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Looks to have the ability, good left foot and plenty of enthusiam but never seems to get things right somehow.

Simple passes either over hit, under hit or wayward and shots usually scuffed or blazed over the bar.

Is it just being over anxious, careless or is he really not quite good enough.

Can't help thinking that there's a decent player in there somewhere but he always seems to be just that little bit off it.

.

Edited by Making Plans

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I was talikng generally rather than about today in particular.

Although he did have a great chance to score but got too excited and dragged it wide when it was 0-0

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I think McLean and PLM are both very erratic. They will make an excellent pass or piece of play, and then one minute later they will overhit a simple pass or give the ball away. Neither of them is cool or composed in front of goal, either. I know no one achieves 100% accuracy, but both of them seem far too hit-and-miss for the Premier League.

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4 minutes ago, Myra Hawtree said:

I’m not a big Kenny fan but thought he had a good game today, all things considered.

He had a good game how?   was watching on tv and didnt really hear his name. 

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1 hour ago, Making Plans said:

Looks to have the ability, good left foot and plenty of enthusiam but never seems to get things right somehow.

Simple passes either over hit, under hit or wayward and shots usually scuffed or blazed over the bar.

Is it just being over anxious, careless or is he really not quite good enough.

Can't help thinking that there's a decent player in there somewhere but he always seems to be just that little bit off it.

.

He's not quite good enough. Chump squad player at best. Sorry if that offends.

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3 hours ago, canarybubbles said:

I think McLean and PLM are both very erratic. They will make an excellent pass or piece of play, and then one minute later they will overhit a simple pass or give the ball away. Neither of them is cool or composed in front of goal, either. I know no one achieves 100% accuracy, but both of them seem far too hit-and-miss for the Premier League.

PLM is improving as he gets used to things. Maclean is the same every game - runs about like a headless chicken for the first half then disappears in the second.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but finding £20m for Oliver Skipp in the summer would have been a potential season saver.

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Would our starting 3 cms McLean, PLM and Gilmor get any any other premier league first eleven? I don’t think so. So we have the answer there. 

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Its clear the management put character and effort above skill and technical ability in team selection based on training achievements, this is how Kenny gets in. Putting a light weight over rated wee Billy in a Premier league game is an equally failed cause by the selection committee, he just gets brushed off the ball and caught out of position In every game, something we don’t see too often from Olli Skipp. The fact is we seriously down graded with Skipp and Buendia last summer and I am convinced we would of had 9 more points on the board by now if those two players were in our squad this season, as for Lees-Melou, he has been a slow learner but is gradually starting to improve but not consistently enough for a whole game yet.

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19 minutes ago, Helsinki canary said:

Its clear the management put character and effort above skill and technical ability in team selection based on training achievements, this is how Kenny gets in. Putting a light weight over rated wee Billy in a Premier league game is an equally failed cause by the selection committee, he just gets brushed off the ball and caught out of position In every game, something we don’t see too often from Olli Skipp. The fact is we seriously down graded with Skipp and Buendia last summer and I am convinced we would of had 9 more points on the board by now if those two players were in our squad this season, as for Lees-Melou, he has been a slow learner but is gradually starting to improve but not consistently enough for a whole game yet.

I'm sure we would but they were never going to be here this season and bringing in players of their quality with our budget was a non starter. 

As I've said before Kenny wouldn't be in my first eleven but he is subject of a lot of scapegoatism on here unfortunately.

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2 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

I'm sure we would but they were never going to be here this season and bringing in players of their quality with our budget was a non starter. 

As I've said before Kenny wouldn't be in my first eleven but he is subject of a lot of scapegoatism on here unfortunately.

I agree, Kenny is often the scapegoat and you have look at the midfield as a unit and when the sum of the parts is worse than what we had last season the outcome is inevitable 

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10 hours ago, mannings bandy legs said:

He's not quite good enough. Chump squad player at best. Sorry if that offends.

