Mcnulty to Leicester?!

I know he is only one of four in the defence but he has been in an ever present in a team that has defended poorly throught the season. Even before our post Vaz Te collapse we will still shipping goals. Must have all been McEvely's fault.

 

ive seen every game he's played for us and i'd be gutted if he left

 

He played in a back four consisting of mcevely, wiseman and foster for the majority of the season. Jay Mc was slower than a bus, foster isn't too bad but isn't commanding or forceful enough to stop telling him to stop titting about with the ball and Wiseman will never be a defender as long as he has a hole in his arris. If you look back at the vast majority of goals we conceded in the second half of the season they came from errors from our right back. Nothing Mcnulty can do about that! It all just highlights the fact we need a proper leader.

 

So was Shackell.

 

So it was all the fault of the full backs. When McNulty did make a mistake it was Foster's fault for not telling him what to do. Can we attach a bit of blame to Steele while we're at it?

 

Jimmy McNulty Personal information

Full name James McNulty[1]
Date of birth 13 February 1985 (age 27)
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position Defender
Club information
Current club Barnsley
Number 15

Youth career
2001–2002 Liverpool
2002–2003 Everton

Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
2003–2004 Wrexham 0 (0)
2004 → Bangor City (loan) 5 (0)
2004–2006 Caernarfon Town 68 (2)
2006–2008 Macclesfield Town 41 (2)
2008–2009 Stockport County 46 (1)
2009–2011 Brighton & Hove Albion 15 (1)
2010 → S****horpe United (loan) 3 (0)
2010 → S****horpe United (loan) 6 (0)
2011– Barnsley 44 (2)

National team‡
2001–2002 Scotland U17 6 (0)
2003–2004 Scotland U19 4 (0)
2005 Scotland U21 2 (0


Having looked at his wiki page above, I think it's fair to say the lad was on the football scrapheap until King Keith and Prince Flicker took a chance on him.

He's had horrific injuries to contend with, which he seems to have recovered from. And unlike a lot of professional footballers, the bloke was not so long since playing the game part-time, whilst earning a proper living like most of us. Kudos to him for sticking with it.

From what I can gather having read the Brighton and Scunny forums in the past, he was a well-liked player in his days there too.

IMO, having watched Jason Shackell for 9 months, and then Jimmy for 9, I'd say there's very little between them ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

Jason went for nearly a million pounds - allegedly. We got Jimmy for a nominal fee - below 100k I presume.

Jason was on a lucrative contract, I doubt very much that Jimmy is paid even a 5th of that.

During the first half of the season, I thought (and said on here) that Jimmy was our best recruit. He has composure, oodles of time on the ball, and can pick out a pass/cross. He also plays with a smile on his face. His versatility was shown throughout the season, at center half, midfield, and in his best position (IMO) of left back. I certainly think with the injury troubles behind him, and off the back of a full season at this level, he'll maintain his standards for a lot longer this coming season. But if he's to play at center half again, like many others I feel he needs a far better partner than Stephen Foster, who for me looked spent last year. And Rob Edwards isn't the answer either - injury prone, and obsessively lumps it ala Chris Morgan.

I'm well aware of McNulty's faults, and his tendency to over-elaborate at times. But we're a club/fanbase that supposedly loves our 'footballing' center halves, and for me Jimmy fits that mould, albeit, he's a little rough around the edges.
But I think he loves it here, and the management team clearly rate him, as do most of the supporters I converse with. He's clearly respected by his teammates too, hence his POTY award.

I don't remember many of last seasons squad coming out of the final 3 months of the campaign with much credit, so I'd hardly blame Jimmy for that dramatic fall-off in quality/results. I feel for the lad having had to share a back 4 with Wiseman, Foster and McEveley for so long...

Still, can't see Leicester coming in for him, and I'd prefer them to go after Shackell, and to pay Derby a big arse fee so we get a decent percentage of it.

 

Thats excatly righy Ryhil

 

Conan if you read some of these posts before picking at them you'll see that I said the Majority were the faults of the fullbacks not all. Most of the goals we did concede came from wisemans inability to hold position or tackle a man. Same goes or mcevely although the left did improve with collins or golbourne playing there. I also didn't aportion any blame to foster in terms of mcnultys mistakes. However, if he had a leader next to him I think the mistakes would be minimised. Sometimes is just about a bit of guidance.

 

McNulty - composure! He's an accident waiting to happen and which often does. He scares me whenever he's on the ball!

 

Quickest and best footballing defender we've had for many a year, I'm not surprised others are sniffing around.

 

Our four worst defeats last season - Ipswich, Reading and West Ham all at home (gulp) and Cardiff away. McEvely played 44 minutes against Brighton and didn't feature at all in the other three. McNulty started and finished all four of those games. I think Collins started both the Reading and West Ham games.

 

Well said YT. Saves me from typing it out.

 

Best defender last season. Unfortunately he's very susceptible to the "Futcher faux-pas"

 

We have struggled defensively every season since we came back up, and with the exception of the first season the one constant in that defence is Stephen Foster. People will also say what a great player he is too.

 

If Jimmy McBeckenbauer was half the player he thought he was he'd be a world beater. Unfortunately he isn't and that makes him a liability at the back.

 

totally agree, if anyone's overrated its Foster.

 

Foster was excellent in his first season with us so to try and single out Foster for every season is unfair. Foster hasn't played consistently well and hasn't acheived what I suspect many of us expected following that first good season, but he had a decent season alongside Shackell. I agree he didn't play well last season, but look at the mitigating circumstances, new defensive partnerships, arguably the worst right back in many a year to play for Barnsley (Wiseman) Then there's been the poor form of Mceverley. Foster can be a decent championship defender, but I've no problem with him being replaced if he isn't up to the task. To single him out though is way off the mark.

 

So we've consistently conceded goals but we can't single out either of the centre halves and it's all the fault of the full backs. You do know that if the full back allows the winger to get a cross in, the centre half is allowed to compete with centre forward for the ball. I'm not trying to make a case for Wiseman or McEvely being good players but they must be the worst players in the history of football if we can concede 74 goals and the centre halves be blameless. Interesting that for all the blame heaped on McEvely, we didn't exactly improve when Golbourne or Collins came into the team but for some reason people seem to think they're good players.

 

You singled out Foster as a constant in a poor defence that has been poor in all but one of our seasons back in this division, therefore implying he was consistently at fault. That is simply not the case. I not saying he is blameless either, I was simply pointing out that he had a excellent season in his first season, and another decent season at the side of Shackle. Last season, he was poor and in can be argued that there were also mitigating circumstances. Incidentally,Wiseman's performances at right back last season were largely abysmal but I'm not singling him out as the reason for our poor defending for the whole season.

 

prpoper LOL

wiseman was MOM in a number of games but that does not recognised on here cos Booby is better