Mayo can spook Kerry with O'Shea positioning - Whelan

Ciarán Whelan believes Mayo should consider starting Aidan O'Shea at full-forward for Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final with Kerry.

The RTÉ Sport pundit feels that the presence of the Breaffy man high up the field could cause an unsettling disruption and force Kerry to rethink their tactics for the Croke Park encounter.

Whelan also said that he believes Mayo manager James Horan has been very predictable throughout the season and needs to make some changes to have a chance to compete with the impressive Kerry unit.

The former Dublin midfielder is expecting a very exciting encounter in relation to the battle between the star-studded Kerry forwards and renowned Mayo defence. However, he feels there is less competition from a Mayo perspective at the other end of the pitch.

"Who’s going to match up with David Clifford, Paudie Clifford or Seanie O’Shea?" said Whelan, speaking on this week’s RTÉ GAA Podcast.

"Mayo have great defenders, but when you look at the match-ups at the other end of the field, there’s nothing there that really frightens you from a Kerry perspective.

"We don’t know if Ryan O’Donoghue is going to play. Cillian O’Connor is back in there but he may have lost a bit of pace. He still has the smartness and the intelligence. But that sticks out as a different threat at either end of the field.

"James Horan has been very predictable but they need to do something different this weekend.

"Would he spook Jack O’Connor if he stuck Aidan O’Shea in on the edge of the square?

"Even if they put a couple of balls in in the opening ten minutes, and even if they didn’t win them, it refocuses the Kerry management mindset, distracts them and it just offers something different."

Former Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice was in total