The McGeady difference

[Nishtar36]

He had 2 goals and an assist against Brentford in a 4-2 win, a goal against QPR in a 2-1 win. He doesn't score in them games that's 5 points worse off alone. Don't forget the assists in draws against Wigan, Wednesday, Villa, Ipswich, Rotherham, and an assist in a win against Birmingham. He was a massive influence in helping us gain a large number of points, and we haven't found a way to replace that yet, certainly at home.

I do believe my post on here did say we may have been relegated last season if wasn't for McGeady. Not that we would have.

But that's going off the main points. And that's people have brought up our poor home record this season, we need another striker etc. When in my opinion, we have missed a player of McGeady's quality to create something from nothing against teams who sit back at Deepdale. He had a special ability, and unfortunately we've not had a similar option this season.

We’ve scored 22 goals in 20 home games this season, a fairly pathetic return for such a decent group of attacking players. Taking McGeady out of the equation, here are a few reasons that we’ve struggled at home IMO.

1. Persistence with Browne in the number 10.

Neil’s unwavering faith in Alan Browne in the 10 has undoubtedly held us back at home. It means that we set up with 3 attacking players rather than the 4 that is expected in a 4-2-3-1 system. Browne has little to no creativity in his locker and it’s meant that our attack’s have been predictably funelled into wide areas. Harrop, DJ and even Robinson are much better options to play in the number 10 role, they’re genuinely creative players and I’m sure we would’ve created more had Neil not been so adamant that Browne must play in such an advanced position.

2. Neil’s rigidity.

How often when we’ve been drawing at home has Neil simply swapped 1 wide player for another? He rarely seems to have thrown the kitchen sink at teams when we’ve desperately needed a goal. I understand that his hands have been tied somewhat with poor options/ players that he doesn’t trust off the bench (Horgan, Mavididi) but we’ve just been very predictable at home.

3. Full backs.

When I watched Neil’s Norwich team, their full backs always overlapped early and got to the byline. This allowed their wide attackers to move inside and overload the box, meaning they had probably 4 or 5 players attacking crosses. This rarely happens at Deepdale. How many ones do we cross into the box to find only 1/2 players in there? Fisher, solid as he is, rarely whips in a good cross and looks reluctant to attack in general. Cunningham is one of the best full backs in the league but he has also been reserved going forward. This must be the managers instructions.

All of these factors mean that we generally rely on individual brilliance or set pieces to score goals at home. Looking deeper, I think 7 or 8 of the 22 goals have been from set pieces.

Generally, I’m not sure Neil is as attack minded as folk like to think. We’ve had another good season, but 22 goals in 20 home games won’t have season ticket holders rushing back to renew in summer.

 

[Tino]

We’ve scored 22 goals in 20 home games this season, a fairly pathetic return for such a decent group of attacking players. Taking McGeady out of the equation, here are a few reasons that we’ve struggled at home IMO.

1. Persistence with Browne in the number 10.

Neil’s unwavering faith in Alan Browne in the 10 has undoubtedly held us back at home. It means that we set up with 3 attacking players rather than the 4 that is expected in a 4-2-3-1 system. Browne has little to no creativity in his locker and it’s meant that our attack’s have been predictably funelled into wide areas. Harrop, DJ and even Robinson are much better options to play in the number 10 role, they’re genuinely creative players and I’m sure we would’ve created more had Neil not been so adamant that Browne must play in such an advanced position.

2. Neil’s rigidity.

How often when we’ve been drawing at home has Neil simply swapped 1 wide player for another? He rarely seems to have thrown the kitchen sink at teams when we’ve desperately needed a goal. I understand that his hands have been tied somewhat with poor options/ players that he doesn’t trust off the bench (Horgan, Mavididi) but we’ve just been very predictable at home.

3. Full backs.

When I watched Neil’s Norwich team, their full backs always overlapped early and got to the byline. This allowed their wide attackers to move inside and overload the box, meaning they had probably 4 or 5 players attacking crosses. This rarely happens at Deepdale. Fisher, solid as he is, rarely whips in a good cross and looks reluctant to attack in general. Cunningham is one of the best full backs in the league but he has also been reserved going forward. This must be the managers instructions.


