JayWalker
Ball Spotter
He is currently a better option than fletcher.
He is currently a better option than fletcher.
Never
He really is. Doesn't get caught in possession (as much), touch is better, positional sense better and will actually make a tackle rather than jokey. Passing isn't as good though.
Ach, it was a tangent. He was being portrayed as someone who lacked application, which meant his less talented peers were improving at a faster rate than him. I thought this was harsh, if only because none of his less talented peers have progressed as far as he has.
He was also lauded as similar to Gerrard and Robson in terms of footballing talent and ability on the ball. He was far from mediocre as a youth player, in fact he looked to have talent on a par with anyone else form that batch (including Rossi and Pique), but his attitude has always been in question.
He really is. Doesn't get caught in possession (as much), touch is better, positional sense better and will actually make a tackle rather than jokey. Passing isn't as good though.
Yeah? I used to play like Liam Brady, but sadly I wasn't anywhere near as good.In terms of playing style he reminds me of Michael Ballack.
Gibson is not good enough to get into the Pakistani football team nevermind United!!!
At best he is a first division version of Carrick who offers nothing other than the occasional 20 yard shot, it baffles that some of you think he is good or improving, ffs he is 20 plus and if he cant cut it against Crawley he wont be playing for us next season.
Gibson is not good enough to get into the Pakistani football team nevermind United!!!
At best he is a first division version of Carrick who offers nothing other than the occasional 20 yard shot, it baffles that some of you think he is good or improving, ffs he is 20 plus and if he cant cut it against Crawley he wont be playing for us next season.
In terms of playing style he reminds me of Michael Ballack.
He is currently a better option than fletcher.
He is. Fletcher is injured right now.
The views of someone who has obviously never ever played football at any level and fails to recognise any sort of footballing ability.
First Division? Gibson, as inconsistent and frustrating as he is, would walk into any team from 7-20 in the top flight.
Nobody expected him to help dominate possession. Or even come close to it.Did people on here seriously expect Gibson, plus 3 defenders to dominate possession against Denilson, Wilshere and Diaby in center midfield? Their brief was always going to be keep things tight and hit on the counter.
Not this time. Some of you are desperately looking for a reason to diss his performance of yesterday. Going from the above excuses to even claimimg it is because of Rooney and then Rafael that we were holding off Arsenal so well rather than any work he and O'shea did.Nobody expected him to help dominate possession. Or even come close to it.
But I do expect him to make himself available for the pass more often than he does. Obviously it was a deliberate tactic to go long and/or wide quite often to bypass their midfield, but there were numerous times where we were playing it around obviously looking to pass it through the midfield and Gibson was either standing still or just jogging around behind an Arsenal player. It's something Anderson does as well, but Gibson is even worse.
O'Shea wasn't bad for a utility player in CM, as always you can't fault his application and determination. Gibson was shite warmed up.
Gibsons biggest problem is not making himself available for the ball making his partners job easier.
Gibson is not good enough to get into the Pakistani football team nevermind United!!!
At best he is a first division version of Carrick who offers nothing other than the occasional 20 yard shot, it baffles that some of you think he is good or improving, ffs he is 20 plus and if he cant cut it against Crawley he wont be playing for us next season.
You make yourselves available when your aim is to keep posession and play through the midfield. That was never the aim. We changed tactics around for second half because SAF realised we were mis-queueing long balls repeatedly.Hmm, I notice you said it was in the second half that they launched quite a few counter attacks. And thinking back it was in the first half I did repeatedly notice them not making themselves available when we were looking to go through them. So they may well have improved in the second half.
Obviously our tactic was to go long or wide. But that doesn't mean the midfielders don't have to be making themselves available to bring options. .
The truth is they were not looking to pass to the midfield. They were looking for long balls openings. At the beginning of the game it seemed liek they went for the long all because the lacked options to pass too. But as it wore on it become obvious that it was a deliberate tactic.Like I said, there were numerous times (mostly in the first half) where we were playing it around the backline and Smalling or Wes were obviously looking to pass it into the midfield and there was no-one there to pass to.
