There is no need to buy a midfielder in the summer. Cairney showed today what we have been lacking, someone who can take the ball and just pass it to the wings and open it up a bit. No surprise that the second half was a hell of alot better with someone in their who can pass it more than 5 yards.
I thought he did well when he came on tbh and like you said picked out a few passes to wide areas, instead of just kicking and rushing to mclean, fryatt and simpson which has never worked for us.
NP said koren likely to be missing for DQPR so I think cairney will get a chance at least for Monday. He did ok today; certainly composed and spreads play well but he does look very limited in terms of his abilities
I thought Cairney shored us up a bit when he came on, but not sure he,s the answer, he also looked a bit more interested then some games I,ve seen him play in.
Why does a player that is in there to pass need to be quicker? He just needs to be able to control the ball, keep the ball and then pass the ball. I see the likes of Xavi, Pirlo, Scholes are really fast players. You need pace on the wings, quality in the middle.
He actually looked like he was bothered today. Maybe it was because he knew we were ****ed, and if he messed up very little - if any - of the blame would be apportioned to him. Consequently, he played with the kind of freedom we fans would like to see from all of the players.
Cairney's a player who's good with the ball, he's a perfect deep laying playmaker who can pick up the ball in the midfield for us and spread it around. He'd be perfect if we played a 4-5-1, however we don't.
I thought he looked decent when he came on, he went straight into a tackle when he ran onto the pitch and he rarely loses the ball. Assuming that Koren is out, then I'd definitely play him(I suspect we'd have seen Belaid today, if Mannone hadn't gone..........).
You are right, and personally i'd prefer to see us play 5 in the middle. It would give Koren much more freedom to play behind the striker and he wouldn't have to worry so much about defensive duties. 4-4-2 really is an old system, it is usually solid when defending but it is hard to make it work when going forwards unless; A) You have a stronger squad than the rest of the league (Cardiff) B) You are Man U C) You play direct via the wings and have 2 big men in the middle to get on the end of crossing.
We only get the highlights of games here in Oz but when we were in the EPL I watched Cairney with great interest as he has potential to become a really top notch player, with one exception - he has no left side game whatsoever! What are coaches for? A blind man could see that Cairney needed to bang a ball around with his 'weak' foot and spend a small percentage of his training on concentrating on that side of his game. Is he another who can't be arsed? He has had a couple of seasons to improve and has done nothing. It is hard to close a player down who can use either foot but a lot easier when he can only use one foot. It's not too late but someone on the coaching staff (or Barmby) needs to get a grip of this lad as he really does have potential to become a world class player.
He is left footed. But I see what you mean about his weaker foot. I don't think he should be able to ping the balls around, just able to control and play short precise passes with it. There was a time yesterday where he was passed the ball, a Boro player closing him down and he just let the ball roll across the front him and then moved into space. It was beautiful.
Sorry, my friend, I meant his right side game of course - little bit under the affluence of incohol today>
Always puzzled as to what these guys do in training??? Re Cairney there is absolutely no reason that he cannot be trained to use his right foot. I read an article recently that espoused a training method that had been shown to do just this (make them "bi-sided" in one case) for international level football players (unfortunately cant remember where). And I am sure that most of us have witnessed the benefits of constant practice at something. Even at the ripe old age of-well I used to watch Waggy etc in the 66 glory days so you get the picture) I am amazed at my ability to pick up new skills-yes I get it to a certain level and then do not improve but I am not 20 years old nor do I do this stuff for 6 or 7 hours a day. Come on trainers get with the program.
He seemed like he couldn't be arsed from the word go this season. It's a shame his bad attitude got in the way. Hopefully he'll start to come through for us, but i can't see it.