Generally, I’m not sure Neil is as attack minded as folk like to think. We’ve had another good season, but 22 goals in 20 home games won’t have season ticket holders rushing back to renew in summer.

You’ve said in a lot more detail what I tried to. I agree with pretty much all this.

 

[Tino]

The other thing with McGeady, other than his direct goals and assists was the amount of corners and free kicks he won us in attacking areas and how he could take the ball 40-50 yards at a time which of course if good for the attacking side of things but also in giving the defence a break and chance to catch their breath.

Do we really have anyone now who can do that? Maguire is probably the one who carry the ball but only when he’s playing from the left.

 

[sedgwick__7]

We’ve scored 22 goals in 20 home games this season, a fairly pathetic return for such a decent group of attacking players. Taking McGeady out of the equation, here are a few reasons that we’ve struggled at home IMO.

1. Persistence with Browne in the number 10.

Neil’s unwavering faith in Alan Browne in the 10 has undoubtedly held us back at home. It means that we set up with 3 attacking players rather than the 4 that is expected in a 4-2-3-1 system. Browne has little to no creativity in his locker and it’s meant that our attack’s have been predictably funelled into wide areas. Harrop, DJ and even Robinson are much better options to play in the number 10 role, they’re genuinely creative players and I’m sure we would’ve created more had Neil not been so adamant that Browne must play in such an advanced position.

2. Neil’s rigidity.

How often when we’ve been drawing at home has Neil simply swapped 1 wide player for another? He rarely seems to have thrown the kitchen sink at teams when we’ve desperately needed a goal. I understand that his hands have been tied somewhat with poor options/ players that he doesn’t trust off the bench (Horgan, Mavididi) but we’ve just been very predictable at home.

3. Full backs.

When I watched Neil’s Norwich team, their full backs always overlapped early and got to the byline. This allowed their wide attackers to move inside and overload the box, meaning they had probably 4 or 5 players attacking crosses. This rarely happens at Deepdale. Fisher, solid as he is, rarely whips in a good cross and looks reluctant to attack in general. Cunningham is one of the best full backs in the league but he has also been reserved going forward. This must be the managers instructions.


Generally, I’m not sure Neil is as attack minded as folk like to think. We’ve had another good season, but 22 goals in 20 home games won’t have season ticket holders rushing back to renew in summer.

Pretty much spot on.

I noticed that in one of his post-match interviews yesterday, he said he 'got rid of the 10' and went 2 up because of the way Derby were playing, as if it were the position, and not the player in the position, that was the problem. He also said Browne played well.

He's simply got to realise Browne is the problem in this position at home. He is almost ornamental when we have most of the ball, and maybe, just maybe, we would've been better with a technical 10 on the pitch instead of him yesterday, but Neil decided with his subs that it was the formation and not the personnel that was the problem. Afterwards we didn't look anymore threatening with 2 up, especially as we struggled to do the basics like cross the ball.

For me at home you either play Browne deeper or you don't play him at all. No doubting that he's improved this season but it's ridiculous that we're at this point in the season now, with little over a goal a game at home, and he's still playing Browne there. It seems he has blinkers for him.

As for the bench options/formation, he couldn't do much in the first half of the season but the bench is better now. For me he's excellent at using subs away but again, he's not found the formula for it at home.

 

[norfolk white]

He has managed 6 goals and 4 assists at Sunderland. Not his fault the rest of the players are of poor quality. I wish we had McGeady's 6 league goals and 4 assists for us.

But which player would have been left out for him to come into the squad? And has that player who would have to be left out scored any goals or had any assists this season? If only we had signed Son or Ali from Spurs just think where we would be at now in the table!

But why are we discussing McGeady, he was never our player and who would pay his wages?

 

[Tino]

But why are we discussing McGeady, he was never our player and who would pay his wages?

