Anthony Stokes (F free agent b.1988)

[geysir]

he makes dirk kuyt look like messi, thats how bad he is.

If you don't get Samaras, you don't get football.

I was up at the game.
Stokes put in a really hard shift but was basically chasing shadows. I've not seen the stats but I'd imagine Barca had 70%-75% possession whilst Stokesy was on the pitch. He was dropping in to midfield (so it was more of a 4-5-1 than a 4-4-2) and doing a lot of harrying and closing down but getting very little time on the ball. Its a fairly soul destroying task at the best of times but Stokes is not a midfielder and his qualities are further up the field on the ball. Perhaps having Kayal or someone on from the start might have been better (not for Stokes obviously). Having said that Lennons gameplan overall was working but for the silly kick out by Brown (as soft as it was). To keep up that level of workrate for a whole 90 minutes was going to be hard with 11, almost impossible with 10.

I'd say it was far from a soul destroying experience for Stokes to be playing against Barca at Celtic Pk.

[Junior]

I'd say it was far from a soul destroying experience for Stokes to be playing against Barca at Celtic Pk.

No the experience Im sure was memorable, a proud moment. Lining up in the hoops alongside the best team in the world over the last decade, the champions league anthem, a 60k frenzied crowd - a fabulous experience.

Chasing shadows with barely a touch of the ball, is soul destroying I'd imagine on that stage or in the park on a Sunday.

Still, he'll be better and more experienced for it though....

[Stuttgart88]

I thought Celtic did well. I'd love to see the ROI play as accomplished a game as Celtic have in their last 3 European ties Barca, Milan and Karagandy (home - not away obviously!). One might point that the results are all that counts but I think if we had it in us to play a more modern game against good opposition we'd win and draw more often than lose.

OK, so Forster was superb at the end but I think if ROI were to play a top team like Germany, the best we could hope for is to contain and wait for the one or two chances that will inevitably come. That's what Celtic did. I think there's a lesson for Ireland in how they approached these games.

[Duggie]

If you don't get Samaras, you don't get football.

oh well if you say so it must be true then.

[Stuttgart88]

I think Samaras is great value. Skillful, great feet, good pace and direct running, decent finisher and above all else, utterly erratic.

[paul_oshea]

I think Samaras is great value. Skillful, great feet, good pace and direct running, decent finisher and above all else, utterly erratic and ...

...as soon as he gets the balls from defense, he runs a bit with it and loses possesion either down a blind alley or because he holds onto it for too long.

He offered relief in the sense he took some pressure off the defense for a while, but he would inevitably give it back just after a slighly longer period of time.

I'm talking about last night btw. Its the exact same reason people got so frustrated with McGeady. Having said that watching lustig last night, i was thinking, Mcgeady could have done serious damage to him, or at least offered something compared to walters or wilson did. Whether or not he did anything after that is another point completely though

[DeLorean]

Yeah Samaras obviously has his attributes but I think he'd be well served by understanding his limitations.

[Fixer82]

Samaras showed how good a player he can be last night. Holding up play, holding off players and showing good feet.

But he is so frustrating because it's as if he tries to beat the whole opposition team on his own every time he gets the ball.

Which for me makes him a good player but not really an intelligent one

[geysir]

Samaras showed how good a player he can be last night. Holding up play, holding off players and showing good feet.

But he is so frustrating because it's as if he tries to beat the whole opposition team on his own every time he gets the ball.

Which for me makes him a good player but not really an intelligent one

Intelligent enough to be one of Celtic's and Greece's most important and effective players, with a long list of motm awards for club and country at the highest level. Intelligent enough and with enough bottle to be given and take on one of the most difficult roles to play in football, like last night, collect the ball and run at Barca.
Who the fck has ever done that without getting ambushed after 2 seconds?
He was the only player Barca really had to keep an eye on, he was Celtic's 'out' and yet he caused them problems time and time again. Stokes was useless at that role, probably no current Irish player could have managed 1/4 of what Samaras managed.
Definitely more than good enough for the Irish team.

[tetsujin1979]

Samaras was the difference between the two sides in the friendly last year, surprised at some of the reaction here to him

[Fixer82]

Intelligent enough to be one of Celtic's and Greece's most important and effective players, with a long list of motm awards for club and country at the highest level. Intelligent enough and with enough bottle to be given and take on one of the most difficult roles to play in football, like last night, collect the ball and run at Barca.
Who the fck has ever done that without getting ambushed after 2 seconds?
He was the only player Barca really had to keep an eye on, he was Celtic's 'out' and yet he caused them problems time and time again. Stokes was useless at that role, probably no current Irish player could have managed 1/4 of what Samaras managed.
Definitely more than good enough for the Irish team.

