Life without Sullivan
The silence coming from the club about Pat Sullivan’s injury is deafening – it seems as if the news is as bad as first feared, Sullivan is unlikely to play again until 2011. It seems his cruciate ligament has gone, which means he’ll be looking at 9 months out minimum, worst case scenario it could jeopardise his career. It’s a cruel blow for Sullivan who’s Rovers career thus far has been plagued by injury and suspensions meaning he’s never established himself as we had hoped he would. An undoubtedly talented player though, how will Rovers go about replacing him…
MON has had a very, very difficult start to the season, something that’s been overlooked in the criticism that’s been thrown at him early on. We’re not four games in and here’s our second Life Without…. conundrum to solve. Twigg and Baker picking up injuries keeping them out for a couple of months, certain players unable to join until the last minute due to taking a futile stand against Tom Coughlan in Cork and suspensions to Murphy, Sives, Price, Stevens, Sullivan Chambers and others have meant we’ve not been able to name anything close to our full strength team, and even worse when trying to settle new players in to a team – we’ve been unable to name a consistent back four to give some sort of familiarity and stability. On top of all that we now have Sullivan’s injury, meaning yet another re-working must be done just when MON needed it least.
The only small silver lining is that right back is one of the positions we at least have options to work with. None are as good as Sullivan, and the impact of his injury will be major, but there are several players available to O’Neill to try to rejig things.
The most obvious change to make would be to install Pat Flynn as the new first choice right back. Flynner may be a much more limited option than Sullivan, but last season proved his reliability defensively, even if he offers little going forward. This season hasn’t started as well for the tough-tackler, responsible for some potentially big mistakes against Sligo on opening day, and he seems to be a little away from recapturing his solidity of last season. Perhaps a spell in the first team will allow him to build some confidence and familiarity with his role and new teammates.
Another option would be to switch Enda Stevens to right back, and let Danny Murphy continue on the left, using Flynn as a replacement on the right and Ollie Cahill as the back-up left back. This may well end up being the option MON and Croly plump for, particularly in the next couple of weeks. With the lack of attacking options available to us, creativity is hard to find (we haven’t scored a goal from open play in 4 games) and Stevens (or Murphy) on the right though being played out of position will offer more of a threat then Flynn. Until we get a few strikers back, every source of creativity might be vital. Stevens though hasn’t set the world alight thus far in the Hoops, and he is still a young player, who may take some time to grow in to the team. He still looks young and lightweight, while his decision making hasn’t always been spot on so far. It’s hard to see him being the main man in a defence challenging at the top and in Europe.
There is a final option available, and perhaps it’s the most interesting of all (and don’t expect to see Sives deputise at RB as he was forced to do in Galway). Usually it is thought best to make as little changes as possible to a team when injury strikes – sometimes though it pays to be bold. With the glut of central midfield options available to us, we are in the relatively luxurious position of being able to remove quality players like Stephen Rice or James Chambers from there and not weaken the team hugely.
Ricer’s form has dipped hugely in the last 6 months, failing to impose himself in central midfield the way he once did for us. Perhaps that’s a sign of our recent success. When the team was stuck in mid-table under Scully and early on in MON’s reign, we were often chasing games, being outplayed by sides better than us. Ricer’s role in such games would be to chase, harry, fly in to tackles and generally disrupt play. Since we’ve become a dominant team once again games seem to pass Ricer by more, as he has less need to constantly break up teams in the way he did, and he’s failed to really assert himself on the ball when we’ve had far more possession. Maybe it’s a mere dip in form, but it may be that Rice has a bigger impact when we are under the kosh, something which has happened less in the last 6 months.
Rice came to Rovers as a right-back as employed by Sean Connor at Bohs, and a stint back in defence may allow him a chance to return to form, whilst the team can benefit from his fantastic engine which can be utilised in getting up and down the line all day long. He certainly has all the tenacity in the tackle that Sullivan has. James Chambers too has been used at right-back before, playing there for Drogheda United in numerous games last season. But for me Chambers offers a bigger threat than Rice in the final third, and so it would be a shame to neutralise this by playing him in defence. The plus side of Chambers over Rice would be his better delivery than Rice from a dead ball and wide positions, when he does get forward he could be more dangerous with balls in to the box than Rice would be.
All will become clear over the next few weeks as we see the full extent of Sullivan’s injury, and how MON and Croly adapt. I’d expect the safe option to be utilised over Easter against UCD and Fingal – Flynn in as a straight swap for Sullivan. Longer term though and after being given plenty of time to work with Rice on the training ground, the vice captain may be an interesting option in defence. Another crucial element in that could be the arrival of Chris Turner, a great option in central midfield which will again lessen the bad effect of removing Rice from the middle. With Chambers, Turner, Bradley and Bayly all available, a switch to right-back in the future might be best for Rice’s chances of playing every week too.
What do you reckon? Too risky to move Rice in to defence? Is Stevens up for a starting spot every week? Does Flynn offer enough going forward to be a long-term starter? Leave a comment below….
