Aiden McGeady M Ayr Utd b.1986

[livehead1]

Was at the Celtic game last night and was very impressed by McGeady's performance. He was the one and only outlet Celtic had last night. He was very comfortable on the ball, his passing was very good and it was clear that United were aware of his presence, especially in the first half. The negative side of his performance could be summed up by losing the ball on the edge of his own area; however, in his defence every time any other Celtic player touched the ball they lost it!

All in all he was very good last night and comfortably Celtic's best player. Apart from the one time he lost the ball in a dangerous situation he clearly seems to be maturing and normally chooses the right option whether to go past his man or play a simple pass. He's only gonna get better and he's a key asset for Ireland.

[geysir]

I thought Caldwell was easily the best.
McGeady did much better at Old Trafford than the last time he was there.

[Ordinary Fan]

Time for McGeady to move on from Celtic. He will never develop beyond his current level if he remains.
Trap rates him and McGeady's performances have been very consistent but needs to work with Keane and Doyle on crossing and positioning.

[geysir]

At least up to now, the evidence of his performances shows that he has improved.

I see Liverpool have spent £6m or 7m on Riera who imo looked shockingly inept on the left wing last night against Athl Madrid.

[Hibernian]

Time for McGeady to move on from Celtic. He will never develop beyond his current level if he remains.
Trap rates him and McGeady's performances have been very consistent but needs to work with Keane and Doyle on crossing and positioning.

Yes agree with your first point he needs to move out of Scotland pretty quick.

I was hoping that the rumours about himself and Strachan having a bust up would become serious and that he might go to England.

Taught he was only average the other night too

[Junior]

He's not really performed to last years high standards in the SPL this season so far, though his 3 performances for Ireland have shown improvement.

Moving to the EPL or one of the other top leagues at this stage in his career - might simply finish it. IMO he needs to prove he can do it game after game and would certainly need to do it for more than one season in Scotland (his previous seasons have been a learning curve). I simply dont want to see a Liam Miller / Shaun Maloney situation arising because he didnt hang on for a few seasons

[seanfhear]

If he did get a transfer to Aston Villa then we would find out in the following year or two how good he could be.
The time for him to move on will have arrived in january or at the end of the season.
If he can improve his ball retention I am hopefull he will become a top level performer.

[eirebhoy]

Carew said Maloney was always the best player in training. He impressed more often than not when given his chance in the first team. O'Neill still didn't really give him a run of games. He just said he was unfortunate that he had Ashley Young in his position. He still didn't want to let him go. I wouldn't want McGeady going to Villa unless O'Neill can fit him, Young and Milner into the same team. If not it'll just be a stop, start rotation policy after the amount they paid on Milner.

[seanfhear]

Carew said Maloney was always the best player in training. He impressed more often than not when given his chance in the first team. O'Neill still didn't really give him a run of games. He just said he was unfortunate that he had Ashley Young in his position. He still didn't want to let him go. I wouldn't want McGeady going to Villa unless O'Neill can fit him, Young and Milner into the same team. If not it'll just be a stop, start rotation policy after the amount they paid on Milner.

Good insight.
I wonder if Villa will be able to hold on to Young long term.Was he in the last England squad and if he was not then he should have been.

Would Liverpool or Arsenal think about Aiden!!!!!!

[Junior]

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.

I was at the game on Tuesday so have only just sat down to watch a rerun. McGeady has misplaced his first pass 3:45 in to the game.

I thought he played decent but lets not exagerate

[Razors left peg]

Good insight.
I wonder if Villa will be able to hold on to Young long term.Was he in the last England squad and if he was not then he should have been.

Would Liverpool or Arsenal think about Aiden!!!!!!

Hes better than any of Liverpools wingers

[jmurphyc]

Hes better than any of Liverpools wingers

In terms of last season's wingers, he probably was, but from what I've seen, Riera is currently a much more complete player than McGeady. If he were to go to Liverpool, he wouldn't be first choice IMO, he'd be one of the players that plays sporadically.

[geysir]

Riera was awful against Athletico and that was just one on one. McGeady would have made hay there.

[eirebhoy]

I was at the game on Tuesday so have only just sat down to watch a rerun. McGeady has misplaced his first pass 3:45 in to the game.

Yeh I watched the game again. That was after skipping by Anderson and playing a hopeful forward pass for McDonald to chase onto. I wouldn't call it a misplaced pass as much as I wouldn't call a cross a misplaced pass. If McGeady played like he did on Tuesday in a team that could dominate possession he'd be getting excellent reviews imo. He can't blamed for Man Utd dominating the game because he has to rely on his teammates giving him the ball. I was very impressed with how he was coming inside, laying the ball off, looking extremely confident and actually looking like an intelligent footballer.

