Republic of Ireland V Latvia - Friday, November 15th 2013 - Friendly

[Charlie Darwin]

This is madness. 80 minutes to kick-off and we haven't heard the line-up yet. Normally we'd have ten pages debating the merits of selecting Marc Wilson or the doc at this point.

[centre mid]

Westwood, Coleman, O'Shea, Wilson, Ward, McGeady, Whelan, McCarthy, McClean, Hoolahan, Keane

[centre mid]

Westwood,
Coleman, O'Shea, Wilson, Ward,
McGeady, Whelan, McCarthy, McClean,
Hoolahan,
Keane

Presumably

[Charlie Darwin]

That's quite an offensive selection. I assume the usual suspects will be declaring O'Neill to be senile for picking Stephen Ward?

[centre mid]

Two fingers to Trap with the inclusion from the start of Wes? not sure he had that many options at the back.

[back of the net]

She killed our anthem again

[centre mid]

She's nice looking though!

[tricky_colour]

that was some strike form McCarthy thought it was in

[back of the net]

She's nice looking though!

Shes gonna need more than her looks to get forgiveness for that disgraceful soul killing effort of our anthem.

Off up to the corporate box now nadia to get ur free champagne.

Disgraceful she was recalled

[back of the net]

Get in.....greece 1-0 up against romania

[centre mid]

Lativa not trying a leg to get forward, Ireland having loads of wide possession but deliver not great so far.

[Metrostars]

Well done Robbie. All he does is score.

[Bottle of Tonic]

Well, its a lot more pleasing on the eye, knocking the ball about in the final third, but the Latvians are typical of so many away teams in international friendlies - don't wanna be there. It's tough for us to break through though we could be a little more direct like when McClean burst past for the woeful near post shot. Most of the play is unfortunately coming down the limited Ward/McClean side with both over playing it when a direct ball in could prove more useful. Are the Latvians actually doing something right by closing off the space for the far more dangerous Coleman/McGeady combo?

Wes is a nice player but will never be the answer. He was a stick to beat Trappers with but at his age and with his hole on the Norwich bench I reckon we will be moving on from him in the next year. Would like to see McGeady in his role.

[tricky_colour]

Time for Big Andy!!

[tricky_colour]

What a cracker!!

[back of the net]

Latvia are awful......really poor.

On a brighter note....greece have gone 3-1 up against romania...... euro 2016 second seedings looks to be ours now

[centre mid]

On a brighter note....greece have gone 3-1 up against romania

Probably far more significant that whats being served up at the aviva tonight.

[swinfordfc]

65% possesion - that's the biggest stats from this game - at least now we are trying to hold onto the ball - thank god trap is gone!

[centre mid]

Lovely third goal, Coleman at his brilliant best.

[Olé Olé]

Walters to Coleman to Long (for Long's goal). 2 have scored in the Prem in the last two weeks, one is one of the Prem's best right-backs and 2 were subs for this game. And we have no players...

Ireland playing nice pressing stuff, even though the opposition is poor. Things are looking up. At least positivity has been restored.

[centre mid]

Ireland with 4 forwards on now

Walters, Long, Stoke & Doyle

Bring back Trap, this is madness.

[back of the net]

Latvia are playing yeovil town in an unofficial friendly ilon tuesday.
Latvia are more yeovils level.

Absolute waste of an intl fixture selecting this lot as our opposition

[boovidge]

How about we give the players some credit when we do well, rather than just questioning the standard of the opposition? Good start and looking forward to Tuesday now.

[back of the net]

How about we give the players some credit when we do well, rather than just questioning the standard of the opposition? Good start and looking forward to Tuesday now.

Im the first to give players credit. They can only beat who is put in front of them . Bur if u read my post , I said its a waste of a fixture date ....the fixture was organised by the fai not the players so my issue is with them most certainly not the players or mngt.

Glad we got the win but looking fwd to tuesday cos it will give us a better measure of where we are at rather than playing a very poir latvia side.

[DannyInvincible]

Just in from work and caught the very end of the game. Looks like McClean played really well. Delighted to see him get 'MOTM'. O'Neill really knows how to get the best out of him. Fair play to Robbie with yet another goal for us; fantastic. McGeady's strike was lovely. Just watching the team pressing high up the field in the analysis highlights and it's a joy to behold in contrast to Trap's sitting off and back from the opposition. It led directly to McGeady's goal and hopefully signals a more positive and dynamic future.

We're also second seeds for the Euro 2016 draw with Greece having beaten Romania 3-1. Not a bad night all round then.

[shakermaker1982]

I have to say I was really impressed. Latvia were no great shakes but I'm delighted the back 4 tried to play without resorting to long balls. O'Shea, Ward & Wilson have all been guilty in the past of hoofing but tonight they were composed & it was clear to see that O'Neill is trying to impose a different playing style. It's early days of course but from Robbie Keane to Coleman the whole team pressed & put the opposition under pressure. I'm hoping this harrying continues, win the ball back early & get on the front foot.

