……. only 3 clean sheets in the league, and only one of them this season. It’s impossible to challenge at the top end of the table with that kind of record. Robbo is excellent in the middle. Winning headers, tackling, blocking etc. But the other centre halves are a shambles aren’t they? Mael in particular blows my mind. What does he offer? How does he get picked every week? He’s not quick, he’s not big and strong, he doesn’t read the game particularly well and he gives the ball away so much or puts other players in trouble by taking the wrong option. He doesn’t have any strengths as far as I can see. I’d like to see Pines given a run of games. He looks a bit dodgy but at least offers a threat at the other end! Which shouldn’t be a reason for selecting a defender but we are where we are.
Someone on another post has said he’s played really well tonight. I can’t see what some see. I think he’s really poor. I still can’t believe how highly he scored in the fans player of the year vote last season. I asked a scout about him a while back because I wondered what I was missing & he didn’t rate him at all. The two things I will praise him for are his effort & his durability. The lad never seems to be injured & you can never question his commitment but his decision making & physical attributes aren’t good enough.
I like Mael. No fuss. Just a decent L1 defender and one I'd pick over Pines every day of the week on footballing ability. Pines might reach more headers.
Maël is prone to the odd error, admittedly. But aren't they all? I'm pretty sure Robbo has made a few himself this season. As has Earl. For me, they're the three. Glad we've got that settled recently. Pines is your understudy to Roberts/Maël and Shepherd (if he was here) is your Earl back-up.
Of course he has. And so did McCarthy and Evans and May and Futcher and Smith and Taggart and Tiler and Davies and De Zeeuw and Foster and Pinncok and Mads... They all made a few in a season. But de Gevigney makes a few every single game. He's clearly a lovely fella, but I don't understand why people who like him don't acknowledge just how often he gives goals away. He's not good enough.
MDG is no better nor worse than the other two musketeers. They can all play football though and not just clog it. Unlike Pines. The cupboard is bare otherwise, so we're going to have to live with it.
I've seen far fewer games of DeGevigney than others, but on what, probably 8-10 full games I've seen, and highlights of course, he looks a complete liability. Earl has some bad games, but I think if we can settle him where he is, he could bring more stability to his game. DeGevigney struggles with so many basics that come down to both character and physicality. He's rash, makes poor decisions that seem to be selected by a randomiser and his passing can be very casual (not alone in that regard). He's slow, gets bullied pretty easily but he is quite decent at bringing the ball out... Though he does lose it quite a bit and his recovery is non existent. And even on his best games, he'll still make an absolute mess of something... It just comes down to whether the opposition capitlise or not. If he's the best we've got for now, so be it. But he shouldn't be the best we have for that position come February.
We over play at times, numerous occasions last night we tried to start counter attacks by playing tiki taka football out of the back lines then get turned over in deep areas leading to increased pressure and inevitably conceding. Roberts got booked last night from a ball over the top of him that he tried to deal with to attempt a back pass, made a mess of it and pulled there player back, just hook it out in that situation. Self inflicted errors by over complicating things
I have to say I’d play Pines over MDG on the right of the three but I’d also play cotter over O’Keeffe so that might lead to a bigger issue on our right side defensively. There is no perfect solution. I’d bring Shepherd back in January as well; to either compete with Earl for the shirt or possibly replace him. Earl has done ok don’t get me wrong but I think Shepherd has a higher ceiling and now he has a lot of league experience at two clubs on loan I’d look to give him a run in the team.
