# Is Robbie Keane Useless?



## Lex Foutish (10 May 2011)

I've never regarded Robbie Keane as a quality player. I think a lot of Irish people think highly of him just because he's Irish and probably wouldn't give him a second glance if he wasn't. He's been guilty of some terrible misses during his career.

Last Saturday's miss against Blackburn was woeful. If he'd scored, West Ham's chances of staying up would have increased greatly. But, on the positive side for West Ham, they probably won't have to pay him the million pound bonus that he was looking for, if he'd helped to keep them up!


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## One (10 May 2011)

I don't think he is useless. I think he has had quite a good career, albeit he probably has from club to club more than he would prefer. That said he probably doesn't have the same level of mobility and acceleration that he used to have 7 or 8 years ago. Everyone misses easy chances from time to time.


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## Ceist Beag (11 May 2011)

So let me see, the player who is not only our top goalscorer, but who has actually scored more than twice the number of goals that the next on the list scored, and who captains the team, is he useless? Ehhhh maybe it's the Roy Keane slant rubbing off on you there Lex! Certainly he's past his best, but credit where it is due, his record may never be broken.


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## csirl (11 May 2011)

Not totally useless. Seems to be a big game player - has scored a lot of goals in important Internationals, but seems to cruise through routine games. 

He could be better - seems to have a bad attitude on the pitch at times - you often see instances where he falls about looking for a penalty/free kick and moans at the ref where he could have scored if he'd just kept playing and shot at goal.


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## RMCF (11 May 2011)

Well if he is he earned a hell of a lot of money being useless.

Personally I think he has been a good solid 6 out of 10 most of his career. Never a world beater, but slightly better than the average player.

Now well past his sell-by.


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## MrMan (11 May 2011)

Ceist Beag said:


> So let me see, the player who is not only our top goalscorer, but who has actually scored more than twice the number of goals that the next on the list scored, and who captains the team, is he useless? Ehhhh maybe it's the Roy Keane slant rubbing off on you there Lex! Certainly he's past his best, but credit where it is due, his record may never be broken.



I dont' disagree with you about the football side of things, but he is captain because of profile. He has grown into the role over time, but it didn't make much sense to make him captain at the time and still doesn't.


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## Mpsox (11 May 2011)

not totally useless, but if you take out his penalities, then his goals per game rate is nothing to write home about. He's just a middle of the road striker who has never played for a major club.


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## callybags (11 May 2011)

So Inter Milan, Spurs, Liverpool and Celtic are not major clubs?


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## Ceist Beag (11 May 2011)

callybags said:


> So Inter Milan, Spurs, Liverpool and Celtic are not major clubs?



And Leeds ... massive club! (Ok so I might be biased there! )


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## BillK (11 May 2011)

Who is Robbie Keane?


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## Sunny (11 May 2011)

callybags said:


> So Inter Milan, Spurs, Liverpool and Celtic are not major clubs?


 
Well, he didn't do anything at Inter or Liverpool. Celtic might be a big club (it's all relative) but they play in mickey mouse league. He was a good player for Spurs and is a good player for Ireland. Was never a great player. He is also a very good professional to be fair to him.


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## MrMan (11 May 2011)

Mpsox said:


> not totally useless, but if you take out his penalities, then his goals per game rate is nothing to write home about. He's just a middle of the road striker who has never played for a major club.



How can he be seen as anything even remptely close to useless? The man has scored over 100 prem goals. 
Take away his penalties? Roberto Baggio, Shevchenko, Anelka were all great players but penalties weren't their forte, pk taking is a vital skill and a good pk taker is important to every team.


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## Deiseblue (11 May 2011)

Robbie had a great season with Spurs in 2007-2008 , his partnership with Berbatov was a joy to behold with both players alternating between midfield & up front to great effect.

Robbie for Ireland was incredibly frustrating as he debated every decision & ran around like a headless chicken at times due I always felt to his passion for playing for Ireland ( he seemed to turn up for every fixture whether competitive or otherwise ) however his goal scoring instincts were sound as evidenced by the fact that he is our top scorer by a country mile.

A talented footballer with annoying habits offset by passion & commitment - yes , a great player - no.


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## Shawady (11 May 2011)

I think he is a good player but over the years I feel I tried too many 'flicks' or tried to win free kicks or penalties when he have just played the ball.
He was only at Inter for 2 matches and it didn't work out at Liverpool but he has a good goal scoring record for Wolves, Coventry, Leeds, Spurs and at international level.

I think he was the highest scorer in the Premiership for the calender year 2008 or 2009 when with Spurs.


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## DB74 (11 May 2011)

Sunny said:


> He is also a very good professional to be fair to him.