Whelan looked a different player tonight. McGeady looked sharp & McClean was a handful.

Poland will be a tougher test but onwards & upwards.

[rebelmusic]

I will shoot anyone who makes negative comments. This was the first time i enjoyed watching Ireland play in 5 years. They were comfortable, tried interesting things, 2 great worked goals and 1 superb strike. Only player i'd have reservations about the performance was Ward, but i think MON was looking at potential backups for Wilson rather than nailing him as our starting left back (I;m guessing there).

The thing i'm happiest about is that there was i think 2 long balls in the whole game and when receiving passed the majority of the players turned and attempted to go forward. Still a few 'old' ways creeping in here and there. I was also pleased that MON commented on the fact that after the first goal we stopped being offensive for the next 25 mins or so, good to know he'll attempt to change that.

Overall really pleased and very excited. Looking forward to a sterner test on Tuesday

[back of the net]

I will shoot anyone who makes negative comments.

Hold off on loading the gun rebelmusic

wont be negative about ireland - great to see the ball been used like it should be and our players been able to express themselves no matter what the level of opposition. Latvia were still awful and i would have preferred better opposition.


But looking forward to poland and how we play and against a team who will actually give us a game unike tonight.

[tricky_colour]

Well 3 - 0 is a decent enough result, today we were Spain and Latvia were Ireland :)

They have not been beaten by 3 or more for over 5 months, Bosnia-Herzegovina seem to be their bogie opposition,
but they can grind out the odd draw or narrow defeat against Greece for example.
It was not all pretty but was nice to see us pressing them and taking the game to the opposition,
remains to be see how effective that will be against better sides, we forced them into errors
by pressing they up the pitch much in same was as we have made errors when pressed in our half.
Poland will be a better yardstick, I expect they will have a go at us rather then sitting back which might
work in our favour giving us more space but of course they will far more dangerous going forward.

As has been said Latvia didn't look too competent, but maybe we made them look poor, their inability to
retain possession reminded me of Ireland at the Euros!!

Some promising stuff, though the move involving Coleman look pretty impressive, hopefully we
will see more of that.

[rebelmusic]

Hold off on loading the gun rebelmusic



Haha fair enough. And in fairness to all on this board, it's the least negative corner of Irish football. saying that, the negativity in the media really annoys me at time. Tony O'D dropped a comment about Staunton's first 3-0 during the interview with Robbie and Robbie rightfully gave out to him. Why can't they all be happy, just for one 90 mins ;)

[texidub]

It's all going according to plan so far.

3-1 against Poland now and I'll be rubbing my hands together for the next round of games.

[ArdeeBhoy]

A long way to go. We've been here before. Remember eg. Sweden, a million miles ahead of Latvia.

This means nothing, see how we are next autumn and what the Euros draw brings.

[SkStu]

Walters to Coleman to Long (for Long's goal). 2 have scored in the Prem in the last two weeks, one is one of the Prem's best right-backs and 2 were subs for this game. And we have no players...

This was the most offensive part of the Trappatoni regime from my perspective and the biggest myth the lazy Il Spoofer ever peddled. It was a cop-out and loser speak designed to hide his lack of commitment or dedication to his job. I look forward to a management team that will speak confidently of our players ability and that will set us up to play with pride and skill. Roll on 2016 :)

[DannyInvincible]

Roy even looked like he was enjoying himself and getting a buzz out of something for once!

[backstothewall]

Just home...

Always different being there compared to watching on telly. You get a far better feel for it watching at home to be honest.

My thoughts were that Coleman, McCarthy, McClean, McGeady and Keane were our best players. The back 4 didn't have a lot to do, but Wilson did well, O'Shea panics me every time he goes near the ball, and Ward was fairly anonymous. Didn't see much of Whelan or Hoolahan, but people i was with thought Hoolahan did well.

Westwood was in danger of hypothermia, and Latvia were terrible

[DannyInvincible]

Just home...

Always different being there compared to watching on telly. You get a far better feel for it watching at home to be honest.

Really? :confused:

Quick, someone let Martin and Roy know they're wasting their precious time sitting on the sidelines!

[backstothewall]

Really? :confused:

Quick, someone let Martin and Roy know they're wasting their precious time sitting on the sidelines!

Not quite as practical to do the half time team talk from Kilrea. I'm sure they have people there taking the benefit of tv replays etc for them. I do think as a fan you get a better impression of the game on telly. Much better craic to be there of course.

[ArdeeBhoy]

The banner of the night...
http://s1.thejournal.ie/media/2013/11/irish-banner-before-the-start-of-the-second-half-3-630x402.jpg

[A face]

O'Neill and Trap .... Miles apart. Hope we get something from Poland (they lost two nil tonight) and continue to have Trap exposed for the charlatan he is.

