Sask’s Thoughts On Gleeson

In the past, I have described Gleeson as both moody and very arrogant. I have also gone on to say that he stomps around the field like a child who has gotten no presents at Christmas. But I have to swallow these words based on what I have seen in recent weeks.

When he first joined the club, his disciplinary record was worse than Joey Barton’s. He seemed to be the kind of player that will switch off and then just take someone out just because he feels like it. I wasn’t able to comprehend the signing because I saw it as a risk that probably wasn’t going to pay off. This is why I am sat here writing this, rather than being a scout, as Gleeson has been reformed.

The change in attitude I have noticed recently is his willingness to work hard. I was wary that he may just do the bare minimum in terms of dropping back and sweeping whenever necessary, without actually putting the effort in that is required. But, especially in the game against Fulham, I have never seen a player work harder.

He closed down players faster than I even thought imaginable. Couple this with his simple passing out from the back, it made a cracking performance for the midfielder.

When he first joined, I also thought that despite his poor tackling, I could overcome this if he contributed in an attacking sense. His goal record at MK Dons had been questionable to say the least so my hopes were not high. But I am now confident that given the opportunity, Gleeson has the composure to finish chances just as well as he does creating them. He had a calmness against Fulham that I had not witnessed before in him.

This calmness added an extra level to his game and actually reassured me that he can make it at this club. Now, he just needs to keep doing what he is doing. Consistency is key. That’s been the problem with the squad rotation. Toral, Shinnie, Davis, Gleeson, Brown, Arthur are all battling for central roles and despite competition being a healthy thing, it often leads to inconsistency of the players and lack of sharpness.

I hope that Gleeson can get a run of games under his belt in order to be more consistent because with Toral and himself in the side, we looked unstoppable. This was shown in the quality of the 5 goals scored as well as chances created.