Didn't he have major issues on the training ground with at least one Spurs manager which ultimately led to his sale (to Liverpool I think?)


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## bullbars (11 May 2011)

He was too young and unproven going to Inter. He wasn't wanted by the manager at Liverpool, a  knee jerk reaction purchase by the owners. I'd agree Celtic play in a two horse race mickey mouse league, like the other Keane, its a good place to play out the last mile of your career. I thought he was doing well at spurs until he fell out of favour with Harry.

I remember reading through this article:

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/its-time-to-say--thank-you-robbie-keane-1937601.html


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## michaelm (11 May 2011)

Lex Foutish said:


> I've never regarded Robbie Keane as a quality player.


Me neither.  He tends to run into the box, maybe handle the ball, then fall over and look for a penalty.  He falls over a lot.  Also, I'm not sure he scores many crucial/winning goals.


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## MrMan (11 May 2011)

michaelm said:


> Me neither.  He tends to run into the box, maybe handle the ball, then fall over and look for a penalty.  He falls over a lot.  Also, I'm not sure he scores many crucial/winning goals.



He has scored his fair share of crucial goals for club and country, and with all due respect, your first line would suggest you don't watch the sport much or at the very least have an understanding of it.


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## TarfHead (11 May 2011)

Useless, maybe, at managing his career.

After 10 years as a Premiership footballer, he now seems more concerned about maintaining his income, than being afforded a chance of first-team football.

He strikes me as a player whose ratio of chances to goals is too high, e,g, he needs about 5 chances to score one goal. In tight games, such as important international games, you can't be that profligate with chances.


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## Ceist Beag (11 May 2011)

I think the Vincent Hogan article linked to above captures the view on Robbie quite well. I can't understand why Robbie gets so much criticism when the likes of Kevin Doyle gets lauded in game after game where he has (once again) failed to score. Don't get me wrong I think Doyle is a good player, but quite why he gets so much credit while Robbie gets so much criticism is beyond me. Goals win games and Robbie puts the rest to shame in that regard. I don't care how many he misses, it's how many he scores that counts. We should be hailing Robbie as one of our best ever (note I'm not saying most talented ever here!) given his record and yet here we are discussing is he useless or not - that's pretty sad really.


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## Sunny (11 May 2011)

Ceist Beag said:


> I think the Vincent Hogan article linked to above captures the view on Robbie quite well. I can't understand why Robbie gets so much criticism when the likes of Kevin Doyle gets lauded in game after game where he has (once again) failed to score. Don't get me wrong I think Doyle is a good player, but quite why he gets so much credit while Robbie gets so much criticism is beyond me. Goals win games and Robbie puts the rest to shame in that regard. I don't care how many he misses, it's how many he scores that counts. We should be hailing Robbie as one of our best ever (note I'm not saying most talented ever here!) given his record and yet here we are discussing is he useless or not - that's pretty sad really.


 
I agree. We will miss him when he is gone. Ireland does not actually produce many players capable of scoring that amount of goals at international or premiership level. I don't care if they are screamers from outside the box or if they go in off his This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language. 

Having said that, I always thought he had more potential than he actually fulfilled. Same with Damien Duff. However both players have been great servants to Ireland and when you compare them to someone like Stephen Ireland who people talked about like he was the best thing like sliced bread on the back of one good season, it makes you realise how lucky we have been.

He is not one of our best ever though!


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## michaelm (11 May 2011)

MrMan said:


> . . your first line would suggest you don't watch the sport much or at the very least have an understanding of it.


Indeed, probably both Eamon.  I used to watch soccer but rarely do now; too many cheats and prima donnas.


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## MrMan (11 May 2011)

TarfHead said:


> He strikes me as a player whose ratio of chances to goals is too high, e,g, he needs about 5 chances to score one goal. In tight games, such as important international games, you can't be that profligate with chances.



The same was said about Andy Cole and he couldn't shake that tag despite his record and trophy haul. Good strikers not only score, but get themselves into positions to make chances for themselves. I'm not Keanes biggest fan, but to score as much as he has means that he has done something right, if he was to hit every 5 chances for the one he scores then his tally would be over 600 prem goals which kind of puts things into perspective.


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## MrMan (11 May 2011)

michaelm said:


> Indeed, probably both Eamon.  I used to watch soccer but rarely do now; too many cheats and prima donnas.



I thought posting my real name was against posting guidelines!

but ' He tends to run into the box, maybe handle the ball, then  fall over and look for a penalty.  He falls over a lot.' seems more like a dig at a football personality rather than any actual awareness of his game.
The cheats and prima dona debate is for another day.


