Darron Gibson

Watched the game today basically just to see Gibson. He played the Carrick defensive role in a very attacking midfield. He won tackles, he took the ball off the back four, he passed neat and tidy, he didnt give the ball away and he owned Rodwell and Osman. When you read this thread or the muck on Redcafe you would believe that Gibson couldnt pass the ball 5 yards yet he was far more effective today than carrick is 90% of the time. If the lad played 5 games on the trot and didnt get analysed pass by pass maybe he could try to express himself a bit more.

He was good enough to start in midfield today and did a decent job alongside Anderson. He had maybe 3 shots, each off target, and one bad tackle, but how many chances did Rooney or Hernandez squander in the same game? Then again, it seems almost fashionable to slag off Gibson nowadays.

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Originally Posted by liamoo11

Watched the game today basically just to see Gibson. He played the Carrick defensive role in a very attacking midfield. He won tackles, he took the ball off the back four, he passed neat and tidy, he didnt give the ball away and he owned Rodwell and Osman. When you read this thread or the muck on Redcafe you would believe that Gibson couldnt pass the ball 5 yards yet he was far more effective today than carrick is 90% of the time. If the lad played 5 games on the trot and didnt get analysed pass by pass maybe he could try to express himself a bit more.

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I don't think he played badly but I don't think he got on the ball nearly enough and didn't make enough angles to receive the ball. Carrick has been in blinding form lately and Anderson played as well as I've ever seen him and I don't think he offered half as much as either of those players. And now Fletcher is close to fitness as well so it will be tough for him to get game-time before the end of the season.

Here are the stats comparison for Anderson and Gibson from the Everton game, Carrick didn't play but I included his stats from the last game away VS Newcastle.
Apart from Carrick's passing stats, there's very little to choose between them

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                            Anderson    Gibson    Carrick
Shots        On Target            0          0          0
              Off Target          2          2          0
              Blocked              0          2          1
              Total                2          4          1
                                             
Passes        Successful          59(84%)    35(83%)    52(91%)
              Unsuccessfu        11(16%)    7(17%)    5( 9%)
              Assists              0          0          0
              Total              70        42        57
                                             
Interceptions                      1          0          1
                                             
Tackles      Won                  2          4          2
              Lost                1          0          2
              Total                3          4          4
                                             
Clearances    Successful          0          1          0
              Unsuccessfu          0          0          0
              Total                0          1          0
                                             
Blocks                            0          0          0
                                             
Free Kicks    Won                  2          0          1
              Conceded            1          1          1

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Stats can be a little misleading sometimes. Anderson pulled off at least three orgasmic long-range passes - the kind Gibson often executes - and all-round he was a joy to watch. And he came to recieve the ball from the defenders and linked up with the attacking players more than Gibson did. It was a performance like Scholes of a few years ago, which I didn't really think he had in him. Gibson just seems like a less effective player in the Carrick mould and I think he'll need to become a bigger personality to supplant him. And Carrick is a fairly passive player to begin with.

I'd agree with Charlie on this one. He simply did not demand the ball enough for my liking. United bossed midfield yet I noted that Gibson only got on the ball once in a 15/20 minute spell during the first half. That's simply not good enough especially considering United completely dominated. Yes he won a few balls, made a few nice passes, but he simply did not do this enough. One thing that I've noticed is that he seems more concerned with shouting instructions to the United player with the ball, telling him pass left or pass right, rather than shouldering the responsibilty himself and demand the ball off the player.

Carrick was woeful against city last weekend completely responsible for citys goal and dominated by the city midfield. Up to now gibson has been the forward player in a 3 man midfield basically a performing monkey who could not be trusted with responsibility but hopefully would grab a goal. I think it is great to see him now anchoring midfield and directing traffic it shows fergusan trusts him. Of course Anderson is more talented the lad was the best player in the world at under 20 level Tim Vickery the bbc south american correspondent still drolls about him been the best player he ever saw at that level. Anderson cost 12 million pounds remember.How many 40 yard visionary passes did keane play in his career? Gibson is a quality player who hopefully moves in the summer otherwise ferguson will keep him forever getting 20-25 games a season

Gibson set up a Twitter account before lunchtime today and within two hours he deleted it due to the amount of abuse he was getting. This is why I keep telling you people not to take anything you read on Manchester United message boards (about Gibson or anyone else) seriously. These people aren't football fans.

