Current Player #25 Oisin Smyth

With Balmer and McClelland the only natural centre half’s selected
Interesting to see Oisin picked as a defender.
 
Usually play a back 3,
Have done similar in the past with Boyd Munce
Haven’t seen a lot of him myself, but what I have seen was defensive midfield.
 
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Congratulations young man, hopefully we will see you in or around the 1st team next season and possibly some game time.
 
Excellent. By far the most exciting prospect at the club right now.
 
Foley said:
Is he?
You may well be right, but having not seen him myself, what makes you say that?
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My Sunday nights are incredibly dull and spent mostly watching Sportscene for the SPFL highlights and the Irish League show for NIFL highlights. He's not a traditional CDM having started higher up the pitch but increasingly for Dungannon played deeper over the last few months so don't expect any flying challenges, more of a quarterback type.

His passing is excellent and from clips could be the best passer at the club since Lundstram - was my MOM at the OSC game against Thame earlier this year not that it really means much. Was dropping 40 yard passes to feet effortlessly. He's athletic and strong but not at the expense of technicality and was captaining Dungannon at 21.

He was on the clubs radar for some time and when they heard there was a strong likelihood of him going elsewhere they went straight in with a bid too good to be refused for a reason (a la Sykes and Port Vale). Personality meant to be spot on too, ambitious but grounded and happy to be playing football.

Of course it may all go tits up, but I wouldn't bet against him in the match day 18 by the end of next season if not Christmas.
 
jal said:
My Sunday nights are incredibly dull and spent mostly watching Sportscene for the SPFL highlights and the Irish League show for NIFL highlights. He's not a traditional CDM having started higher up the pitch but increasingly for Dungannon played deeper over the last few months so don't expect any flying challenges, more of a quarterback type.

His passing is excellent and from clips could be the best passer at the club since Lundstram - was my MOM at the OSC game against Thame earlier this year not that it really means much. Was dropping 40 yard passes to feet effortlessly. He's athletic and strong but not at the expense of technicality and was captaining Dungannon at 21.
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Question I would have, though - is can he actually defend?
Which doesn't necessarily mean flying tackles - but does he do a good job of closing down space, blocking shots, tracking runners and generally make life hard for the opposition?

Because the way you describe him sounds great, but also sounds a bit like what people might say about Herbie Kane.
But the problem with having Kane at the base of our midfield three wasn't his passing or attacking prowess, it was that he wasn't much kop defensively and too often left our defense completely exposed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see him play and hope he plays a big role next season.
But I'm tired of seeing other teams cut through our midfield with little or no resistance, and want to see more steel in the middle next year. If Smyth has that - awesome. But if he doesn't, we have to bring it in this summer.
 
tonyw said:
Question I would have, though - is can he actually defend?
Which doesn't necessarily mean flying tackles - but does he do a good job of closing down space, blocking shots, tracking runners and generally make life hard for the opposition?

Because the way you describe him sounds great, but also sounds a bit like what people might say about Herbie Kane.
But the problem with having Kane at the base of our midfield three wasn't his passing or attacking prowess, it was that he wasn't much kop defensively and too often left our defense completely exposed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see him play and hope he plays a big role next season.
But I'm tired of seeing other teams cut through our midfield with little or no resistance, and want to see more steel in the middle next year. If Smyth has that - awesome. But if he doesn't, we have to bring it in this summer.
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In short, yes he can defend. He reads the game well and is quick enough over 10 yards to get a foot in.

I think the difference is that Smyth has always been a box-to-box type CM who is better suited to CDM whereas Kane I always thought was more of a number 10 with that free role linking midfield and attack which he had so much success at Donny with. I also think Smyth is more aware of what's going on around him in terms of positional sense. While Kane can make that slide rule pass through the middle of the pitch or pick out a player with 4ft between 2 defenders, Smyth's ability when dropping deep means he has the time that he needs to take a touch or two before playing the best ball. Footballing intelligence, I guess? In some ways I think they'd complement each other really well as I think Kane in that deep role was one of the reasons we didn't make the play offs. All of this is opinion though from what I've seen in snippets of games throughout the season, and the quality is pretty damn poor, but as I said at the moment he has to be my most exciting prospect.

I'd be interested to hear what @Nadi- has to say though as he may have a completely different outlook.
 
jal said:
In short, yes he can defend. He reads the game well and is quick enough over 10 yards to get a foot in.

I think the difference is that Smyth has always been a box-to-box type CM who is better suited to CDM whereas Kane I always thought was more of a number 10 with that free role linking midfield and attack which he had so much success at Donny with. I also think Smyth is more aware of what's going on around him in terms of positional sense. While Kane can make that slide rule pass through the middle of the pitch or pick out a player with 4ft between 2 defenders, Smyth's ability when dropping deep means he has the time that he needs to take a touch or two before playing the best ball. Footballing intelligence, I guess? In some ways I think they'd complement each other really well as I think Kane in that deep role was one of the reasons we didn't make the play offs. All of this is opinion though from what I've seen in snippets of games throughout the season, and the quality is pretty damn poor, but as I said at the moment he has to be my most exciting prospect.

I'd be interested to hear what @Nadi- has to say though as he may have a completely different outlook.
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Really interesting thoughts and let's hope you are right!
 
jal said:
In short, yes he can defend. He reads the game well and is quick enough over 10 yards to get a foot in.

I think the difference is that Smyth has always been a box-to-box type CM who is better suited to CDM whereas Kane I always thought was more of a number 10 with that free role linking midfield and attack which he had so much success at Donny with. I also think Smyth is more aware of what's going on around him in terms of positional sense. While Kane can make that slide rule pass through the middle of the pitch or pick out a player with 4ft between 2 defenders, Smyth's ability when dropping deep means he has the time that he needs to take a touch or two before playing the best ball. Footballing intelligence, I guess? In some ways I think they'd complement each other really well as I think Kane in that deep role was one of the reasons we didn't make the play offs. All of this is opinion though from what I've seen in snippets of games throughout the season, and the quality is pretty damn poor, but as I said at the moment he has to be my most exciting prospect.

I'd be interested to hear what @Nadi- has to say though as he may have a completely
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Only seen a few brief u21 appearances on screen., where Galbraith and McCalmont are used as the prominent central midfielders.
As you say
Dungannon seemed to use him in a deeper role
Looked comfortable in the clips against Linfield.was able to find space, give and go and awareness to spray the ball around. So can see the similarities to John Lundstram.

Will be interesting to see how he’s used defensively tomorrow , especially if he’s used alongside Balmer and McClelland

V Spain 1pm
 
Half time in the NI U21s 1-0 down.

Can watch live here:
 
Watched upto half-time
Was evident they were up against a far better side.
 
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