[DannyInvincible]

Not quite as practical to do the half time team talk from Kilrea. I'm sure they have people there taking the benefit of tv replays etc for them. I do think as a fan you get a better impression of the game on telly.

I'm not sure I can agree. Not only does a television camera dictate your optic but your view of the action is confined to a space of 30-40 metres squared at any one moment in time. If it was possible to get a better impression of the game from the television, managers and tacticians would be watching live screenings in the dressing room.

[Charlie Darwin]

Tonight confirmed that Latvia are a poor team. We could easily have won 6 or 7-0 and they would have been relieved. We will learn an awful lot more in Poland.

[A face]

Tonight confirmed that Latvia are a poor team. We could easily have won 6 or 7-0 and they would have been relieved. We will learn an awful lot more in Poland.

Agreed, and being honest Poland could go and spank us now having lost tonight .... that said, O'Neill seems to have picked a very positive squad and i think getting the first game over with a three nil win is just what we needed, now they can get down to business (hoping we don't get tanked)

[ArdeeBhoy]

Last night meant little, Polska won't either, but be surprised if we took a good beating. Can see a reasonably tight game.

[DeLorean]

O'Neill and Trap .... Miles apart. Hope we get something from Poland (they lost two nil tonight) and continue to have Trap exposed for the charlatan he is.

Yeah nothing would show Trap up more than getting a positive result away from home.

[the bear]

Latvia really were brutal, could tell after about 20 seconds that they had no interest in going out and playing. I thought Hoolahan was easily the best player on the pitch last night, he always wanted the ball and his touch was excellent when he got it. Wilson impressed me at centre back and Mcclean and Mccarthy were good to. Great to see us trying to play and hopefully we will continue in that way when put under a bit of pressure.

[DeLorean]

I do wonder what Trap's game was though. It's easy to call him lazy, senile, behind the times, etc but the guy is obviously no fool.

He must surely have realised that we had a better standard of player, in every way, to the likes of Andorra, Faroes, Kazaks, etc and that we would have been able to account for them more comfortably by keeping the ball.

I'd imagine he did know this but the thoughts of us trying to play any sort of possession football against teams of similar or better quality scared the bejaysus out of him. Therefore, he used all of the matches, minnows or otherwise, to perfect his 'system' and leave the players in no doubt as to their specific and unchangeable roles.

It's easily forgotten how much stability this bought initially, which was badly needed at the time. We went from playing suicidal football and getting ripped apart by Cyprus, to winning similar matches with a degree of competency. I'm sure Trap based his initial system on dvd's of games such as that Cyprus one.

His downfall was not adapting when the system was clearly no longer as effective. He neither gradually nor radically implemented any sort of plan that would ease the pressure on our midfield, and obviously paid the price.

We couldn't have done any better really last night. Nice intricate passing, great work-rate and high pressing. Some really strong individual displays also. It's not raining on anybody's parade to take the quality of opposition into account, or to remember the optimism surrounding Stan's first game in charge... that's just street-smart.

[the bear]

There was an argument for Traps style right up until the Euros, however after what happened there and seeing that any technical team were finding it relatively easy to pass straight through us it was obvious a change in philosophy needed to be made. Either he couldn't see that or he couldn't think of anything else to even try.

[DannyInvincible]

His downfall was not adapting when the system was clearly no longer as effective.

Did it become ineffective gradually or all of a sudden, or simply when we came up against top-calibre technical opposition (notably against Russia, although it was most severely exposed at the Euros), thereby causing the players and some of its adherents to lose faith in it? What was the cause of the staleness and regression, in your opinion?

[Bottle of Tonic]

Yeah of course everyone is glad Trap is gone and a new era has dawned but its ridiculous the ill will some harbour towards the last set up, as if some luciferian regime of tyranny has been overthrown. I don't think in 10 years time people will be looking back at his reign with such hatred. It will stand up as a successful yet ultimately limited era.

Anyway, last night was decent. I am enthused. Down to the players now to gain and maintain some form at the clubs for the real stuff a year or so down the line.

[DeLorean]

Did it become ineffective gradually or all of a sudden, or simply when we came up against top-calibre technical opposition (notably against Russia, although it was most severely exposed at the Euros), thereby causing the players and some of its adherents to lose faith in it? What was the cause of the staleness and regression, in your opinion?

It's hard to know because I think we got a favourable group initially with regards the system. Italy, for all their strengths, are not a side that will cut you open at will. They also played almost the full game in Bari with ten men and a one goal lead. Bulgaria were in a state of disarray at the time and Montenegro were only finding their feet. The system may have been exposed earlier had we met a Germany or Russia at that point.

To be fair to the players, at least the majority who were getting a look in, I think they supported Trap and his system to the bitter end. To answer your question, it was exposed all of a sudden, that night against Russia, but went away again for a while until Moscow and, more dramatically, Croatia and Spain at the Euros. Whether it would have been exposed much earlier if we had played a side like those in the first campaign, I'm not sure.