Where are we now?

Trap has been in charge for around 3 years now, where do people feel we are in terms of our standing, and how we have moved on from the stan debacle?

We are halfway through the group, how did we fare at this stage for the World cup qualifiers, after 5 games played? We had beaten georgia away(albeit not home for them, who are going strong now), but I would put armenia ahead of them, as the results have shown, but we did play them in their home ground. We had drawn a blank against montenegro, where we never really looked like winning bar 1 chance for mcgeady, so relative to slovakia its of equal measure. I think the one positive as it has turned out is the win against armenia away, though not top quality opposition they seemed to be very good at home. So slightly ahead in my opinion in terms of how we have fared.

Overall, the 2 positives I take, rather like the rugby, is Trap has blended in a nice balance of youth with experience, we have a lot of options for certain positions now, and some very good competition for the wings and even CM emerging - if Trap is willing to play them. Second is Trap has brought confidence and engrained his confidence and belief into the team, with this Mcgeady has improved and though Duff isn't back to his marauding runs of old, he has certainly also improved, and i think since he has come in Keane has improved also and been a key asset in the team once again. On a slightly less positive is our ability to score quickly and start the games at a high tempo.

Room for improvement though -
Stop conceding so quickly and easily against the opposition
Change the system where and when its needed
Need to win away from home against a decent side
Need to hold onto the ball more when we go up, this helps with the first suggestion also and would make the opposition lose heart/confidence.
Don't show too much loyalty to certain players or system based on a slightly deluded belief.

was asked something similiar myself over the weekend - i'm still baffled by the inclusion of Killer to be honest - and i think Trap has put a more attacking style of play in the Euro qualifiers than the previous tournament. Overall we are in a better postion than we were under Stan but i think we'll need to get the likes of Clarke/MCCarthy more involved in the coming games - i'm praying McCarthy plays well for the remainder of the season at Wigan. Coleman will need to develope further but yes i'm happy overall. Trap doesn't take any S**t either from players and i like that

We have the makings of a good side, but are not up to scratch in central midfield. Any one of a Giles, McGrath, Ronnie Whelan or Roy Keane from a bygone era would transform the team. Even a 28 year-old Lee Carsley would. I think we were better when Keith Andrews was playing, and he's hardly top notch.

The belief that we can stand off teams to keep them out is misplaced. We're not good enough at it, it gives the opposition a feel for the ball, it puts us on the back foot and causes us to lose our feel for the ball. By all means get behind the ball like we do, but start putting more pressure on it.

These two weaknesses are related. If we can sort it somehow we'll get better performances and results.

The group as it stands, the Macedonia performance and Trap's tenure in general can all be summed up the same: decent enough, but room to improve.

We are in a reasonable position to win the group and odds on to get the runners up spot if we don't finish top. Having three games before the Macedonia away is a godsend to check out new systems and use different players. Whelan and Kilbane are the two players we should be looking to replace at this stage. With of course two better players which is easier said than done. McCarthy can change everything in the next few games (or not). Trap seems to be hinting that he will play McCarthy in the hole between Long and CM for tomorrows game. But I bet he will bring on Keogh at some stage alongside Long and push McCarthy back into CM to have a look at how he does there. A couple of really good performances from McCarthy in the next few games could improve the team enough to help us win the group.

The interesting thing so far about the perfomances under Trap is that we have played well away from home but struggle to beat even poor sides at home. Other than the recent game against Wales, our performances at home have been poor, yet we remain unbeaten I think away from home in all competitive games. My main worry is that we don't seem to have a Plan B when Plan A isn't working and the long ball game when we have two midgets of forwards. Perhaps he does this to bypass the midfield where our obvious weakness lies but I am not sure that's the answer. Mind you, I am not sure any other manager would have achieved much more with this set of players.

With another manager I think we might have won more at home and lost more away. Depends on who that manager was of course! Just thinking though that Andy Reid would have played more of a part.

i think were basically ireland under brian kerr with a manager the players respect a lot more playing worse football.