Well yeah but I was just responding to the idea that it might be some new approach for us to try!
Strong performance. Glad that Big Sam also seems to be an O’Shea fan. Working with a manager like that will make Dara more solid for us.
http://westbrom.com/forum/index.php?topic=25334.0;all
He's being lauded in this forum. Someone makes an interesting point on his pace. I don't think he lacks pace but he definitely seems to have this excellent ability to anticipate the opposition's forwards' movements that reduce the need for pace.
I loved him tonight. He didn't even get a chance to do one of the things I think he does best i.e. distribute from the back.
Huge future here, guys. Huge future.
RE: his pace, the fact he was playing as a fullback shows he can run a bit. I wouldn’t suggest he’s a speedster but he is more mobile than the average CB.
Badly exposed today, it showed what I said, a wonderkid, yeah...but not ready for the sweeper role some brains are saying. Can be a fullback back up left or right? Yeah, but he isnt a specialist there like Stevens, Cunningham, coleman, doherty......where to play this kid? as an enforcer in midfield next to James, his best assets are composed on the ball, tidy passer and good anticipation. Center of the pitch..Mr Kenny....i know the football as such that I can recognize a holding mid a mile away
I think that is very harsh. Leeds are toying with West Brom. West Brom played two flat lines against Liverpool and Leeds are consistently dragging the two lines back and forth and finding space between and across the lines. It is very difficult for O'Shea tonight and he should have done better for his own goal but he's not being exposed any more than any other player in that back four.
They were making fun of him on tv about it, kid not ready for sweeper spot there, we ve got Egan, Long and Lehihan if he gets a deserved transfer to the premier league.
This kid will learn but today he was exposed by a tiki-taka high pressure team,
Who was making fun of him and on what television channel?
They aired a 20 minute segment dedicated purely to making fun of Dara O'Shea's defensive capability on Argentinian national TV. How did you miss it?
Yeah the broadcasters, espn argentina broadcast every "el loco" Marcelo match live, it happened when they were in the B division for two years. Great ratings, his madness is a high rating case. It happened when was at bilbao and olympique, and his Lille madness situation, when he realesed all the senior players and kept the youth plus a few purchases
ESPN has followed his whole european managing carrer so far
football journal Diario Olé
https://www.ole.com.ar/futbol-intern...9EtbPrL-8.html
I agree that Dara O'Shea is not ready for the sweeper role that he's never played in and nobody has ever called for him to play in.
For what it's worth, I don't think he should play in goal either and I think the calls for him to captain the Irish lacrosse team are premature.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Not proposing Dara to Liverpool or anything like that but when you see how Nat Phillips struggled for Liverpool last night and his difficulty in acclimatizing to the Premier League, it demonstrates how well O'Shea has done to look so assured even against Liverpool and Chelsea this season. There are other examples around the league but playing there, at that age, in this league under two different managers and not appearing fazed augurs very well.
Not saying it has been flawless but I think he has looked every inch a good young Premier League centre half and those are few and far between.
As well as his positioning and anticipation, I have liked his comfort on the ball. We saw that for Ireland too.
I'd agree with that. O'Shea has really impressed me, getting to grips with the step up to the PL far sooner than I thought possible.
Given Sheffield United's and Stevens' troubles this season I'd have him down as a prime candidate to start at left-back if we had a match in the near future.
We shouldn't be holding promising lads like this back.
Last edited by Trequartista20; 31/12/2020 at 6:31 PM.
He was left back last night in a West Brom side that got a whipping off Arsenal. I think he was the best of the back four. Big Sam's decision to put Ivanovic in centre half really back-fired and he was utterly tormented by Lacazette.
On O'Shea's side, he was the best of the back four I feel. He didn't make any mistakes though he was the victim of a couple of overloads when Arsenal attacked. Smith-Rowe was allowed to drift in by Sawyers and Gallagher into a pocket of space between O'Shea and the centre backs to assist Saka for his goal, for example. On the other hand, Ivanovic, Ajayi and Furlong were all directly exposed in one on one situations and fluffed clearances whereas Dara was not.
I watched a good bit (but not all) of the game last night. From what I saw O'Shea looked the best of the West Brom defenders - although that wasn't saying much as the other three were awful.
Furlong on the right looked like one of the worst premier division full backs I have ever seen, Ajayi ( who is normally good) had a poor night and almost scored an own goal that wouldn't look out of place on the Vanarama league highlights show.
Ivanovic is just a long way past it and needs to be taken out of his misery.
It's to his credit that O'Shea is playing alongside that lot and still managing to come out with his reputation intact. That said I don't think he's a left back either and part of West Brom's problems last night was not starting him in the middle of the back four instead of Ivanovic. Possibly their other left back options are the reason for this though.
If I was Big Sam I'd stick with O'Shea and Ajeyi at centre back and use any funds available to bring in two full backs in January. His hands will be tied by their league position though as anyone signing will know that realistically they will be playing in the Championship next season.
I'd love for O'Shea to do enough to get a move to a better team in the summer - he does already look to be a good player at this level and young centre backs of his standard are not easy to come by (although we seem to have two coming through at once with him and Collins). Sometimes I feel in this situation that if he was English or Welsh he'd be getting a lot more positive PR in the UK that might lead to a move in the summer. But because he has been going about his business quietly he doesn't have much of a profile which might count against him in the transfer market. Every time he is named on a team sheet I see comments on twitter expressing amazement that John O'Shea is still playing at that level which gives an idea of how low his profile is outside of Ireland.
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