Niall Canavan

Just had a look at our stats since signing Canavan to see our records with and without him, as last season it seemed to go sideways after he got a knock. Seemingly similar happening this season. As you say, not a fast defender but that experience, calmness and power really sets up the rest of the back line. All are league game stats since he made his debut in Feb.

With Canavan - 22 L2 games
W 11
D 5
L 6
Team scored 34, conceded 25


Without Canavan - 9 L2 games
W 0
D 2
L 7
Team scored 4, conceded 12

Statistically, having him in the back just makes the team work far better. I think POC plays better with him too as he can play as the right CB. Paudie always has looked shaky on the left, gets pulled out of position too often and creates too many gaps. Hopefully he slots back in soon.

 

Does Paudie play better with Canavan? Or does Canavan just do the work of 2 centre backs….?

 

Interestingly though, we have a ready made "left sided" center back but aren't using him because he "isn't ready" or summat.

In the meantime though we get to see Kelleher look completely out of his depth.

Well played DA, well played.

 

Canavan was going to be out "3 weeks". Adams is generally vague about injuries. Was asked post match on Saturday about the injury status and merely trotted the names of the injured. Eisa and Angol previously forecast as out until "October". No indication whether beginning, mid or end. Robinson got a "knock". Could have been a knock on the door that startled him because, as he's barely played, it's not likely to be a physical knock. Lavery injured in the warm up. Probably a panic attack at the thought of starting a game.

 

Maybe he was carrying an injury but Canavan wasn't great in the games leading up to his absence. Ok in the air, very poor defending on the deck

 

Interesting stats. Without doubt he’s the biggest leader we have and perhaps it’s that impact he has on others around him.

 

He’s no Andrew Davies ability wise, but his leadership qualities can’t be underestimated especially in the Salford away game for instance personally I don’t think we lose that game if he’s on the pitch. The stats speak for themselves anyway, I think they’d be even better with a bit more pace along side him and a midfield that didn’t let the opponents run onto the defence often at will.

 

Agreed

 

Surprised Staunton can’t get in over Kelleher, whose main positive seems to be that his bro bench warms for Liverpool.

Canavan is the key CB though I agree. Slow but an organiser.

 

Why? Adams has made it clear Staunton isn’t part of the plans

 

Because Staunton is a better footballer right now than Kelleher will ever be and Staunton also has the potential to improve further.

 

It is a mystery. I get the impression Adams not a fan of ball playing centre backs, prefers the get rid merchants?

 

Staunton will play in the Championship, but not for us.

 

Highly doubtful. Staunton is nowhere near the standard some of our fans claim him to be - it's probably things like this that Adams was taking aim at in his post match comments on Saturday. The young players we have aren't that great, we need to be identifying and developing better, yet plenty seem to think the likes of Staunton, Cousin-Dawson and Scales are set to be world-beaters.

Having said that I don't think Kelleher is the kind of step up in quality that was required to usurp Staunton from the squad.

 

Staunton has been put up on a pedestal after looking the best of a bad bunch under McCall this time last year. He's 20 in 2 months time, with only 8 league starts in his career. If teams are going to take a punt on a defensive minded under 21 from this league, he wont be up the pecking order. Rochdale have two 21 year olds in Morley, played every minute this season at DM and Taylor at CB who play every game. Josh Key at Exeter, full back again played every minute at 21, Armer at Carlisle, defender playing every game at 20 years old.

If Staunton isn't finding game time this season, we might well be kissing goodbye to the big money we'd have wanted for him when we offered that long contract. As teams at this level are finding lads his age and letting them impress. Is this another flaw with not having a U21/23 side? Lads like Scales, FCD, Staunton all join the first team and maybe get a few minutes or a start in the pizza cup games, then that's it from about November.

 

I wonder if it is the players blocking loan moves or no clubs coming in for them ?

 

I think any big money move for Staunton was just in the heads of some of our fans, as you have outlined other clubs at our level have a similar standard, or better, of young players coming through. I was berated on here last year for pointing out that he had made bad mistakes that had led to a couple of goals in his relatively few games.

Similarly Cousin-Dawson and Scales seem like OK squad players, but for some reason plenty on here think playing a couple of games as a youngster in league 2 means that they are top prospects with multi million pound moves on the cards.

There were plenty on here raving about Conor Wood being a top quality left back, he never was nor is he now, and there was a serious discussion last year about Paudie O'Connor with some worrying that Leeds (in the top half of the Premier League at the time) might have a buy back clause for him - when he is a bog standard L2 centre back.

I remember posting on here asking for any evidence to suggest that Trueman and Sellars had worked wonders with our youth setup when that was the prevailing sentiment on here - no-one replied. This is all part of the culture that needs changing if we are ever to progress.

 

I've gone on about this several times. People on here frequently overrate our players and then are surprised when the results don't come. Of our current squad only Canavan, Ridehalgh, Vernam and Cook are anything like the players you need for a promotion winning side. The rest are very average mid-table players. Some have the occasional good game but they're generally anonymous. And most of our current non-performing first XI are the same as last year, so what do people expect? And to make matters worse, we have added even more mediocrity to what we already had. If Adams can get this lot promoted then he really is a miracle worker but I think he now realises he can't.

 

I think it's being said that the only offer that has come in is from a national league North club but the players only want to go out to National league sides, who aren't showing any interest.