I'm claiming it didn't happen because it took a while for our actual tactics to sink into to the casual viewer. We are all used to us playing to options in midfield from the defence rather than looking to hit the long ball. But by a quarter way through first half it became obvious what the tactics were. Gibson and O'shea were there to simply to shield the defence, and pass square to a ball carrier or the center backs for them to hit the front players with a long ball into space. Occasional Gibson and O'shea too were given the mandate to do the same. It had nothing to do with Arsenal out numbering us in midfield, or our two sitting midfielder refusing to make runs to drag their midfielders out of place. We were deliberately making Arsenal come on to us, so that they could expose their defence to the pace of our forwards, when ever their fullbacks advanced.And it wasn't like O'Shea and Gibson were trying to get into space and just being shut down by the superior numbers (which would've been understandable), they simply weren't making any kind of runs. Which even if they hadn't got the ball, would've dragged the Arsenal midfield around and possibly opened up chances for someone else. Instead, there were times that Smalling or Wes had to hoof it up not because of tactics and a good run up front, but because there was no-one else to pass it to. It certainly didn't happen constantly, but to claim it didn't happen at all is a bit silly.
That is all well and good when it comes to commenting on him in general.I don't really expect any different from O'Shea, but I expect more from Gibson. He has the ability to be a good solid midfielder from us and I want him to make it, but he simply has to improve his work-rate and positioning. Do that and I personally will be very happy with him as a squad player and possibly even more.
His positional play is awful. You notice it most when at the game rather than watching on tv - he follows the ball pretty much always yet never really gets to it. Today, he'd go for balls O'Shea was dealing with and narrowed our options continuously. He doesn't really do anything, harsh as that sounds.
You don't think having more options would have caused Arsenal to have to stretch themselves and make our tactic of going long more effective?
Just because we're deliberately going long doesn't mean the midfielders shouldn't even bother giving our other players options. Instead, we were forced to aimlessly go long even when there were no players in a suitable position.
Every half-decent young central midfielder on our books gets hailed as similar to one of those two at some point. Or Vieira, if they're black. The point still stands that Gibson's progress has not been surpassed by any of his less naturally talented peers.
I absolutely agree that his development has stalled badly, but equally it is a fallacy to claim that he was never rated - at 16/17 he very much was.
I don't think I claimed he was never rated, nor did I say his development has stalled badly
Can only assume that's aimed at me. You seem to have missed the point. Name me one player that came through the ranks to become a first team player thy wasn't raved about in his teens? They all were. Along with a whole bunch of players that didn't make the step up.
We were talking relative to other players who did the same, though. Obviously Gibson was one of our better youngsters but he was never rated as highly as the likes of Pique, Fletcher or O'Shea.
Not this time. Some of you are desperately looking for a reason to diss his performance of yesterday. Going from the above excuses to even claimimg it is because of Rooney and then Rafael that we were holding off Arsenal so well rather than any work he and O'shea did.
Yesterday, especially in second half he and O'shea repeatedly launched our counter attacks. Second, yesterday we had little intention of passing through midfield often. That was never the tactic of the day. At any point.
The combined job of O'shea and Gibson was to impersonate Makalele in an ultra defensive fashion as much as possible then either give a short ball to Rooney or the flanker to carry it forward. Or if possible hit a long ball into space for the pace of Hernandez and the twins to do damage.
The only thing that mostly didn't come off was the long ball in first half, especially from Gibson, Vidic and Smalling. This ''he didnt make himself available'' argument for last night's game is total bullshit. You do that when your aim is to play through midfield and keep possession. That was so clearly not part of our game plan at any point in that game until Scholes and Giggs were both on pitch. Gibson and O'shea were given the job of frustrating Arsenal and making their passing pointless once they got in our final third. Win possession back and either short or long pass it to an outlet. Little else. To deny that they did that well is really clutching at straws.
It's an utter fallacy to attempt to claim we tried to play more progressively in midfield a number of times and Gibson some how held us back.
He looked better when we moved to a 3 2nd half, but in the first he was off the pace, didn't close down quick enough or show enough for the ball.
Sometimes you wonder if he really wants it enough.