Georgia V Republic of Ireland - Tbilisi - 12th October 2019 - Euro 2020 Qualifier

[Razors left peg]

You could tell early in the game that they were playing for draw, Randolph was so slow in taking kick outs.

Quote from Kevin Doyle who played for McCarthy for 3 years talking about Connolly...

“Knowing Mick, and knowing the more people clamour for him to start, the more stubborn Mick will become and won’t play him,”

The man is getting a million a year to do what's best for Irish football, if Connolly is behind Collins again on Tuesday it's just the manager being a total tool

[seanfhear]

Connolly should definitely have got 10 or 15 minutes more than he got . Otherwise have we actually got much better players than were on the field .

[Razors left peg]

Attitude makes a big difference. When they are sent out to play for a draw we played down to their level.

If the Georgia players were all at same clubs as the Irish lads how many would be picked ahead of the Irish player?

That's on the manager.

I genuinely believe that if Stephen Kenny took the u21s to play that Georgia team we'd win the game comfortably

[brine3]

A manager who is too cowardly to have a go. Very well put. As someone said the other day, in reference to the U-21'S, they had the audacity not to accept the holy Grail of Irish international teams which is an away draw, and took the game to Sweden in Stockholm and beat them 3-1. All about the mindset, and Mick is not predisposed to going for the 3 points as a first priority

Away match against Holland in Amsterdam in 2000. We drew 2-2 after being 2-0 up. I remember Mick congratulating the players on a great result at the final whistle. I remember Roy Keane being upset that we had dropped two points.

[jbyrne]

In fairness mick is picking whelan instead of McCarthy and picking mcclean instead of Brady or o dowda and today Collins instead of Connolly .these are his choices how is that not his fault?

mccarthy has started one game in 18 months?
odowda, i am a fan, but is hardly playing either. brady has likewise hardly kicked a ball since last autumn and hasnt played well for us since 2016. very poor performance but please offer realistic alternatives that will actually improve things

[mark12345]

mccarthy has started one game in 18 months?
odowda, i am a fan, but is hardly playing either. brady has likewise hardly kicked a ball since last autumn and hasnt played well for us since 2016. very poor performance but please offer realistic alternatives that will actually improve things

Here"s a realistic alternative. That Whelan was playing today is on Mick (having said that he played quite well). But should a 35 year old with a horrible track record be in the picture at this point? Jack Byrne was a better option than any of our midfielders but that says something that a Shamrock Rovers player has more creativity than Premier League players. My frustration is compounded by the fact that if Hourihane, Hendrick or Doherty are having no effect on the proceedings, the urgency is not there to bring on someone who will ( and at least show you are trying to win the game)

[pineapple stu]

Denmark lead late on.

Means we now must win one of the last two to qualify. Two draws no longer enough

[mark12345]

Denmark lead late on.

Means we now must win one of the last two to qualify. Two draws no longer enough

Time to pay the Piper for another camping full of garbage football

[Diggs246]

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2019/1012/1082966-ireland-player-ratings-v-georgia/
They forget the zero and the decimal point in front of these lunatic asylum ratings

[DannyInvincible]

Abysmal performance and disgraceful (mis)management. You could have predicted it from the off, seeing how we were set up. We created nothing over the entire first-half, yet McCarthy persisted with trying the same failed methods until beyond 70 minutes. Criminal stuff, especially with Connolly - who, fair play to him, did actually make a difference when he came on (far too late, of course) - sitting wasted on the bench for 80 minutes. What was bringing Williams on for Hourihane all about? Settling for the draw? F**king hell, like. There's not really much else to add to what's already been said. Frustrating and disappointing. Really put me on a downer. Can't wait for Kenny to take over.

[pineapple stu]

Other concern watching the Denmark v Switzerland game is that Schmeichel pulled off four stunning saves to earn Denmark the win. I'd worry that a similar Swiss performance on Tuesday will give them a comfortable win. Then it comes down to needing to beat Denmark at home in the last game - and that worked well the last time out...

