Zinedine Kilbane

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Originally Posted by Bondvillain

Aye, once again, the chap played like Christ on amphetemines. Good show all round..

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Originally Posted by TheJamaicanP.M.

Typical rubbish. You obviously don't go to many Ireland games.
It disgusts me how people like you can call yourself a fan when you think you have the right to abuse a player over a poor performance. No one can question his commitment or his ability after Saturday night.

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Phew! You're easily Disgusted, eh J.P.M.?

Im Confused. Is ur point that the only ones who can have an opinion are those that have ticket stubs for all the games since 1768, or is it that the only ones who can have an opinion are those with nice things to say about our Kev?
But seriously, standing up for KK is admirable, but do u think maybe u over-reacted just a little to what was obviously a joke? "descending into shythawkery" is hardly a serious career destroying criticism, now, is it?

No one DID question Zin's commitment or ability on this thread, and the one member u chose to have a go at actually compared him to Jesus! (again, possibly hyperbole, but hey, the country's in a good mood...)
Anyhow, just to say Live & let live etc.... 3 points and a v.positive goal diff on Wed if ur listening please, god of football. :D

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Originally Posted by Éanna

very good passing. Simply, brilliant

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I agree that Kilbane played well against France but I will never agree that his passing has ever been or will ever be very good. He did the running and donkey work very well against France but I still question his use of the ball.

He is well behind Reid, Miller, Kav or O'Shea, all of whom could play in his postition, when it comes to passing ability.

When we play the Faroes on Wednesday and his use of the ball will be in the spotlight I think he will be found out again.

Still there will be people slagging him off tomorrow at Lansdowne.

He had one of his worst games in basel & shows guts to follow it up with one of his best.

It was a big big improvement on Basel. Carr is back to his best, Robbie wasn't as annoying as usual, the two centre backs were excellent and Given was very reliable. For the most part we managed to contain the French. I'm just a little disappointed that we had so few clear cut chances with all the possesion we had in their half. Maybe things would have been different if Morrisson didnt have to come off.
Kilbane was great at breaking up the French play and forcing them into giving away throws and a few corners. Stopping the French from playing it around is as good as scoring a few goals and a Keane-Kilbane combination is probably our best option for playing against teams that are arguably more skillfull than us. However, I think it is a bad choice for playing against weaker teams. Admit it, we all had a little bit of fear going into this game that the French could tear us apart with a piece of magic from their remaining stars. I for one was worried about them catching us on the break. So when they were stringing a few passes together it was a big relief to see big KK get a foot in and disposses them before their attack came to anything. It was great to see him do this allover the park too. I'll say it again this is exactly what we needed against the French but against the Faroes we are going to need a bit more skill to open up their 11 man defence it's not good enough just to deposses them and be happy to prevent them from creating anything. Remember Kilbane is supposed to be our creative midfielder. He did win a lot of possesion and several corners but he didn't give any decent passes or crosses into the box on Saturday.
He deserves his chance to start again tomorrow and it will be interesting to see if he can do anything creative. If not he should be replaced by Reid or Miller with about half an hour to go. We need to get realistic here it was his first decent game in a while. He might play total w@nk again tomorrow but I hope he shows another side to his game and actually sets up or scores a goal or two now that he wont be under so much pressure to defend.

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Originally Posted by carnstien

I agree that Kilbane played well against France but I will never agree that his passing......will ever be very good........

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you'll never agree?
whether his passing actually turns out to be good or not?
Never?

Get over it :rolleyes:

He was arguably the best player on the pitch on saturday, the French were raving about him aswell. I agree he was poor in basle, but IMO that makes the way he upped his game all the more impressive.

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Originally Posted by carnstien

He is well behind Reid, Miller, Kav or O'Shea, all of whom could play in his postition, when it comes to passing ability.

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if they were all better than him in that position, then they would be the ones playing regularly for a premiership club, wouldn't they? As for O'Shea, the guy's been found out, one good season and thats it. He's been very poor recently

have to say kilbanes passing was exemplory on sat . he did the easy thing and i think playing alongside keane has really helped him in the middle. osheas passing has been abysmal for a while now and kav is more a workhorse than a passer.

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Originally Posted by Éanna

if they were all better than him in that position, then they would be the ones playing regularly for a premiership club, wouldn't they? As for O'Shea, the guy's been found out, one good season and thats it. He's been very poor recently

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By your own logic, if O'Shea was so poor he wouldn't be the one playing regularly for a champions league club.

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kav is more a workhorse than a passer.

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I would say with some confidence that Kav is a better passer then Kilbane, who surley fits that description more perfectly than any other player in our squad. I'm not having a go at Kilbane as he was outstanding on saturday mind you.

Kavanagh's a great passer IMO, but he's relatively untried at premiership/international level. As for O'Shea, I meant playing regularly at centre-mid, which as far as I know, O'Shea has only done a few times.

No, you said he'd been "found out" "one good season and that's it" by your own logic, if that was true he wouldn't be the one playing regularly in a champions league side, in any position.

Ok, didn't make my point very well.
1. He hasn't played centre-mid regularly/often enough to be considered there for Ireland.
2. As a defender he had one good season and hasn't lived up to the hype since IMO.

I like Kav as a player but his passing and dead ball work in the couple of games he had with us recently was terrible. I think hes a first div player who will give 100% but is lacking that extra bit of quality needed at int level

Kilbane has got so much character it's fantastic.

I was crying out for him to be dropped half-way through the WC02 qualifying campaign. This was for his sake. The poor guy was having a mare at club level and everyone was on his back. Nobody is suggesting he's a great passer, but you can't argue against how effective he was. I also felt he should make way for Kavanagh for the Paris game. Wrong call.

He was fantastic in Paris. If Gerrard or Vieira gave the same performance we'd be raving about them. For God's sake, Pele thought that Nicky Butt was a class act. KK any day please. And since when has Vieira been such a great passer anyway? And have you ever seen him shoot?

I don't see why O'Shea is getting so much flak. He was fine on Saturday. He had Pires and Gallas to contend with.