Darron Gibson - is he good enough for Everton?

Xander45 said:
Fair enough but i thought that far too often i saw our back four knocking it between themselves because no-one was showing, not even Carrick.
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Agreed. Normally that's a big strength of Carrick's, even when he's not playing well he'll still be making himself available and keeping the play moving. Even if it is only sideways or backwards. That's not ideal, but it's still helping us maintain possession and keep probing for an opening.

Against Marseille there were numerous times where not even Carrick was making himself available to receive the pass from the defenders or his midfield partners. Hence the constant longballs as the player on the ball was being shut down with nobody to make the easy pass to. Hell, even Scholes found he had to keep passing it back to the defenders for the first few minutes after he came on as there were no other options. He'd make himself available, receive the ball and turn looking to go forward, realise there was no-one to pass to so turn back and pass to a defender, we'd play a little triangle and get Scholesy back on the ball again, he'd turn to drive us forward...then have to go backwards again. After a few minutes of this our movement started improving, so I'm not sure whether it was a direct result of the players realising they had someone who would put them into space if they found it, or if it was the change of formation with the extra player (Rooney) in the centre ahead of them.

Some of the credit for that has to go to the opposition, they did well closing down space and sticking close to our players in the middle of the pitch. But the lack of intelligent movement and purposeful running made their job a lot easier.
 
Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber said:
:lol:
What phrase is more empty than claiming ''he was making himself available to pass to?''


So? Last night its only Scholes' passing we missed. Nothing else. It can't be that hard to grasp surely?

He didn't move better than any one else. He just used the ball 100 times better. Its not rocket science.
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I'm surprised you seem to be putting so little important on off the ball movement Chief.

Scholes made a big difference partly because of his passing, but also partly because of his off the ball movement being better than the other midfielders. They weren't so bad in the first half, but in the second half I lost count of the amount of times our defenders just threw a longball up to the front simply because none of the three midfielders was in a position to receive the ball.

As I said in the previous post, it's something that Carrick normally does do very well so it was quite surprising to me.
 
I spent time watching Gibsons movement last night and i made an observation. When United are attacking he makes some very good runs but when he's in the actual centre of midfield, he doesn't seem to have any awareness of finding space
 
mufcwarm92 said:
Gibson was the best of the midfield three by a distance in the first half. It was a strange decision to substitute him rather than Carrick or Fletcher who were both quite poor. Scholes made a massive difference when he came on but that is because he oozes class in every aspect of his play. He would have made a big difference whoever he replaced, and it's unfair to criticise Gibson for this.
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Why would you take off the two capable of playing defense? Even if he was playing better, he is not capable of doing the defensive work that Fletcher and Carrick always do. Leaving him on with Scholes and one of Carrick or Fletcher would have put all the pressure on that guy to break up attacks.
 
golden_blunder said:
I spent time watching Gibsons movement last night and i made an observation. When United are attacking he makes some very good runs but when he's in the actual centre of midfield, he doesn't seem to have any awareness of finding space
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Its a mixture of that & when he actually does find space the ball does not seem to be passed to him for some reason, however in the final third of the pitch he is very good at making himself available for a pass or getting himself into a shooting position, there was 2 occasions last night when he was crying for the ball to be passed to him on the edge of the Marseille box & it wasnt when it could have been, once in the either half, im pretty sure he would have at least tested the keeper on both ocassions.
 
I was pretty disappointed by that moment though, when he chose to revert to his right foot to attempt a shot on the edge of the area when there were several United forwards with acres of space. He need not let his judgement be clouded by his best asset.

I think he should take the free-kicks and corners a bit, rather than Nani. Not only because it would alleviate his shooting impulse, but also and foremost because I reckon he takes them better than the Portuguese.
 
Watched replay of your champions league game, looks like the kind of player who will end up at a birmingham/wolves type club. He isn't United's level.
 
Thought he played pretty well against Marseille. Certainly nothing in his performance that warranted any sort of negative reaction. He did well, and does well, considering the type of player he is; a squad player. For some reason, he get's judged by higher criteria. Don't forget that he only played because Anderson was injured, Giggs was injured and Scholes was being rested for Chelsea.

I think he can make a career here by being a solid squad player that lets no one down.
 
Feed Me said:
Nope. Wolves is my local side. He was highly rated and they could never understand why he was consistently played out of position on the right wing.
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The coaches there said he wasn't anything special. Not sure what the fans thought.
 
MadDogg said:
I'm surprised you seem to be putting so little important on off the ball movement Chief.

Scholes made a big difference partly because of his passing, but also partly because of his off the ball movement being better than the other midfielders. They weren't so bad in the first half, but in the second half I lost count of the amount of times our defenders just threw a longball up to the front simply because none of the three midfielders was in a position to receive the ball.
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I am putting little importance on it because it was the poor passing of our midfield that was costing us. It had nada to do with off the ball movement. Time and again I lost count of the times Carrick for one kept passing the ball back to the back 5 even with the other midfielders and attackers in wide open space to receive a pass. He would also give the ball to Fletcher or Gibson a second to late with men on their talk forcing them to pass the ball hurriedly to the defence, the advancing fullbacks or simply give possession away. Then both Gibson and Fletcher were inconsistent to poor with their short passing for most of the game whilst trying to make things happen further up field whenever they eventually received the ball.

When it came to the back 4, every time Carrick repeatedly passed the ball to them Smalling and Vidic tried to forced things, resulting in a long ball. It was Carrick's fault that they kept resorting to the long ball because he repeatedly failed to utilise options ahead of him in the middle.