The 18,000 season ticket holders we’d have if only tight Trev would reduce the prices to £199.

 

[Nishtar36]

But which player would have been left out for him to come into the squad? And has that player who would have to be left out scored any goals or had any assists this season? If only we had signed Son or Ali from Spurs just think where we would be at now in the table!

But why are we discussing McGeady, he was never our player and who would pay his wages?

+1. Strange thread by the OP.

 

[norfolk white]

The 18,000 season ticket holders we’d have if only tight Trev would reduce the prices to £199.

Where is your proof that we would sell that many season tickets if the price was just £199 when we cannot even get 12,500 home supporters into the ground for a big game on Easter Monday?

BTW are you going to tel TH he is tight even though he puts at least £5 million per season to our club?

 

[norky84]

But which player would have been left out for him to come into the squad? And has that player who would have to be left out scored any goals or had any assists this season? If only we had signed Son or Ali from Spurs just think where we would be at now in the table!

But why are we discussing McGeady, he was never our player and who would pay his wages?

I'd rather have McGeady in the squad then Bodin and Horgan. Would you not?

Can you name any players in our squad who can match McGeady's goals and assists from last season?

And you're missing my point completely. Not once have I said we should have broke our wage budget to get McGeady back. But I have said his goals and assists won us a lot of points last season. And no one player in our squad has been able to do that themselves this season for us. Therefore we've missed a player of McGeady's quality.

 

[Doc Brown]

Where is your proof that we would sell that many season tickets if the price was just £199 when we cannot even get 12,500 home supporters into the ground for a big game on Easter Monday?

BTW are you going to tel TH he is tight even though he puts at least £5 million per season to our club?

I assume Tino was being facetious?

Reducing our adult season ticket price to £199 would be disastrous.

 

[justinr73]

We’ve scored 22 goals in 20 home games this season, a fairly pathetic return for such a decent group of attacking players. Taking McGeady out of the equation, here are a few reasons that we’ve struggled at home IMO.

1. Persistence with Browne in the number 10.

Neil’s unwavering faith in Alan Browne in the 10 has undoubtedly held us back at home. It means that we set up with 3 attacking players rather than the 4 that is expected in a 4-2-3-1 system. Browne has little to no creativity in his locker and it’s meant that our attack’s have been predictably funelled into wide areas. Harrop, DJ and even Robinson are much better options to play in the number 10 role, they’re genuinely creative players and I’m sure we would’ve created more had Neil not been so adamant that Browne must play in such an advanced position.

2. Neil’s rigidity.

How often when we’ve been drawing at home has Neil simply swapped 1 wide player for another? He rarely seems to have thrown the kitchen sink at teams when we’ve desperately needed a goal. I understand that his hands have been tied somewhat with poor options/ players that he doesn’t trust off the bench (Horgan, Mavididi) but we’ve just been very predictable at home.

3. Full backs.

When I watched Neil’s Norwich team, their full backs always overlapped early and got to the byline. This allowed their wide attackers to move inside and overload the box, meaning they had probably 4 or 5 players attacking crosses. This rarely happens at Deepdale. How many ones do we cross into the box to find only 1/2 players in there? Fisher, solid as he is, rarely whips in a good cross and looks reluctant to attack in general. Cunningham is one of the best full backs in the league but he has also been reserved going forward. This must be the managers instructions.

All of these factors mean that we generally rely on individual brilliance or set pieces to score goals at home. Looking deeper, I think 7 or 8 of the 22 goals have been from set pieces.

Generally, I’m not sure Neil is as attack minded as folk like to think. We’ve had another good season, but 22 goals in 20 home games won’t have season ticket holders rushing back to renew in summer.

We're "on target", pardon the pun, to score fewer than Grayson's team managed last season.

 

[norfolk white]

I'd rather have McGeady in the squad then Bodin and Horgan. Would you not?

Can you name any players in our squad who can match McGeady's goals and assists from last season?

And you're missing my point completely. Not once have I said we should have broke our wage budget to get McGeady back. But I have said his goals and assists won us a lot of points last season. And no one player in our squad has been able to do that themselves this season for us. Therefore we've missed a player of McGeady's quality.

