Wales squad for Ireland match

[eirebhoy]

Danny Coyne (Burnley), Paul Jones (QPR), Darren Ward (Sunderland)

Gareth Bale (Southampton), Danny Collins (Sunderland), James Collins (West Ham United), Richard Duffy (Portsmouth - on loan at Swansea City), Steve Evans (Wrexham), Danny Gabbidon (West Ham United), Craig Morgan (Peterborough United), Lewin Nyatanga (Derby County - on loan at Barnsley), Sam Ricketts (Hull City)

Andrew Crofts (Gillingham), Arron Davies (Yeovil Town), Simon Davies (Fulham), David Edwards (Shrewsbury Town), Carl Fletcher (Crystal Palace), Joe Ledley (Cardiff City), Carl Robinson (Toronto)

Craig Bellamy (Liverpool), David Cotterill (Wigan Athletic), Jermaine Easter (Wycombe Wanderers), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Chris Llewelyn (Wrexham), Paul Parry (Cardiff City).

-----

Gabbidon is a doubt as he hasn't played in 2 months. As bad as we are currently, count ourselves lucky we don't have to look to Milton Keynes, Wycombe, Wrexham, etc. for players.

[shakermaker1982]

Bellamy and Giggs are class players with Bale having the potential to get there in the near future if he keeps his head straight. S Davies is your standard premiership player but other than that there should be nothing for Stan to worry about. Actually scrap that last comment we imploded against Cyprus so there goes that theory...!!!

[eirebhoy]

Bellamy and Giggs are class players with Bale having the potential to get there in the near future if he keeps his head straight. S Davies is your standard premiership player but other than that there should be nothing for Stan to worry about. Actually scrap that last comment we imploded against Cyprus so there goes that theory...!!!
We beat Cyprus 5-0. Ireland always have been a different team away from home so I'd be looking at our home form for this match.

[NeilMcD]

Last time we played Cyprus at home it was 3-0 not 5-0

[zenokelly]

Basically half of this squad are playing with league 1 or league 2 teams at least we don not have to contend with any players at that standard we should be able to walk this but with Stan........................

[gustavo]

Basically half of this squad are playing with league 1 or league 2 teams at least we don not have to contend with any players at that standard we should be able to walk this but with Stan........................


Presumably they will be the half of that squad that wont be playing against us.

[eirebhoy]

They'll have 3 or 4 players playing in the premiership, the rest from the lower divisions.

[fergalr]

Looking at that squad we should thump 'em - no excuses.

[kingdom hoop]

koumas, earnshaw, delaney are conspicuous by their absence, injuries i guess. very hard to pick a team, or formation, from that squad. maybe;
coyne(b-rate championship at best)
duffy(destitute man's steve finnan), some collins(not bad), gabbidon(low on confidence/form), bale(could screw us with a late free-kick)
davies(enjoying a renaissance under the alias of stephen hunt) robinson(a trier) giggs(will have to be up for it, not thinking of a treble) fletcher(not much going for him)
cotterill(20, wigan paid 2m for him in august, but then again they also paid 2m for kilbane) bellamy(shouldnt get the ammo to do anything...)

overall... expect stan to sing their praises

[Ceirtlis]

I never realised Wales squad was so thin. Their really plunging the depths with some of them fellas.

[cavan_fan]

koumas, earnshaw, delaney are conspicuous by their absence, injuries i guess. very hard to pick a team, or formation, from that squad. maybe;
coyne(b-rate championship at best)
duffy(destitute man's steve finnan), some collins(not bad), gabbidon(low on confidence/form), bale(could screw us with a late free-kick)
davies(enjoying a renaissance under the alias of stephen hunt) robinson(a trier) giggs(will he mysteriously injure his hamstring?) fletcher(limited)

They'll probably beneift form having a professional manager and pick 2 forwards as well.