[backstothewall]

How do you solve a problem like Georgia?

tldr: We should have lumped it forward more often

I’ve been thinking about this for a few hours now, and I’ve done a bit of a volte-face. It can’t be denied that we struggle against these lads. We’ve played them 7 times in as many years and the results speak for themselves.

02/06/13 Ireland 4-0 Georgia
07/09/14 Georgia 1-2 Ireland
07/09/15 Ireland 1-0 Georgia
06/10/16 Ireland 1-0 Georgia
02/09/17 Georgia 1-1 Ireland
26/03/19 Ireland 1-0 Georgia
12/10/19 Georgia 0-0 Ireland

3 different managers. God knows how many players. We’ve changed all the personnel there is to change, yet nothing ever changes. It’s the same game played over and over again. The only convincing win was in a friendly. It feels like Groundhog day but the fact that it’s been Georgia over and over again is a random quirk of the groups we have been drawn in to. The truth is we’ve struggled against sides like Georgia for decades.

We are at our very best as slight underdogs. We have always been able to compensate for a deficit in quality by digging in and working hard for each other. But other teams find it far too easy to do the same thing to us. Georgia know us inside out at this stage and have done a number on us the last two times we’ve been to Tbilisi.

You often get a boxer who is known as a bit of a street fighter. They can be incredibly successful (with no better example than Steve Collins of this parish), but that style of fighter can struggle against an inferior opponent who stubbornly refuses to go on the offensive because they won’t take the risk of dropping their guard to do so. How many times have you seen a fight where one boxer is happy to take the glory of going the distance against the champ?

That’s Georgia. They’ve gone the distance with Denmark and ourselves and that makes this a successful campaign already.

They showed no ambition at all. I think they had 57% possession today because they were interested in possession above almost anything else. If they were going to score it would have been through a set piece or us making a mistake. Having 57% possession meant there was only 40 minutes when we had the ball and could actually score. They were holding the ball with pointless passes because it was running down the clock. In contrast we were willing to take risks with the ball trying to create things and we gave the ball away more often as a result.

For me today's game was summed up by 2 incidents. The first was Jeff Hendrick unnecessarily losing the ball after about 20 seconds. The second was Hourihane attempting a flick to McClean who was about 10 yards away from where he thought he was. Both were the victims of an opposition who just weren’t going to let them play. The first incident set the tone for the match. By the time of the Hourihane incident the frustration on his face was there for all to see.

Now Hourihane is an excellent player. Aston Villa have looked at their best when he has been in the team this season. He is tremendous with a dead ball. But he needs a bit of space to work in. He gets that at Aston Villa because teams in the Premier League don’t tend to play like Georgia, and even if they did the opposition inevitably focus on frustrating yer man who’s name rhythms with Back Reel Fish

Most of today was summed up with Duffy, Whelan and Egan knocking the ball between themselves for a bit, then sending it long in the absence of a better option presenting itself. They had all the Georgians ahead of them meaning a long ball was being contested by our remaining 7 outfielder players against 11 Georgians.

Georgia are a tough nut to crack and what we were doing was never going to get the job done. When Duffy Whelan and Egan were playing it between themselves it was giving Georgia a chance to get organised. Typically they formed 2 banks of 4 with the 2 forwards sitting just ahead of the 2 central midfielders. We didn’t do a lot of it but I've no doubt that if we attempted to go wide one of the forwards would have gone over to the wing we were trying to go down to give them an overload.

What they were doing is completely legitimate and there are 2 ways to deal with this. One is to have somebody in the middle of the park who is comfortable having the ball played to them with 3 or 4 of the opposition around them and can pick the lock. I guess this would be an excellent technical boxer in the metaphor i used above. But those sort of players are thin on the ground and we don’t currently have anyone like that. From the perspective of Hourihane or Hendrick there is no point showing for the ball in the middle of the park because if they get it they are likely to be immediately set upon by superior numbers, lose the ball and set up a counter attack.

