Originally Posted by
OhioRed
Kenny McLean is a decent midfielder. He undoubtedly has skill and it could be tricky finding a direct replacement. But from my point point of view he isn't the player some seem to think.
When we bought him he was a good player in a not so good team, and I think the calibre of players around him made him look better than he really was. He was the standout player in their team, but I think any good player would have been. We bought him amid much talk of the great player we had just got. For me he was a disappointment.
He seems to have changed a bit since we first got him. He doesn't fall over and lie prone waiting for the ref to give a free kick while the opposition run into the space he so recently vacated by falling over at the first hint there might be contact. We had a lot of goal threats directly down to McLean's affinity for a lie down on the turf. He doesn't seem to do that so regularly these days, thankfully. He can pass but this seems decidedly patchy. He is prone to sending a long diagonal into an area where there are no red shirts. I think he often does that because he hit the ball before he looked up.
That said he has good close control. Unfortunately he rarely displays that in or around the opposition box and his shooting, especially from distance, is erratic. He has scored a total of 18 goals for us, 13 in the league. That's pretty average for a midfielder, it certainly doesn't suggest the type of player that we were originally told we had got. He would "add goals from midfield", well yes, but not the kind of numbers that statement would have suggested. I know his defenders will say he has been played out of position, but he has been played in virtually every outfield position in midfield and attack at some point. All with much the same result.
I am not saying he is a bad player, he isn't. I just think we could obtain someone who does at least one of his jobs more effectively than he does. I don't know who that would be as I only really watch Aberdeen, but there are midfielders out there better than McLean.