Kevin Macdonald

[sitwell]

Just thought I should clarify my thoughts on Macdonald as one or two who I respect on here seem to have the wrong end of the stick ,and the sites resident dickhead brought Montgomery into it for some reason.
Macdonald is my favourite player at the Lane ,would be the first on the teamsheet and the best midfielder since the real Michael Brown ,10 years ago. From the first moments in his trial game against Donny I wanted him in our midfield and I think he has fantastic ability. Some have even likened him to Currie ,I wouldnt go that far but would compare him with 2 other favourites of mine Hutchinson and Arnott (2 others who also unfortunately came up short and could have been legends).
Last night was the most disappointed I have been in him ,we were 0-0 against the most anonymous team and the anonymous players you could find ,we are top of the league , this is where Macdonald could really show his ability and put himself on a pedestal ,but his lack of effort and application for the last 30 minutes last night was a joke. He had other players to battle for him ,admitedly Flynn and Doyle who are inferior players were not at their strongest but we had the upper hand ,Danny gave hime alternatives with young players up front , but Macca did not bust a gut to go and find the key to unlock the Orient defence.
His contribution was dire and this is the reason he is playing in this division.
He has had a poor season when he should arguably be the best player in the divsion ,he has actually been upstaged by a few players ,most notably Murphy from Crewe and Allon from Portsmouth by memory and yet he seems beyond critisism. This fragile persona he alledgedgly has where he he will throw his dummy out and walk out or disappear as he did at Burnley seems to have attached itself to him. well fucking man up Kevin ,you need a rocket up your arse ,you are the one player who could take us up ,in the meantime becoming a name which will be remembered in history ,you have the tools ,just apply them and get us out of this fucking awful division.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Nice post Sitwell. Some very good and well made points.

I agree that KMac could and should be a marquee player in this division. But he isn't.

Go back to the summer. His agent would no doubt have been touting him around as all that was on the table was a £2k a week (ish) deal from UTD. He ended up signing.

Tells its own story really.

I suspect many of us expect quite a bit from KMac - maybe a bit too much.

UTB

 

[Bradford Blade]

Indeed, very astute post Sits, and after watching the game last night, I concur entirely. Darn shame coz Macca is great when he's good, but he seems a bit off the boil at the mo...

But I would therefore ask: why?

UTB!

 

[stannyblade]

His passing wasnt good last night but I thought he got stuck in well and made some good tackles. Unfortunately for him there wasnt much to aim at as the there wasnt much movement going forward.

 

[Bladesway]

I watched him trot around and do fuck all last night. Think he is massively overrated and thinks he is better than he is. Fragile persona or not, I still expect him to be able to run, tackle and pass. He is the lynch pin and I'm afraid he is not worth a place in the first XI purely down to a lack of application. Barry Robson showed more class in 5 minutes than McDonald did in 90. Perhaps he should have a look at Robson and see what a professional footballer should be doing. He's robbing us whatever we are paying him at the moment.

 

[Bladesway]

His passing wasnt good last night but I thought he got stuck in well and made some good tackles. Unfortunately for him there wasnt much to aim at as the there wasnt much movement going forward.

Every pass I saw him make was either sideways or to one of their players.

 

[stannyblade]

Every pass I saw him make was either sideways or to one of their players.

And that is why he plays for us in League one.

 

[Bayingblade]

Vaild points Sitters and I agree that he has been nowhere near as effective as last season. I think the reasons are a bit more complex though than him not trying hard enough. I think his languid style gives the impression that he is maybe not prepared to work as hard as others who have occupied our midfield over the years. Two opposite examples spring immediately to mind, one who is now plying his trade down under and the other who made his debut for United 45 years ago yesterday. The first could never be accused of being lazy and the second was regularly.

I have been watching Macca closely myself this season, trying to pinpoint why he is not as effective and for me, it's the players around him. On numerous occasions he picks the ball up outside our box and looks to go forward. The difference between this season and last is that he had the likes of Williamson, Quinn, Evans and even Lowton and Jean Francois who were prepared to get into forward positions and give him options. All 5 were prepared to look for space in an advanced position with a view to giving Macca the option of passing to them and continuing the forward movement. As the move continued, he was then able to move into more advanced positions and offer options to those players in the oppositions half, which again contributed to our attacking fluency last season enabled him to assist much more in attack. Consequently, we were one of the highest scoring teams in Europe!

This season appears to be very different. When Macca picks the ball up in our own half, there is very little for him to look for ahead of him. Kitson is a useful player but is not exactly mobile and never runs the channels. Doyle tends to hang back, McMahon is not a particularly attacking full back (and neither is Higginbotham). Blackman did offer options on the right but was often being marked tightly and Flynn appears to either drop deep and/or narrow when Macca has the ball, removing the outlet on the wing. Last night he was guilty of this for almost the whole of the game, which was mightily frustrating. Robson does offer the option but again, he is often too deep to be particularly effective going forward. As a result of this, Macca is more often than not left with little option but to go sideways or backwards which enables the opposition to regroup. Consequently, he has been far less effective this season as opposed to last.

