Planet Swans ArchivesWhy should this happen? Maybe he hasn’t got the ball tricks of a Lee Trundle or the ability to run and beat players of a Brad Maylett but he does a job for the team yet is still singled out for unfair criticism in many games when the truth is there are players around him.
There will also be players who are seemingly immune from any criticism at all and are constantly defended by the supporters after less effective games with comments like ‘marked out’ or ‘given little room to manouvere’ So why do we have this mentality that some faces just never seem to fit as far as the supporters are concerned?
Let’s take a look at yesterday. Kris O’Leary had a good game. He saved us conceding a third (whether the ball was over the line or not) with a desperate challenge and on two or three other occasions well times tackles broke down dangerous looking attacks. Compare this to Izzy who won several things in the air but just (to me) does not look an accomplished defender. Yet Izzy takes the plaudits and O’leary takes the criticism when the performance would dictate that O’Leary took more praise for yesterday.
Had O’Leary given away the penalty yesterday afternoon (as we have seen before this season) then he would have attracted comments such as ‘whats he doing’ and ‘he just isn’t a defender’ but as it was Duffy ‘unlucky, decision could have gone either way’ and ‘disputed penalty’
I do have a slight theory on this (don’t I always!) – take yesterday’s starting line-up, only Roger, Kris and Mickey Howard are not men given their chance for the Swans by Flynn. The ones that Flynn has given that chance to (Durkan excepted) are generally immune from criticism by the fans and can have a bad (ineffective is a word I prefer) game without comment. Football isn’t like that and however much of a great job Flynn has done here he will make some bad decisions along the way (Brian Cash) and fans should feel that they can make comment on them without dis-loyalty coming into question.
The two outfield players that I mentioned above – O’Leary and Howard – will share the flack in the main every game. Howard made one mistake yesterday and it was costly (very) but I still don’t see a better option at the club. Leon Hylton is mentioned many times by many people but I honestly believe he is no better than Howard in this position and yet if he plays he never attracts the same criticism.
O’Leary on the other hand I believe (and this will attract mass shakes of head in disagreement) is a better option to us than either Jason Smith or Izzy. Izzy is by far not the finished article and wants to play out of defence far too often when sometimes the only option is Row Z. Jason Smith (Sicknote) is always called for for a return by the fans but yet we have short memories here in what he adds us. Yesterday’s Western Mail contains this quote from Smith – “My ankle is not brilliant but it’s not so bad as to stop me from playing. It still gives me problems and I think I’ll have these problems for the rest of the season.” which surely in turn means that he is not, and not likely to be 100% fit?
All that galls me is that we stop looking for scapegoats and see the performance of every one player on the park before making judgement. O’Leary and Howard are singled out every game by many people. I will accept when bad games are made and Howard cost us the first goal yesterday but from then on didn’t do much wrong. O’Leary did nothing wrong all afternoon. So why the criticism?
To close on this one, O’Leary is not a bad player – he’s not a great one either – but he does a job for us and maybe it’s time that he got some appreciation for that?
