DONEGAL must alter their style of play to bring the best out of Michael Murphy.
That is according to Kerry legend Pat Spillane, who was critical of what he perceived to be Declan Bonner’s men’s inconsistent approach.
Donegal have been roped into a scramble to avoid relegation from Division One following a loss to Dublin on Sunday.
With one game remaining in the league, they are on five points from six games; just one point ahead of Dublin and Monaghan in joint-bottom place.
Murphy, who has been hampered with injuries in recent times, has scored just 1-8 this campaign, and Spillane believes Donegal need todo more to get the best out him.
He told the Sunday Game: “Donegal don’t know what style they should be playing now.
“They don’t know whether they should be running the ball, they should be kicking the ball. Their tempo is low.
“In fairness, McBrearty did have a good game [Sunday].
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“We have this debate every year: where should Michael Murphy be playing. The legs are slowing down. The mileage is in the legs.
“He is a ball winner. He has a brain. He is a finisher. He has to be on the edge of the square and Donegal must alter their gameplan.
“That diagonal ball into Michael Murphy, he is unstoppable.”
Defeat to Dublin was Donegal’s third of the campaign, and they will have to beat Armagh in their final game if they are to be sure of surviving the drop to Division Two.
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Speaking following defeat to Dublin, Declan Bonner bemoaned the role of inaccurate shooting in the loss, and said they will be hoping to rectify this going into the Ulster championship later in the year.
He said: “We started the game well, for the first 20 minutes we were playing decent football. But there was a period in that second quarter where Dublin came back at us and tacked on three or four scores.
“We just turned the ball over a few times in that second quarter, basic stuff that cost us.
“The lads got back at it in the second-half and we’d be disappointed we didn’t get something out of it when we did get the goal to bring it back to a two-point game. We had a couple of opportunities, a couple of long-range frees that we need to be putting over the bar. In a game of small margins, they are massive.
“We ended up with 12 wides, seven in the first-half and five in the second and that is not like us. That is a lot of wides at this level. That’s something we’re going to have to rectify going into our Championship campaign.”