QED

Having aid that, the one positive from last night was that both MacFadzean and De Geralamo appeared to be willing to look for the ball in advanced position so when Forte returns and Poleon settles in, our Danny may have a few more options that will enable him to bring Macca back up to his fluent and effective best.

 

[Micalijo]

Nothing winds me up more than completely unsubstantiated comments about players not trying or not showing application etc. Having a poor game or being surounded by dross and incompetence does not mean someone is not trying - unless Sitwell you spoke to Kevin before the game or after the game and he told you that he wasn't trying.

 

[SwissBlade]

I think I can clarify a few things on MacDonald

Plays a good game - KMac is a world beater and everyone else must've had a great game
Plays a bad game - There was no movement, KMac was the only one trying, everyone else is shit

If we stick to that we can always make an excuse if he has a bad game.

I like KMac, I think he's often overrated, but is clearly the best ball player in the team, probably in this division and also the Championship.

He doesn't however get anywhere near enough goals, one for the season. And as an attacking midfielder, according to the OS stats, he has just two assists this season!

Personally I think he tends to hide in games when things don't go his way,

As I say, he is a cracking player, but he could do more, could take more responsibility in the side.

 

[sitwell]

The 2 outlets i think he misses most are not Evans and Williamson in my opinion but Lowton and Quinn ,he had Quinn who would come short and wanted the ball all the time and Lowton would overlap and look for a pass down the line. Doyle ,Flynn and McMahon are not those players and Macdonald suffers for it ,but he has enough ability to adapt and look for other alternatives ,not just a pass ,but to run with it and shoot. I cant think of a worthwhile pass ,run ,shot ,tackle of note he acheived last night ,the game just passed him by and he is better than that. When he looks back on his career he will regret it.


And Micallajio ,just fuck off on any thread i am on if you dont mind ,Im not interested in you ,you are just a troll who stifles debate to gain attention.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

I've honestly never seen what all the fuss is about with McDonald. Best midfielder since Brown? Nowhere near for me.

He was poor last night but he was even worse against Hartlepool. He really razzed me off in that one.

 

[super_pig]

Every pass I saw him make was either sideways or to one of their players.

that's because there is no movement up front.. we simply dont have the pace or movement for him to pass to anyone. plus he is carrying the midfield himself. doyle is the new monty and flynn is the new monty

 

[Uhtred]

Have to agree with sitters MacDonald's performance last night was poor. Yes he doesn't have the quality players of last season around him but that's no excuse for just sheer lack of effort. There were plenty of occasions where he could have made himself available to receive the ball or made a forward run but chose not to. He needs to take a leaf out of Robson's book his passing and movement was good all night and appears to be improving with every game, I only give Long the MOM ahead of him because his performance alone gained us a point.

last nights performance was poor to say the least however DW chooses to gloss over it. I just hope we up our act and make more effort on Saturday as I have a gut feeling Oldham will on a high on the back of their cup run.

 

[Bladesway]

that's because there is no movement up front.. we simply dont have the pace or movement for him to pass to anyone. plus he is carrying the midfield himself. doyle is the new monty and flynn is the new monty

Never ceases to amaze me how much our favourites get away with it while the water carriers get pelters. Robson put a storming ball through for Poleon start of the second half and then was back as the last man to clean up defencsive when needed. He put a shift in and played the right ball to the right player at the right time.

Sorry but I expect captain golden balls to do more than sulk when things don't go his way. He was god awful and every time I have had the pleasure of him gracing central midfield I am yet to see him turn a game like he did last season. Good players don't miss having other good players around them, they still dictate and make it happen. Think he is a mard arse who needs a kick in the air or piss off to be quite honest. One thing we don't need right now is passengers.

 

[raul]

The 2 outlets i think he misses most are not Evans and Williamson in my opinion but Lowton and Quinn ,he had Quinn who would come short and wanted the ball all the time and Lowton would overlap and look for a pass down the line. Doyle ,Flynn and McMahon are not those players and Macdonald suffers for it ,but he has enough ability to adapt and look for other alternatives ,not just a pass ,but to run with it and shoot. I cant think of a worthwhile pass ,run ,shot ,tackle of note he acheived last night ,the game just passed him by and he is better than that. When he looks back on his career he will regret it.


And Micallajio ,just fuck off on any thread i am on if you dont mind ,Im not interested in you ,you are just a troll who stifles debate to gain attention.

Shouldn't the phrase be "please feel free to fuck off"??

