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He was really unlucky to get a start in the Prem recently and then having to go off injured in the first half.
Before he left Cork, he had an amazing eye for goal - a much lower level, I know, but his finishing really was top class at times.
He has the speed and bustle to perhaps be a worthwhile sub towards the end of a game, but I'd imagine he needs the stepping stone of regular games in the Championship before he makes any impact in the Premier League.
He is a striker & not a winger. I think he would be fast even for the Premier League. Confident finisher too. Stokes is not up to much anyway.
good player another who just needs a bit of luck to get a run in the team
Fit again. Starting today against Chelsea
He played up front/in the hole in the first half and was pretty impressive, before moving to the right when Prica came on.
I'd like to see him given a go against lesser opposition, I think he could score, worked hard and looked smart up front.
Connolly doesn't get a chance as he has been there before & not done it. O'Donovan had his first chance playing as forward against Chelsea who Sunderland had 28% possession against so always going to be difficult. Heard Keane say he sees him as forward in the long term which is good to hear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
It was his second start in 6 weeks, and only his fourth overall this season. Not exactly "left, right and centre"Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
He's not setting the world on fire, but he's certainly no worse than some of the rest of the Sunderland teamQuote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
err, for what?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
We'll have to come back to that at the end of the seasonQuote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Keane praises him all the time. His third start of the season so lets give him time. He actually looks really good imo, very skilful, tough in the tackle and good in the air. All he needs is some goals. He also played a central figure in Sunderland's draw with Birmingham and win at home to Wigan. Hes a good player, give him time. What do you expect for 500,000€ anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
So woeful, he didn't get booked for it. Didn't you have the same opinion about a good tackle made by Stephen Kelly against Brazil?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
You are. Sunderland went out of the FA Cup to Wigan, who are a Premiership club. O'Donovan didn't play in the 7-1 loss to Everton, he was an unused substituteQuote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
I think that hes mixing O'Donovan up with Paul McShane :D
Ciaran, this is Roy:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ngannon300.jpg
Ciaran, as Tets stated he didn't play in the 7-1 defeat. Your beloved Harte did however play in the 7-1 defeat to Everton and he's a defender which is far worse. It seems as though you're just trying to make things up to suit your argument. You should really check the facts before posting inaccuracies. O'Donovan has played 413 minutes of football this season, hardly a figure that proves that he's getting chances left, right and centre. That equates to just over four and a half games.
Ciaran's posts are of comedic value only.
I can't believe that are two people out there who are Connolly fans .. I can only conclude that Ciaran is also The Worm :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Starting games in the Premiership is one thing, but Roy can only consider himself well and truely arrived when the Irish Times realise that he is Irish (and start listing him in the "Irish in Britain" section thingie: http://www.ireland.com/sports/soccer...end_soccer.pdf).
The striker hierarchy is actuallyQuote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Jones
Murphy
O'Donovan
Chopra
Prica
Stokes
O'Donovan is definitely better than Prica and Stokes.
Mate where in gods name did you come up with a stupid logic like this. O'Donovan had a very decent game at the weekend and really has the attitude that im sure Keane would like in his players. He was more impressive in last weekends game than Stokes has been in any this seasonQuote:
No it's not and no he's not.
I wouldn't be surprised if that's the last we'll see of Roy O'D in a Sunderland shirt tbh
It would be harsh to drop a player after his first start as forward was against Chelsea. It is hard to judge the order of forwards as Keane only plays 451 so everyone bar Jones plays wide in 5 man midfield. O'Donovan did start ahead of Prica (hard to understand why bought him) on Saturday.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Quiet a sweeping statement there, you really think he won't play one minute against Aston Villa, West Ham, Fulham, Man City, Newcastle, Middlesbro, Bolton, or Arsenal?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Then get sold in the summer?
From http://www.chatsoccer.net/irishabroa...5&seasonID=137Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
4 Starts, and 13 introductions
Sunderland have played 32 games so far
4 starts/32 games = Donovan has started 12.5% of all games so far
12.5% of 8 games is 1, so if Keane sticks on what he's done so far this season, Donovan has 1 start left
13 introductions/32 games = Donovan came on as a sub in 40% of all games so far
40% of 8 is 3.25, so if Keane sticks on what he's done so far this season, Donovan will come on in at least 3 more games
I dont see how Chopra , Jones and Murphy are triied and tested , I think its their first full season in the Premier League for all 3 , and none have exactly been banging in the goals.
