffer. He is a great servant for Ireland. We do overrate him though. 2 goals in 7 years for Ireland is a poor return not to mention a relatively poor assist rate aswell. Just calling a spade a spade.

Duff is a fantastic man at drawing in full backs and making them look foolish. but his best work is often taking on 3 or 4 players in a deep position in an impressive manner i may add but he will end up laying the ball off. he does not do damage in dangerous areas. He never has.

At his peak he was always a player that caught the eye for doing flashy things. Everyone loves Damien Duff in Ireland, I do aswell. But when you scrutinise his actual impact the stats speak for themselves. And before someone says stats dont matter, goals and assists do matter for a supposed key winger with 94 caps

1mcampo1

noodler wrote: »

I'm not dissing McGeady either by the way. Duff gets an assist for the first goal against Armenia by the way.

In the WC Campaign, Duff setup Keane in both Cyprus games, the Georgia game, the France game.

McGeady has his best campaign to date but I really think its is wrong to say he has suddenly surpassed Duff, Duff's attitude, efficient passing, tracking back, pressure relieving play and ability to win FKs when we need them most (sometimes softly) mean he is far more important for me.

All true
Who said he has surpasses him. Again, Duff has some stronger traits than McGeady, and McGeady has some stronger traits than Duff

noodler wrote: »

Well as I said, Duff has four in the last campaign and McGeady one....and Duff has one you missed this campaign.

McGeady can be effective against Macedonia and Andorra but Duff is effective against everyone. In the system we play, it had to be recognised that although Duff doesn't raid the wings like he used to, he does far far more.

But Duff doesn't be man marked. Regardless of opposition, it's no surprise that McGeady is up against two men alot of the time.

1mcampo1

MrStuffins wrote: »

I disagree with this. I think everybody appreciated his contribution in the first leg.

The thing is, most people are realistic when he does something well wheras there are a small amount of people who will jump on a good contribution of his and make it out to be some sort of Messi move.

And there is a HUGE amount of people who jump on the 'Dis McGeady bandwagon' to be fair, at the slighest mistake he makes.

MrStuffins

Jayob10 wrote: »

everyone loves Duffer. He is a great servant for Ireland. We do overrate him though. 2 goals in 7 years for Ireland is a poor return not to mention a relatively poor assist rate aswell. Just calling a spade a spade.

Very true. Didn't realise he'd only scored twice in 7 years. I'm not sure hes over rated too much these days though. Back when he was our most dangerous player maybe, but now he's slowed significantly everyone seems to know he's not what he used to be.

He contributes a lot though and especially under Trap because he has a tendency to draw players into fouling him around rhe box, leading to set plays.

MrStuffins

1mcampo1 wrote: »

And there is a HUGE amount of people who jump on the 'Dis McGeady bandwagon' to be fair, at the slighest mistake he makes.

I've yet to see them.

It's the volume of mistakes, wrong decisions, wayward crosses, wayward shots, failed attempts at beating 2 or more players etc that gets to me.

I've yet to see, in this thread, anyone pounce on any single thing he did just for the sake of it!

1mcampo1

MrStuffins wrote: »

I've yet to see them.

It's the volume of mistakes, wrong decisions, wayward crosses, wayward shots, failed attempts at beating 2 or more players etc that gets to me.

I've yet to see, in this thread, anyone pounce on any single thing he did just for the sake of it!

This thread is more Anti than Pro!

That's fair enough

ceegee

Theres been a definite improvement this year with Aiden wbich is great for Ireland, he has finally started to score goals for us (took him almost 7 to find his scoring boots but better late than never...) and with Duffer getting on he's becoming our main creator. Hopefully this upward curve continues.

Not sure how the russian season will effect his fitness come june, i think theyve a longer than usual season due to switching to a winter league next year, could be fatigue issues.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

darokane wrote: »

Stick stephen hunt on the left wing instead of mcgeady and we'd see a better ireland team

Hunt done himself absolutely no favours in the Estonia home game and the Croatia friendly...slow, no tricks, not great technically. An impact sub only, for me.

And as for McGeady v Duff - Duff is a legend, but if I had to choose between dropping him and McGeady it would be him these days.

noodler

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

Hunt done himself absolutely no favours in the Estonia home game and the Croatia friendly...slow, no tricks, not great technically. An impact sub only, for me.

And as for McGeady v Duff - Duff is a legend, but if I had to choose between dropping him and McGeady it would be him these days.

If that day happened in the Euros we would find McGeady drifting in an out of games - not being seen for huge chunks.

Whereas Duff always recieves the ball, always uses it well and gets his head up when he goes on a run.

If we are talking about who is faster, or who is more likely to beat a man with pace then the answer would be McGeady. For crossing, passing, efficient dribbling, tracking back (although as I pointed out in Moscow especially he has improved hugely here) and all-round intelligent play it would be Duff.

noodler

Jayob10 wrote: »

everyone loves Duffer. He is a great servant for Ireland. We do overrate him though. 2 goals in 7 years for Ireland is a poor return not to mention a relatively poor assist rate aswell. Just calling a spade a spade.

Duff is a fantastic man at drawing in full backs and making them look foolish. but his best work is often taking on 3 or 4 players in a deep position in an impressive manner i may add but he will end up laying the ball off. he does not do damage in dangerous areas. He never has.

At his peak he was always a player that caught the eye for doing flashy things. Everyone loves Damien Duff in Ireland, I do aswell. But when you scrutinise his actual impact the stats speak for themselves. And before someone says stats dont matter, goals and assists do matter for a supposed key winger with 94 caps

Its like you haven't watched the last two campaigns.