 

[Hodgyman]

I totally agree with Sitters comments. I think that MacDonald was playing far too deep, which caused too big a gap between defence/midfield and the forwards. This caused too many longer balls being pumped into the box. We also played far too many high balls from the wings into the goal area which were well defended by their keeper and central defenders.

If MacDonald was to play further up the pitch, with Robson tucking in further back, Kevin can then create better chances with the killer passes that we all know that he can produce

 

[sheffielder]

Shouldn't the phrase be "please feel free to fuck off"??

Oh I can see an email heading his way

 

[Bladesway]

And Micallajio ,just fuck off on any thread i am on if you dont mind ,Im not interested in you ,you are just a troll who stifles debate to gain attention.

You and KMac the same starsign sitters?

 

[Bladesway]

Oh I can see an email heading his way

From Sitters? I'd not expect it really. Not like he has ever done it before.

 

[sheffielder]

YesMcDonald wasn't at his best but his worst is still better than Doyle's best.

Having shit full backs who don't cross the half way line is half the problem. Countless times McMahon had 30 yards of space to run into which makes more space so McDonald doesn't have a pass to make. Is McMahon told he can't cross the half way line and is there some reason that he crosses from 40 yards out when he does! I am sure Bergen can go into the technicals on how this free's up space. Our bad home play is more tactics than application most of the time and we don't adapt generally.

Last night after 30 minutes we went to 4-5-1, not even 4-3-3 when we had the ball. Just shit tactics and it makes the players look worse than they are, if possible

 

[Northyorksblade]

Oh I can see an email heading his way

I think raul can claim mitigating circumstances and he just said what a lot of us were thinking

 

[DazBlade88]

YesMcDonald wasn't at his best but his worst is still better than Doyle's best.

Having shit full backs who don't cross the half way line is half the problem. Countless times McMahon had 30 yards of space to run into which makes more space so McDonald doesn't have a pass to make. Is McMahon told he can't cross the half way line and is there some reason that he crosses from 40 yards out when he does! I am sure Bergen can go into the technicals on how this free's up space. Our bad home play is more tactics than application most of the time and we don't adapt generally.

Last night after 30 minutes we went to 4-5-1, not even 4-3-3 when we had the ball. Just shit tactics and it makes the players look worse than they are, if possible

The tactics are as a result of the imbalance in our team as it stands.

If you have full backs like Higginbotham and McMahon, you need wingers. If you have virtual wing backs like Lowton and LJF, you need wide midfield players like Flynn who are willing to fill the space when they bomb forward. Sadly, we have out and out full backs and wide midfielders so we struggle to create when players have 11 men behind the ball because everything we do is in front of them and it's much easier to defend against.

Look at their side last night - they had Cuthbert at right back who is a bruising centre half. What you need is a winger, such as McFadzean who will run at him with pace because he'll either tear him apart or get him sent off. Not that McFadzean could have played a great deal longer than he did, with him, De Girolamo and Ironside all playing 90 minutes for the U21s against Wednesday on Monday afternoon.

 

[LSF]

I think Sitwell has a valid point about KM. My lad and I were discussing his tepid performance during the game and one theory we came up with was that now he has Barry Robson shouldering some responsibility (and BR seems to thrive on this and puts himself about mightily as long as his legs allow), he sort of thinks, 'oh, I don't have to get as involved as Barry's doing whats expected of me'.
I think its just the nature of the beast that is Kevin MacDonald and precisely the reason he's playing with SUFC in the 3rd tier of English football.
With a better attitude and less of a 'fuck it, I'm bored with this pro football lark' attitude, no doubt Kev would be in the lower echelons of the Premier or maybe tossing it off with Celtic in the Scots Prem?

Maybe I'm wide of the mark, who knows? Maybe Danny Wilson does? But we can only speculate on what we see with our own eyes. KM undoubtedly has better than the average abilities of Flynn or Doyle for instance, but to the naked eye of the man or woman in the stands, he sometimes seems to care less on some days more than others. Shame really, but its something we have to put up with until we can get someone better who produces on a regular basis.

 

[Sothall_Blade]

The tactics are as a result of the imbalance in our team as it stands.

If you have full backs like Higginbotham and McMahon, you need wingers. If you have virtual wing backs like Lowton and LJF, you need wide midfield players like Flynn who are willing to fill the space when they bomb forward. Sadly, we have out and out full backs and wide midfielders so we struggle to create when players have 11 men behind the ball because everything we do is in front of them and it's much easier to defend against.

Look at their side last night - they had Cuthbert at right back who is a bruising centre half. What you need is a winger, such as McFadzean who will run at him with pace because he'll either tear him apart or get him sent off. Not that McFadzean could have played a great deal longer than he did, with him, De Girolamo and Ironside all playing 90 minutes for the U21s against Wednesday on Monday afternoon.

