Listening to it now, it saddens me that fans give this lad grief. He is sunderland through and through, giving his all, determined, and one of our better quality players. We need lads like this.
people say his legs have gone but to me it seems we play better when he is in the team, i have not looked at the statistics but believe we have won more games with him in than out,
Our best performances have had him at the heart it and he has had more than his fair shares of motm performances
He has lost whatever pace he may have had, but not to the extent that JoS eventually suffered where his mobility was totally degraded. Leadbitter seems to be at the pre-terminal stage, like when JoS was able to use his experience to read the game and organise the other defenders, so Grant seems to be good at giving our midfield a bit of composure - plus still having the oomph to go on the occasional incisive run himself.
I think Grant looked tired in his last game and thats why I want more players in midfield with pace around him, its on its way hopefully and I think a few 60 or even 30 minute spells would do him and McGeady the world of good at this energy draining stage of the season. We still can make the playoffs if everything clicked into place and these two would be needed more than ever if we did.
I think he could be better used just sitting in a defensive midfield role with for arguments sake O'Nien and Scowen doing his running for him further forward
sorry like but why? he's not a coach. I don't want a team coached by an 'old boys' network just cos they were dead canny lads or SAFC thru and thru, I'd rather appoint top quality footballing coaches who've got a good track record and real quality at coaching. then maybe we won't end up with a useless backroom staff full of kevin ball clones.
Nobody is a coach until they become one. From what I've heard in that pod, his experience will stand him in good stead, he has massive experience in life and football.