So the ball had to go long. Our limitations combined with the way Georgia are played meant that it was the only option available. With that being the case the problem came from allowing Georgia to set themselves and get that 11 v 7 advantage. The other way to handle this sort of opponent is to simply overwhelm them. Swarm them with punches in the boxing analogy. Hit them on the gloves and shoulders and anywhere else you can hit and plain old push them over if you have to. If we had embraced the fact that the ball had to go long and sent it up early they wouldn’t have had time to get organised and we could probably have nicked something while they were still at 6s & 7s. By delaying we gave Georgia time to set themselves and it was easy for them.

That was the option available to us. We’re a team of street fighters. We don’t have a David Silva or even a Wes Hoolahan. The ball should have been played long as the first option rather than when we couldn’t think of anything better to do. Hoof Early, Hoof Often. Then we should have pressed all over the park. Their players who just weren’t as good as ours and had mistakes in them if we had got on top of them. Our biggest failing today was not recognising that.

[4tothefloor]

McCarthy is a dinosaur and was shown up tonight. No balls, afraid to lose instead of changing things to win a game we should be winning. Irish football will never get anywhere with the likes of Trappatoni, O'Neill and McCarthy - all Delaney appointments, all purveyors of woeful football that belongs in the 80s/90s. Can't wait for Kenny to take over and end this nonsense. Just woeful, and we're not qualifying after tonight either, even via the Nations League route. Not playing that ****e anyway.

[irishfan86]

Good assessment backstothewall. I don’t really blame McCarthy for anything on the personnel side apart from not bringing on Connolly sooner. Collins showed well vs Bulgaria and I understand why Mick went with him. I hear the criticism of McClean and Whelan but not a lot of better alternatives. I am very curious about how Mick approaches Tuesday’s match.

Have to say Robinson has been a let down so far. He is a better player than he has shown for us.

Maybe I was dropped on the head too many times as a child but I have a positive feeling about the Switzerland game. Connolly is a total unknown to them and has the capability of doing real damage. Just hope Mick starts him and sees what he can do.

[Yard of Pace]

Maybe I was dropped on the head too many times as a child but I have a positive feeling about the Switzerland game. Connolly is a total unknown to them and has the capability of doing real damage. Just hope Mick starts him and sees what he can do. I'd say my lack of sanity has been slowly self-inflicted by various different things but I also feel positive about the Suisse game. We know how much it would mean for Mick to beat them and I don't believe he'll be trying to just nick a win.....and with Aaron Connolly playing as he is, that can't be the case because the lad has zero nerves, plenty of footballing ability and can create danger for the opposition out of nothing. This is not a player that needs time to get up to the pace of the game. He sets the pace. I watched the Brighton game last week and told anyone who'd listen that he had to start today. I think he will start on Tuesday. Would you bet against him scoring? I sure wouldn't. Our other strikers, I can't say the same (although I do think they all have ability.....but nothing like Connolly). Hat-trick for Connolly, qualification and Mick tells us he only got ten minutes as he wanted to keep him under wraps from the Swiss as much as possible. (3 assists from Byrne, same reasoning).

[brine3]

Seriously questioning if I want this team to qualify at this rate. We'll just go to the euros and stink the place out. There's no enjoyment in that

[elatedscum]

Hendrick was shocking and should have been hooked after 45 or 50 minutes.

Whelan shouldn’t have started the game and his limitations were exposed. McCarthy would have been a big upgrade. With the current squad I probably would have played Hourihane deep in the Whelan role where he played last season for Villa and used Byrne or Browne.

McClean was awful. Good work rate. Made one great defensive cover but he’s probably lost the yard of pace required to be an effective winger and doesn’t have the skill set to play in centre midfield or left back like Kilbane (kind of) had. O’Dowda would have given much more, as would Connolly.

