John Fitzpatrick (soccer player, 1946)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Fitzpatrick
Personnel
Surname John Herbert Norton Fitzpatrick
birthday August 18, 1946
place of birth Aberdeen ,  Scotland
position Outrunner , full-back
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1964-1973 Manchester United 117 (8)
1 Only league games are given.

John Herbert Norton Fitzpatrick (born August 18, 1946 in Aberdeen ) is a former Scottish football player . Mostly in defensive positions as an outside runner and full -back, he was in the extended squad of Manchester United in the 1960s , but without playing a major role in winning the two championships in 1965 and 1967 and in the 1968 European Cup . Due to injury, he had to end his career at the age of 26.

Athletic career

Fitzpatrick's role in the successful Manchester United side of the 1960s was viewed differently. On the one hand, the Scotsman from Aberdeen, who played outside runner or full-back depending on the system , was considered to be “impetuous” or even “daring” with his aggressive style. According to critics, his timing often left a lot to be desired, which in turn did not seem to fit the requirements of this then high-class team. Supporters positively emphasized his willingness to work and rated his contribution to team performance as "underestimated", which also often suffered from injuries. In this regard, his problems were evident and after numerous operations, Fitzpatrick had to retire from his professional career at the age of only 26.

He had the longest phase of operations at the end of the 1960s, when he successively succeeded Shay Brennan, who was now aging, as right-back . In the early stages of his career, Fitzpatrick, who had won the FA Youth Cup together with greats with George Best in 1964 with the youth team of "United" , was compared to the central defensive midfielder Nobby Stiles , but in contrast to the similarity in militarily, Fitzpatrick in the "control center" lacked the tactical understanding that the world champion Stiles had. Overall, Manchester's great successes took place largely without him and he won an official medal neither when he won the two championships in 1965 and 1967 nor when he succeeded in the European Cup in 1968 . Nevertheless, in the end he had completed almost 150 competitive games, including 117 league games for the club.

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual references / footnotes

  1. ^ Ponting, Ivan: Manchester United Player by Player . Hamlyn, London 1998, ISBN 0-600-59496-3 , pp. 81 .
personal data
SURNAME Fitzpatrick, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fitzpatrick, John Herbert Norton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION scottish soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Aberdeen