Darron Gibson

I think Gibson is getting a lot of flak for not playing regularly at club level, similar to O'Shea a few years ago. Fact is, very few youngsters get a run in the United first team. Even the "never win anything with kids" team only played one or two of the kids after the opening game thumping by West Ham. O'Shea had to wait and get his game when he could until the likes of Neville were no longer good enough for regular first team action. Gibson has the same problem with Scholes right now, and it could be next season before he starts to get regular starts.
Personally, if the likes of McCarthy or Wilson were starting for the international side, it would take the pressure off Gibson, as he wouldn't be expected to replace and improve on either of them.

At 23 though, he can't really be considered a kid or youngster any more... No more than he should be the finished article either. I think he should be further along as a player than were he's at now though.

On the club side the danger for fringe players at his age at clubs like United is that you're closer to being bombed altogether by a signing or a youth team player, than you are at breaking into the team..

I think the closest comparison to Gibson at United is Anderson. Anderson gets a lot of flack for not being quite up to the task, and not scoring enough goals. However, in the last 3 seasons (not including the current one) he has managed 37 league starts and 55 appearances overall. In the same period and in the same position, Darron has managed 6 starts and 18 appearances overall. Anderson is also a year younger than Gibson.

There isn't exactly fierce competition in the centre of the field for United. Carrick, Fletcher and Scholes are the first picks. After that, Anderson is pretty much next in line. I think if Gibson really has a future at United, he needs to leapfrog Anderson in the pecking at some point this season. If he fails to do that, I think it will be the death knell for Gibson's United career. I can see United offloading Anderson next summer and bringing in a better midfielder.

I think Man Utd will keep faith with Anderson for another 18 months. Injury ravaged season last year and didn't build on his potential from his first season at the club. Scholes will probably retire at the end of the season so Gibson needs to convince Fergie he doesn't need to bring in a big name replacement. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think Gibson will ever make the team when they play the likes of Chelsea/Arsenal etc. He could become an important squad player but is he happy with that?

C'mon Gibson... Make me eat my words!!!!

Didnt unfortunately. Opportunity missed IMO.

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Originally Posted by centre mid

Didnt unfortunately. Opportunity missed IMO.

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Definitely. Ironically the player he reminded me most of at Internatioal level was Lampard, who never seems to look for the ball when playing for England. Darron never seemed hungry for the ball, and the Slovaks were giving plenty room around the middle. He had Fahy to the right of him to pass around with...never combined at all. Terrible set pieces also by in large. If you're 50 yards from goal and have a free kick, then GET IT IN THERE!!!!! On 2 or 3 occasions ball was played flat and ended up going backwards....Am a fan, and would never be negative, but Jaysus, someone give him a shaking and wake him up. Not Man United material.

Gibson dropped off CM quite often to look for the short ball from the defence, even popped up at right back at one point to pick up a short throw from Given. I actually thought he was far more active than he usually is, just seems unable to really influence a game from deep. I almost get the feeling he's unsure because the movement in front of him is just not what he's accustomed to at Old Trafford. He's one of the few players in the side who seems to create a bit of time in the ball for himself, but always looks a little frustrated at usually having to play square with the ball inevitably ending up going backwards.

i think that's a very generous assessment. he did very little.

green was better while he was on which says it all.

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

I think Man Utd will keep faith with Anderson for another 18 months. Injury ravaged season last year and didn't build on his potential from his first season at the club. Scholes will probably retire at the end of the season so Gibson needs to convince Fergie he doesn't need to bring in a big name replacement. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think Gibson will ever make the team when they play the likes of Chelsea/Arsenal etc. He could become an important squad player but is he happy with that?

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Staying at United is a risk. On one had his career could stagnate a la Liam Miller. But on the other hand for every Liam Miller there is a Darren Fletcher. Its probably worth hanging around for another season to see if he can get a chance when Scholes goes. If I'm honest I don't think Fergie rates Carrick or Anderson particularly highly. There might be an opportunity there.

