team v Croatia

[drummerboy]

Kenny:
Finnan, Breen, Dunne, O’Shea
Miller, Kavanagh, Kilbane, Duff
Keane, Elliott

It will be interesting to see who will captain the team?

[Condex]

It will be interesting to see who will captain the team?

I would think it would be Kilbane...

[JimmyP]

Breen over Cunningham?
Thought Breen was awful in the Bulgaria game.
I thought Miller was starting centre mid?

[Schumi]

I thought Miller was starting centre mid?

He's well down the pecking order for centre midfield and we're a bit short on the right so it makes more sense to try him on the right.

[tetsujin1979]

Good to see Elliott starting, with any luck McGeady will play right midfield. I've seen him play once already for Celtic, so it's Elliott I'm really excited about.

[roboyle]

I know friendlies are a chance to experiment but am I alone in thinking that playing Breen has little or no value towards preparing for later qualifiers or potentially the World Cup... I thought the Doc was better than Breen when he came on against Bulgaria (??) and Dunne, OBrien and Cunningham would be the top three in the pecking order (with Doc as the emergency fourth choice)???

[tetsujin1979]

I know friendlies are a chance to experiment but am I alone in thinking that playing Breen has little or no value towards preparing for later qualifiers or potentially the World Cup... I thought the Doc was better than Breen when he came on against Bulgaria (??) and Dunne, OBrien and Cunningham would be the top three in the pecking order (with Doc as the emergency fourth choice)???

To be fair to Breen (now there's something I never thought I'd say!) he is playing first team football for Sunderland, whereas the Doc is keeping the bench warm for Norwich lately.

[drummerboy]

The Doc is not even on the bench at Norwich. Not sure what has happened there but young Bently was suspended for a training ground prank that went wrong, maybe the Doc was also involved and has also been benched.

[roboyle]

To be fair to Breen (now there's something I never thought I'd say!) he is playing first team football for Sunderland, whereas the Doc is keeping the bench warm for Norwich lately.

Yeah that's fair enough - one of the lads here at work just told me he was MOTM at the wekeend too...

[Irish_Praha]

Yeah we have to have some extra options if both O'Brien and Cunningham are injured/suspended somewhere down the line. Giving these two a run out together is not such a bad idea but Breen shouldn't get anywhere near the pitch if we have no injuries for a competitive game.

[tetsujin1979]

The Doc is not even on the bench at Norwich. Not sure what has happened there but young Bently was suspended for a training ground prank that went wrong, maybe the Doc was also involved and has also been benched.

He didn't want to do some training exercise, so he did a Peter Kay Smith's beer ad on it, hoofed it across the training ground. Noone knows if he said "'ave it" though Manager wasn't too impressed so he got dropped for 2 games. Dunno if Doc was involved, I'd guess not, he's known for not stepping out of line. I only noticed today Helveg is kept on the bench too, World Cups, European Cups, Champion's League with AC Milan, and he can't get on for Norwich?? What's going on there??

[iasc1]

i would like to see miller moved into the middle of the park when mcgeady comes on, duff and mcgeady as wingers sounds a very interesting prospect, with keane and elliott up front, good for the future.

[eirebhoy]

I'd love to see the midfield line looking like this:

Miller----Kavanagh---Kilbane
----------Duffer-----------
----Elliott-----Keane-------

Lads. Other than Cunningham, Breen is the only No.1 centre half (organiser) in the squad so has to play if you want to see Dunne at his best. Dunne needs a No.1 beside him (just like O'Brien) and if Kerr feels Cunningham needs a rest Breen is the only other option. No matter how little you rate Breen, we'd be destroyed with a centre half partership of O'Brien-Dunne even though they are better technically than Breen.

The No.1 centre half is probably the most important player on the pitch and neither Dunne, Doc or O'Brien are anywhere near No.1's. Sometimes, no matter how experienced you are you'll never become a No.1, ask Phil Babb.

[zinedineontour]

yeah was at the sunderland leicester game at the weekend and Breeno was outstanding . Makes he huge difference when in the sunderland side. Never let Ireland down and deffo a better option than the likes of Doherty ..

[eirebhoy]

BTW. I've absolutely no doubt that for these qualifiers unless there's a huge downturn in form, if Cunningham is ever out injured Breen will be his replacement, if O'Brien is ever out injured Dunne will be his replacement.