That is a really good point. If we're relying on these players to be our "strength in depth" and game-changing substitutes we really can't be expecting them to play full matches the day before. Surely it's not beyond the club to avoid clashes between first team and U21 fixtures when our bench is so reliant on U21's?

 

[sheffielder]

I think raul can claim mitigating circumstances and he just said what a lot of us were thinking

I mean't Sitwell

 

[OllyBlade]

The 2 outlets i think he misses most are not Evans and Williamson in my opinion but Lowton and Quinn ,he had Quinn who would come short and wanted the ball all the time and Lowton would overlap and look for a pass down the line.

I would agree with that part about Quinn especially. At Colchester away, way back in August, Wilson played a formation with Quinn basically in a free role (with Matt Hill guarding the left) and KMac had one of his best games of this season, the two linked up very well. Should have won the game comfortably. Obviously then Quinn left and we didn't see that kind of fluid formation again (we've been very rigid mostly). I thought KMac was good against Colchester however, so maybe he can be prodded into form.

 

[Micalijo]

The 2 outlets i think he misses most are not Evans and Williamson in my opinion but Lowton and Quinn ,he had Quinn who would come short and wanted the ball all the time and Lowton would overlap and look for a pass down the line. Doyle ,Flynn and McMahon are not those players and Macdonald suffers for it ,but he has enough ability to adapt and look for other alternatives ,not just a pass ,but to run with it and shoot. I cant think of a worthwhile pass ,run ,shot ,tackle of note he acheived last night ,the game just passed him by and he is better than that. When he looks back on his career he will regret it.


And Micallajio ,just fuck off on any thread i am on if you dont mind ,Im not interested in you ,you are just a troll who stifles debate to gain attention.

No I will not!!

Kmac is nowhere near as good as you make out and funnily enough there are 11 players on the opposition who might be able to run and stop him playing a bit. We have a shit, god awful collection of players and he suffers from that no doubt but that is not the same as saying he doesn't try. He's a L1 footballer.

 

[Jehovah]

Vaild points Sitters and I agree that he has been nowhere near as effective as last season. I think the reasons are a bit more complex though than him not trying hard enough. I think his languid style gives the impression that he is maybe not prepared to work as hard as others who have occupied our midfield over the years. Two opposite examples spring immediately to mind, one who is now plying his trade down under and the other who made his debut for United 45 years ago yesterday. The first could never be accused of being lazy and the second was regularly.

I have been watching Macca closely myself this season, trying to pinpoint why he is not as effective and for me, it's the players around him. On numerous occasions he picks the ball up outside our box and looks to go forward. The difference between this season and last is that he had the likes of Williamson, Quinn, Evans and even Lowton and Jean Francois who were prepared to get into forward positions and give him options. All 5 were prepared to look for space in an advanced position with a view to giving Macca the option of passing to them and continuing the forward movement. As the move continued, he was then able to move into more advanced positions and offer options to those players in the oppositions half, which again contributed to our attacking fluency last season enabled him to assist much more in attack. Consequently, we were one of the highest scoring teams in Europe!

This season appears to be very different. When Macca picks the ball up in our own half, there is very little for him to look for ahead of him. Kitson is a useful player but is not exactly mobile and never runs the channels. Doyle tends to hang back, McMahon is not a particularly attacking full back (and neither is Higginbotham). Blackman did offer options on the right but was often being marked tightly and Flynn appears to either drop deep and/or narrow when Macca has the ball, removing the outlet on the wing. Last night he was guilty of this for almost the whole of the game, which was mightily frustrating. Robson does offer the option but again, he is often too deep to be particularly effective going forward. As a result of this, Macca is more often than not left with little option but to go sideways or backwards which enables the opposition to regroup. Consequently, he has been far less effective this season as opposed to last.

QED

Having aid that, the one positive from last night was that both MacFadzean and De Geralamo appeared to be willing to look for the ball in advanced position so when Forte returns and Poleon settles in, our Danny may have a few more options that will enable him to bring Macca back up to his fluent and effective best.

I was going to post something along the lines of "It's because the players around him this season are shit" but this post explains my theory in more detail.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

Guys,guys, your failing to see the big picture here, its all the ex-pigs fault , along with the property developer who's bleedin this club dry , by playing people out of position , and signing people who are'nt fit to lace certain people's boots, come on guys get with the program , to much adult conversation on here for me I;m going over to blades mad who really know its all down to afore mentioned ex-p and p-d. other than that maybe he's not as good as he thinks and needs a good kick up the back-side , also we are a third division club for a reason , and if the knackers from up the road had'nt scored late we'd still be top , mouth and nazis lost again I see. UTB.
OH WE AINT GOT A BARRELL OF MONEY , BUT WE'VE GOT DOYLE , AND THAT'S NOT , FUNNY .