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Mckenna

U

uredsforever

Youth Team
I respect he's our captain and he's had a fantastic professional career but just before his injury and since his return, I think he looks half a yard short and for some reason seems to give the ball away alot more than he did when he first joined.

Just wondering what the thoughts of the fans are?

Do you think its age? or lack of form?

I loved him when he first came, spreading the ball around and commanding the midfield, especially against the rams, but that just don't seem to be there at the moment.

It will be interesting if we get pratley to see what happens, I have a feeling camp will be made team captain with Mckenna club captain.

PS I do love you paul and I hope it all comes back!
 
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Have to agree actually that since middle of february sort of time he hasnt looked the player he was when he joined. He seems to be trying to play too incisive a ball a lot of the time when he should be playing the simple ball off to Majewski or whoever has the creativity.

He still has a big part to play though i think. But i dont like him and Moussi together (like saturday) unless theres an extra midfielder in there. He does add heaps of experience as well, something we haven't really got in the squad, so i'd definately keep him around, as long as hes played in the right kind of role.
 
Me and my brother were having this discussion the other night. He seems to have lost the ability to pass and just chucks it forward to no one. Very frustrating as like you say up until xmas last year he seemed to do everything right.
 
andrew1981 said:
Have to agree actually that since middle of february sort of time he hasnt looked the player he was when he joined. He seems to be trying to play too incisive a ball a lot of the time when he should be playing the simple ball off to Majewski or whoever has the creativity.

He still has a big part to play though i think. But i dont like him and Moussi together (like saturday) unless theres an extra midfielder in there. He does add heaps of experience as well, something we haven't really got in the squad, so i'd definately keep him around, as long as hes played in the right kind of role.
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Totally agree, not for one minute would I even consider selling him. He does give us vast experience which we do lack, but I just hope he can regain the form he had and probably become a good squad player.
 
If you have someone alongside him who can play it is not a problem. The simple fact it, we do not play that way at least half the time as we tend to stick to the same very negative formation away from home. As I have said before, if we are going to play kenna in a 4-4-2 we need to play someone more creative than Moussi alongside him i.e. Raddy.

Lets see how much kenna gives the ball away againt Leeds if we play in our normal "home" style.
 
Somtime last season, during those horrible away defeats/draws he adopted a sort of up and under ball. Very difficult for Dex to do anything with. It was mostly into no mans land anyway. Time after time this put the pressure back on us. I don`t understand why he does it. We all know forest can keep the ball. It may be something he did at Preston?
 
wemaybefamousagain said:
If you have someone alongside him who can play it is not a problem. The simple fact it, we do not play that way at least half the time as we tend to stick to the same very negative formation away from home. As I have said before, if we are going to play kenna in a 4-4-2 we need to play someone more creative than Moussi alongside him i.e. Raddy.

Lets see how much kenna gives the ball away againt Leeds if we play in our normal "home" style.
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Yeah totally agree with that, don`t get me wrong i`m not a Mckenna hater. He`s a good lad. Tough little barstool too.
 
My mum is from Preston and I saw him play for them a few times, he has always been a poor passer of the ball, but somewhat makes up for it with his work ethic and ability to drive his team on
 
Mike1865 said:
Somtime last season, during those horrible away defeats/draws he adopted a sort of up and under ball. Very difficult for Dex to do anything with. It was mostly into no mans land anyway. Time after time this put the pressure back on us. I don`t understand why he does it. We all know forest can keep the ball. It may be something he did at Preston?
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He was doing it all season, it was sort of his trademark. I remember particuarly in the 3-0 win vs preston he mustve done it about 15 times successfully.

For the most part it worked, but when forest started to drop off it stopped working and then everyone started complaining about it.


I'd just take moussi out of the midfield as I think him and mckenna together dont really work. Mckenna's constantly moving, whereas moussi tends to stop dead, and takes about 5 minutes to do anything. I dont they are really compatible in that sense.
 
incapable hulk said:
He was doing it all season, it was sort of his trademark. I remember particuarly in the 3-0 win vs preston he mustve done it about 15 times successfully.

For the most part it worked, but when forest started to drop off it stopped working and then everyone started complaining about it.


