Aiden McGeady

[jmurphyc]

Shay Given quotes from Scotland’s Evening Times:
I get the feeling that when McGeady does win over the vast majority of Ireland fans, they could watch a tape of the Cyprus game again and they’d be a lot more impressed with McGeady than they were watching it live on Wednesday. The mistakes wouldn’t be as exaggerated and they’d understand that he has a lot more game intelligence than he’s given credit for. Keane played at least 2 simple passes to nobody on Wednesday. If Keane was as troublesome for the Cyprus defence as McGeady was he could make 3 times as many silly mistakes and the Irish fans wouldn’t mention them. I really believe that.

McGeady had already won me over personally. I never really criticised him before and believed (and I still do) that he will become an absolutely crucial player for us in future. I thought he'd done alright in previous games and shown enough to suggest that he could be a real threat for us, however, in the second half on Wednesday I thought he was very, very poor. He may come back and have a good game (in my eyes) in one of the next few games and I'll say so if I believe it to be the case but on my initial viewing of the game I thought he had a very, very poor game. For me, he was our worst player in that half by a mile. As I said though, I'm not anti-McGeady at all, and if I believe he has a good game I'll say so as I have no agenda to keep up with.

[The Legend]

as someone who thinks McGeady is overrated, i think he did very well on wednesday. If he could finish better, he'd be really excellent.

[stojkovic]

I still can't see what all the fuss is about. McGeady is nowhere near as exciting a prospect as Robbie and Duffer were at that age. To me he is more of a McAteer or Gary Kelly - a good player but not a great one.

He had a decent first half on Wednesday but was shocking in the second but unfortunately Celthick fans cant see that.

[Stuttgart88]

I'm a fan of McGeady but I think my frustration with him in the second half was due to his sloppy loss of possession at times. This loss of possession frustrated me more because CM seemed incapable of winning it back, it left McShane exposed (what didn't?) and I was worried that Cyprus may get an equaliser. A lifetime of following Ireland does that to you.

His corners were frustrating too, failing to beat the first man a few times.

However, I'd imagine neutrals watching the game would have felt it was worth the admission money just to see his footwork and ability to leave his marker for dead in tight spaces.

On balance he was far more of an asset than a liability on Wednesday. Any flair player should be allowed to make mistakes - it's not McGeady's fault that there wasn't anyone capable of covering for him. Imagine if Finnan had been behind him...

[irishfan86]

Imagine if Finnan had been behind him...

This may be my weird and incorrect view, but I think Finnan and McGeady don't work well together.

When I watched the first two games, where Finnan and McGeady played down the same flank (at least for parts of the match), Finnan pushed forward at times as he likes to do, and demanded the ball off McGeady.

You could tell that Finnan didn't really trust McGeady, and thus was taking on some of the attacking impetus himself.

He would pass the ball to McGeady and then bomb forward demanding the ball back in a one-two play.

Then, when McGeady didn't hit it back immediately, instead trying to take on his man, Finnan looked visibly frustrated.

With McShane, limited though he is as a full-back, there was no question about who would be controlling that right-flank when we were in possession.

Not saying McShane-McGeady is better than Finnan-McGeady, I'm just saying I don't think Finnan particularly enjoys playing with him down that flank.

Perhaps an understanding will develop over time, or perhaps I'm just reading too much into things, but I remember this sticking out for me after watching the first couple of matches.

[shakermaker1982]

I'd say that was his best game in an Irish shirt for us so far. He was excellent in the first half but had a quiet second half. His end product will hopefully improve with time and experience so fingers crossed Duff and himself remain injury free for the whole campaign.

[Lim till i die]

Well then that has to be one of the most ignorant because I'm one of the rare Celtic fans that actually supports Strachan too. If Nakamura didn't give his all in a tackle Strachan would not berate him. Strachan wouldn't shout at Naka for a single thing and the same thing can be said about many a player. Maybe you need to get the clue.

How he deals with Naka is irrelevant (Naka is another over-rated nobody while I'm at it).

McGeady bottled out therefore he was wrong.

Should take it like a man as opposed to a spoilt child

I've the match on Sky+. I'll let you know how many dozen times he lost possession

I look forward to it with baited breath.

I can PM you my adress should you have trouble counting once the digits run out.

[Lim till i die]

Villa to make £10 million bid for McGeady in January: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...5875-20812427/

Why, he could be the next Shaun Maloney!!!

[eirebhoy]

I look forward to it with baited breath.

I can PM you my adress should you have trouble counting once the digits run out.

Got a chance to watch the game again today. McGeady had the ball tackled from him twice which isn't bad considering he took on opponents at least 15 times. He misplaced 2 passes in the match too. Both simple enough passes but still a very low figure.

