Yet another goal for McGoldrick today: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47010995 - he's surely got to be in the squad in March at this point - question is now, should he start?
Yet another goal for McGoldrick today: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47010995 - he's surely got to be in the squad in March at this point - question is now, should he start?
I would think at this stage McGoldrick has to be in the squad and also start against Gibraltar. Would love to see Crowley brought in also - he appears to be one of the only creative players available to us.
Beyond that, I wonder what Mick's first team talk will be like. Will it be (a) "up and at em lads, hit the ball long to big Goldie (McGoldrick) and pick up the pieces from there" (b) "we need to keep the ball on the ground and maintain possession and win it back at all costs if we lost it. Possession football will keep us in good stead for this campaign" or (c) "I don't care what way you play lads, just get the win"
Instead of players playing to a manager's philosophy, shouldn't the gameplan be built around the player's strengths? For us right now those would include:
- Pace up front: Our main options up front right now (Long, Obafemi, McGoldrick and Robinson) are all quick and we have speed elsewhere from Coleman, McClean and Christie
- Aerial Power from set-pieces - Duffy, Clark, Long, Doherty, Egan, Lenihan and Keogh have seventeen goals between them this season and have the aerial prowess to cause chaos from attacking corners and free-kicks. Also, McGoldrick at 6'1" and Long at 5'11" are tall enough to win some battles in the air if we go that route, in part.
- Sweet left feet - O'Dowda and Brady
- Goalscoring midfielders - Brady, Browne, McClean, Hourihane and recently O'Dowda
- Some wing trickery - McGeady
- If Jon Walters recovers successfully and still has something left in the tank, it gives us a more physical option up front
- And, of course, hard work, passion and a never-say-die attitude, whatever the formation and game-plan - every player who pulls on the green shirt
In fairness to MON, is is important to have a solid defensive base and after the Wales debacle we seemed to have some success developing that, conceding only twice in five games and shutting out or Danish tormentors of 2017 for 180 minutes. The question is how well will Mick use the attacking attributes of the players above to build on that and ensure victories.
Can agree with some of that but not all. Jon Walters - not a hope. Jon served us very very well. But he was losing pace in the last few games and is long past it now. Aerial ability is ok. But make sure it is from corners and set pieces. Aerial ability as in deploying a big man up front is all wrong. We need to forget that type of game. The time is now to change - play it to feet up front, hold the ball up and introduce others into the game. Let the long ball game to the big man be placed where it belongs - in the rearview mirror.
Shane Long - I can't see him ever hitting the heights again. Almost a year without a goal has affected his game miserably. Perhaps a place on the bench, perhaps not
I know Jon Walters is a long shot and debated including him as an option - and certainly I've heard that his powers have been fading over the last few internationals. But I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility of him having an impact and here's why: I read an interview with him a while back and the impression I got of him as a person is of a serious man who always is seeking to better himself. And this can be seen in his career - he probably has the natural talent of a middling Championship striker but due to his hard work, ambition and ability to harness his talents better than others he got into the Premier League at the age of 27 and played seven seasons there as well as scoring fourteen international goals past the age of 28. Plus he almost scored against the US last year with a snapshot from outside the box. So I can envisage a situation where he takes this time off injured as an opportunity to rest and recharge his batteries so that he can come back still with something to offer club and country for a little while longer. So even though I know that time might have caught up with him, I wouldn't rule him out, even if that simply means him coming on for twenty minutes to give us some physicality as we cling on to a single goal lead in Tbilisi.
As for Long, he has gone through a horrific dry patch, but after his recent goal, he was very unlucky not to get at least one more in the next game, forcing a brilliant save and having a great header cleared off the line. At the same time, I will note that instead of focusing on strikers who "make defenders run around a lot" or "hold the ball up well" or "offer us a big target for long balls", perhaps we should look for strikers who are scoring goals i.e. McGoldrick and Robinson
Wrap him up in bubble-wrap for the next ten days: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47450251
https://astonvilla.vitalfootball.co....n-loan-update/
Less good news given that he came on around half time for Scott Hogan and no report of an injury in the attached.
https://www.the42.ie/david-mcgoldric...49043-Mar2019/ good interview. Nice to see him taking responsibility for his lack of international minuted
Scored the winner today. Sheff United now in second, 1 point ahead of leeds with 6 games remaining. From an Irish perspective, it would be fantastic if they get promoted with Egan, Stevens and McGoldrick regular starters, and Hogan a squad player
Just scored
Ended up with a brace, Stevens got the other, John Egan returned and Scott Hogan played 70 minutes. One more win and they're effectively up. I would really love to see McGoldrick get off the mark for us in the Summer, even if it's just a goal against Gibraltar: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47930320
McGoldrick won Sheffield United's player of the year award while Egan led the promotion celebrations - https://www.the42.ie/irish-joy-sheff...10712-Apr2019/
Just can't seem to buy a Premier League goal - after his VAR-disallowed effort a couple of weeks ago, he powers a header that 99 times out of 100 ripples the net, but De Gea sticks out a paw to keep it out brilliantly - terrific decoy run to clear a path for Mousset's goal. Robinson also came on and got the assist for McBurnie's equaliser
Good piece on McGoldrick. It simultaneously shows why he will simply never be an effective goalscorer for us and yet why he has to be in the team.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...k-cutting-edge
For me, to get the most out of him, you’d probably need really really pacy wingers on either side, guys who can get in behind and exploit the space he creates and make runs that he has the ability to feed.
You could play Connolly on the left and Robinson on the right, or even shoehorn Shane Long wide right at a bit of a stretch or at a further stretch, Obafemi or Maguire...
O’Dowda also probably has the pace to get in behind but isn’t necessarily as attack minded as the rest...
He needs someone closer to him than just wide attackers ie he needs a partner to be most effective for us.
Really if we just played 4-4-2 with the understanding it would at times be a 4-4-1-1 as McGoldrick dropped deeper, that would suit us without overcomplicating things.
Sheffield United’s system is compelling but I have serious doubts about getting an international team on board with the intricacies over the span of an international break.
Agreed a 442/4411 with Connolly currently looks the best bet would also like to see a McGoldrick/Long combination in a similar shape.
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