2017/18 Michael Keane

[Lanolin]

The biggest question about Keane is how come he always plays so badly?

The answer is he is ALWAYS partner to Jagelka and Williams.

What if those two clown shoe, spineless, wornout, finished centre backs got dropped for Holgate (best centreback this season but not hard) or Funes Mori?

The answer - Keane won’t be the joke he has been labelled.

The lad is over-compensating for defenders who shouldn’t be playing at this level be it Williams, Jagelka, Martina or Kenny.

Get Coleman, Baines and Holgate/Funes Mori in then keep it until the end of the season without changing it every single game and just watch us play constantly better.

I've said it numerous times but this just doesn't hold up. It wouldn't matter if he had an amalgamation of Labone and Ratcliffe next to him if he just lets people glide past him while he dangles a leg out, or continually gets beaten both in the air and in behind by journeymen carthorses like Deeney and Ashley effing Barnes.

You're that wrong that you've even managed to completely contradict yourself in your own post by pointing out that Holgate has managed to perform effectively despite being in exactly the same unit that forces Keane to be so bad.

Nobody is denying that in a team in which everybody else is set up to cover for his gaping inadequacies he could be pretty decent, but then so could I. Unfortunately, in a team where he's expected to do more than just defend a 20 yard area at the edge of his own box, he looks absolutely awful.

 

[kenada_blue]

The biggest question about Keane is how come he always plays so badly?

The answer is he is ALWAYS partner to Jagelka and Williams.

What if those two clown shoe, spineless, wornout, finished centre backs got dropped for Holgate (best centreback this season but not hard) or Funes Mori?

The answer - Keane won’t be the joke he has been labelled.

The lad is over-compensating for defenders who shouldn’t be playing at this level be it Williams, Jagelka, Martina or Kenny.

Get Coleman, Baines and Holgate/Funes Mori in then keep it until the end of the season without changing it every single game and just watch us play constantly better.

Holgate partnered with Jags and Williams and has excelled.

 

[Eggs]

I've said it numerous times but this just doesn't hold up. It wouldn't matter if he had an amalgamation of Labone and Ratcliffe next to him if he just lets people glide past him while he dangles a leg out, or continually gets beaten both in the air and in behind by journeymen carthorses like Deeney and Ashley effing Barnes.

You're that wrong that you've even managed to completely contradict yourself in your own post by pointing out that Holgate has managed to perform effectively despite being in exactly the same unit that forces Keane to be so bad.

Nobody is denying that in a team in which everybody else is set up to cover for his gaping inadequacies he could be pretty decent, but then so could I. Unfortunately, in a team where he's expected to do more than just defend a 20 yard area at the edge of his own box, he looks absolutely awful.

..he’s got so many weaknesses, you’d have to have real pace and power alongside plus a shield in front of him. As you say, he’s brilliant to run at with the ball because he’s flat. It beggars belief what system Walsh had in mind when authorising his transfer.

 

[Number_25]

I'm really sorry, but Keane was one of the best centrebacks in the league last season. He played 35 games in a Burnley side that surpassed all expectations.

The simple fact of the matter is that all defensive coaching has gone out of the window.

 

[toffeeblue9]

Most of us, me included, have been falling over ourselves trying to make excuses for him this season, but if we're honest I'd say he comfortably makes it into the top three of our worst performers this season - alongside Schneiderlin and Williams

Gets bullied, turns like an aircraft carrier and has no pace to speak of. The only way I see him turning this around is if we alter our style and system to one where we sit deep and have our full backs narrow and not venturing forward so that he isn't exposed down the channels. That isn't going to happen though, so I am increasingly believing that this one is going to go down as a flop

 

[sageyefc]

I'm really sorry, but Keane was one of the best centrebacks in the league last season. He played 35 games in a Burnley side that surpassed all expectations.

The simple fact of the matter is that all defensive coaching has gone out of the window.

No he wasn't, and look at burnley this season since he's gone, they've improved ten fold

 

[toffeeblue9]

I'm really sorry, but Keane was one of the best centrebacks in the league last season. He played 35 games in a Burnley side that surpassed all expectations.

The simple fact of the matter is that all defensive coaching has gone out of the window.

I don't think that's it. You look at the system Burnley play and their centre backs are well protected and rarely get exposed. In a team where you're trying to be more expansive, you can't offer that level of protection.

 

[KaiserEFC]

The biggest question about Keane is how come he always plays so badly?

The answer is he is ALWAYS partner to Jagelka and Williams.

What if those two clown shoe, spineless, wornout, finished centre backs got dropped for Holgate (best centreback this season but not hard) or Funes Mori?

The answer - Keane won’t be the joke he has been labelled.

The lad is over-compensating for defenders who shouldn’t be playing at this level be it Williams, Jagelka, Martina or Kenny.

Get Coleman, Baines and Holgate/Funes Mori in then keep it until the end of the season without changing it every single game and just watch us play constantly better.

Out of interest how many bad games does a player need to have until they can actually be considered a bad player? The bloke is absolute garbage, he can’t even do the basics right which has nothing to do with his defensive partner.


