Watching from the Fringes
Credit:
With an eye towards the upcoming international games for the Republic of Ireland we despatched Emmet Maloney to check out the performance of the Irish qualified players in the pre season friendly involving
Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City in the majestic surroundings of Hillsborough.
Stoke of course feature several players in Giovanni Trapattoni's first team squad and one or two others who either pulled on the green shirt or who have made noises about doing it. In the former camp we have Glenn Whelan, Jon Walters and Marc Wilson, in the latter you have Rory Delap and Jermaine Pennant. Wednesday lined up with only two Irish qualified players in their ranks aging front man Clinton Morrison and midfield journeyman James O’Connor.
After their midweek European exertions Stoke manager Tony Pulis decided to play two entirely different teams for each 45 minutes. So Whelan, Walters and Delap played for the first half while Wilson and Pennant played for the second half.
Wednesday are operating in the First Division, the third tier of English football, and Gary Megson doesn’t have the resources to switch players at will, meaning that Clinton Morrison had to soldier through 74 minutes and James O’Connor appeared as a sub from the 61st minute.
Glen Whelan is an integral part of Traps midfield plan and had a chance to show how far he had progressed to the fans that used to cheer him in South Yorkshire against this now lowly opposition. He was paired with Dean Whitehead in the engine room and did what we all know he can do. At his best Whelan gets a foot in, breaks up the opposition and plays short to medium range passes to colleagues for them to use the ball to its best advantage. When he tries to play longer range passing or try to get into the artistic side of the game he is often found wanting and this 45 minutes was no exception. He had one header and one 25 yard drive wide when trying to get into advanced positions.
Only in the last minute of the first half did he find his range with a longer range pass when switching play the width of the park to find Danny Pugh. Before then he had seen plenty of ball but often over hit any pass over about 25 yards. When playing at short range he was neat and effective breaking up Owls midfield play to find Whitehead and Pugh or playing it back to the central defensive partnership to instigate new attacks.
Jon Walters is beginning to make a mark for himself in the Premiership and is now well and truly on Traps radar. He started slowly and up against a towering Wednesday central defence saw very little joy with high balls. He had one purple patch between the 25th and 30th minutes where he hammered a shot from 25 yards straight at Nicky Weaver in the Owls goal and pulled out a lovely chest trap to hold play up and find Whelan. Then he took one ball to run into the box through the inside right channel but his touch let him down and allowed Danny Batth to clear.
Rory Delap has achieved fame/notoriety in the Premiership for his long throws and again this represented the Potters best chance for a breakthrough in the first half. Anytime a throw was awarded within 25 yards of the Owls goal line on either side of the pitch, Delap was called into action and usually managed to get the ball into the danger area but against a tall Wednesday rearguard they were mostly cleared with a minimum of fuss. He had several opportunities to cross and consistently over hit his crosses to fail to find either Jones or Walters in the centre.
Marc Wilson came on at half time and slotted in at left back despite being right footed and performed creditably against an Owls academy product Liam Palmer who is a central midfielder by trade but slotted into the right side of the Wednesday midfield. He teamed up well with Jermaine Pennant and was at his best when coming inside onto his favoured right foot. By no means on this showing would you put him down as an overlapping full back. Still if Trap is looking for a defensively sound full back Wilson may well be an option, pace may be a problem but up against Palmer this was never seriously examined.
Of the other Irish players on show Clinton Morrison worked hard with very little joy and no chance to speak of in his time on the park. James O’Connor was sound in midfield when he came on and had a couple of good looking drives blocked or deflected when they were on target.
The match itself was vigorous without being inspiring and ended with a 0-0 draw. Stoke hit the woodwork through Diego Arismendi from 25 yards and Kenwyne Jones allowed Weaver to smother his advance into the box after five minutes. The clearest cut chance for Wednesday fell to trialist, Juhvel Tsomou who somehow managed to hit Asmir Begovic from 6 yards when completely unmarked and centrally placed. This may have had some role to play in his trial being unsuccessful.
All in all the most effective performers for Stoke were Wilson and Pennant up against a tiring Wednesday team and O’Connor for the Owls, sadly for Ireland fans none of these players will be featuring for in the green shirt any time soon. We hope that Whelan sticks to what he does best in the upcoming games and that we have enough creativity around him to make up for his deficit.