This is my favourite one so far, from a guy with a NI flag in his picture:

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@dgibbo28 your ****e and trader to your country off birth !!!! Green and White army !!

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Trader!

Was it largely NI fans or also so-called United fans CD?

I didn't get through it all (the abuse was mixed in with a million people quoting Rio Ferdinand and asking him to follow them) but it seemed to be mainly United fans, particularly Asian fans for some reason. Some racist stuff in there and the usual "traitor" stuff but mainly just "you're ****, I hope you leave in the summer" type stuff. Like I said, the sensible United fans tend to be drowned out by the throngs of gloryhunters on the internet.

I've noticed a lot of fans have started a hashtag campaign (#bringbackgibbo) to get him to return. Also had Dan O'Donnell and Daniel Taylor from the Guardian tweeting about it, so could get a bit more coverage yet.

Edit - Examples of what Gibson was having thrown his way.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

This is my favourite one so far, from a guy with a NI flag in his picture:



Trader!

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Heh Heh.

The "traitor to his country (sic)" brigade either actually believe what they're saying or play dumb very convincingly.

Every country have players who seem to experience ongoing abuse and our two seem to be Stokes and Gibson. When they play badly the boot is put in, and when they do well they receive a lukewarm response. Gibson's biggest problem is who he plays for. If you compare him to Marc Wilson, a player of similar age and background, Wilson is being allowed to develop slowly and is free of the tirade of abuse that Gibson receives regularly. Ferguson has never replaced Keane which is half the problem and every midfielder since at Utd has failed the comparison test.

from Rio Ferdinand's twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/rioferdy5/sta...99503622053888

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Darron Gibson says he came on to see what the lads were up to....he came off because he couldn't be bothered with it not any other reason.

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So it looks like he could handle the criticism, but wasn't too bothered with twitter itself.
which is fair enough.

I think the truth is probably somewhere in between. He probably wasn't profoundly upset by the abuse but I'm sure he decided it was something he could do without. God knows he gets enough of it already.

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Originally Posted by gastric

Every country have players who seem to experience ongoing abuse and our two seem to be Stokes and Gibson. When they play badly the boot is put in, and when they do well they receive a lukewarm response. Gibson's biggest problem is who he plays for. If you compare him to Marc Wilson, a player of similar age and background, Wilson is being allowed to develop slowly and is free of the tirade of abuse that Gibson receives regularly. Ferguson has never replaced Keane which is half the problem and every midfielder since at Utd has failed the comparison test.

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Good point.

I remember Kilbane enduring a similar experience at Sunderland. Became the guy some loved to hate.

Should Gibson really still be considered as "developing" at this stage in his career??

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Originally Posted by dr_peepee

Should Gibson really still be considered as "developing" at this stage in his career??

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In Gibson's defence, Matt Holland and Mark Kinsella were playing for Bournemouth and Colchester at Gibson's age. Many central midfielders don't develop a real aptitude for the position until their mid/late 20s. Steven Reid wasn't particularly impressive in midfield until about 24-25 when he got a decent run in the Blackburn side. Lee Carsley was a brainless clogger until his late 20s-early 30s, when all of a sudden he became indispensible for Everton as their midfield 'anchor'.

I would hold out some hope for Gibson, but my gut says he doesn't have the kind of enthusiasm or work-rate to really fulfil his potential.

it appears Darron is going to give twitter another go: https://twitter.com/#!/darrongibo28

I think a large part of the problem with the Irish support these days is that they're letting their own tribal support get in the way sometimes of supporting the individual, especially playing for Ireland. Irish Man U fans see Gibson as second rate because he isn't in the same league as Keane, Scholes, Robson or Ince, while many Liverpool/Arsenal etc fans among the Irish support don't forget who the lad plays for. Imagine if a young Irish lad made the breakthrough at Rangers....I'd love to see what the general response would be with some of the morons in our support, the same ones who boo Rangers fans playing for Denmark or Croatia etc. At very best, it would be lukewarm.

The comparison with Wilson is a good one. He's away from the spotlight at a medium sized club and can fall into the "one for the future category".

I don't like United, but I'm proud that Darren has been involved with them this season and could win a league and Champions League medal. He's a good player and hopefully he can grow and begin to take games by the scruff of the neck.