Gary Mackay-Steven

Its a case of he's very average.

 

I think he is a very talented lad, I think the problem lies with Deila and the way he wants GMS to play. When he first arrived from Dundee United he and Armstrong showed all the flair we expected from them, however now under Deila's coaching both have had to conform to his tactics, it's taken so much from both their games.

However this is happening to most young Scottish players, they are no longer being taught to express themselves on the pitch, they have to part of a system, it seems there is no place for match winning individuals anymore.

Jimmy Johnstone was one of the greatest in my eyes, Jock Stein got the best out of Jinky by feeding him the ball as much as possible, it worked for Celtic, but then again we had a superb manager then.

 

He did the exact same thing at Utd he is incredibly inconsistent

 

Jinky was from a very different era. He was allowed free reign because that's how he damaged teams. He gave the rest of the team room to move.
Football today is ALL about the system. Players are now cogs in a machine and have very defined roles to play, areas of the pitch to cover etc.
Very few players are given free reign - even Messi and Ronaldo conform to their system the vast majority of the time.
Football is played at such a pace and to such a level now that teams cannot afford to have a player not pulling their weight - Jinky, Charlton, Best, Maradona, Socrates.... when not in possession these guys would literally walk about the park. They weren't especially lazy they were just conserving energy for their attacking - what they were best at.

Most players now are trained to do a bit of everything- a defender won't go very far if he can't keep the ball on the deck and a winger won't get much game time if he can't defend and cover the spaces.

 

One of the most dramatic dropping of form, I can remember, for no apparent reason....usually you'd link it to an injury but that's not the case. It's alarming to be honest..

 

I think it's purely a confidence issue mate.

 

Last season and pre season, great player. 100% agree.
But the whole team seems to have taken that same dip.

In fact our whole style of football has dropped. Instead of fast passing and getting the ball forward quickly, we build up slow at the back, often with side passing and even backwards. There seems little to no speed about our play, no pass and move, no flick ona, no direct runs or overlaps. Everything is slow.

Not a big fan of sutton as a pundit, but lately he has been bang on the money, specially in Europe. It is all too slow.

Something we werent last season, in fact it is because of deila that we played such good, fast entertaining football.

Ive noticed though that in games like ross county, the slowness is still there, but we are more likely to have a sudden realisation that we can play football, and we see a bit of urgency about our play and from that we score or set up some of our best chances.

Fenerbache ans ajax we played best and got our goals when we were exciting and up for it, but as soon as we concede our heads drop and the slow play creeps in again and the European teams are more than happy to let us be slow and then hit us on a fast break when we * up.


I reckon guys like Gms are suffering from what ever the cause is here and his play drops.

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But he was on fire when he arrived in January. Fell off (as did other's) towards the end of the season and I put it down to tiredness as he hadn't long been here. Came back and was brilliant through pre season (a standout) but just hasn't carried that through to competitive football this year, so I'm not sure where or why his confidence has taken a severe hit?

If it can just go out of the blue like that when he's flying, i'd hate for him to really * up in a game..

 

Give him a couple games either at left wing or behind 2 strikers and help come good. However if he keeps getting the odd 20 min he Wil not regain his confidence till we sell him enevitably .

 

I think bringing him on and putting him on the left does nothing for his confidence. He has played his best football for us on the right, "when" he recaptures it, it'll be from that position..

 

He was awful when he came on, played like a wee bhoy against men outmuscled and outpaced anytime he went near the ball. Looked as if he was half sleepin, something wrong wi him.

 

He's hardly played on the right and you could see when he switched sides he's far more effective. If the manager can't see such obvious things and sticks with it (he's always been * on the left) then the manager is an idiot.

 

But Forrest is much better on the right and as soon he was on the left he disappeared, playing on the wrong wings they are always going to cut inside which the * opposite of what we needed.

 

Why though? We have one guy in the box when a cross comes in. Hitting the byline and flinging in a cross is just pointless.

The formation we play is fine if the three behind the striker are willing to gamble and go beyond Griffiths or at least join him but they don't.

All our play is in front of the defensive line of the opposition. On the occasional time we hit the by line and throw the ball in there you have Griffiths * into the wind against 4 or 5 huge defenders.

Our attacking players have no strikers instinct whatsoever, bar Griffiths.

 

As for GMS, what the * happened to this guy?

I'm sick saying it but he was incredible in pre season and I was sure he was going to be a superstar for us. Now, he looks like someone scared of the ball.

He literally hasn't had even a decent performance for us all season, none that I can remember anyway.

 

Well going inside into a packed midfield and defence won't get us anywhere as we tried that all game, only a few decent final balls 2 of which Griffiths was so close to from crosses. In that situation we need Cole, high crosses in onto his head.

The other issue was players not shooting, they made half a yard and never took a shot instead dithered on the ball then passed it back or sideways.

 

Bewildering, he is playing how I expected he would when he signed like a Chris Burke hiding quiet type of player but that was after he actually looked good last season and as you said he was excellent in pre-season but as soon as the real stuff started this season he's not done a single thing not even 1 decent half of a match.

If you were comparing him to Forrest this season and ranking the top 10 performances from either the full top 10 performances would all be from Forrest.

Even McGregor this season has actually looked decent any time hes been on the park McGregor at his worst has been better than GMS at his best this season albeit he actually hasnt even been at his best hes just done nothing in every game hes played.

 

Looks scared,like a few of the players.