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## michaelm (11 May 2011)

MrMan said:


> but ' He tends to run into the box, maybe handle the ball, then  fall over and look for a penalty.  He falls over a lot.' seems more like a dig at a football personality rather than any actual awareness of his game.


Not intended as a dig.  Just my, admittedly glib, view on how he plays.


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## Liamos (12 May 2011)

michaelm said:


> Me neither. He tends to run into the box, maybe handle the ball, then fall over and look for a penalty. He falls over a lot. Also, I'm not sure he scores many crucial/winning goals.


 
Last minue penalty against Spain in 2002. Last minute goal against Germany in 2002. Goal against France in Paris in 2009???


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## Liamos (12 May 2011)

Mpsox said:


> not totally useless, but if you take out his penalities, then his goals per game rate is nothing to write home about. He's just a middle of the road striker who has never played for a major club.


 
Scoring penalties in high pressure situations is not easy (as the english soccer team have shown us many times over the years). It is actually a skill in itself you know?


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## Niall M (12 May 2011)

he does lots of pointing and moaning during games as well.....


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## michaelm (12 May 2011)

Looking at his stats it seems he has scored in 24 of 66 competitive matches for Ireland, and his goal(s) had a material impact on the result in 16 of those. Dunno how many were from the spot.  Maybe he is great.  I must resolve to watch the next Ireland game.


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## Lex Foutish (12 May 2011)

Looks like I'm in a slight minority about poor old Robbie!  Apart from Spurs first time round, no club seemed interested in holding onto him and that says a lot. And Fergusson wouldn't touch him when he was leaving Wolves, despite many Irish people saying, at the time, that Fergie was mad not to snap him up! I know he's our top goalscorer but I think a better player would have a much better return from the same number of chances. He does act like a headless chicken at times and is a great one for moaning when it suits him. Many of you have made fair points in his defence but I still think that if he wasn't Irish, we'd be asking, Robbie who? I'd like to see him have a few good seasons before he retires but I don't expect he will. Still, I'd be happy for him to prove me wrong......




Ceist Beag said:


> *And Leeds ... massive club!* (Ok so I might be biased there! )


 
Definitely the best post in this thread, Ceist Beag! A sleeping giant. I'm glad we eased up in the latter part of the season, as another year of team building will stand to us when we go up next year.


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## DerKaiser (12 May 2011)

The guy is in the all time top 20 goal scorers at international level: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_international_association_football_goal_scorers_by_country) 

and top 10 in the premiership
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League

and has scored:
3 Goals in 2002 world cup finals
Scored against Italy, France, Germany, The Netherlands & Spain (All recent world cup winners or finalists)

But I'm still not surprised at the question being asked!!!!


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## Lex Foutish (12 May 2011)

DerKaiser said:


> The guy is in the all time top 20 goal scorers at international level: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_international_association_football_goal_scorers_by_country)
> 
> and top 10 in the premiership
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League
> ...


 
I'll bet he wouldn't have got past [broken link removed], in your heyday!


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## Deiseblue (12 May 2011)

When asked about pace , Beckenbauer said that he wasn't the quickest between A & B but then again he rarely started from A !


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## MrMan (13 May 2011)

Lex Foutish said:


> but I still think that if he wasn't Irish, we'd be asking, Robbie who? I'd like to see him have a few good seasons before he retires but I don't expect he will. Still, I'd be happy for him to prove me wrong



I think we might still realise who he is, he has been playing top flight football for a decade or so.

This thread was about whether he is useless or not, and that is out of order. He is not going to go down as a great footballer, but he has proven to be a very good one, and a great servant to Ireland.


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## Mpsox (13 May 2011)

callybags said:


> So Inter Milan, Spurs, Liverpool and Celtic are not major clubs?


 
Spurs and Celtic aren't in European terms(regardless of what Spurs did this season) and Keane was a flop at the other 2


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## MrMan (13 May 2011)

Mpsox said:


> Spurs and Celtic aren't in European terms(regardless of what Spurs did this season) and Keane was a flop at the other 2



He wasn't given a chance at Liverpool, how many players flourish in the first 6 months of their contract? If United did the same then Evra and Vidic would never have been the success that time proved them to be.


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## Lex Foutish (14 May 2011)

MrMan said:


> I think we might still realise who he is, he has been playing top flight football for a decade or so.
> 
> This thread was about whether he is useless or not, and that is out of order. He is not going to go down as a great footballer, but he has proven to be a very good one, and a great servant to Ireland.


 
He has become a great servant of Robbie Keane as well.

Maybe it's a side effect of having the surname of Keane!


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## Lex Foutish (14 May 2011)

MrMan said:


> *He wasn't given a chance at Liverpool*, how many players flourish in the first 6 months of their contract? If United did the same then Evra and Vidic would never have been the success that time proved them to be.