He’s a Championship regular starter for a reason. He struggles to make the step up like most of our players because the gulf is so huge.
 

However a player who does what Kenny does a lot better is a huge amount of money. Considering Kenny offers enough at this level I’d imagine that’s why we’ve upgraded elsewhere. I look at our midfield and Normann is the standout but, at least on current evidence, no one else seems a notable upgrade on Kenny.

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its not just him .its the whole squad that  needs changing

Edited by baldy09
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It’s a massive club failing that we didn’t address this CDM problem on the last relegation when it was glaringly obvious where the main problem was and how lightweight we were in there!   Skipp wasn’t addressing that, if anything it prevented and masked it.   
 

Having no pace, athleticism and quality means we can’t get a grip on games and consequently the offensive players spend far to much time defending.   Watford had us penned in, Palace did too, Man City was to be expected.   Kenny and Lees Melou can’t cope and Gilmour isn’t helping our cause.   It is classic men v boys stuff.
 

Sadly, it’s disappointing to see the team sheet and not have Normann and Sorensen on it.    
 

WE NEED 3 PROPER CDMs who have strength, athleticism and tenacity first and foremost….. not loans, players we can develop for our team.   Without that the rest can’t be effective.    It’s the reason our full-backs are so ineffective offensively.  

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Our central midfield was weirdly better against Man City than against Palace. Kenny's passing was a bit better while PLM had a worse game. Gilmour moved the ball well mostly, until he gave it away for their third goal. The off the ball work was generally disciplined although Gilmour still has a tendency to get too tight in the opposition half and end up out of position.

Our defensive issues were almost all down their left/our right with Aarons and Sargent failing (unsurprisingly) to cope with Sterling. You could probably fault the midfield for failing to track the runs into the box or the centre backs for not dealing with the balls across, but they were up against some world class movement.

We were good in the first 20 minutes. Ok in the first half and fell apart in the second. The second goal killed the game and our damage limitation was not successful. 

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Most of our attacks started from McLean pressing and nipping in front of Man City players to win the ball. He done that in both our half and theirs. He was our best midfielder today, and not for the first time.

Its really not surprising that Dean Smith continues to pick him, his work rate, aerial ability and pressing is better than any other midfielder we have and we lack it over most of the pitch. Its also no surprising that Farke picked him regularly either.

It also shouldn't be surprising that if Normann starts its unlikely to be in his place based on current form.

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Good honest trier whos been a big contributor to two Championship title wins but at this level hes not good enough but his tenacity and willingness to have a go puts him above others in the squad. - The same thing would have applied two seasons ago so McLeans will not ever be anything more.

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2 minutes ago, hogesar said:

Most of our attacks started from McLean pressing and nipping in front of Man City players to win the ball. He done that in both our half and theirs. He was our best midfielder today, and not for the first time.

Its really not surprising that Dean Smith continues to pick him, his work rate, aerial ability and pressing is better than any other midfielder we have and we lack it over most of the pitch. Its also no surprising that Farke picked him regularly either.

It also shouldn't be surprising that if Normann starts its unlikely to be in his place based on current form.

It’s very hard to disagree with you on this but the fact remains he’s nowhere near good enough or effective enough at this level and it’s precisely this area of the pitch that needs a full re-address.   The fact we are still picking him is because we’ve nothing else to improve it.   It was exactly the same in 19/20 when eventually we only had him and Tettey to select since the rest Trybull, Leitner, Amadou, etc had proved no good.   


 

 

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1 minute ago, ged in the onion bag said:

It’s very hard to disagree with you on this but the fact remains he’s nowhere near good enough or effective enough at this level and it’s precisely this area of the pitch that needs a full re-address.   The fact we are still picking him is because we’ve nothing else to improve it.   It was exactly the same in 19/20 when eventually we only had him and Tettey to select since the rest Trybull, Leitner, Amadou, etc had proved no good.   


 

 

Yeah, we have midfielders who are either very average at pretty much all aspects of the game, or excel in one or two and are poor for this level in others. There is a big lack of balance.

