Other than Chief Goalkick Generator....

HangTime

HangTime

HangTime

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....what is the point of Darron Gibson?

Yes, this is a somewhat frivolous thread, but after 10 years on the forums I have finally succombed, and posted an entirely new thread on a somewhat limited subject. I have chosen now as the moment, to ask the most pressing quesiton in the past 10 years of watching football, and in all seriousness:

What is Darron Gibson in aid of?
Am I missing something, is he breaking up the play, winning the ball, spraying the ball around like Jan Molby after the promise of a KFC bargain bucket for every assist?

Discuss.
 
One thing I would point out is that there is a big difference between someone [who may or may not have had a few ciders throughout the day!] posting on a forum about a player and actually writing stuff on their personal twitter account in full view of the player, their colleagues, friends etc.

So although as a professional sportsman in the public eye you have to be able to live with critisism, it is only things like Twitter that get so direct and personal, giving a link direct from the public through to the players (compared to say the traditional media, where aside from maybe a letters page or phonein that are easily avoided, you have little to worry about).

What I wrote in the OP, would I post it on his twitter, would I print it off and post it through his letterbox - no, I wouldn't (and even then I didn't write anything particular offensive other than questioning his ability). I don't wish the guy any discomfort, I just genuinely don't understand what he brings to the table other than a powerful shot that every now and then will come off.

I'd just sat watching football having a few drinks and during the MU match I saw him blaze his third attempted shot of the half and got thinking, this is Manchester United we are talking about here, the 'best' club of the past 20 years, why are they wasting their time with this guy? If Kleberson wasn't good enough why do they think he is? That's the real point I'm making, surely there must be better options, why discard better players and then play Gibson?
 
The thing is players like Nani/Ronaldo you could see they had something (now to be fair with "flair" players, wingers etc it is arguably easier get noticed). Fletcher impressed me when I first saw him (playing rightwing iirc), then everyone hated him, now he's flavour of the month (especially for big games), personally I don't think he's great but he does more than Gibson.

As for lack of options I look at it and think, in central midfield MU have got the option to play:

Giggs
Scholes
Fletcher
Park
Carrick
Anderson
Hargreaves [OK so 'option to play' is maybe being a bit generous here...]

IMO all of them are better than Gibson, although perhaps the jury is still out on Anderson. Cleverley looks better, and I don't know what else they might have waiting in the wings in terms of reserve/youth setup. I don't see it as lack of options, on Saturday he had Giggs (who replaced him as sub) and Carrick. OK so there is a european game in midweek, maybe he was resting players. But even so I'd rather shift Park inside and play the likes of Obertan than have Gibson clogging up the team.
 
I dunno maybe I have the wrong attitude but I look at a team like MU and think they shouldn't be giving people too much of a chance to prove themselves, after 50 games if they aren't delivering the goods then a club of that stature should be looking elsewhere. Real quality like Ronaldo (maybe even Hernandez) would grab the opportunity and have forced themselves to get more than just "the odd start" (unless of course there was a lot of superior players in the pecking order). The easy retort would be to say "hahaha you'll never win anything with kids eh lolol!!" but of course the difference is that the 'kids' at MU 15 years ago delivered far more than Gibson has by the age of 23.

Also not looking to start a debate on a minor issue but you talk about Gibson having "experience" but then say he's not really had a chance, surely if he's never got a proper look-in at MU he can't be THAT experienced, OK so a bit of international football but even so at 23 he is not magically going to become a vastly improved player overnight just by giving him some games here and there.

The issue I have really is that I don't see Gibson being good enough to even be a squad player, in my book there comes a point when players - if they really are all that, if they really are good enough to be playing for a club challenging for the biggest honours in the game - need to have taken what opportunities, however limited, have been given to them. And that's nothing I would direct at Gibson specifically; Bendtner at Arsenal is a good example, because he's not a starter (and rightly so, given his ability) it is all to easy for people to say "yeah yeah, Bendtner never gets to start a run of games in his best position, boo hoo hoo, he's a great player but never gets the chance to prove it, man didn't you see that absolute peach he scored the other day [playing up front for Arsenal you get chances, and even average players can put a few away], and don't forget that hattrick in the Carling cup!!!", yet when you look at the stats of how many minutes he's had it's quite a lot, and then think of all the chances he's missed, it's obvious he is never going to be a true great of the game.
 
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My 25 man MU squad, no place for Gibson (obviously due to rules about youngsters as we all know it is far more than 25 for the EPL, but point I'm making is that he wouldn't be in my 25):

VDS
Kuszchak
Linderthingy

Ferdinand
Vidic
Smalling
Brown
Evra
Fabio
Rafael
O'Shea
Evans

Giggs
Park
Nani
Valencia
Scholes
Carrick
Fletcher
Hargreaves/Obertan (depending on fitness)
Anderson

Rooney
Owen
Berbatov
Hernandez
 
So I was sat eating my lunch today and got to wondering, what ever happened to this waste of a shirt other than a few controversial drinking incidents when he was at Sunderland. I remembered making this thread a while back and thought it was due an update on how he's getting on, so I looked him up.

Salford City. I rest my case.
 
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