QuoteIn fairness Jones has been very good this season, 5 goals and 9 assists from 25 games back that up. Murphy and Chopra haven't done much but have made more of an impact that O'Donovan.Originally Posted by gustavo
He's made 3 starts and has come on 8 times in the league. In total, he's played 4 starts and 9 as a sub. I don't mean to be a pedant, but it's not particularly difficult to find these figures out before you post messages.
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In fairness Jones has been very good this season, 5 goals and 9 assists from 25 games back that up. Murphy and Chopra haven't done much but have made more of an impact that O'Donovan.
Ridiculous statement.Was one of Sunderlands better players at weekend and Im sure the lad is improving and learning all the time, its a big jump to straight from Eircom League to Premiership. Even people like Henry sometimes take a season to adjust properly to the Premiership, not saying hes near that class but Im sure he will prove to be a good player in time. If Kevin Doyle can do it theres no reason why O Donovan cant if he works hard. Lots of Cork fans would say that O Donovan was better than Doyle for City
looked really handy when he scored on his debut. hardly seen anything of him since
Nope. Doyle had an excellent football brain even at City so contributed a lot even when not scoring. O'Donovan very quick (he even looks quick in PL from what I have seen) & excellent finisher. Overall Doyle was more mature too.
Ciaran likes to get as big a reaction as possible.
Prica is not a great player tbh. It was a mistake buying him.
He failed to make it in Germany which is way weaker than the Premiership. The only positive thing about him was finishing top scorer in the Danish League last season, a bit like finishing top scorer in Scotland for Hibernian or the like.
Last edited by finnpark; 18/03/2008 at 5:39 PM.
The deepest layer of human thinking and feeling somehow knows that God must exist - Pope Benedict XVI
I think a lot of people on here give too much lenience to former LOI players for some reason or another.
The fact of the matter is, O Donovan is NOT a premiership player, anyone who's watched most of the games in which he's played this season will agree, and he would fit into a moderate championship team in my opinion.
Keane has made some woeful signings, which could result in relegation (Chopra 5.5m is the big one) and I don't think in hindsight, Keane would rate O D as a great signing, considering he hasn't really forced his way into the starting line-up.
If I was to put money on it O Donovan will be sold over the summer or loaned out next year, if Sunderland are still a Premiership team.
I hope that doesn't happen but I have a feeling it will.
San Marino are going to be a handful as the group goes on." - Steve Staunton reacts to performance against San Marino.
While I would agree that he's not Premiership standard just yet from what I've seen, he does seem to have a lot of the tools necessary to be successful, certainly physically. Whether he's got the brain for it yet, I'm not sure.
Sunderland is a hard place to be right now for a young player. You're not allowed to make mistakes, and the pressure to get points in order to avoid the drop is tremendous.
For offensive players, this situation is especially frightening. Offensive players will lose the ball maybe 4 out of every 5 attacks.
But when losing the ball can be so costly, it sometimes becomes less about scoring as it does about keeping the other team out.
In addition, most games Sunderland will have less possession than their opponents, and yet O'Donovan's strengths lie on the ball, not off it.
Trying to judge a young player like O'Donovan in this situation is extremely difficult, especially when he is being played out of position on the right side of midfield.
I think a top coach or scout would have trouble evaluating him in this situation, let alone the likes of us who mostly see him on TV.
One thing I will not do though is write him off at the age of 20 while in the midst of a relegation battle with an inexperienced manager who chops and changes the team every week.
Having actually seen them both play in person a few times, O'Donovan is better than Chopra
O'Donovan is not a Premier League player but same could be said of Sunderland. Besides Jones there is not a single player who would be bought by Premier League side should they get relegated.
Gordon? Richardson? Reidy? bardsley?
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Johnny Evans, Carlos Edwards
Dwight Yorke*
*Please note I'm joking.
I could have sworn that he was playing in that league last weekend and should have won a penalty against England's top rated central defender. It must have been a different Roy O'Donovan
The deepest layer of human thinking and feeling somehow knows that God must exist - Pope Benedict XVI
Age, potential & 1/4 the price.Top scorer in Denmark isn't good enough but top scorer in the eircom league is?
Prica a strange purchase mid season when already could field nearly a full team of forwards.
In fairness none of them had more than 4 goals, so you can understand him looking at another option.
I'd have O'Donovan and Stokes in the Sunderland team before Rade Prica. Agree that he was another poor signing by Keane and he doesn't offer anything that wasn't already in the Sunderland squad.
Rade Prica has shown that he can score against lesser opposition in the Danish and Swedish leagues. But O'Donovan and Stokes have also shown their goalscoring abilities at Cork and Falkirk respectively. IMO Stokes' goalscoring record at Falkirk, in a league that's higher ranked than the Danish league, is more impressive than what Prica did at Aalborg.
In the case of O'Donovan, I don't think Keane has given him a decent chance to prove himself yet. It's difficult to show what you can do when you're only getting a few minutes here and there to play. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Keane, for the most part, has used all his substitutions in each premiership match. This highlights he doesn't really know what his strongest line-up is as he's unprepared to let his starting line-up finish the game. It's difficult for O'Donovan to prove himself when his manager can't stop tinkering with the team.
Difficult one to judge the likes of Solksjaer and Flo (I'm sure there are many others but I don't have the time to think of them!) came over to the english leagues and did very well; there is always a risk when buying players that are unproven, Keane I feel, has been unlucky in that the club can't attract the level of player required to prosper in the premier league at this moment of time. Therefore he has to buy players with a risk value attached. He has also been unlucky in the sense that normally one or two would have turned out to be good! I think O'Donovon has shown glimpses that he could be a good footballer some day, but with sunderland embroiled in a relegation battle its probably not the best of breeding grounds for him.
well hes starting against Aston Villa again today
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