Sam Allardyce

[DotTV]

I really like all those players & have big hopes for McGeady & Garvan, so I am not going to knock them.

Objectively though 2 ply their trade in the second tier of english football, Duffer has been off form/injured etc. for about 2/3 years. Ireland has great technical ability, but he would not have got anywhere near a starting place in past Irish midfields. Keane seems at the top of his game & I can't see any reason why he could not play for Sam.

As far as great technical ability goes, how many of the big four teams in England want our "gifted" players, or indeed the big teams in Europe. A few years ago Irish players ate within the upper echelons of football, now we are scraping around for scraps.
I have not a hope of keeping up.


So what? As someone pointed out on another thread.Poland topped their group with players from the mid leagues and mid teams of Europe. Even the Czechs only have a handful of players with the top teams.

[galwayhoop]

For anyone who thinks our creative players wouldn't flourish under Big Sam, I have three words: Jay Jay Okocha.

thats only two words.... but you cunningly used one of them twice!!!!

[DotTV]

Ha Ha! Nabbed

[irishfan86]

Glenn Whelan seems to be living up to his potential at last. He's another deep lying playmaker who controls the play.

Sorry to be picky here, maybe I saw him on the wrong day a couple of times, but for me this guy is NOT a playmaker.

He is the epitome of British style midfielder. He is athletic, box to box, and loves to drive into the 18 yard box.

He doesn't hold from what I've seen, and did not look to control play.

Again, maybe I caught him a couple of times against superior opposition or something, but when I saw him play he was never looking to pass it sideways or back, he was always looking forward and running forward or hoofing it over the top of the defenders.

Seems to be highly rated though, so I hope he comes good.

[Paddy Garcia]

So what? As someone pointed out on another thread.Poland topped their group with players from the mid leagues and mid teams of Europe. Even the Czechs only have a handful of players with the top teams.

So what? If you look a little further than Poland you might just find some correlation between talented players and success.

[eirebhoy]

Sorry to be picky here, maybe I saw him on the wrong day a couple of times, but for me this guy is NOT a playmaker.

He is the epitome of British style midfielder. He is athletic, box to box, and loves to drive into the 18 yard box.

He doesn't hold from what I've seen, and did not look to control play.

I have to say, I haven't seen him play in ages. For Ireland U21s and whenever I saw him play for Wednesday though he was sitting in midfield spraying the passes around. He certainly wasn't the combative type and sat back way more than he got forward. As I said though I haven't seen him in ages.


So what? If you look a little further than Poland you might just find some correlation between talented players and success.
Call me crazy but I think we could pick a midfield to play better and more effective football than Gerrard, Beckham, Lampard and SWP/Lennon/Cole. I don't think any of those players are capable of controlling the pace of a game. If you want to find an English player that can control the tempo, a proper playmaker, you have to drop the standard by quite a bit and they'd probably be a bit out of their depth playing with those star players.

[Paddy Garcia]

Call me crazy but I think we could pick a midfield to play better football than Gerrard, Beckham, Lampard and SWP/Lennon/Cole. I don't think any of those players are capable of controlling the pace of a game.

I'm by nature very polite.

[eirebhoy]

tbh I think a lot weaker teams than us could outclass that English midfield and have outclassed that English midfield. They've no fulcrum. Paul Scholes is the only top class playmaker they have and he's retired. Lampard and Gerrard are both experts at running into the box but that's about as far as their positional sense stretches. I'd trust 4 Ambrosini's to outpass that midfield and there's no sarcasm there. As I said though, stick Paul Scholes (the new Scholes, the one since Keane left Man Utd ;)) in and it would make all the difference.

[tetsujin1979]

tbh I think a lot weaker teams than us could outclass that English midfield and have outclassed that English midfield. They've no fulcrum. Paul Scholes is the only top class playmaker they have and he's retired. Lampard and Gerrard are both experts at running into the box but that's about as far as their positional sense stretches. I'd trust 4 Ambrosini's to outpass that midfield and there's no sarcasm there. As I said though, stick Paul Scholes (the new Scholes, the one since Keane left Man Utd ;)) in and it would make all the difference.
SSShhhhh, Capello could be reading!
Anyway, I reckon he's thick skinned enough to play Barry or Hargreaves behind Gerrard or Lampard and not give a toss what the dropped players or media think about it. That was probably Sven's biggest failing with England, he let the papers pick the team so he wouldn't have to face criticism for dropping one of the golden boys in midfield. But I digress.

Wouldn't fancy Sam as manager. Long balls, talented midfield players, no recognised target man, etc, etc.