Stoke of course feature several players in Giovanni Trapattoni's first team squad and one or two others who either pulled on the green shirt or who have made noises about doing it. In the former camp we have Glenn Whelan, Jon Walters and Marc Wilson, in the latter you have Rory Delap and Jermaine Pennant. Wednesday lined up with only two Irish qualified players in their ranks aging front man Clinton Morrison and midfield journeyman James O’Connor.
After their midweek European exertions Stoke manager Tony Pulis decided to play two entirely different teams for each 45 minutes. So Whelan, Walters and Delap played for the first half while Wilson and Pennant played for the second half.
Wednesday are operating in the First Division, the third tier of English football, and Gary Megson doesn’t have the resources to switch players at will, meaning that Clinton Morrison had to soldier through 74 minutes and James O’Connor appeared as a sub from the 61st minute.
Glen Whelan is an integral part of Traps midfield plan and had a chance to show how far he had progressed to the fans that used to cheer him in South Yorkshire against this now lowly opposition. He was paired with Dean Whitehead in the engine room and did what we all know he can do. At his best Whelan gets a foot in, breaks up the opposition and plays short to medium range passes to colleagues for them to use the ball to its best advantage. When he tries to play longer range passing or try to get into the artistic side of the game he is often found wanting and this 45 minutes was no exception. He had one header and one 25 yard drive wide when trying to get into advanced positions.
Only in the last minute of the first half did he find his range with a longer range pass when switching play the width of the park to find Danny Pugh. Before then he had seen plenty of ball but often over hit any pass over about 25 yards. When playing at short range he was neat and effective breaking up Owls midfield play to find Whitehead and Pugh or playing it back to the central defensive partnership to instigate new attacks.
Jon Walters is beginning to make a mark for himself in the Premiership and is now well and truly on Traps radar. He started slowly and up against a towering Wednesday central defence saw very little joy with high balls. He had one purple patch between the 25th and 30th minutes where he hammered a shot from 25 yards straight at Nicky Weaver in the Owls goal and pulled out a lovely chest trap to hold play up and find Whelan. Then he took one ball to run into the box through the inside right channel but his touch let him down and allowed Danny Batth to clear.
Rory Delap has achieved fame/notoriety in the Premiership for his long throws and again this represented the Potters best chance for a breakthrough in the first half. Anytime a throw was awarded within 25 yards of the Owls goal line on either side of the pitch, Delap was called into action and usually managed to get the ball into the danger area but against a tall Wednesday rearguard they were mostly cleared with a minimum of fuss. He had several opportunities to cross and consistently over hit his crosses to fail to find either Jones or Walters in the centre.
Marc Wilson came on at half time and slotted in at left back despite being right footed and performed creditably against an Owls academy product Liam Palmer who is a central midfielder by trade but slotted into the right side of the Wednesday midfield. He teamed up well with Jermaine Pennant and was at his best when coming inside onto his favoured right foot. By no means on this showing would you put him down as an overlapping full back. Still if Trap is looking for a defensively sound full back Wilson may well be an option, pace may be a problem but up against Palmer this was never seriously examined.
Of the other Irish players on show Clinton Morrison worked hard with very little joy and no chance to speak of in his time on the park. James O’Connor was sound in midfield when he came on and had a couple of good looking drives blocked or deflected when they were on target.
The match itself was vigorous without being inspiring and ended with a 0-0 draw. Stoke hit the woodwork through Diego Arismendi from 25 yards and Kenwyne Jones allowed Weaver to smother his advance into the box after five minutes. The clearest cut chance for Wednesday fell to trialist, Juhvel Tsomou who somehow managed to hit Asmir Begovic from 6 yards when completely unmarked and centrally placed. This may have had some role to play in his trial being unsuccessful.
All in all the most effective performers for Stoke were Wilson and Pennant up against a tiring Wednesday team and O’Connor for the Owls, sadly for Ireland fans none of these players will be featuring for in the green shirt any time soon. We hope that Whelan sticks to what he does best in the upcoming games and that we have enough creativity around him to make up for his deficit.