Collins was poor. Feeding of scraps but didn’t look like the answer. Ref didn’t help him, letting them away with fouling him here and there. Looking at today, Sean Maguire has to be a better option, right?

Didn’t think Hourihane was as bad as people have made out. I thought of the front 6 he probably did the best, not that he was good per se.

You’d feel Mick’s inability to take off Hendrick or Whelan or McClean when it’s clearly not working is a major worrying oversight.

Hard to know what you’d do now...

Stevens probably comes in for Doherty. I wouldn’t think Whelo has the gas to play on Tuesday. Browne maybe? Connolly and Maguire in for McClean and Collins?

[elatedscum]

You almost feel that Adam Idah did more and got more out of playing against better centre backs than the Georgians in Tallaght on Thursday.

[liamoo11]

mccarthy has started one game in 18 months?
odowda, i am a fan, but is hardly playing either. brady has likewise hardly kicked a ball since last autumn and hasnt played well for us since 2016. very poor performance but please offer realistic alternatives that will actually improve things

McCarthy on his 2 crutches would cover the ground better than whelan does at the moment. How would playing Georgia be beyond McCarthy when he was excellent against west ham last week ?

McCarthy is our best defensive midfielder. It's been done to death on here bit most of the best performances we have had over the last number of years have been when he plays. He has the athleticism and pace to allow us to compress the pitch unlike what we see when whelan plays where the distance between defence, midfield and attack is massive and prevents us creating any cohesion. I genuinely cant see how you dont think he is a realistic alternative who would improve things.

O dowda has been playing since his contract got resolved and Brady has just returned in the last few weeks from a rib injury. Both would allow us to keep the ball better and Brady certainly has far better defensive awareness compared to mcclean s idiotic inability to stay tuned in to tracking runners and standing them up rather than lunging in. Mcclean didnt even have any energy or aggressiveness today which is likely dew to his back problem from earlier I the week but even more reason not to play him today.

[tricky_colour]

Last team to beat Switzerland at home in a competitive match was England in 2014.

Qatar did beat them in a friendly but they were probably too friendly.

[mark12345]

Seriously questioning if I want this team to qualify at this rate. We'll just go to the euros and stink the place out. There's no enjoyment in that

That's exactly how I feel. I'm completely done with McCarthy and his defeatist attitude. If he thinks Georgia is a difficult place to play, try Geneva next Tuesday night. Defeating Georgia was the easiest of the three assignments left for us but the approach was all wrong. Best thing that can happen for Irish football now is that Connolly is sent back to the U-21'S so he's not poisoned by the defeatist attitude in the senior set up

[Closed Account 2]

Overiding emotion from me is anger, I hope we haven't thrown away a great chance of automatic qualification. Macedonia in 99 is what popped into my head.
Who was our manager for that game....?

[tetsujin1979]

What happened when we made a late substitution in that game?

[Diggs246]

We need to talk about James Collins more. Nowhere near the required standard. Surprised he is doing well for Luton tbh

[mark12345]

I'd say my lack of sanity has been slowly self-inflicted by various different things but I also feel positive about the Suisse game. We know how much it would mean for Mick to beat them and I don't believe he'll be trying to just nick a win.....and with Aaron Connolly playing as he is, that can't be the case because the lad has zero nerves, plenty of footballing ability and can create danger for the opposition out of nothing. This is not a player that needs time to get up to the pace of the game. He sets the pace. I watched the Brighton game last week and told anyone who'd listen that he had to start today. I think he will start on Tuesday. Would you bet against him scoring? I sure wouldn't. Our other strikers, I can't say the same (although I do think they all have ability.....but nothing like Connolly). Hat-trick for Connolly, qualification and Mick tells us he only got ten minutes as he wanted to keep him under wraps from the Swiss as much as possible. (3 assists from Byrne, same reasoning).

I would be astonished if Connolly scores on Tuesday night. People are making outlandish claims about him. It would be difficult for Messi to score against the Swiss, and we're claiming that a lad with one Premier League start to his name is going to change the world?

