Darron Gibson - is he good enough for Everton?

I think most people realize the value of players like Fletcher, O'Shea, Wes, and Phil. That's because they each have something that they are really good at. Fletcher works his balls off running around, breaking up play, and has learned to get forward. O'Shea is a Swiss Army Knife and can play almost everywhere with some level of competence. Phil and Wes are similar because they can play in various positions and are quite good at it.

Gibson, though, can't play more than one real position and doesn't do that especially successfully. In terms of skills, he's got a decent shot, but he's got limitations physically, on his passing(especially attacking), vision, and generally reading the game. There are times when you can tell he's not sure what to do or doesn't see the options around him. He'll stop running when he'd be in a perfect position for a pass or miss the obvious pass himself.

Many professional footballers do one thing well and can work out a niche for themselves based on that with the addition of at least moderate level of skills in other areas. Gibson just has moderate skill levels all over without that one especially valuable aspect. Vision, football brain, and passing he can improve to some extent, but he'll always be hampered by his physical limitations.

With our current midfielders, there's no one who can really overcome his flaws with their own ability or style, which makes giving him games difficult.
 
I believe he's out come summer. Cleverly will be in the squad next season. Perhaps Hargreaves will be fit for once. And SAF could sign a player (insert masturbation choice, I'll go with Rodwell).
 
At one point he was scoring quite regularly whenever he played, and that won him some goodwill. He has a decent passing range too, but doesn't seem to have the vision to pick the best option consistently. Fair play to him for improving his fitness, but if he wants to make it here, he'll need to add more to his game.
 
Blimey, almost 2400 replies on whether Gibbo's good enough. I would have been mistaken to think that we were in discussion on who better -- Pele or Maradonna.

Gibbo's good enough for other teams but not United. Full stop.
 
If Gibson leaves in the summer because of Cleverley returning or a new signing, then so be it. I think he's a decent option to have as a squad player. What I don't get is the constant bashing and scapegoating.
 
The jury is still out for me, I've never been convinced by him but I'd like to see him get a run of games to see if he could find some form, midfield is a hard position to play sporadically.
 
Gibson is nowhere near to United level and he showed it once again yesterday. Stating that he was not the only one playing badly. The tactics were all wrong (we cant keep on playing with just 1 winger), Rooney played as horribly as Gibson and the midfield was absent throughout the entire first half. Then in the second half the shooting man was replaced with a quality winger, Rooney was replaced with a striker who is delivering the goods and we end up winning.

I think that time is running out for Gibson. At 23 he should be fighting for a first team place or at least act as a decent cover. He's not doing that.
 
Jury is still out on Gibbo for me. He showed signs of what he's capable of in the game vs Birmingham. Last night was just an all round team failure and he was never going to be comfortable on the left.
 
Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber said:
Rather we played our best football when we woke up. First half we looked like folks playing a match after a drinking binge the previous night. I haven't seen Scholes for example play as bad he did first half in years.
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Once Giggs came on it gave us that balance that was missing. The way they were closing us down so quickly they did a lot of work and did end up tiring so we then endd up bringing on a striker to play off the shoulder of the last defender, it worked a treat. A lot of people were slagging Fergies tactics and team choice for the game, not seen many praising him for the changes he made that got it so right.
 
Needs to get on the ball more. Actually does better on the ball than he's given credit for, he's just on it between a third and half less than his midfield partner/partners. Needs to work a bit better/smarter off the ball too. Not a bad option to have as the 24th or 25th man of the squad, I doubt he'll ever reach the stage of playing more than once in a while but it's not an absolute cert yet.
 
gambit28 said:
Once Giggs came on it gave us that balance that was missing. The way they were closing us down so quickly they did a lot of work and did end up tiring so we then endd up bringing on a striker to play off the shoulder of the last defender, it worked a treat. A lot of people were slagging Fergies tactics and team choice for the game, not seen many praising him for the changes he made that got it so right.
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True that. First half SAF and the entire team got it wrong. Second half was an astounding improvement.
 
Unfortunately I don't think he is good enough. I hope I'm wrong. If he doesn't make it at United, I'm sure he will make it at another mid-table PL team. Villa, Blackburn or Bolton, some one like that.

But draw your memory back 5 years ago when everyone was calling for Fletcher to be sold and we were convinced that he wasn't good enough. So that should teach us, although I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, always believe in Fergie! If he thinks Gibson is good enough to make it here, then he probably will.
 
I think it would be harsh to single out the player for the entire teams first half failing. I think with more game time - perhaps out on loan he could develop into a really fine footballler.
 
Nathan said:
I think it would be harsh to single out the player for the entire teams first half failing. I think with more game time - perhaps out on loan he could develop into a really fine footballler.
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That ain't going to happen. He is 24 too. Time is quickly running out for him. He is definitely going to leave us at the end of the season. He will not make it here.
 
RDCR07 said:
That ain't going to happen. He is 24 too. Time is quickly running out for him. He is definitely going to leave us at the end of the season. He will not make it here.
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Not definite but performances away from home when we need that little bit of quality, need to start showing.

As Andy Townsend said, when Giggs passed that ball to Hernandez, Would Gibson been able to do that? I don't think so either.

He could be a fine player but maybe at a less high profile club
 
golden_blunder said:
very high expectations for Cleverly already, poor fella wont stand a chance when he has a bad game!
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Not on here at least.

The feeling is however among managers he's played that he's a great prospect so he might have the right temperament to succeed at Utd
 
I think Gibson is good enough to become a good PL player. Maybe it would be good for him to move on and get more games, I don't think he'll turn out as good as e.g. Fletcher.
 
I think hes more suited to a club like Villa or Newcastle. Would love to be proved wrong though.
 
At 24 he needs to be playing every week for a couple of seasons. I don't personally think he'll ever be good enough but put in a buy-back clause for £10~m and if he did suddenly really improve they'd be nothing lost, quality gained. He'll never be a top player or even a good squad player competing with Scholes, Giggs, Carrick, Anderson, Cleverley, Park, Nani, Valencia, Fletcher... in our midfield.
 
There's been a lot of replies saying Gibson can't be blamed for last nights performance, has anyone in the thread actually said he was? It seems to be the stock reply whenever somebody points out how crap he is/was.
 
Gibson didnt do much last night, but he didnt do much wrong either.

He played no worse than Rooney, unfortunately, when we switched to 4-4-2 there was going to be nobody else they would take off, especially when we are chasing the game.
 
acnumber9 said:
There's been a lot of replies saying Gibson can't be blamed for last nights performance, has anyone in the thread actually said he was? It seems to be the stock reply whenever somebody points out how crap he is/was.
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He played no better or no worse than any of the lads that lined out beside him in the 1st half last night, unless you can specifically tell me something he did so wrong that he should be subject to such a ridiculing.

Its funny how things work, it was no less than a few days ago that he had a very good game for us, there was hardly a word about him (this thread left alone) then he lines out for us & was part of the IX that had a fierce disappointing 1st half & he is crap & not good enough again.

It was the tactics & the approach in the 1st half that was wrong last night not any individual player.
 
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