I'd just take moussi out of the midfield as I think him and mckenna together dont really work. Mckenna's constantly moving, whereas moussi tends to stop dead, and takes about 5 minutes to do anything. I dont they are really compatible in that sense.
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I agree with the moussi comments but I also think hes lacked form no matter who hes played with.

But yes you have to have a creative player in there.
 
incapable hulk said:
He was doing it all season, it was sort of his trademark. I remember particuarly in the 3-0 win vs preston he mustve done it about 15 times successfully.

For the most part it worked, but when forest started to drop off it stopped working and then everyone started complaining about it.


I'd just take moussi out of the midfield as I think him and mckenna together dont really work. Mckenna's constantly moving, whereas moussi tends to stop dead, and takes about 5 minutes to do anything. I dont they are really compatible in that sense.
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I watched that game on sky and remember him having a great game and also scoring a rare goal. So you must be right Hulk, blinkers on when everythings going right.
 
Most teams have worked McKenna out now, they give him no time what so ever on the ball meaning he has no time to pick out a decent ball. If you watch almost everytime he touches the ball theres a man on him instantly leaving him with no other option than to quickly release it forward in the hope that someone gets on the end of it. This has been happening since about feb when teams realised what a major role he played and almost every game now you can guarantee someone will shut him out, so I wouldn't particularly blame him. Although saying that he does seem to have lost his firey edge and doesn't get stuck in as much. Still a great great player.
 
Mckenna's form has suffered, your right. But then so has everyones, even cohen has been very off the boil for quite a while now.

I do think alot of what mckenna does is missed though, and people tend to pick up on the mistakes because he is so involved hes one of the more noticeable players.

I thought against burnley he was actually one of our better players. He never stopped running and was always involved. He didnt have a great game by any stretch, but then no one did. But I know I'm probably in a minority there.


I hope mckenna gets back into form, but I do believe that if/when forest do get back into form- mckenna will be the driving force of that and he'll go back to being less noticed.
 
On saturday's game , Burnley played with 5 man across midfield with 1 lone striker upfront , they had 3 in the middle to our 2 hence why McKenna & Moussi were not given much time on the ball as they had an extra man.
 
incapable hulk said:
I do think alot of what mckenna does is missed though
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I agree on this part. McKenna does the dirty work picking up loose balls, holding midfield together, making sure all players are aware of things.

I'd be interested to see stats on how many times he touches the ball compared to other players
 
I think it's the players around him. Ando, Cohen, Raddy in midfield give better movement and availability than Tyson and Moussi and so we are a lot more fluent and able to retain possession.

Give it a bit of time, they'll get back into the groove.
 
if he had pratley in the middle with him they would boss the league
 
At times his use of the ball was very poor on Saturday, but it was in quite a few games last season. You have to remember he had a disrupted pre-season due to injuries so I think he will be fine when he gets a few games under his belt.

However he is 32 now (I think) so expecting him to play 90 minutes, week in, week out is asking for trouble, which is one of the reasons why getting Pratley in is so vital so we don't have to rely on him for our composure in midfield.
 
FBS said:
I agree on this part. McKenna does the dirty work picking up loose balls, holding midfield together, making sure all players are aware of things.

I'd be interested to see stats on how many times he touches the ball compared to other players
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Exactly. Against burnley, everytime a forest player was picking up the ball- it was mckenna, and it moves forward from there.

I dont think its just a mckenna form problem, I think the whole midfield is not quite right. Mckenna's forward balls, worked mostly when raddy played there and he was always around to pick them up.

The shape just always looks unbalanced as we have one speedy player on one flank in tyson, so we look like we're playing with wingers....but then on the right flank it looks as if moussi was there, and he doesnt generally move around, and is defensive minded.

So the midfield is skewed.

Unless cohen was playing on the right, but he always seemed to be popping up left of center.
 
What a bobbins thread. We are one game in and McKenna has barely played since the spring. Give the lad a chance!!!
 
He is a good captain and I reckon he is trying too hard. Its up to the rest to help him out more
 
He has been out of form/off ther pace now since January and its worrying IMO. I dont want to jump on the bandwagon and start slagging him off but I'm just starting to question what has happened to him. Granted he was injured for a while but his form was low before his injury.
 
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