[Diggs246]

I would be astonished if Connolly scores on Tuesday night. People are making outlandish claims about him. It would be difficult for Messi to score against the Swiss, and we're claiming that a lad with one Premier League start to his name is going to change the world?

Why would it be difficult for messi! That's quite a statement considering Ditzy scored against them! Our problem is we have no wes to give the ball to Connolly to score

[Fixer82]

Byrne and Connolly should start on Tuesday

[pineapple stu]

I think that's a bit reactionary to be honest.

Connolly has one Premier League start under his belt. Byrne is a good player playing in a poor league. It's a heck of a jump to ask both of them to step into the team against a side like Switzerland, away from home.

I would have given Byrne time against Georgia; he's sends in a great set piece and he was spraying passes all around against Bulgaria, which is what we badly needed last night. I think the focus against the Swiss will probably be more defensive, and I'm not sure he'd fit that.

If our choice up front is Connolly or Collins, then that's just a symptom of a seriously poor squad, which we know we are. I don't think there's a huge difference between them. Collins may, as the season goes on, be sussed out by Championship defences and turn out to be effectively a decent League One forward, which isn't the level we need for the national team. But to turn on him after one poor game (and one decent game, where he scored on his debut) is a bit much.

[kennedmc]

Collins looked like a 28 year old player who has spent most of his career playing league 1 league 2 level. Didn't do anything well. Didn't hold the ball up when he got the opportunity, didn't stretch defence with runs, didn't physically put it up to centre halves etc Experience is overrated.

long would have been a much better option with Connolly coming on after an hour.

[shakermaker1982]

Mick will be happy with 2 draws.

Undefeated campaign.

Same team will start on Tuesday. Aim for 0-0.

*He’ll swap Stevens for Doherty, forgot it was a 1 game suspension.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Hard to be optimistic, even cautiously, after yesterday. Georgia have no finishers. Switzerland most certainly do. Schmeichel was the Danes motm last night.

Connolly got 15 minutes against a tiring defence. Starting him against Georgia wouldve been unfair. He might get a bit longer against the Swiss but I fear we may well be two down or worse by then.

[jbyrne]

Connolly got 15 minutes against a tiring defence. Starting him against Georgia wouldve been unfair. He might get a bit longer against the Swiss but I fear we may well be two down or worse by then.

we've only conceeded 2 goals to date with randolph hardly having to make too many saves. if we can keep it 0 0 till 60 mins, bring connolly on with 30 min to go i wouldnt rule out a win

[mark12345]

Why would it be difficult for messi! That's quite a statement considering Ditzy scored against them! Our problem is we have no wes to give the ball to Connolly to score

Yeah it's no problem to score against Switzerland. It took us how long on our own patch to sneak one against the run of play? It's certainly not a foregone conclusion that Messi would score against them. He is more than capable but I wouldn't bet on it. To think that Connolly is the cure all for this team is highly optimistic

[Lionel Ritchie]

Nor would I. It's a big IF though. The Swiss will have shots on target and Randolph will have to make saves.

[RiffRaff]

The lack of urgency was the most annoying thing about yesterday for me. Georgia are not an easy team to play against and we have had moments of luck playing them in the past so a draw is not a disaster but the way we got it is most frustrating thing. In fairness to Mick he has been given one campaign so blooding younger players is not part of his JD. I would have had Long and Obafemi in the squad as alternatives but I dont think Collins is as bad as some people are saying. He had no support and was getting a high ball lumped at him all night, plus he looks a lot better in his last match. In a choice between him and Hogan, i would probably go for Collins. Hourihane is biggest disappointment for me - doesn't show and you hardly notice him until he takes a set piece. I would love to see Byrne replace him v the Swiss. I think we will have the same team though.

[mark12345]

Nor would I. It's a big IF though. The Swiss will have shots on target and Randolph will have to make saves.

