Adam Idah

It's a pointless debate because you're letting your dislike cloud your judgement. Saying he has no game intelligence is stupid.

 

I’ve actually been pretty defensive of Idah since he arrived, but he just isn’t doing enough. His first touch is poor, he doesn’t really use his strength to hold the ball up and his finishing is very hit and miss. He looks far better when he comes off the bench.

 

I would say he looks much better when he just stays on the * bench

 

My dislike doesn’t stem from nowhere though.

It stems from watching him play and seeing all his faults.

 

Aye the top class movement stuff is baffling. Kyogo’s movement was first class. There’s a chasm between his runs and movement and Idah’s. Night and day.

 

Couldn't agree more, shame we haven't bothered our * to even try and replace Kyogo. He's left a void up front in our squad.

 

Right and you're entitled to your opinion, but your criticism is over the top and baseless when you say things like he has no game intelligence or he's lazy, because both of those aren't true. You're also ignoring his strengths.

We've played one competitive game and he wasn't as bad as many made him out to be, and he had a decent season last season too.

He's being scapegoated.

 

You don't think the abuse the likes of Ralston, Scales or Taylor get is completely over the top and unwarranted? Even when they play well and have good games there will be absolute balloons in our support saying they have been terrible today.

If you are getting very aggressive defending the completely over the top abuse aimed at homegrown Scottish and Irish players then I guess you're on the culprits who hammers them regardless of whether they play well or not.

 

With respect, I don't think you fully comprehend what you're talking about. You were slaughtering Idah for getting caught offside a few minutes ago when I pointed out that Kyogo had 2 goals ruled out in a first half alone because he couldn't keep himself onside. It took Idah to come on and perfectly time his run and break the offside trap that ended up winning the game.

His movement is very good, there are parts of his game completely lacking and his focus, his finishing and his passive attitude at times are completely legitimate criticism but as has been pointed out saying he doesn't have football intelligence and is lazy is completely unwarranted criticism and more or less exposes that you can't be objective on this matter.

 

It’s not baseless. It’s a difference of opinion.

You think he has good game intelligence and isn’t lazy. I think the opposite. That’s it.

I’m not “ignoring” his strengths. I just don’t know what his strengths are. Genuinely.

Other than game intelligence and effort - which we’ve covered - what are his strengths on the pitch?

 

I do fully comprehend it.

You see him differently than I (and I’d argue the majority of fans) do. That’s fine.

The fact there’s a bit of a clamour to get Yamada (off the back off a rotten season in Japan) on the pitch instead of Idah says it all. At the very least he’ll give us energy, pressing and workrate up top.

Even Johnny * Kenny makes a difference through sheer desire alone.

 

McGeady got shocking abuse at Celtic. Scales gets far more abuse than Trusty from what I've seen. I think S

If his movement is *, how does he get into positions to miss so many chances? You clearly don't understand football. His ability to run the channels is first class. I'm not even defending him, I've said that he is fast running out of time and I've listed all the areas where he is way off it. I'm just asking for a bit of balance and perspective. Extremists like you are talking about Idah as if he was Craig Beattie or Mo Bangura, can there be any sort of objective and sensible commentary on football without everything being the best ever or the worst ever with you? You seem to be incapable of objective analysis.

 

He has shown flashes of quality, particularly in bigger games but I think he’s an arrogant and lazy *, and that for me is his biggest issue. Probably thinks he should be down south starting for a Prem team. He can’t be * against the ‘smaller’ teams up here, but a professional, winning mentality is an essential part of what makes a top player and he doesn’t have an ounce of it.

 

I'm not against that.

I'm not saying Idah is a brilliant player either or he should be playing. I'm just saying that some of the commentary is so far beyond reasonable at this point. The old adage about football fans being fickle and all that. If Idah had buried that chance where he hit the post he'd have been the hero.

His finishing is not good enough.
He needs to be more aggressive.
And he needs to be far more tuned in for 90 minutes of the game.

He has good physical attributes, his movement is good, technically he can improve.

That's a balanced and fair view of him. We need more from him if he is to be a starter but the way some people talk about his is insane. He's came up in big games for us before. He's not some chump like others make out he is.

 

Listen to yourself. How on earth can his movement be considered first class? What does he actually do to be considered in the top tier of striker movement? And if it was, he'd need to be worlds worst finisher not to be in all these great positions and still fail to score. So I know nothing about football yet share the same opinions of Idah as the majority of fellow fans I've spoken to. So we're all clueless and know nothing and your opinion is all that matters?

If you read my post, I said he has some positive attributes and needs to learn to have a killer instinct in the box. He is simply not good enough to be considered our first choice striker. And clearly Brendan feels the same seeing as Kyogo and latterly Daizen played there for most of the season.

If you want to draw Beattie or Bangura comparisons, then I'd ask you to compare what we paid for the two of them compared to what Idah cost the club and factor that in. Idah is our joint most expensive striker in history along with Edouard. So clearly the hope was that he would develop here into a really top player for us. And that doesn't seem to be the case at all. He's looked better in his 6 month loan spell here than he has since he joined permanently.

 

Agreed that he's not a chump and not complete dross like some strikers we've had before.

But I think he's so far away from the level required to be a first choice striker and I can't ever see him improving to the degree required. I was never Giakoumakis' biggest fan, and he was the classic example of a good backup striker rather than first choice, and yet I think he was a far more well rounded player who offered more to the team.

Anyway, going round in circles.

 

It is baseless, mate. You can see him carrying out his tactical instructions in every match he plays and you can see his effort. Rodgers criticised Tilio and I think Holm's fitness and running, and didn't play them. He's always been a manager who demands maximum effort in training and in games. If Idah was actually lazy, he wouldn't be praised and play as much as he has.

His work rate against St.Mirren was good, he was pressing, he was getting into the right positions, he was involved in our build up play. Rodgers praised him after the match.

Scoring goals is one, something he'll do again this year. He got 20 of them last season despite coming on as a sub quite often. Decent return in a system that doesn't prioritise the striker scoring. He's good at receiving the ball then popping it out to our wingers, which he has done often. He's strong and fairly quick. He's decent in the air. He's composed. He's got the bottle for big matches. He's good at penalties, think he's only missed one in his career. His first touch is his biggest weakness and he's never going to be like Rogic with that, but he could fine tune it and improve. Don't get me wrong I want him to improve on what he offered last season, but I think the criticism of him over pre-season and since has been well over the top from some people.

 

I said his ability to run the channels is first class. If you think his movement is rubbish as that you simply don't know what you're talking about.

Idah didn't dictate his transfer fee, that is on our board who didn't negotiate a buy option on his loan deal and dicked about with Norwich all last summer until the panic set in.

We probably both agree his finishing is nowhere near good enough. I think there was a stat on Sunday the commentator missed was that only Dessers had more big chance misses than Idah last season. He has 29 goals in 72 games for Celtic, I'd say probably over half of those appearances were off the bench. If his movement is so *, how can he possibly have so many goals and big chance misses if he's only been a starter in half of those games? Can you give an answer on that one? You are undermined by the stats my friend and your inability to approach this with any sort of objectivity is your undoing.

 

I agree with most of that but I would say that is completely more rounded and balanced than your other criticisms of him.

 

Fair enough.

Disagree with a lot of those "strengths" but such is life. I would say that although is goal return is decent, it's more down to the volume of chances he gets rather than him being ruthless. His numbers, in terms of chances missed and shot conversion, are pretty poor.