I'd love to see McGeady play like he did on Tuesday more often. As Strachan said, 2 or 3 moments of magic is enough. His biggest critisism of McGeady was that he felt he had to do something magic every time he got the ball. On Tuesday McGeady kept things simple, played the simple passes and came looking to receive the pass from his teammates. He made 3 good runs inside to take a shot on goal. I thought his cross/pass from the wing to Brown on the edge of the box was terrific. A couple of years ago it would have been head down and try to beat the players. There was 2 players around him, he got his head up, saw Brown free and realised he could get the ball to him without beating the player.

He just showed that he can play an intelligent game which is why I was so impressed.

[Kingdom]

On Tuesday McGeady kept things simple, played the simple passes and came looking to receive the pass from his teammates. He made 3 good runs inside to take a shot on goal. I thought his cross/pass from the wing to Brown on the edge of the box was terrific. A couple of years ago it would have been head down and try to beat the players. There was 2 players around him, he got his head up, saw Brown free and realised he could get the ball to him without beating the player.

He just showed that he can play an intelligent game which is why I was so impressed.

Noticed that myself, nice touch of vision out of him .

[Junior]

Yeh I watched the game again. That was after skipping by Anderson and playing a hopeful forward pass for McDonald to chase onto. I wouldn't call it a misplaced pass as much as I wouldn't call a cross a misplaced pass. If McGeady played like he did on Tuesday in a team that could dominate possession he'd be getting excellent reviews imo. He can't blamed for Man Utd dominating the game because he has to rely on his teammates giving him the ball. I was very impressed with how he was coming inside, laying the ball off, looking extremely confident and actually looking like an intelligent footballer.

I'd love to see McGeady play like he did on Tuesday more often. As Strachan said, 2 or 3 moments of magic is enough. His biggest critisism of McGeady was that he felt he had to do something magic every time he got the ball. On Tuesday McGeady kept things simple, played the simple passes and came looking to receive the pass from his teammates. He made 3 good runs inside to take a shot on goal. I thought his cross/pass from the wing to Brown on the edge of the box was terrific. A couple of years ago it would have been head down and try to beat the players. There was 2 players around him, he got his head up, saw Brown free and realised he could get the ball to him without beating the player.

He just showed that he can play an intelligent game which is why I was so impressed.

First of all let me say, I do generally agree with your assessment of McGeadys performance. He was in the top 2-3 performers on the night for Celtic

However, if you wanted a job working for the government as a crime statitician - you'd have no problems

That was a forward pass to McDonald of about 25-30 yds that didnt come off. Admittedly there werent really any other passes on (other than backwards) but he did have 10 yds of space in front of him and could have held on to it. Lost possession/uncompleted pass in my opinion (and IMO Optas's view as well).

He did a similar thing with a pass out to Naylor on the left that went out for goal kick. It was a 30-40 yd pass but not really under any pressure. He also lost posession twice in his own half (in the first half) which led to utd shots on goal.

It was a tidy performance from McGeady but you have to be fair with the stats eirebhoy it wasnt faultless!!

[eirebhoy]

He also lost posession twice in his own half (in the first half) which led to utd shots on goal.

Which I mentioned.

Watch McGeady and in almost every game you'll see him misplace passes that he shouldn't have. After watching the match for the first time I came out of it thinking he didn't misplace a pass. After watching it again I saw those 2 passes you're talking about. He gave the ball away alright but not in the way he did twice for Ireland last week.

I think it's unfair to call those misplaced passes. Well, you're right, the one to Naylor was misplaced. It skidded off the wet surface but he meant it to go right to Naylor. But the one to McDonald wasn't a misplaced pass imo, he just hit it in space hoping he'd beat Vidic to it. The 2 for Ireland were certainly misplaced though.

I'm not posting my biased view to defend McGeady against others saying he lost possession because that's not the case. I'm saying why I was happy with his performance. I thought he played quite like Nakamura does in these games except he has the ability to beat players and produce that moment of magic. Jesus if he ever came close to Nakamura's ability while also having his ability to dribble and beat players he'd be a hell of a player. The only games Naka struggles in are those that Celtic are on the back foot. Celtic can be on the back foot like they were in Benfica last year and McGeady can still have a great game.

He won't lose his ability to dribble. It's time he used his brain and played more like he did on Tuesday imo because he's capable of it.

[Junior]

Aiden got a goal tonight against Killie in the CIS cup.

O'Dea played 90mins and did ok. Sheridan came on for the last 15mins and had a couple of half chances

[Pike B]

Aiden got a goal tonight against Killie in the CIS cup.


Ring Fifa and stick him on the shortlist for World Player of the Year...

[eirebhoy]

McGeady was excellent tonight. Man of the match imo. As usual gave the ball away carelessly a couple of times which is why I was so impressed with him against Man Utd.