I'm not sure what to make of calling McEleney rubbish, a wind up perhaps?
He goes missing at times and struggles against tight marking. If given space, he is deadly. I hope he stays, it's a pleasure watching a player with that level of ability.
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I'm not sure what to make of calling McEleney rubbish, a wind up perhaps?
He goes missing at times and struggles against tight marking. If given space, he is deadly. I hope he stays, it's a pleasure watching a player with that level of ability.
I can see he has quality, but I don't think it's a wind-up, as he hasn't done it against us. I've seen the goals against Galway, Drogheda and Pat's.....there's a trend here.....and some other highlights, but never in the flesh. A cynic would say that he can be the best player in the world with nobody else on the pitch. He sort of reminds me of George O'Callaghan in some respects. Often touted as the best player in the league, and on his day he probably was. However, "his day" came around all too infrequently IMO, but he never failed to be on the tip of every pundits tongue.
I love McEleney, I think he is the best player in the LoI on his day because he can do things with the ball that no one else in the league can, bar Paddy McCourt, but to say he has never turned up against Cork is simply stating fact... I think I mentioned on here before the cup final that I'd love SK to not start him and bring him on after about 60 minutes to see if he can take advantage of tired legs, because he is played out of the game by Cork every single time, they know exactly what they are doing against him and just completely nullify him by not giving him a second on the ball (much like the way Ireland dealt with Eriksen in the 1st leg).
To say he is rubbish is either ignorant or fan-blindness as anyone who watched him in the European games or against other LoI teams can see the obvious talent that's there, I wouldn't trade him for anyone (within reason) as he tends to be the key that unlocks the door when we have to play teams that play 10 men behind the ball, a real mercurial (don't know what that means but pundits use it quite a lot) talent.
100% not a windup. He never ever turns up against Cork City. His performances are a common discussion among our fans. We see the highlights and the flashy goals he gets against poor teams, we hear from the media and from Dundalk etc how great he is, we see that he gets nominated for all sorts of awards so we wonder if hes going to show up and finally perform against us, and consistently he is anonymous. Not just this season either. He has never had a good game against Cork City.
If it was just this season you could say well McCormack has his number, but he didn't do anything last year either when we had Bolger back there.
Over the past 4 seasons there has always been one player who has stood out for Dundalk. Starting with Hoban, onto Towell and then Horgan. Now its McEleney. Each of those players punished us, and were often the difference between the two sides.
We had nightmares about Richie Towell. Two goals at the Cross in 2015 stand out. Cup final in 2015 he actually had a very McEleney-esque game but he still popped up with the winner. Daryl Horgan tore us to shreds in Oriel Park in 2016 to effectively decide the league.
McEleney though? Meh. I'm sure he can play a bit, but what good is it if he goes hiding when it matters. Maybe the likes of Zenit didn't respect him and gave him space to perform, but that's never going to happen against Cork City (unless we completely change the way we play, or have a man or two sent off), and if he can't operate when its a little bit difficult then Dundalk will always be playing a man down against us.
So I'd be very happy for him to stay at Dundalk, for the media to continue fawning over him for scoring against Limerick or Pats or someone, and then for him to continue his disappearing act against us. If he does move on, perhaps Kenny will find a new key player who actually punishes us once in a while.
I don't like Stevie, and he was poor when he was in Cork, but I can see his quality. I think the legs aren't there anymore, but he has real talent. I'm a big fan of Chris Shields as it happens. I've mentioned that here several times.
Edit: I say I don't like him, thats more for how hes played against us, and some of his on the pitch antics, diving/pressuring refs etc. I think hes good craic in person.
I think to be fair some decent points made here, I made this point previously about how one player can have an enormous effect on a league winning season for that team, and I mentioned it as Quigley (Sligo 2012) Fagan (Pats 2013) Hoban (Dlk 2014) Towell (Dlk 2015) Horgan (Dlk 2016) and this season is has been Maguire (Cork 2017)
I was at that game in TC in April 2015 when Dlk beat Cork 2-1 and Towell ran the show from start to finish. McEleney has been very good for Dundalk in Europe in general but also quite poor against Cork in most games, a lot of Dlk fans would agree he has also played much better against the lesser sides. If he stays this is a part of his game he really needs to work in, being consistent in all league games.
McEneff is under contract at Derry until the end of next season. Would Dundalk pay money for him?
As for Paddy McEleney, he's great. Certainly one of league's top players.
I take the point that he hasn't performed well against Cork for whatever reason though. Strange one.
It's coz Cork just harry the **** outta him in every match. There's a reason why he tends to stand out against the european sides. He's probably more suited to those style of games than the hurly burly. In the home match vs Rosenborg this yr i thought he was the best player on the pitch. And last year against Bate (home) Zenit (both), Maccabi (home) I thought he was excellent.
I'd love it if rovers signed paddy McCourt I know he isn't fit enough I know he won't run till the cows come home but having him come on with 30 mins to go and stroll around killing people from the middle of the pitch would be awesome.