[elroy]

We really should have nothing to fear, keep giggs and bellamy quiet and we should be fine. Toshack said yday that he rates Gabbidon a major doubt for the game, so at the back they should be not up to standard at all, any of our top 4 strikers should be cleaning up. Slovakia make bits of them in cardiff, no reason why we shouldnt do the same.

[Dublin12]

Slovakia make bits of them in cardiff, no reason why we shouldnt do the same.


Steve Staunton.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Notwithstanding their squad being thin gruel at best ...I have an awful, awful feeling about this game. A competent manager can make a world of difference.
They have one and we don't.

[cavan_fan]

When is our squad named?

[OwlsFan]

A team of mostly average Premiership players against a team of mostly average Championship players. Seen it in the FA Cup often enough. The latter raise their game and if the former don't do similarly, then a so-called "shock" happens.

It would be a tough game no matter who was in charge of us. The Stan factor makes it even closer.

[Jerry The Saint]

overall... expect stan to sing their praises

I don't see how he can - don't forget, it's a big step-up for Championship players. Also, the game is in March! That's a great month for us. :D

[eirebhoy]

Well if they play like they did last March we'll all be happy. :)

[shakermaker1982]

If we cannot beat Wales with players like Given, Dunne, Finnan, Duff, Keane and Doyle within our ranks then questions need to be asked. Not being disrespectul to Wales (I believe it will be a tough encounter and they'll be up for it) but the class I mention from above should have enough about them to make sure we get the 3 points.

[Seano]

A team of mostly average Premiership players against a team of mostly average Championship players. Seen it in the FA Cup often enough. The latter raise their game and if the former don't do similarly, then a so-called "shock" happens.

It would be a tough game no matter who was in charge of us. The Stan factor makes it even closer.

A Very good point

[elroy]

Yes but seeing asthis game is at home, i expect us to just about see it through. I wouldnt rate Toshack all that highly, better than Stan yes, but no Bobby!

Im not particularly confident going into any Irish game at the moment but we should win this, im more worried about slovakia.

[Wolfie]

A team of mostly average Premiership players against a team of mostly average Championship players. Seen it in the FA Cup often enough. The latter raise their game and if the former don't do similarly, then a so-called "shock" happens.

It would be a tough game no matter who was in charge of us. The Stan factor makes it even closer.

The games shape could resemble a gritty FA Cup tie. Space will be at a premium, a lot of professional fouls / stoppages and any chances that fall our way will need to be capitalised upon.

We'll underestimate Wales at our peril. We'll need a committed, gutsy and clinical performance to win this game.

Our set pieces will have to be majorly improved upon from the San Marino game.

Without a traditional beanpole target man in our squad, we'll be relying on strikers runs off the Welsh back 4 or a midfielder weighing in with a goal. We're going to need a big performance from our beleagured midfield in this game.

It aint gonna be easy...............

[eirebhoy]

Slovakia squad:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/16/sports/EU-SPT-SOC-Slovakia-Squad.php

At least they're without their best player.

[cavan_fan]

Slovakia squad:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/16/sports/EU-SPT-SOC-Slovakia-Squad.php

At least they're without their best player.

I dont want to rehash the same old argument but most of these guys would give their left arm to be playing in the Premiership (or even Championship in some cases). I still expect them to win but there is no doubt I'd take our players with a proper manager over theirs.

[Paddy Garcia]

Danny Gabbidon is out

[geysir]

Eirebhoy made a note of that in the first post, he wasn't really in the squad in the first place.
Anyway, I dont know if his exclusion is good news or irrelevant.

[Cymro]

Gabbidon missing out is definitely good news for you.

[Paddy Garcia]

""Craig Bellamy says it will be an honour to be part of football's Croke Park debut when Wales face the Republic of Ireland in Saturday's Euro qualifier.

"I've been over to Croke Park a couple of times, I watched a Gaelic game over there and I watched the (Six Nations) rugby game against England," he said. ""

Interestingly I saw a headline where Stan has said "forget you are playing at Croke Park lads". ... I could not bring myself to read any further though.

Surely any angle you can get to motivate your players after the displays to date.