Also in all seriousness did anyone honestly watch him at Burnley last season? Or are they just going by the media hype when he was linked to United.

 

[Pabbers]

I remember Lukaku ripping keane apart at Goodison. It happens.

 

[nsno-chris]

The biggest question about Keane is how come he always plays so badly?

The answer is he is ALWAYS partner to Jagelka and Williams.

What if those two clown shoe, spineless, wornout, finished centre backs got dropped for Holgate (best centreback this season but not hard) or Funes Mori?

The answer - Keane won’t be the joke he has been labelled.

The lad is over-compensating for defenders who shouldn’t be playing at this level be it Williams, Jagelka, Martina or Kenny.

Get Coleman, Baines and Holgate/Funes Mori in then keep it until the end of the season without changing it every single game and just watch us play constantly better.

So having Williams next to him was the reason Ashley Barnes made him his bitch on Saturday. Every ball went in behind him and every time he still wasn’t prepared.

Dyche targetted him, his former managers game plan was to exploit his flat footed weakness; it worked

He’s a shocking centre back, truly shocking

 

[Kever10]

I'm really sorry, but Keane was one of the best centrebacks in the league last season. He played 35 games in a Burnley side that surpassed all expectations.

The simple fact of the matter is that all defensive coaching has gone out of the window.

Then Burnley sold him and improved.

Whatever other people seemed to see in him last year, I never did, and he always seemed like the latest flavour of the month signing to me, mostly by United being linked with him. I wonder if they got a percentage of his sell on price, because if they did, it was a master stroke. Linked in press, express an interest, invite him to televised games, see if any other chump team would take the bait and throw stupid money at him because if he's good enough for Man UTD...

The only centre back I watched last season that made me take notice, and who was a realistic target for us to sign, was Harry Maguire, and he joined Leicester for the half the price, while we got stuck with Keane, who doesn't have 1 stand out quality, other than being tall.

As for the other Centre backs, Jagielka, as I've said many times before, has never been the outstanding player people seem to think he is. He is an average player at best, always has been, who, like Keane, seemed to shine in teams that made him look good by being set up to be tight and difficult to beat. I always preferred Heitinga as an option.

And Williams has been such a massive disappointment from day one. What he has been, compared to what I thought we were getting, I'd be inclined to check he isn't just a lookalike, because he has shown none of the qualities that again, had him linked with Arsenal and Liverpool year in year out.

The crazy thing is, Funes Mori is probably our best centre back, but is criticised by the majority, not because of ability, but because of who signed him, and the defensively fragile team he joined at the time. And to show the complete disparity of his irrational hatred, people will point to his moment of madness in the Derby as a reason why he is not fit to wear the shirt, whilst another of the scally faves, Mirallas, is still revered for doing the same thing.

Bonkers.

Either way, the entire defensive unit has needed sorting for a number of years now, and it's not going to be of fix itself overnight.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

I'm really sorry, but Keane was one of the best centrebacks in the league last season. He played 35 games in a Burnley side that surpassed all expectations.

The simple fact of the matter is that all defensive coaching has gone out of the window.

I want to believe this, but he comes across as so fragile minded that I'm starting to think that there's very little chance that he'll ever amount to much.

 

[blueblue]

So having Williams next to him was the reason Ashley Barnes made him his bitch on Saturday. Every ball went in behind him and every time he still wasn’t prepared.

Dyche targetted him, his former managers game plan was to exploit his flat footed weakness; it worked

He’s a shocking centre back, truly shocking

I am not particularly trying to defend Keane but centre backs usually play as a pair, covering for each other when necessary. I think it must have been very difficult for anybody to play alongside Ashley Williams who does not look like a premiership footballer at the moment and I am not sure that he even looks as if he cares.

I would like to see Keane play with a decent partner at centre half and a proper left back before discounting him completely.

 

[Steve0]

Not sure what we (as in the Everton scouts/managers) thought they were getting. Didn't really see much of him but just kind of assumed he must've been fairly decent but he's not especially quick, not commanding in the air, weak tackler, positional sense is often awry.

Probably the most disapopinting signing in recent times, particularly in terms of expectation and reality.

Just hope it's lack of form/confidence rather than his actual level.

 

[LouReedwalkonthewildside]

The biggest question about Keane is how come he always plays so badly?

The answer is he is ALWAYS partner to Jagelka and Williams.

What if those two clown shoe, spineless, wornout, finished centre backs got dropped for Holgate (best centreback this season but not hard) or Funes Mori?

The answer - Keane won’t be the joke he has been labelled.

The lad is over-compensating for defenders who shouldn’t be playing at this level be it Williams, Jagelka, Martina or Kenny.

Get Coleman, Baines and Holgate/Funes Mori in then keep it until the end of the season without changing it every single game and just watch us play constantly better.

It doesn't help having a different partner every week, but it's not Jags or Williams's fault that Keane turns like a carthorse, has no positional sense, and gets bullied and out-muscled by opposition strikers.