Darron Gibson: The incomplete midfielder
By Liam Mackey
Thursday, February 10, 2011
ONCE the universal acclaim for Darron Gibson’s thrilling strike against Wales had died down, the nagging doubts tended to resurface.
Yes, we all know the Manchester United man has spectacular goals in his locker – but has he got enough of all the other stuff required to make him an automatic first choice in Ireland’s central midfield? Giovanni Trapattoni believes he has but "the important question", he said yesterday, is how the player goes about bringing it to the fore. All managers are in thrall to the concept of the complete midfielder but it’s clear that, for all the potential he believes the Derry man possesses, Trapattoni thinks Darron Gibson, is still the incomplete version.
Reflecting in a Dublin airport hotel on Ireland’s latest outing before he caught his flight home to Milan, Trapattoni was at pains to preface his thoughts on Gibson by reminding his audience that the last time he spoke at length about him, his comments provoked a minor controversy – or what the Italian always prefers to call a "polemica".
He was referring to last September when his suggestion that a change of club might be beneficial for the Old Trafford fringe player prompted a clearly irritated Gibson to snap back: "To what club, other than Manchester United, could I go to improve my game? If he’s trying to say that I should move somewhere like Stoke City and change my game to winning tackles and not winning games then he’s having a laugh."
Peace was duly restored and Gibson retained his place in Trapattoni’s squad but, the veteran Italian made it clear again that he still harbours reservations about the rate of Gibson’s development at the Theatre of Dreams.
And not only as a result of a lack of game time but also because he believes that the 23-year-old is inclined to defer to the club’s more senior personalities when he does get his opportunities on the pitch.
"At half time on Wednesday I said to the players that we had the possibility to shoot more and he scored a great goal," said Trapattoni. "But I expect more from him. He can do more. There was a
polemica before when I said that if I was Gibson I would go to another club where I would play more and build personality. Manchester is Manchester, like Juve or Inter, but players need to play, play, play.
"His potential is fantastic but at United there are other players with more personality. In that situation the young can sometimes wait for the ball and let others, like Scholes, play. There are two situations in a game – when we have the ball and when the opposition has the ball. Darron is fantastic when he has the ball but when he finishes an offensive action, he needs to continue to be involved. Sometimes he just looks on because, at United, he is used to them getting the ball back. I said to him that if you lose the ball, you must continue. When you pass the ball, the play is not finished. At 21 I was running 5k or 8k. It’s not about radical change, it’s about understanding the situation."
The significant change of emphasis from Trapattoni’s previous analysis of the reasons behind Gibson’s unfulfilled potential is that the Italian now sees a possible breakthrough for him at Old Trafford, assuming, of course, that the decision to stay there next season is not taken out of the player’s hands. "Maybe next year Scholes goes out and he could play and improve," said Trapattoni. "I expect that this could happen."
In the meantime, the Ireland manager was not about to be called on whether he would start Gibson against Macedonia in next month’s European qualifier in Dublin. "Today fish, tomorrow meat," he smiled, meaning he couldn’t possibly decide on the menu one month in advance.
Similarly, he wasn’t giving any hostages to fortune about the prospect of last night’s first-timers making a competitive debut on March 26. Yes, he reiterated that he was impressed with Ciaran Clark and Seamus Coleman against Wales but, for now, he sees them as options rather than certainties. And that appears to suggest that, contrary to speculation, the veteran Kevin Kilbane’s race might not yet be run. Confirming that he would include both the Aston Villa and Huddersfield Town men in his next squad, Trapattoni said: "We can’t forget players like Kilbane. I said to him that this was a friendly game, I said I had to try other players and he said ‘ok no problem’. It’s a month away and we can think about it. We have a choice between one or two different players. The same with Seamus Coleman. Why not McGeady? Or Lawrence? Or Hunt? We must also bear the opposition in mind. The good thing is that, thank God, we have not only 11 players now, like we had in the past. We needed to discover others."
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Darron Gibson: The incomplete midfielder | Irish Examiner