Absolutely true. Randolph will be a busy boy on Tuesday night and the Swiss will have long periods of pressure on us. It calls for the likes of O'Dowda and Stevens to run into the spaces Switzerland will inevitably leave behind their advanced defenders

[Diggs246]

Yeah it's no problem to score against Switzerland. It took us how long on our own patch to sneak one against the run of play? It's certainly not a foregone conclusion that Messi would score against them. He is more than capable but I wouldn't bet on it. To think that Connolly is the cure all for this team is highly optimistic

But we did score against them and we had just hit the bar beforehand. I accept they are a good team but not a great team. I was surprised they weren't better actually in dublin. Re connolly he is all we have if ditzy is out.

[Diggs246]

Also I just checked the table. They have concided 5 goals and we have only let in 2 to date. I would fancy us to score anyway on Tuesday

[Fixer82]

I think that's a bit reactionary to be honest.

Connolly has one Premier League start under his belt. Byrne is a good player playing in a poor league. It's a heck of a jump to ask both of them to step into the team against a side like Switzerland, away from home.

I would have given Byrne time against Georgia; he's sends in a great set piece and he was spraying passes all around against Bulgaria, which is what we badly needed last night. I think the focus against the Swiss will probably be more defensive, and I'm not sure he'd fit that.

If our choice up front is Connolly or Collins, then that's just a symptom of a seriously poor squad, which we know we are. I don't think there's a huge difference between them. Collins may, as the season goes on, be sussed out by Championship defences and turn out to be effectively a decent League One forward, which isn't the level we need for the national team. But to turn on him after one poor game (and one decent game, where he scored on his debut) is a bit much.

I would replace Hourihane with Byrne, bringing on Hourihane for Hendrick if he plays like he did yesterday.
Byrne can deliver a good set piece as Hourihane can.

Connolly is an unknown quantity for the Swiss. Collins was lost at sea yesterday. Not fully his fault. But Connolly has the pace to upset the Georgian defence.

If McGoldrick was fit I wouldn’t be clamouring for Connolly to start.
If Long was in squad I’d have no problem with him starting

[seanfhear]

Sure we might beat Switzerland and Denmark .

[The Fly]

Mick doing what Mick does I suppose...content with a draw and trying to nick in the last 10 or 15 minutes, assuming we're not already losing by that stage. Georgia were comfortably the better team in the middle third; their players had much greater awareness and off the ball movement than ours, but thankfully for us they lacked any real quality in the final third.

Connolly simply has to get more game time against the Swiss on Tuesday. Question is whether McCarthy's stubborn nature will restrict him to another cameo...

[brine3]

Yep, Saipan disaster was a combination of two stubborn so and so's clashing.

[Stuttgart88]

Away match against Holland in Amsterdam in 2000. We drew 2-2 after being 2-0 up. I remember Mick congratulating the players on a great result at the final whistle. I remember Roy Keane being upset that we had dropped two points.
I was there. After the heavily deflected Dutch equaliser they hammered us and only a late miracle tackle by debutant Dunne on Kluivert saved us from a devastating 3-2 defeat. There was nothing wrong with celebrating a draw that day, given how tense the last parts of the game were. Without that draw we wouldnt have qualified. So, hard to see what was wrong here. Keane was posturing as usual. At 0-2 it was a bad draw, at 2-2 it was a good draw.

[jbyrne]

I was there. After the heavily deflected Dutch equaliser they hammered us and only a late miracle tackle by debutant Dunne on Kluivert saved us from a devastating 3-2 defeat. There was nothing wrong with celebrating a draw that day, given how tense the last parts of the game were. Without that draw we wouldnt have qualified. So, hard to see what was wrong here. Keane was posturing as usual. At 0-2 it was a bad draw, at 2-2 it was a good draw.

to be fair we should have won that game. was at it myself and the tv cameras failed to pick up a super chance missed by kilbane to put us 3-1 up just after the dutch scored. we created the much better chances that day.

