I must confess, I am one of McPhail's biggest sceptics, but he did very well for Leeds against that Ukrainian team last night in the UEFA cup. It was live here on Channel 5 and Joe Royle, who was co-commentating, went as far as to give him man of the match, even though he only came on with 30 mins to go. He looked much more willing to get involved in the rough stuff than any previous display I've seen. Also played some delicious passes in and around the box. Maybe he does have an international future after all...
Looks like Venables is prepared to give him a chance which is more than can be said for O'Dreary -He did'nt have much to do but he looked good against ManUtd anyway.
stehpen mcphail i was lurking around the leeds-rivals site and they were pretty impressed with his performance. on the negative side they were absolutely scathing about kelly and harte. they reckon they're just not up to standard and haven't been for quite a while. general consensus is that they'll be sold when the transer window opens again in january. harte is starting to face the wrath of the leeds boo boys. some of the posters on the leeds site thought it was funny to call him a gypsy and chant about him living in a caravan!
Re: stehpen mcphail Harte and Kelly were adequate, which is not what you want of your fullbacks when you have the opposition under the cosh. They were defensively ok, but had very little to do, and offered next to nothing in attack. The Ukrainians could have really done some damage if they had exploited Harte's lack of pace on the left. Kewell was playing as an orthodox left winger and offering very little defensive support to Harte. An ambitious, attacking team would tear Leeds to shreds down the left. Yet another reason I feel Mick will stick Kilbane in front of him against Switzerland.
Re: Re: stehpen mcphail That's why I think Mick should have stick Kilbane in INSTEAD of him before to see how it worked. As for McPhail, if he has added the rough side to their game the sky is the limit with this lad, if Tel Boy can get the best out of him he may be what we need.
Harte Actually it was the Ukrainian left back that was getting called a gypo. As for Ian Harte I can assure you that us Leeds fans are really in despair. It seems like a statement of extreme fantasy to say that in the past four years Harte has been the best lef back in the premiership twice !! What the hell has happened the poor guy? He really has gone downhill in terms of form and if there was a better option for Ireland then I would recommend Mick takes it (this however does not extend as far as picking Phil Babb). Perhaps Gary Kelly would be OK as a stop gap left back until a decent left back emerges. McPhail on the other hand is getting in some good match experience and seems to be getting back to his form of three years ago which is good news for Ireland.
McPhail played came on for a half hour again today against Blackburn. As did Gary Kelly (for Ian Harte). Does anyone know how they played?
ian harte's performance was described by football365 as 'inept'. replaced by uncle gary who seemed to do okay. kelly has lost his 1st team place to mills and is only seen as cover mcphail had a relatively quiet game, didn't do anything that stood out.
Though from watching the highlights I saw one sweet pass from the halfway line right through the defence that could have led to the goal, I THINK it was the lead up to Barmbys miss, but I'm not sure.