I agree with you but I'd rather have a Christian Ronaldo or Tom Finney in our squad but it is just if and buts therefore a non thread

 

[norfolk white]

I assume Tino was being facetious?

Reducing our adult season ticket price to £199 would be disastrous.

I would hope so as I agree it would be disastrous, but you never know Tino may have been serious.

 

[norky84]

The other thing with McGeady, other than his direct goals and assists was the amount of corners and free kicks he won us in attacking areas and how he could take the ball 40-50 yards at a time which of course if good for the attacking side of things but also in giving the defence a break and chance to catch their breath.

Do we really have anyone now who can do that? Maguire is probably the one who carry the ball but only when he’s playing from the left.

You're right. We were very fortunate to have McGeady last season on a salary we could afford. It's a shame that we've not been able to replace him this season with someone with similar qualities and obviously affordable.

We've badly missed that star quality this season. Certainly in the games where teams come to Deepdale and sit back and are happy getting a point.

 

[White123]

I'd rather have McGeady in the squad then Bodin and Horgan. Would you not?

Can you name any players in our squad who can match McGeady's goals and assists from last season?

And you're missing my point completely. Not once have I said we should have broke our wage budget to get McGeady back. But I have said his goals and assists won us a lot of points last season. And no one player in our squad has been able to do that themselves this season for us. Therefore we've missed a player of McGeady's quality.

Yes - Tom Barkhuizen has 8 goals and 7 assists which is very similar to what Mcgeady got. Mcgeady got 8 goals anyway. Which makes your point about no one being able to do that complete irrelevant

 

[Tino]

@ norfolk white

I usually am serious but I was taking the mick with the ST thing. Though I'll give it until May 20th for the usual ticket prices thread to start and for it to get a mention.

Looks like the 'reply with quote' feature has finally given up for me.

 

[Tino]

@ norfolk white

I usually am serious but I was taking the mick with the ST thing. Though I'll give it until May 20th for the usual ticket prices thread to start and for it to get a mention.

Looks like the 'reply with quote' feature has finally given up for me.

 

[Nishtar36]

Yes - Tom Barkhuizen has 8 goals and 7 assists which is very similar to what Mcgeady got. Mcgeady got 8 goals anyway. Which makes your point about no one being able to do that complete irrelevant

+1. Not sure what point the OP is trying to get across with this strange thread.

Just imagine how much better we’d be with Ronaldo up front.

 

[norky84]

Yes - Tom Barkhuizen has 8 goals and 7 assists which is very similar to what Mcgeady got. Mcgeady got 8 goals anyway. Which makes your point about no one being able to do that complete irrelevant

So no, no one can match McGeady's goals and assists from last season at the moment. And Barkhuizen has already played 6 games more than McGeady did last season as well.

Barkhuizen also had 6 goals and 3 assists last season. So he's improved us by 2 goals and 4 assists this season. No where near enough matching what we've lost from McGeady unfortunately.

The point I'm making is last year we had a brilliant player in McGeady, who had the ability to change games for us when at times there was nothing in it. Especially at home when teams sat back content with a draw.

We've not had that this season, which I feel is a massive impact on this year poor home form. People talk about needing a new striker, full backs not attacking enough, Browne being in the number 10 role etc. All quite possibly true.

But we've also lost a player who last season contributed massively offensively, and the only player who has been added to the squad in the same position is Bodin, maybe you can add Harrop too. So it should be no real surprise why we sometimes struggle to break down teams at home, and score a lot less than we did last season.

 

[Lord Edgington]

@ norfolk white

I usually am serious but I was taking the mick with the ST thing. Though I'll give it until May 20th for the usual ticket prices thread to start and for it to get a mention.

Looks like the 'reply with quote' feature has finally given up for me.

Ah

the season ticket debate

Missed it so much

My obeservations are simply that we wont get a reduction based on the risk that reducing them may not actually get more people over and above the current commitment ?