Most liked posts in thread: Shay McCartan

Burnley

 

Likes a hot shower?

 

Seriously? Akpan towers over half of our team and certainly over most of the opposition midfielders that he continually fails to tackle properly. He's 6ft tall (ie 3" above average male height) and must be at least 14 stone, if not more.
Clayton Donaldson is 6' 1". Not a giant, but significantly above average male height. Gordon Strachan was a shortarse, like many midfielders, and Allan Clarke was a whippet. Footballers come in all shapes and sizes and Akpan is definitely on the large end of the spectrum both in height and weight.

 

I don't think the guy you saw was Akpan unless you class 6ft as small.

 

But he's never been given any kind of run in the side to get form and confidence going. Has he ever started more than two games running for us? I doubt it. It's been mostly one-offs and sub appearances.

 

Because he's rubbish

 

I would have thought so but I haven't looked. There must be some reason for this then for not having a run in the side. He had a great season before coming to us but then couldn't secure a spot in the team and 2 seasons later he still can't get a weekly spot in the side. You can't keep chasing potential in a playing after nearly 3 years, its a waste.

 

One of the worst signings in the club history at 250k.

 

Yes I know, but he is probably one of those players that needs a run in the team. Unfortunately he is not the type of player all the managers at City over the years have been able to utilise due to style of their play. Stuart will use him, so let’s see if he can grab that opportunity, if not well we can’t wait any longer.

 

He hasn't featured much because he has been dreadful / anonomous in most of the games he has played.

He also plays in the awkward Billy Clarke / Jack Payne position.

Waste of £.

 

Personally I like the idea of him playing there and drifting inside when the opportunity arises. Makes him more difficult to pick up and in Wood I think we have someone that can cope with it.

 

Don't think any of the comments are out of context. The fact is we've seen very little of him. Given the poor form of the team this season and the fact that he's done okay on occasions but still never seems to get a fair crack of the whip it's not surprising we're getting some questions asked.

 

I feel he gets a little isolated when playing behind just one up top, unless the wingers are very attack minded and balance generating width with coming inside to support. Think back to Colchester, where he actually linked well with Doyle but we offered little else aside of Connolly, meaning Shay was a ineffective.

I’d prefer him playing behind two front men, however you can only do that with two very energetic and capable wing backs. I think we have one on the left in Wood, but not on the right. When we have done this we look very in-balanced as we become weak and exposed at right back. For this to work Henley needs to massively step up or we need to dramatically improve on him. We also then have a conundrum of having to probably play 3 CBs (not looked great to date) and also prevent Cooke (still our best CM IMO) from being able to play in a more advanced role.

Does anyone know how Lincoln used him? Definitely had a positive effect on their season.

 

If he’s still sharp from a footballing brain prospective, this might be able to over ride the pace. Sounds unlikely, but you never know. Put it this way, I’d take the Tony McMahon that left us immediately. Likely he was more there to support SM, who I seem to remember they had a good relationship.

He divided opinion did McMahon, but I always liked him and we miss his type of character in our squad at the moment.

Back to McCarten, perhaps it was a two he played behind at Lincoln in that case....

 

Agree, he’s different to Clarke. On his day, Im actually sticking my neck out to say he could be better than Clarke, aspects of his game already are. However he needs to go a long way to proving it consistently before he can be considered that way.

 

He's not as mobile as Clarke and doesn't seem as fast, though he is perhaps a better finisher. I'd like to see him on the corners too. I like Wood but his corners often come to nothing and we should try and mix a few of them up.

 

Agree. He can’t cross for sh*t from open play but from deadballs he’s dangerous. Definitely worth considering.

 

Whilst he has been here he appears to have been regarded as a No. 10 or a wide/support striker but do you think he could potentially be moulded into a number 9 (thinking Doyle type)?

As posters have said, he has a knack of being in the right place and yesterday's 1st goal demonstrated his speed of thought and finishing ability. He isn't blessed with pace but if he was in and around the 18 yard box more then he will definitely get goals.

 

Helped get Lincoln promoted..

For me the lad 'should have been playing every game'.

 

Yes he certainly proved Jefferies wrong allowing him to leave then going to Sheffield United and playing over 70 games for them, Neil Warnock offering him the assistants job at United, maybe unlike Paul Jewell, Jefferies thought Stuart might be a threat.