Quotedoyle and keane up front without a doubt. if stan insists on one up front then keane to play just off doyle. fair to say that both these lads have had good seasons overall despite injury / loss of form at timesOriginally Posted by bwagner
With Robbie Keane ,Doyle , Long , Folan , Connolly , Murphy , Elliot , Stokes
(possibly Macken or Ward and Keough or Best ) all playing in the next premiership season ...What are your thoughts on their potential impact etc.....
It surely will be most strikers we have had at the top level .
doyle and keane up front without a doubt. if stan insists on one up front then keane to play just off doyle. fair to say that both these lads have had good seasons overall despite injury / loss of form at times
Keane and Doyle are the only two players in that list who definitely will be playing Premiership football next season.
As for the others, I wouldn't be surprised if Keane off-loaded all of his Irish strikers in the off-season.
I think Elliott, probably Connolly and possibly Murphy will be let go by Keane. He's already said he will have to let some players go to bring in new ones.
Elliott is most likely to be let go in my opinion, but I still think he's got something to offer us if he stays injury free. Compare Elliott's goal haul in his debut season 2 years ago to Connolly's this year (and Connolly takes penalties).
Murphy has been very good for Keane & I think he's got a real chance.
I don't think we need everyone playing Premiership football. Andy Keogh, Stephen Elliott etc. would still be very useful options to us if playing regularly at the top of the Championship, maybe more useful than Long making occasional appreances & sub appearances for Reading.
Will Stern John be kept on?
It'll be interesting to see if Keane maintains his rotation policy in the Premiership.
I would try out Stokes up front..doyle should be a definite starter as he is only one who has played well for club and country. Keane should play off the striker if he does play. Think Roy Keane bought a lot of players with the expectation he would be in the championship for another season. might offload a good few of them now. can see him keeping connolly tho. he might see it as a good barometer of himself as a manager if he can get connolly doing well in the premiership. This should be the Ireland/Sunderland forum.
If one looks at Sunderland's transfer targets it doesn't look like Keane is really looking for new strikers, the only ones on there are Andy Cole, Robbie Fowler (both pretty old), and David Nugent...who I doubt they could get. I think they'll end up with one new striker and keep 3 of the ones from last season (Murphy, Connolly, and John/Stokes, I bet Stokes will be loaned out though)
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Keane and Doyle would be my first choice strike force. However sometimes I think that maybe we could do with a targetman up front on occassions as the midfield are not the most creative players in the world. We'd have to see how Folan does at Wigan with a new manager. Hopefully he can fit the bill.
I think I should the parachute, because I'm great.
In fact, I think I should get both parachutes, in case one doesn't work.
Unfortunately I don't think Folan is anything to get too hot and sweaty about.
The target man option will probably be best fillled by Daryl Murphy next season or Cillian Sheridan if he breaks through at Celtic (which is likely considering their limited options upfront). In the long term Cillian Sheridan looks to be the best fit for Niall Quinn's size 15s.
However knowing Stan he'll probably play Terry Dixon and Alan O'Brien as our front pairing next season.
Last edited by youngirish; 15/05/2007 at 2:06 PM.
Keane has said that Murphy has the potential to be a top player if he applies himself.Having seen Murphy, I believe that he has all the attributes to become a very good player.He's tall and strong and has good technique.
As highly as I rate Duff I don't think we'd miss him too much with a front 3 of:
---Doyle---Stokes---
-------Keane-------
Let Keane play in his best position where we don't have to rely on him to get us goals.
It will be interesting to see how Murphy will do in the premiership, if he is kept on that is. But I do think a team like Ireland will need a target man. Our midfield lack so muck creativity that a tall striker causing havoc might be our only option. Especially if Duff is out.
I think I should the parachute, because I'm great.
In fact, I think I should get both parachutes, in case one doesn't work.
Was thinking the same, but how would you configure the midfield 3 behind them? 4-3-1-2 or whatever you want to call it necessitates a strong midfield.
Hunt (Kilbane) - Carsley - Ireland?
A lot of emphasis is placed on the full backs to provide the width that a narrower midfield 3 gives up.
Has to be Keane and Doyle. Stokes has to prove himself at top club level before being considered, the same goes for the rest.
What he says. I just dont get this whole pro-Stokes campaign. The guy signed for Sunderland at xmas and has done absolutely nothing since.
All of the strikers in that list are a waste of space minus Keane and Doyle. Connolly can and will score goals but is probably never going to get selected judging by the squad for the US games, so we can totally discount him.
Also I really dont think Keane is in a position to start off-loading players at Sunderland. PL standard strikers that are up for sale are very thin on the ground.
People are being incredibly judgemental about Stokes. For gods sake, can't you just appreciate it when we have some genuinely exciting talent and flair coming through?! He "did nothing" at Sunderland because he was completely unsettled. After he signed, he had to leave his house in Falkirk, go live in London for a short while, go back to Falkirk for a brief period to sort everything out, and then to a hotel in Sunderland for the remainder of the season, without his folks, who he'd been accustomed to living with. May I remind you he only turned 18 in July or August. This must be difficult, and a whole new experience. Allied to much publicised disciplinary matters and being consistently played out of his best position, it has been period of difficult transition. He claimed he was finding his feet in the last week or wto. Roy Keane know the enormous potential he has with Stokes, and I guarantee you he will maximise it next season. Expect things then, and they'll happen.
We had enough time to make a judgement on him before that though.
Oh, so a good run of games for the mighty Falkirk makes you international class all of a sudden.
Richie Foran would have made the squad as a result of his motherwell form by those measures.
I wish the lad well dont get me wrong but I just dont see why he should be included in the squad until he has scored consistently at Championship or PL level.
Not sure we should rely on Leon Best's penalty taking either!
Certaintly not, it looked like he missed by at least a yard (and he seemed be to more placing it than blasting it too) Mind you he certaintly managed to find the back of the next when he headed (edit: I think he mis-kicked) into his own goal.
Anyway he is not going to get promoted, Southampton just lost penalties.
Last edited by tricky_colour; 15/05/2007 at 9:36 PM.
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