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Originally Posted by zero

i think that's a very generous assessment. he did very little.

green was better while he was on which says it all.

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Possibly a little generous, but he was much better than Green for me - he misplaced three 5 yard passes in the first half, and generally still looked out of his depth. Gibson was better if only because he passed better and Whelan looked far more comfortable beside him. Our drop in performance in the second half had more to do with Slovak's upping it/us tiring than it was to do with Green not being on the pitch.

McGeady's comments on Gibson from Ken Early's twitter feed: http://twitter.com/#!/kenearlys/statuses/27174540079

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little of interest in ireland mixed zone. mcgeady did say gibson "sees the game" & his passing helped AMcG to get into the game

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Was just about the post that haha

I thought Gibson's passing was good when he came on. The second half retreat was probably more to do with Whelan's lack of fitness.

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Originally Posted by zero

i think that's a very generous assessment. he did very little.

green was better while he was on which says it all.

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Not a chance. Can think of only one time Gibson lost the ball. Green constantly won it and gave it straight back

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Originally Posted by zero

i think that's a very generous assessment. he did very little.

green was better while he was on which says it all.

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Seriously, what game did you watch?

Green was better at stopping the Slovaks. It was quite blatantly obvious when he went off that the Slovaks made more inroads into the space he was occupying. Maybe some can imagine that was because Whelan was getting more knackered, but that is just silly and blinkered.
It took 20 minutes before Green could pass the ball safely to the nearest Irish player, but from 20 minutes onwards - until he got injured, Green was holding his own.
Darron comes on and soon sprays a pass the width of the field and as mentioned can collect a ball from Given - Both of those basic necessary midfield skills would be outside Green's repertoire.

In a scrappy game like that tonight (and we will have a few more of them), I think Fahey has much more to offer at CM than Darron.

McGeady's comments were on Off The Ball last night
Click http://media.newstalk.ie/listenback
Scroll down to Off The Ball -> Wednesday 13th October -> Part 3
His comments are just after 23 minutes, only a minute or so long

You can't ff to the 23min.spot, can you?
McGeady was reported in the papers to say
"What helped in the second half was Darron Gibson coming on as well," reflected McGeady after Tuesday's game. "He sees the game, he likes to pass the ball, he likes to control the play and give me the ball."

We also saw in the second half, one of McGeady's strengths when we were under pressure, to wait outside the box to receive the defensive clearance and start a swift counter attack.

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Originally Posted by geysir

You can't ff to the 23min.spot, can you?

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give it a minute or two for the stream to buffer and you can skip along

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Originally Posted by geysir

McGeady was reported in the papers to say
"What helped in the second half was Darron Gibson coming on as well," reflected McGeady after Tuesday's game. "He sees the game, he likes to pass the ball, he likes to control the play and give me the ball."

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He doesn't say much more than that in the clip to be honest, it's less than a minute long

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Originally Posted by geysir

We also saw in the second half, one of McGeady's strengths when we were under pressure, to wait outside the box to receive the defensive clearance and start a swift counter attack.

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That was one of my criticisms of him for Russia's opening goal last week, he was standing just on the corner of the six yard area, and turned to run with the ball, when the Russian player ran in to score, any defender would have put his foot through the ball to clear it. Against Slovkia, he stood further forward so he could see where the opposition was standing, and know where to run into.

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Originally Posted by geysir

Green was better at stopping the Slovaks. It was quite blatantly obvious when he went off that the Slovaks made more inroads into the space he was occupying. Maybe some can imagine that was because Whelan was getting more knackered, but that is just silly and blinkered.

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Agree with that, and that's why he was picked ahead of Gibson who showed himself to be a much better passer of the ball than Green who's distribution is useless. But for all Gibson's better passing ability than Green, it wasn't good enough to put the Slovaks on the back foot at any time, instead we had them on the back foot when we had two guys breaking them up before they could hit their stride coming forward. A case of defence being the best form of attack imo.