He's made 3 starts and has come on 8 times in the league. In total, he's played 4 starts and 9 as a sub. I don't mean to be a pedant, but it's not particularly difficult to find these figures out before you post messages.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
In fairness Jones has been very good this season, 5 goals and 9 assists from 25 games back that up. Murphy and Chopra haven't done much but have made more of an impact that O'Donovan.Quote:
Originally Posted by gustavo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Ridiculous statement.Was one of Sunderlands better players at weekend and Im sure the lad is improving and learning all the time, its a big jump to straight from Eircom League to Premiership. Even people like Henry sometimes take a season to adjust properly to the Premiership, not saying hes near that class but Im sure he will prove to be a good player in time. If Kevin Doyle can do it theres no reason why O Donovan cant if he works hard. Lots of Cork fans would say that O Donovan was better than Doyle for City
looked really handy when he scored on his debut. hardly seen anything of him sinceQuote:
Originally Posted by pete
Nope. Doyle had an excellent football brain even at City so contributed a lot even when not scoring. O'Donovan very quick (he even looks quick in PL from what I have seen) & excellent finisher. Overall Doyle was more mature too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
Ciaran likes to get as big a reaction as possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by carloz
Prica is not a great player tbh. It was a mistake buying him.Quote:
Originally Posted by pete
He failed to make it in Germany which is way weaker than the Premiership. The only positive thing about him was finishing top scorer in the Danish League last season, a bit like finishing top scorer in Scotland for Hibernian or the like.
I think a lot of people on here give too much lenience to former LOI players for some reason or another.
The fact of the matter is, O Donovan is NOT a premiership player, anyone who's watched most of the games in which he's played this season will agree, and he would fit into a moderate championship team in my opinion.
Keane has made some woeful signings, which could result in relegation (Chopra 5.5m is the big one) and I don't think in hindsight, Keane would rate O D as a great signing, considering he hasn't really forced his way into the starting line-up.
If I was to put money on it O Donovan will be sold over the summer or loaned out next year, if Sunderland are still a Premiership team.
I hope that doesn't happen but I have a feeling it will.
While I would agree that he's not Premiership standard just yet from what I've seen, he does seem to have a lot of the tools necessary to be successful, certainly physically. Whether he's got the brain for it yet, I'm not sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by zenokelly
Sunderland is a hard place to be right now for a young player. You're not allowed to make mistakes, and the pressure to get points in order to avoid the drop is tremendous.
For offensive players, this situation is especially frightening. Offensive players will lose the ball maybe 4 out of every 5 attacks.
But when losing the ball can be so costly, it sometimes becomes less about scoring as it does about keeping the other team out.
In addition, most games Sunderland will have less possession than their opponents, and yet O'Donovan's strengths lie on the ball, not off it.
Trying to judge a young player like O'Donovan in this situation is extremely difficult, especially when he is being played out of position on the right side of midfield.
I think a top coach or scout would have trouble evaluating him in this situation, let alone the likes of us who mostly see him on TV.
One thing I will not do though is write him off at the age of 20 while in the midst of a relegation battle with an inexperienced manager who chops and changes the team every week.
Having actually seen them both play in person a few times, O'Donovan is better than Chopra
O'Donovan is not a Premier League player but same could be said of Sunderland. Besides Jones there is not a single player who would be bought by Premier League side should they get relegated.
Gordon? Richardson? Reidy? bardsley?
Johnny Evans, Carlos Edwards
Dwight Yorke :) *
*Please note I'm joking.
I could have sworn that he was playing in that league last weekend and should have won a penalty against England's top rated central defender. It must have been a different Roy O'Donovan :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by pete
Age, potential & 1/4 the price.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Prica a strange purchase mid season when already could field nearly a full team of forwards.
In fairness none of them had more than 4 goals, so you can understand him looking at another option.Quote:
Originally Posted by pete
I'd have O'Donovan and Stokes in the Sunderland team before Rade Prica. Agree that he was another poor signing by Keane and he doesn't offer anything that wasn't already in the Sunderland squad.
Rade Prica has shown that he can score against lesser opposition in the Danish and Swedish leagues. But O'Donovan and Stokes have also shown their goalscoring abilities at Cork and Falkirk respectively. IMO Stokes' goalscoring record at Falkirk, in a league that's higher ranked than the Danish league, is more impressive than what Prica did at Aalborg.
In the case of O'Donovan, I don't think Keane has given him a decent chance to prove himself yet. It's difficult to show what you can do when you're only getting a few minutes here and there to play. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Keane, for the most part, has used all his substitutions in each premiership match. This highlights he doesn't really know what his strongest line-up is as he's unprepared to let his starting line-up finish the game. It's difficult for O'Donovan to prove himself when his manager can't stop tinkering with the team.
Difficult one to judge the likes of Solksjaer and Flo (I'm sure there are many others but I don't have the time to think of them!) came over to the english leagues and did very well; there is always a risk when buying players that are unproven, Keane I feel, has been unlucky in that the club can't attract the level of player required to prosper in the premier league at this moment of time. Therefore he has to buy players with a risk value attached. He has also been unlucky in the sense that normally one or two would have turned out to be good! I think O'Donovon has shown glimpses that he could be a good footballer some day, but with sunderland embroiled in a relegation battle its probably not the best of breeding grounds for him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciaran
well hes starting against Aston Villa again today