I was losing the rag with Whelan at times. He does offer a lot but there were a number of times last night McClean was in acres of space on the left and for whatever reason, presumably Whelan either being unwilling or unable to make the pass, the ball never went to him.
I would like a look at Hourihane in the Whelan role from the start against Iceland. Possibly with Brady and Hendrick in a 3 man midfield
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
I wonder what our first eleven is now for Austria if no injuries?
Randolph
Christie Duffy. Clark. Ward
McCarthy. Hendrick
Brady
Mcgeady. Long. Mcclean
Leaves Walters, Murphy, wes, arter as potential impact subs. Arter was very poor in Austria don't seehim starting just now if we have full pick. Hopefully hourihane given his set piece ability plays well against Iceland to be in contention in june
I would not start Christie. Has had very little game time at Derby and he looked like a bag of nerves last night. Can't see his club situation getting any better before the end of the season. So we need a right back for the Austria game - Matt Doherty is the obvious choice although maybe Meyler should get the start there.
As far as the rest of the team goes I would definitely include Wes. Based on the evidence of last night, Hendrick would be the one to give way.
Fair enough but no way wes Brady and McCarthy play in a three. Maybe Brady goes left back back let's wes come into midfield and it's a toss up between arter and Hendrick to partner McCarthy. Can't see Doherty coming in from nowhere in terms of been involved with O'Neill sides to start.
Off topic watching Belgium losing to Greece who are down to ten men. Makes what we did last night seem super creative. No invention from Belgians with far better ballers than us
Christie was average last night....He does have a long throw in which is handy . I suppose its a bit unfair to judge him on those 20 minutes . Surely Doherty will get into a squad to have a look at .
Really poor game last night but I think that came from both teams been very anxious not to lose. Wales were marginally the better team up to the Coleman injury but I felt we were starting to get on top. We were full of endeavour for last 20 mins and possibly lacked a Murphy like presence up top.
Also felt the way we were set up and our personnel neutralised Wales but also ourselves. We struggled to break through their formation. Only once did we almost create a good opportunity, in the first a one two which nearly saw long through. Otherwise it was mainly hussle and bussle.
Quite affected by Coleman injury. Such a top bloke and player. Hope he gets back on the pitch this year and back to his best.
On we go, in great shape. Austria need to beat us in next game. That may suit our style of play.
In real time I thought Bale's tackle was the worse of the two and only his name / fame saved him from a red earlier. The Bale tackle was a carbon copy of the one that dislocated my ankle in 2001. I was admiring my own clearance when a guy slid in and took my standing leg from under me.
I actually thought Christie looked ok. Seamus wasn't having a great game.
Midfield 3 disappointed going forward, Whelan took too much out of the ball too often. I expected more forward drive from Hendrick.
Keogh awful on the ball, bag of nerves.
Good team performance defensively, awful in possession until the last 20.
Boarding plane now...
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 26/03/2017 at 7:11 PM.
Same here, I thought Bale's tackle was worse, just had less impact, though I haven't seen a replay of it. It was a muck of a game for the most part (mainly down to us). Brady was missed for set pieces/passing ability, and a player like Hoolahan to hold onto the ball for 5 seconds.
When it's straight red tackle that takes a player right out of the game, I think there's case that he could be subbed outside of the 3 sub quota.
He didn't start Rowlett's first game in charge which might be a slight concern but he played ninety minutes in their previous six games. Hardly that little game time considering he only returned from a couple of months out with injury at the end of January.
I'm all over giving Doherty a chance and he may well be a better option long term but I don't think Christie looked a bag of nerves at all. His worst game for us was against Belarus when the whole team were poor, but he has been very good otherwise when called upon.
Neil O'Riordan writes that Ronald Koeman had "snubbed" an opportunity to "end the feud" between himself and Martin O'Neill a few weeks ago: https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football...ans-leg-break/
I'd imagine Koeman is absolutely snapping now in light of what happened with both Coleman and McCarthy.Originally Posted by Neil O'Riordan
More on Neil Taylor: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/...eamus-coleman/
Pretty sure I also read somewhere that Taylor shook the hands of numerous Irish players as a gesture of apology whilst upon his visit to the Irish dressing room.Originally Posted by Jeremy Wilson
Sh!t happens. It was a poorly executed tackle but not a premeditated attempt at injuring or even hurting Coleman. It's just one of those things and Taylor has come out of it looking fairly okay in my book for the amount of remorse he's clearly demonstrated. It's an absolute balls for Coleman, Everton and Ireland but that's life, he's had a pretty good run up until now at least.
Ledley feeling the need to respond to the accusations (from the mentally insane) of him laughing at the outcome of incident leaves me shaking my head in despair at the power of social media these days.
Last edited by DeLorean; 26/03/2017 at 6:20 PM.
Some say Whelan should have been sent off.
http://www.the42.ie/ireland-wales-wo...07427-Mar2017/
I'd have had no complaints had Whelan been shown a red card. He appeared to intentionally thrust his elbow towards Joe Allen and it definitely connected with Allen's chin. Video of the incident again here: https://vid.me/wGw9
http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/wm...6378.bild.html"What is so funny about that?"
It doesn't look like a grimace IMO, but I'm not going to judge him. Your face doesn't always react the way you want it to when you receive shocking/bad news.
Unless we develop telepathy we might as well drop it.
I think there was malicious intent in Taylor's tackle but I do think he's genuinely sorry. He made an attempt to commiserate with Keane in particular, but Keane told him to F off.
It's shades of Shawcross/Ramsey. You can't tell me Shawcross didn't intend to "do" Ramsey, but I do think he was genuinely remorseful afterwards.
Last edited by TheOneWhoKnocks; 26/03/2017 at 9:53 PM.
I could never understand the blame attributed to Shawcross to be honest.
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