Was watching the everton v sunderland match there yesterday on motd and noticed that McShane was at fault for at least 4 of evertons goals, long balls down the middle beat him, high balls beat him and he is also as slow as christmas. Thing is this was not a one off performance, last week in wales he cost us the game, and it leads me to this question. Is Paul McShane the only other CB we have along with Dunne? I personally would drop McShane and play Oshea ( i know, i know) but his lad is shi*e
I noticed that myself Aido, I counted 5 he was at fault for. He has no pace, strength or height, which begs the question how is he a premiership centre half. For Ireland I'd have Dunne and reluctantly O'Shea. Some of you might laugh but Graham Gartland for Drogheda is a top quality centre half. He has been capped all the way up and is in the B squad at the moment, and was one of their best performers in the last game. If he was in England he would be challenging for a starting place in the first team, same with RB Brian Shelly if Finnan wasn't around. On another note Stephen Ireland is on fire at the moment, hope he comes back to play for Ireland in the WC qualifying campaign.
He's a decent Championship defender but he's not of Premiership standard. Not one of Keane's most astute signings. He may improve with experience, but he has a lot to learn.
Think McShane needs to actually start learning the art of defending now. He is all heart and last ditch challenges but maybe if he had better awareness he wouldnt need as much of the above, and be better all round. On another note that Stephen Hunt needs to cop on aswell. See his challenge yesterday disgraceful. He got the benefit of the doubt with the Cech incident , then his red card against the Czechs was down to over enthusiasm/frustration/whatever, then yesterday he does that disgraceful tackle which could end someones career and in my opinion there is no defence for him.
McShane = Headless chicken There is something about hunt though, i think hes more clumsy than malicous I also fear sunderland will go down if keane doesnt sort out that defence
it seems as if centre half is our weakest position now and who would of thought that could happen when 15/20 years ago we had an abundance of quality centre backs.Thought o'dea looked comfotable in recent under 21 game and has played well for celtic when i've seen him but probably too imexperienced.O'shea is muck but porbably looks like our best option at the moment,although thankfully we have nearly a year before our next competitive match
O Shea is not the answer. Ferguson obviously has no faith in him at the position. He played Pique CB on Saturday and when made a change, he put Brown in CB and Hargreaves to RB. O Shea is the most overrated player in Irish footballing history...
Isnt it mad that a player can look so crap after such a great performance in his first international game. Looked a great palyer that game but crap the weekend.