 
I agree with you there, and you could see how frustrating it was for him but, you have to ask the question, Why couldn't he break into the team on a regular basis.......?


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## MrMan (14 May 2011)

Lex Foutish said:


> I agree with you there, and you could see how frustrating it was for him but, you have to ask the question, Why couldn't he break into the team on a regular basis.......?




Look at Torres at Chelsea, he has been dropped after some woeful performances and scored four less goals than keane in the same period. Torres is still a brilliant player and will fire on all cylinders next season, but he has found bedding in to a new system difficult as have his team mates in adjusting to him, six months is not enough especially for a striker.


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## Liamos (7 Jun 2011)

Robbie Keane 2 Macedonia 0.  50th and 51st goals.


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## terrontress (7 Jun 2011)

Liamos said:


> Robbie Keane 2 Macedonia 0. 50th and 51st goals.


 
Look at him and Shay Given. They can't get games for their clubs and it seems nobody else in England is interested in them. There is talk of Given going to Celtic.

Now Keane has beaten Bobby Charlton, which apparently means so much to him, he should throw in the towel.


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## MrMan (7 Jun 2011)

terrontress said:


> Look at him and Shay Given. They can't get games for their clubs and it seems nobody else in England is interested in them. There is talk of Given going to Celtic.
> 
> Now Keane has beaten Bobby Charlton, which apparently means so much to him, he should throw in the towel.



Keane has had a bad club season, and Given is being paid 90k a week to be back up the the england no.1, but I would imagine he won't have any problems finding a club this summer. There is always talk of Irish players going to Celtic when they are looking for a move.

Do you think that it should mean nothing to him to have such a great scoring record?


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## csirl (7 Jun 2011)

Trap has recommneded Given to a number of Italian clubs, so if he has any sense he'll go to Serie A rather than the SPL.


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## Shawady (8 Jun 2011)

MrMan said:


> There is always talk of Irish players going to Celtic when they are looking for a move.


 
Yeah, apparently there has been talk of Shane Long moving there although I'd like to see him in the premiership.


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## burger1979 (8 Jun 2011)

The Scottish league is so weak though, I would prefer if any players that who were looking to go from the premiership to the scottish premier or the championship i would urge them to go to the championship. Or if they could get it a move to italy or spain. now whilst some might say the spainish and italian leagues are not that strong but i would say that they are technically better


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## Lex Foutish (8 Jun 2011)

The word on the street is that Robbie Keane will end up at Fulham. Martin Jol is the new manager there and, when he was manager at Spurs, Robbie was captain.

I'd prefer to see a player playing in the Cork A.U.L. rather than with Celtic! Scottish soccer is a joke, IMHO.


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## notagardener (12 Nov 2011)

Lex Foutish said:


> I've never regarded Robbie Keane as a quality player. I think a lot of Irish people think highly of him just because he's Irish and probably wouldn't give him a second glance if he wasn't. He's been guilty of some terrible misses during his career.
> 
> Last Saturday's miss against Blackburn was woeful. If he'd scored, West Ham's chances of staying up would have increased greatly. But, on the positive side for West Ham, they probably won't have to pay him the million pound bonus that he was looking for, if he'd helped to keep them up!


 

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Shawady (14 Nov 2011)

I read over the weekend he is now the 5th highest goalscorer at international level.

Edit: I just googled it and it turns out he is at number 25. Still some achievement and has the chance to improve further.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...l_players_with_50_or_more_international_goals


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## Mpsox (14 Nov 2011)

One thing he is very good at is sitting on his backside with his arms in the air pleading with the ref. I doubt very much if is he Mr Popularity in Estonia.


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## DB74 (14 Nov 2011)

Robbie Keane is an excellent goalscorer, you can't really argue with that.

However, when things are going badly for him, he doesn't try to work harder, he just moans a lot, which is why he will never be as popular as a lesser goalscorer who works hard for the team (eg Kevin Doyle)


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## Delboy (14 Nov 2011)

Shawady said:


> I read over the weekend he is now the 5th highest goalscorer at international level.
> 
> Edit: I just googled it and it turns out he is at number 25. Still some achievement and has the chance to improve further.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...l_players_with_50_or_more_international_goals



he's the 5th highest goal scorer in euro qualifying history, i think it is...up there with some big names


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## DerKaiser (14 Nov 2011)

Delboy said:


> he's the 5th highest goal scorer in euro qualifying history, i think it is...up there with some big names



If you count Europe & South America the only players ahead of him are 3 hungarians (incl puskas), 2 brazilians (pele & ronaldo), 2 germans (Muller & Klose) & 1 argentinian (batistuta)


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