Most of his crosses went straight to Cyprus players but if a winger crosses a ball 10 times and 3 of those reach a teammate he's doing very well. I forgot it until I watched the match again but McGeady also sent in the low cross which caused panic in the Cyprus defence. It was heading for Duff to tap in before the Cyprus player jumped on top of Duff to put it out for a corner. Another one of his crosses was put out for a corner too. Overall his crossing wasn't great but he only started to cross the ball after about an hour.

Anyway, after watching that and having the stats I can safely say I'm not the only Irish person with bias when it comes to McGeady.

[Junior]

However, I'd imagine neutrals watching the game would have felt it was worth the admission money just to see his footwork and ability to leave his marker for dead in tight spaces.

On balance he was far more of an asset than a liability on Wednesday. Any flair player should be allowed to make mistakes.........

Pretty much all the points I wanted to make have already been made so I won't rehash the same arguments.

However, I think this point is all too often overlooked, whether it be Celtic or Ireland fans. As a youngster in the playground it was all about dribbling, the great solo effort that gave you a buzz, once you start watching the pro's its the dribbling of maradonna, the cruyff turn, Ronaldhino flick (and so on, you get the point) that bring the crowd to their feet and puts a buzz in the crowd. Aiden did it on a few occasions on Weds and will do it on many more. Yes it doesnt always come off (it doesnt for the best of players) but thats just the way it is.

Ill always prefer to watch a Duff or McGeady leaving players for dead, than route one stuff any day of the week.

[Mcgeady46]

Pretty much all the points I wanted to make have already been made so I won't rehash the same arguments.

However, I think this point is all too often overlooked, whether it be Celtic or Ireland fans. As a youngster in the playground it was all about dribbling, the great solo effort that gave you a buzz, once you start watching the pro's its the dribbling of maradonna, the cruyff turn, Ronaldhino flick (and so on, you get the point) that bring the crowd to their feet and puts a buzz in the crowd. Aiden did it on a few occasions on Weds and will do it on many more. Yes it doesnt always come off (it doesnt for the best of players) but thats just the way it is.

Ill always prefer to watch a Duff or McGeady leaving players for dead, than route one stuff any day of the week.

Well said mate could'nt agree more, any1 who was at them atch will remember that 19 out of 20 kickouts were aimed at doyle, a player who can make a bit of magic is priceless, Mcgeady gettin better every game for Ireland and we sure don't have any1 better than him to replace him!! Hunt is good but certainally not better!

[eirebhoy]

Very mature performance from McGeady tonight. Looked good.

[eirebhoy]

McGeady getting stick on a Celtic forum for his performance. I just don't know. He doesn't take on players too much so they're not happy. I genuinely don't remember him misplacing a single pass and that's not easy in a game like this. Considering he played the pass more than he usually would that's not bad.

[Lim till i die]

Anyway, after watching that and having the stats I can safely say I'm not the only Irish person with bias when it comes to McGeady.

I hate him I do.

He raped my father and killed my mother



Your "analysis" of the United game tonight aswell is pathetic.

[jebus]

Very mature performance from McGeady tonight. Looked good.

Mature as in past his prime? If so then I agree

[irishfan86]

Celtic were starved for possession tonight. If you honestly want to rip McGeady apart for that you know nothing about the game of football.

Not saying he had a good performance, but I wouldn't call it a bad one either.

[shakermaker1982]

Celtic were woeful. McGeady looked decent at times but losing the ball on the edge of your area wasn't too clever!

[BigmanCas]

Celtic were woeful. McGeady looked decent at times but losing the ball on the edge of your area wasn't too clever!

I will admit that on one or two occasions last night he did leave the ball behind him on the edge of the box which in my opinion is criminal but other aspects of his game far outweighed his silly gaffs. He ran at Neville/O Shea quite often and caused the most problems for the Utd reargaurd.

However he was given absolutely no support for the his two fullbacks. He is a young man and needs this support especially against a team as good as Man Utd. Wilson and especially Naylor are bad.

[eirebhoy]

Your "analysis" of the United game tonight aswell is pathetic.

I actually do feel biased now because for the first time I actually rate a McGeady performance higher than Celtic fans. Thankfully I think Strachan and Trap would have been very happy with McGeady last night.

Anyway, that was the happiest I've been with McGeady for Celtic probably this season. Not that it was his best performance in terms of tricks, flicks, beating players and creating chances but it was a very encouraging performance because he showed plenty of intelligence. Miles better than his last game at Old Trafford. He looked very confident. As I say didn't waste a pass. Made 3 good runs inside to take a shot on. Only 1 of those shots came off though. Other than his dispossession in his own half by Berbatov I couldn't fault his decision making. Played the simple pass more often than not and it's something I think most of us wanted to see more of from McGeady. No need to run at a player all the time.

[carloz]

Celtic were bloody woeful last night. Little McGeady could have done as he saw very little of the ball. If i were a Celtic fan the two players i would be questioning would be Brown and Robson. The were woeful last night and celtics central midfield was quite frankly a joke. I wouldnt read too muh into McGeadys performance last night. All i will say is that he eeds to get out of Celtic sooner rather than later.