A decent defender at this level, nothing more. He’ll be found out down south and is part of the reason (although through no fault of his own that he’s selected) that the Scotland national team is so tragically bad.
Printable View
A decent defender at this level, nothing more. He’ll be found out down south and is part of the reason (although through no fault of his own that he’s selected) that the Scotland national team is so tragically bad.
Another good player imo. Attacking full backs all the rage these days and he fits the profile. Bologna no doubt hoping they’ve signed the next Andy Robertson.
Just don’t feel the need to write off Scottish talent from other clubs. Of course, some people genuinely think McKenna is a donkey and Hickey brings youthful enthusiasm but little else... such opinions are fine but I feel that some folk slag them off just because they aren’t one of ours.
I see he is playing tonight... let’s see how he gets on.
McKenna loses his man at the goal. Don’t get the hype around him tbh.
Not a fan of McKenna at all.
The national team's dearth of viable centre backs is embarrassing.
Forest fans seem to think he had a decent game going by twitter
Can't be blaming him for the goal
Hope he does well down there
I've said it before and I'll say it again. At boys football, we prefer the big strong lads ahead of the wee skillful lad, who probably just hasn't grown as quickly as the other lads. The big strong lad who scores a barrowload of goals, just because of their height and strength. Or the man-mountain in defence who intimidates those approaching them. Tell me I'm wrong, but I've seen many coaches who have gone for the big strong lads ahead of the wee skillful lads.
However, when the games gets to the upper levels, they get found out by the lack of skill and/or speed. Meanwhile, the wee skillful lad has moved on to other sports. I've seen it a lot and it's been happening for years.
No doubt, I'll be told that I'm talking rubbish. However, why is for a nation that like the "big strong lad" at boys football level that we have a dearth of players in the areas that need big strong lads - the dominating centre back and the big number 9.
Variations of what you are saying are widely recognised - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_age_effect
Malcolm Gladwell had a chapter in Outliers dedicated to it.
Agree.
Youth football still seems to be focussed on results rather than developing the players, even though the authorities have recognised this doesn't work.
It's the same as teaching to the test in education. The students have enough to get through an exam, but are found severely lacking in the skills required.
Still hear loads of people going on about "teaching the kids to be competitive and to win", completely missing the fact that winning at youth football doesn't correlate to being a successful professional.
It’s a hard balance to find though. Keeping in mind that next to nobody makes it professional I can see why people want to win. I’m glad I won the amount of leagues and cups I did at youth football because I never made it pro - I’d have much rather that than being prepped for pro football when I’m never going to make it.
At the same time though, my brother played for a team at under 13s or 14s where they swept everyone aside purely cause they had 4 guys who would have been about 6 foot and much faster than anyone else through the spine of the team. It was impossible for other teams to compete with their size, even if the ability wasn’t up to much.
Competitions wouldn't be scrapped if you did this. It would be the focus on the coaching that would change.
Instead of lumping it up to the kid who is a foot taller than everyone else so you an win 17-0, train the kids properly to play football.
This would require coaches across the board to focus on skill and technique as I agree losing heavily all the time just because you have not developed yet is very demoralising.
A youth coaches job should be to develop skill, technique, perseverance amognst other things. Not to feed their own ego by fielding the biggest players they can find.
It all depends on what youth football is trying to achieve. Most premiership clubs take the kids young so they have responsibilities to coach them regardless of their size. But school and youth football where 99% or above won’t make it to the pro game are playing and coaching to win at that level.
I think McKenna is a good CH and Hickey is rated by far more qualified people than are on this forum. I hope they both develop as it will be beneficial for Scottish football.