St Patrick's Athletic boss Stephen Kenny hails unlikely full-back duo for European showing

The Irish Sun

3 days ago

ST PAT'S players joke that, in Ryan McLaughlin, they have a full-back who taught Trent Alexander- Arnold all he knows.
Whatever about that,
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Jason McClelland of St Patrick's Athletic was hailed by his boss Stephen Kenny for his intelligence
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The Pat's boss also singled out Ryan McLaughlin for his quality in the Euro clash
The pair both played their part in
He said: 'Ryan and Jason didn't start any of the European games last year and they're in the positions now. They've both performed really well.
'You see the passing touchline to touchline, Ryan to Jason and then Jason played one back. You don't see that much in matches, those touchline to touchline passes from full-backs.
'Ryan has that in his locker. The in-joke in the group is that he showed Trent how to do it.'
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Former Northern Ireland international McLaughlin spent five years at Liverpool but did not make a first-team appearance before leaving in 2016.
That was the year Alexander-Arnold made his first-team debut for the Reds, with the England star joining Real Madrid this summer after 20 years attached to his hometown club.
McClelland is in his sixth season at St Pat's with his outings in the league split almost equally between starts — 61 — and outings as a substitute — 63.
And Kenny remarked that, on occasion, he has not even made the bench but shown resilience and perseverance to play his part.
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The former Ireland boss said: 'He hasn't always actually been in the squad, he's been in the stand in the past, not just with me.
'Certainly he's had to bide his time and he's just having a run of form and his innate football intelligence is incredible.
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'And I suppose he's worked on other aspects of his game which weren't his strongest points where you might get exposed as a left-back, your one-on-one defending and your heading and things like that.
"He's got much better at those facets of the game and his distribution is very inventive.
'It is a competitive area for us. Anto Breslin has never let us down, he's always been a terrific full-back at the club.
'We probably wouldn't have factored in at the start of the season Jason playing at left-back but that's the way it's worked out and when people take their opportunity you have to reward that.'
But Kenny is not prepared to pigeon-hole the former UCD star, particularly because he might be needed in other areas.
Kenny said: 'With Zack Eelbouzedi getting injured, we lost a wide player and Jason has played there as well so we've got to look at a lot of stuff.
'But definitely when the game is in front of him he can see great pictures and has the technical ability to execute really intelligent passes and crosses. He's a very intelligent player.
'The physicality maybe wasn't his strongest point but he has adapted to that and really added that to his game to help him play there.'
Despite being in and out of the team, Kenny does not believe McClelland was ever close to leaving and praised how he ensured he kept himself in shape.
Kenny said: 'I don't think so. He was out of contract last season. I made it clear to him that I wanted him to stay.
'His versatility is important, he's played central midfield this year a good few times and he's played on the left.
'Even when he's not in the team, he's super fit and that's a challenge because players find it hard, when they're not in the team, to stay at the level, they get demoralised.
'He's had that level of professionalism to stay at the level needed whenever needed and that's testament to his character.'
Opportunities in midfield came in part, because of Chris Forrester — Thursday's goal hero after he came off the bench — being sidelined for a total of almost two months.
And Kenny admitted the fan favourite had work to do to get back into the starting XI.
He said: 'He's had a few weeks' training and is coming on so definitely he comes into our thoughts but Jamie Lennon and Barry Baggley have been very good.