Stephen Kelly had a better season than Finnan last year.
Finnan is still the better player.
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I'm not just biased (I hope) but Benitez seems to have a blind spot when it comes to full backs, just like wenger with centre backs and keepers.
Espanyol's comments about Finnan were spot on: nothing flash, but consistently solid and mistake free. Always a 7/10.
It's hard to stand out (Bacary Sagna's hair apart) as full back unless you're a bad one.
Agreed - inept was over board but i didn't rate his performance. Caught out a few times by the winger, once which was nearly the cause of goal. Everyone makes mistakes fair enough but I think you're confusing the word calm with slow. He slowed everything down and pumped the ball long to their centre halves too often giving possession away far to cheaply. I'd like to see kelly given a chance in there.
As for Bohemian calling me a loser for having an opinon?!:p I'll laugh that one off Kiddo:rolleyes:.
Bogwarrior has a point, I don't think Finnan is quite the player he was a couple of seasons back, I don't know if he should be dropped for Kelly but Finnan starting ahead of Kelly is no longer a no brainer
So Ciaran any comments on Glenn Whelan after those 2 games.
Still omitted from the Stoke team, although two players who couldn't even make the squad, Delap and Lawrence, start on the wings. Whelan still has only 55 mins of Premier league action under his belt, all from the first day of the season.
He can impress Trap, so surely he should be able to impress Tony Pulis soon.
I wouldn't personally have had Whelan in the team for the Georgia game, but fair play to him he repaid the faith shown by Trap in him, and again against Montenegro. 2 superb performances from him.
Ciaran you wrote the guy off with OTT comments based on very little evidence. He goes on to produce 2 performances that get him MOTM although I would have given it to Reid for the Georgia game but he was not far off. Anyway, will you go and eat humble pie my friend. You know very little about football as can be seen from your posts and time and time again you will be proved wrong by the evidence on the pitch. You are the weakest link goodbye.
hello all from Dubrovnik.
You're a troll becasue you know nothing about football.
I could refer back to your many erroneous rants.
A few weeks back I replied explaining that role Glenn had been assigned a very particular role by the team management.
A role that he has been fulfilling since the Serbia game.
For the record I also clearly stated I was biased.
However there was no challenge to either of my claims from you, a challenge set to draw out the anti-Wh(o)elan mob.
I wouold almost guarantee you'd never seen Glenn play live before his first fill Ireland cap whereas there are others amongst us whom have followed his, and others like him, since they were kids in the ark.
That's why you are a troll but there are so many other examples freely available to anyone by searching and reading your posts.
Probably the worst player on the team against Georgia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mate you are becoming very tiresome and i fail to see why people take your seriously on her. You dismissed Whelan on very little evidence, and so faryou have been proven very very wrong. And just so you now there is life outside of the Premiership. Yes he is getting little game time now, but he was instrumental in Stoke acheiving promotion last season and was also very consistent with Sheff Wed. Also if you had seen much of him in the under 21s, which im fairly sure you didnt, you would have seen that the guy has many talents. You dismissed him based on **** all and im glad you have been shown up because of it!!
If he does that he will be one of the best midfielders in the world as they are that. You dismissed him and now the bar is he has to stamp his authoritity all over Pirlo and De Rossi. Talk about raising the bar.
Agree with this. Whelan did better than I expected against Georgia and Montenegro, but what we dont know is how well someone else (ie Andy Reid, Joey O'Brien, John O'Shea, Rory Delap) would have done in that role. I still have a feeling that he will be found out by better opposition.
Very few RB's in the world better than Finnan? I think you are slightly overrating him just a bit there. :rolleyes:
Anyway I'm delighted for Whelan, a lot of people dismissed him but he had 2 very good games for us, against Georgia I thought he was second only to Reid and against Monty I think he deserved his MOTM.
Am I missing something here?! Are u actually saying steve finnan is one of the best right backs in world football?!? I love the roll of the eyes after the comment as if it is the most obvious thing in the whole world!
Ciaran ciaran ciaran... will you ever learn!:rolleyes::p
I honestly don't think that Whelan is a very good player. If I were the manager of a Premiership team, I would totally pick Andy Reid over him in central midfield.
The difference is that this is international football - Trapattoni is trying to get us to play a very simple 4-4-2 system. The two central midfielders (Steven Reid and Glenn Whelan in this case) sit right on top of the two central defenders and break up play. We're not going balls to the wall and risking getting caught on the counter-attack by anyone. This is the reason that under Trap I don't think we'll score very many goals but any goal we concede will have to be well-earned, as they must break down nine players including the keeper to score.
Lee Carsley would definitely go in ahead of Whelan in this system. From what I've seen, Whelan is a very limited player suited excellently to our current system. He is not suited to a system of a Premiership team, although I think Stoke could well take a page from Trap's book when it comes to putting men behind the ball, or else it will be a short season for them this year.
The fact that he started Whelan against the weaker teams in our group says to me that is Carsley isn't fit, he'll likely stick with Whelan over more creative, attacking players like Andy Reid and Stephen Ireland.