What I'm saying is he did all the hard work so often and so brilliantly, showed great strength to hold on to the ball....but never played the simple pass when it was on. He is a very frustrating player because he has so much talent

[Serb]

Are you guys seriously arguing about Georgios Samaras? Let's try and keep the thread at least a little bit on topic and talk about Anthony Stokes.

I'd love to see him get a start against Kazakhstan — I think he'd be well suited along side Robbie Keane for a game like that. I'm not sure about the Germany game though. I think I'd rather pack the midfield for that game, but we don't really have anyone who's effective at the lone striker role.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Stutts has it in essence about 'Jesus'. And is relevant, as it directly impacts how Stokes plays his game...

Probably too similar to Robbie, but might be our only consistent scorer in the future, well more than Long, Walters, Doyle, who can barely buy an international goal...

[Stuttgart88]

OK, at this stage would people here prefer Stokes to Long? I think he deserves a look.

Long has frustrated the **** out of me in recent games. Careless finishing, bad decision-making, suspect temperament. He needs to do an Aaron Ramsey and stop living off his potential and actually start delivering.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Would definitely give him a go, but ultimately with a view to being Robbie's potential replacement...

[Charlie Darwin]

OK, at this stage would people here prefer Stokes to Long? I think he deserves a look.

Long has frustrated the **** out of me in recent games. Careless finishing, bad decision-making, suspect temperament. He needs to do an Aaron Ramsey and stop living off his potential and actually start delivering.

He's almost 27. He's reached his potential - he's not going to get much better and I don't know why people keep expecting him to become this dominant centre forward.

Stokes is the new flavour of the month and I think would offer a lot more than your Sammons or your Walters, but I wouldn't expect miracles either. If King is going to carry forward his U21s formation for these games, it would be interesting to see if he can accommodate Keane and Stokes in the team, assuming Long or Doyle will almost certainly be the central striker.

[Fixer82]

I definitely see Stokes as Robbie's most obvious successor.
He's a natural goal scorer and a good poacher. Not as good a poacher as Robbie but few are.
I think he's better in other areas than Robbie.

For me the order of Irish strikers (excluding Robbie) would be:

Stokes
Long
Walters
Doyle
Cox (though we've rarely see him play up front for Ireland. When he has he's done well)

[OwlsFan]

I definitely see Stokes as Robbie's most obvious successor.
He's a natural goal scorer and a good poacher. Not as good a poacher as Robbie but few are.
I think he's better in other areas than Robbie.

For me the order of Irish strikers (excluding Robbie) would be:

Stokes
Long
Walters
Doyle
Cox (though we've rarely see him play up front for Ireland. When he has he's done well)

Stokes was an abject failure in England - yes abject. 4 goals in 51 games. He's playing in a very poor league and up to recently had been warming the subs' bench for Celtic behind Hooper and Samaras. If we're placing our hopes on him, then we're in trouble

[back of the net]

I definitely see Stokes as Robbie's most obvious successor.
He's a natural goal scorer and a good poacher. Not as good a poacher as Robbie but few are.
I think he's better in other areas than Robbie.

For me the order of Irish strikers (excluding Robbie) would be:

Stokes
Long
Walters
Doyle
Cox (though we've rarely see him play up front for Ireland. When he has he's done well)

I think Stokes is a long way off been Robbies Successor. He did shockingly in England and as Owlsfan has said is playing in a very low quality league. But in saying that, playing in the SPL seems to have grounded him somewhat and he now seems to be focussing on his football rather than the other nonsense he was involved in previously. So in that sense the move to SPL may prove to be a blessing if he decides to return to playing in a higher level league and from that theres no reason as to why he can live up to some of his potential and do better in England second time around. But that is all if and buts...


Absolutely agree with you Fixer though on your Cox point......dont understand some of the abuse he gets. When played out of position he offers little but thats not his fault. Think he be a gem for us upfront where he belongs though

[Stuttgart88]

I don't think playing in England is everything. Geysir was making the point that Samaras is a key part of a Greek team that is better than we are. If Stokes is good enough a player he'll do well for us, if he's not he won't. I think Long has left the door wide open for a Stokes right now.

I don't see anyone ever being Robbie's successor. 60 goals and half of them in a period when we had our worst ever central midfield. In future we're going to have to spread the goal scoring around the team. A more fluid style might accommodate that.