The only thing Scholes did was get on the field and pass the ball accurately and intelligently. He hardly moved around much. Rendering the movement argument rather redundant. What he did rather was give a lesson in making the ball work and doing it intelligently.

For example, when he just came on he pass the ball to the back 4 until he spotted an opening and then passed it forward, launching an attack. Moving forward to consolidate it. Carrick in contrast simply kept on passing to the back regardless, all game long. Only changing tact second half when Scholes arrived to grab most of the passing responsibility.
 
Christofaux said:
Watched replay of your champions league game, looks like the kind of player who will end up at a birmingham/wolves type club. He isn't United's level.
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Another cliché in football.
You have to have this kinda player in your team, they're far from being the best talent but they won't complain with the playing time they get.It's a matter of balance.
 
kouroux said:
Another cliché in football.
You have to have this kinda player in your team, they're far from being the best talent but they won't complain with the playing time they get.It's a matter of balance.
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Unfortunately for the Gibs is that we may already have too many central midfielders of that level. I think that for his own good he should leave. He can build a quite impressing career with teams of his own level (ie Bolton or Wolves)
 
kouroux said:
Another cliché in football.
You have to have this kinda player in your team, they're far from being the best talent but they won't complain with the playing time they get.It's a matter of balance.
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You don't need 'this' kind of player in your team. You need good squad players like Oshea and Park who are to be fair good footballers. Gibson still has a long way to go to proving, at least in my mind, that he's capable of being a good squad player for us. I've been extremely unimpressed by his performances, work rate and indeed level of talent. He still has time on his side to prove he can be a first choice midfielder for united (not a possibility IMO) or a good backup one.

In a nutshell I think it takes a good footballer to be a squad player at United. Don't think Gibson is there at all ATM.
 
I think the talent is there - certainly passing, shooting, also no little skill, but he amazes me on the pitch sometimes. I see him basically stand there when oppo midfielders attack. Maybe he thinks he's a striker? A not very fast, not very sharp striker. I am most surprised that our coaches have stood for that.
 
I'm more than surprised. It means we surrender control of the midfield every time he plays.

If he doesn't want to be a midfielder, fine...don't play him there.
 
By 'there' do you mean on the pitch?

Harsh but possibly fair.
 
Against Crawley Town I thought he produced some nice passes and showed some nice awareness. I've never seen that from Gibson before in a United shirt.

Why doesn't he show the same against Marseilles?

I think the answer is that he is too slow, whether mentally or physically, to produce against the likes of Marseilles. When he is against slower opponents and has time on the ball then he is able to show some passing and vision.
 
It's an insult to put Evans and Gibson in the same bracket. The former has often looked like having the talent to be a top player. The latter I'm doubtful I'd even a premiership player. Those two passes against crawley are hopefully a sign of things to finally come, but he needs to work on so much else as well.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
It's an insult to put Evans and Gibson in the same bracket. The former has often looked like having the talent to be a top player. The latter I'm doubtful I'd even a premiership player. Those two passes against crawley are hopefully a sign of things to finally come, but he needs to work on so much else as well.
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Evans has been dragged off at halftime twice this season. He has been left out of the team to get his confidence back, and more to the point he has been shown to be undersized and been manhandled by the likes of Kevin Doyle.

I agree that Evans is not in Gibson's bracket talent-wise because Evans was wonderful for us last season, but I think I've seen enough of United over the years to know when SAF has had enough and in that sense Evans and Gibson are in the same bracket. If you can't do the job when called upon, then patience is short with Fergie. Better players have been let go before (i.e. Diego Forlan), and there are younger talents waiting in the wings.
 
Ferguson said:
Evans has been dragged off at halftime twice this season. He has been left out of the team to get his confidence back, and more to the point he has been shown to be undersized and been manhandled by the likes of Kevin Doyle.

I agree that Evans is not in Gibson's bracket talent-wise because Evans was wonderful for us last season, but I think I've seen enough of United over the years to know when SAF has had enough and in that sense Evans and Gibson are in the same bracket. If you can't do the job when called upon, then patience is short with Fergie. Better players have been let go before (i.e. Diego Forlan), and there are younger talents waiting in the wings.
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There's no way in hell we would let Evans go. We need defenders for cover and he is young and learning. If we lose a first team defender this summer its sure to be Wes Brown.
 
Decotron said:
Yet another throw away bullshit statement based on assumption, well done.
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How can it be assumption when one of the coaching staff that was training him didn't think he had that extra quality. Whether he was right or wrong we will have to see. Not everything that is said around clubs goes out to the media.
 
Mainoldo said:
How can it be assumption when one of the coaching staff that was training him didn't think he had that extra quality. Whether he was right or wrong we will have to see. Not everything that is said around clubs goes out to the media.
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again, source, quotes?

prove it or its bs from you
 
Mainoldo said:
How can it be assumption when one of the coaching staff that was training him didn't think he had that extra quality. Whether he was right or wrong we will have to see. Not everything that is said around clubs goes out to the media.
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So it didn't end up in the media?

How the feck do you know what the coaches thought if you didn't find out through the media?
 
B Cantona said:
He might correctly remember someone said it, but not be able to find the source via google
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He was on loan at Wolves. It's very very unlikely that coaches would criticise a player not belonging to the club. He has most likely made the comment up and now cannot back up his story.
 
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