[brine3]

Yep, I remember that chance. Was also at the match. Were you two also in the caged in away section enclosed by glass? That chance is up on Youtube. Quinn also hit the post early on I think.

On balance, I agree that the draw is worth being proud of. But we must remember that we got that draw because we were going for the win. And I chalk that part up to Roy Keane, who is one of the few Irish players in the past 30 years who refused to go along with the whole underdogs thing. The amount of time I remember him pressing far up the pitch and making interceptions that lead to Irish attacks, it's unreal.

[Stuttgart88]

True, and yes the KK chance was immediately after the first goal. It just winds me up this whole "Keane was a winner (which he was), Mick happy for a draw thing". I think it's an easy caricature and the context of the draw changed during the game. At 1 nil up on 80 mins last week I'd say NI would not have settled for the draw in Rotterdam. At 90 mins they certainly would have!

But is Mick conservative? Yes. Too conservative? I'd say yes to that too.

Does he have chance to take a risk tomorrow? I think he does and I'll be disappointed if he doesn't.

[Razors left peg]

Mick talking yesterday about how he doesnt understand the negativity after the weekend is really bugging me. He is saying that we can still go and win in the next 2 games. He's right, we can still go and win but the best chance of getting a win was the Georgia game and he bottled it.

People are negative because they can see what was wrong and see that the were opportunities even throughout the game to change things and go for the win. We've been fed the same crap for years from Trap through O'Neill and now McCarthy. They are all ultra conservative managers who think dont lose first. There is a place for that but in games against inferior opposition you have to put your foot on their throat. That 2nd half annoyed the hell out of me especially. We could see that Georgia werent up to much and it still too him way too long to have a go.

[shakermaker1982]

Spot on Razor.

If we had beaten Georgia we had 1 foot in the Euro 2020 door.

So many poor performances, again. It’s the same players:

Coleman looks a shadow of the player he was before that injury.

McClean - I read somewhere he lost possession 26 or 27 times in that match!

Whelan - just a normal Whelan performance.

Robinson - has he had a good game for us?

I could go on. We will be going for the heroic 0-0 or 1-1 tomorrow night but if we don’t make the top 2 we are going to need to WIN TWO games (potentially Away).Tomorrow is a free hit IMO. Go out all guns blazing and try to play some football. DROP Whelan, McClean and Robinson.

[Razors left peg]

Spot on Razor.

If we had beaten Georgia we had 1 foot in the Euro 2020 door.

So many poor performances, again. It’s the same players:

Coleman looks a shadow of the player he was before that injury.

McClean - I read somewhere he lost possession 26 or 27 times in that match!

Whelan - just a normal Whelan performance.

Robinson - has he had a good game for us?

I could go on. We will be going for the heroic 0-0 or 1-1 tomorrow night but if we don’t make the top 2 we are going to need to WIN TWO games (potentially Away).Tomorrow is a free hit IMO. Go out all guns blazing and try to play some football. DROP Whelan, McClean and Robinson.

I actually dont think Whelan was one of the biggest problems the other night. There was so many times that I was screaming at the tv because Whelan had the ball and when he looked forward the other 2 midfielders were 30 or 40 yards away and not in any position to receive the ball. Not one time did I see Hourihan demanding the ball. He strolls around the pitch and he does a nice pass every once in a while that mainly looks good because of how he strikes the ball but he hides for 90 minutes. You could possibly have him in there if you had 2 other midfielders who were dominant but we just dont have that and he becomes a total passenger.

[backstothewall]

Seriously questioning if I want this team to qualify at this rate. We'll just go to the euros and stink the place out. There's no enjoyment in that

We played one of the worst brands if football imaginable in 1990 and scored 2 goals. The one against the Dutch was one of the worst goals ever scored and had nothing to do with anything we did.

Enjoyable? I was only 7 but I can assure you there hasn't been another time like it in this country since. It was magical.