Improving on someone like Kenny whilst in the championship is a tall order though. It seems much more plausible to do should we somehow remain in this league.

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McClean's ok. We've had the player long enough to know what we're getting without the need for such constant analysis.

The thing is, if a Championship club had come in with a £5m bid for him in January I suspect that most would have been happy, or at least tempted, to have wanted the club to accept it (perhaps not the manager though,) and that we would be eyeing up the replacement that some of that money could provide.

A midfield cog that is now likely valued at that sort of money is not what Premier League teams are made of.

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Precisely Hogestar and Broadstairs.

 

McLeans not good enough at this level which we knew 2 seasons ago but he is one of the better ones of a poor bunch.

 

Its similar upfront where we are relying on Idah as a back up and hes not good enough. We could or more like should have signed another striker in January just give us another option, you can never enough strikers. I suspect frustratingly in the likely scenario of Norwich going down we will probably another striker to bolster the Championship promotion push!

 

It makes one wonder if we had let Gilmour go back in January and try and get a more capable, stronger midfielder?    

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It’s the ‘type’ of player that’s wrong.   We need stoppers, players who can anticipate where we’re vulnerable, cover ground, screen our defence, be strong in the tackle and win 50/50s.    We’ve not had any of that in 4 seasons except for one temporary loan signing.    Even if they don’t have great quality on the ball, they would help us defensively and allow the offensive players more freedom, including our full-backs who could get further forward with less fear of being exposed.
 

It’s been a huge failing of the club and scouts.   Our next 3 signings need to address this!   

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14 hours ago, canarybubbles said:

I think McLean and PLM are both very erratic. They will make an excellent pass or piece of play, and then one minute later they will overhit a simple pass or give the ball away. Neither of them is cool or composed in front of goal, either. I know no one achieves 100% accuracy, but both of them seem far too hit-and-miss for the Premier League.

I'd agree with this. I've maintained for three years that McLean is a very good Championship midfielder but no more than a squad player in the Premier League and Lees-Melou has been very inconsistent so far, with some good performances but some poor ones too. 

I think when everyone's fit then we're probably looking at a midfield trio of Normann, Gilmour and Lees-Melou if we go with a three.

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2 hours ago, Monty13 said:

He’s a Championship regular starter for a reason. He struggles to make the step up like most of our players because the gulf is so huge.
 

However a player who does what Kenny does a lot better is a huge amount of money. Considering Kenny offers enough at this level I’d imagine that’s why we’ve upgraded elsewhere. I look at our midfield and Normann is the standout but, at least on current evidence, no one else seems a notable upgrade on Kenny.

****, Sorenson is much better than McLean.

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29 minutes ago, shefcanary said:

****, Sorenson is much better than McLean.

Two managers haven’t thought so.

I thought he was great against Everton and for 20 mins of Watford but there’s very little evidence of what he can do in midfield.

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22 hours ago, mastoola said:

He had a good game how?   was watching on tv and didnt really hear his name. 

That's because you don't understand football at this level. It's about what you do when you haven't got the ball as much as when you have got it. Having marked Gallagher out of the game on Wednesday who else could? His work supporting williams forced Manchester City to play out to the left. 

McLean may not be the best footballers but he is far and away the best athlete and in case you haven't noticed this either the premiership requires athletes.

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25 minutes ago, Besthorpe-48 said:

That's because you don't understand football at this level. It's about what you do when you haven't got the ball as much as when you have got it. Having marked Gallagher out of the game on Wednesday who else could? His work supporting williams forced Manchester City to play out to the left. 

McLean may not be the best footballers but he is far and away the best athlete and in case you haven't noticed this either the premiership requires athletes.

Im sorry but its you that does not understand football at this level.   The Box to box midfielder must be influential in the play and make things happen if not they are just playing catch up. His job is to make things happen and not be behind the play and playing catch up.  So wish Norman was fit then you would see the difference.

Edited by mastoola

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