Can't have been lower than last anyway
Bit odd to be questioning Bazunu's readiness/call-up when Kelleher is 22 and has played a whopping 10 senior competitive football matches in his career and Kieran O'Hara is sat on the bench for Burton. He's a Man City player and a highly rated one at that. I'm convinced he'll be our keeper for a long time to come, even if his moment isn't right now.
Would you prefer if Bazunu was fetching the balls to warm-up Ederson at Man City?
Interesting question. Lots of 3rd tier players have been called up over the years. Amond was named in a provisional squad by Mick whilst at League Two Newport.Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Brian Carey was called up by Jack while on loan at 4th-tier Wrexham I believe. Gary Kelly (the goalkeeper) was called up by Jack while at 4th-tier Bury, and made it as far as the bench, without ever winning a cap.
Don Givens was playing for Ireland still in 1981 while also playing for Sheffield United in the 3rd division.
He missed a penalty in the last minute of the last game of the season to get them relegated to the 4th division.
Second to last.
And aren't half the Rochdale team Irish? Shur call them all up.
The ball is round and has many surprises.
I'm glad Christe is gone, nowhere good enough
David Kelly at Walsall, Gerry Peyton at Bournemouth, Kevin Sheedy at Blackpool/Cardiff and Kevin Kilbane at Huddersfield are other 3rd-tier call-ups that spring to mind. There've been quite a few.
So you're a non-believer?
Cyrus? He's in the squad.
The ball is round and has many surprises.
Just back to McGeady - when asked in that Q&A session directly about calling him up, SK highlighted the difference in quality between the PL/Championship and L1. He also sent his chief scout to the final in which McGeady basically settled the match.
With so many other far less proven L1 players in the squad, it is really a bit surprising and you can only assume he wants to push on with a younger squad and therefore McGeady wasn't really a serious consideration?
The scout was presumably sent to Wembley to watch Lee O'Connor instead, otherwise what was the point?
Christ your right
I missed his name there
Then Don went to play in the Swiss league, where "An Indian summer crept stealthily over his closing days."
This was also covered on the other thread (or was it earlier on this thread?), but Bazunu is one of 32 Man City academy players currently out on loan. The higher-rated academy players are making their first-team City debuts instead. It's great we have a keeper at a top club (two, in fact), but we need to keep in perspective just how high-rated he is.
Kelleher, by contrast, has graduated from the academy meat-farm and has ousted an established Premier League keeper as Liverpool's number 2 choice. He's facing Salah, Firmino and Mane in training every day. I would prefer it if Bazunu was that highly-rated, yep.
BTW, googling Bazunu's form, I don't see any reference to rave reviews; just one League One Team of the Week award back in September. A Rochdale player did win League One's Young Player of the Month award for January, but it wasn't Bazunu. He deserves his call-up, and I'd give him a half against Qatar (assuming Kelleher is fit, which I hope he is), but I think we need to keep things in perspective here. There's a bit of a habit on foot over over-egging our young players (and then like Parrott, they go on loan to the second tier and make no impact). There's some promising players there, for sure, but the game is on Wednesday.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 18/03/2021 at 1:35 PM.
The question really is lower than that though. Kelly and Carey are good shouts (I'm loathe to count Amond as the size of some of those provisional squads was such that I wasn't that far off!)
SK confident Connolly will be fit, with Kelleher/McClean more uncertain. Westwood wasn't available, he's not even training with Wednesday at present despite playing the other day, but confirmed his availability for future squads! As per Dan McDonnell on Twitter.
OK, that's a positive at least. We don't have the strength to be forcibly retiring players like Westwood (or McGeady) really
But it does look like not all the 29 will make it, and what's quite a weak squad anyway will probably get weaker.
Not confident. Always darkest before the dawn maybe?
What fresh madness is this do we speculate ?
Hey - playing without training worked for Paul McGrath, so I'm ok with it!
That's interesting. But hes always made out hes been available, and then not been available.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
Kelleher, Bazunu, Travers, O'Hara
Coleman, Doherty, Duffy, Stevens, Long, Clark, O'Shea, Manning, Christie
Hourihane, Browne, Hendrick, Molumby, Knight, Cullen
Brady, McClean, Horgan, Curtis, O'Dowda, Robinson, Connolly, Long, Collins, Parrott
Repeating the squad because I had to scroll back to find it. I'm not really disappointed that Westwood and McGeady have missed out. The consensus is that it's very unlikely we're going to qualify in this campaign, so I'm ok with Kenny looking to the future and giving the younger players competitive experience.
In terms of the starting team, the big call is probably to start Duffy or not. I'm not disappointed that Randolph has missed out, if we're going to play out it needs to be a Kelleher or Bazunu behind the back four, it takes away another no win decision from Kenny that Randolph is out anyway.
Duffy is the other big weakness when playing out, so does Kenny now make the big call there too? The fact he's horribly out of form makes it a lot easier to justify as does the fact O'Shea and Clark are playing to a better standard in a better league. I think if Kelleher is fit he starts ahead of Bazunu, but I wouldn't have the massive fear some seem to have of starting Bazunu either. He's playing regularly, highly regarded and we don't have a whole lot to lose.
Team may well be;
Kelleher
Doherty Clark O'Shea Stevens
Hourihane Cullen Hendrick
Robinson Parrott Connolly
I think he'll end up going with Cullen in the middle, he's the only natural number 6 that can sit in front of the back four really. He probably has to go with the experience of an in form Hourihane and, a maybe not in form but still playing regularly in the premier league Hendrick. I think that's especially true if he makes the big call to leave Duffy out and persists with Doherty ahead of Coleman at right back.
Front three is the hardest to call (and assumes we don't think about switching to a more regular 4-5-1). Robinson has looked very effective but hasn't played for a good while, so may be under pressure from O'Dowda who's only back from injury himself and has only shown flashes for us really. I have a suspicion Parrot will start up top, while he's not tearing League One apart he's been playing regularly all season and he's the future, I think it's another gamble the manager might take over the experience of Long or the mediocrity of Collins. Connolly starts if he's fit enough (maybe even as the centre forward, I think it might be his most effective position to be honest). Brady and McClean probably next in line, I don't think the formation really suits either, but if it's a more regular 4-5-1 they might both start. Brady probably the most likely to break into the starting lineup.
Bound to be more dropouts with either injury or Covid, lots of tough calls for Kenny no matter what. Hopefully his luck changes a bit and we can sneak a few jammy goals or bang in some screamers to build a bit of belief.
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