Republic of Ireland V Scotland - Saturday, 13th June 2015 - Euro 2016 Qualifier

Have to win this one. Nothing less will do.
Having watched the 1-1 with Poland again for the second time, I strongly believe MON should go with this setup against Scotland.

Forde or Given. Either will do a job. Selection will come down to form going into June.

Coleman O Shea Wilson Brady
Stick with the same back four.

Hoolahan Mc Carthy Quinn Mc Clean
Drop Whelan as he was non existent. Quinn will offer more attack and impetus in the middle. Hoolahan and Mc Clean were class and should start.

Walters Long
Would start Keane for Georgia/Gibraltar games as he struggled against the strong polish lads. Long was lively when he came on and Walters is a good target man.

Mc Geady, Gibson & Keane to come off bench.

McClean was class because their right back was mediocre and was tired, he never has the same impact from the start.

Hoolahan i have a feeling would be really bullied against Scotland, they will have their homework done on him they know our players inside out.

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

McClean was class because their right back was mediocre and was tired, he never has the same impact from the start.

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as fans we just love making excuses when we do something well don't we?

"we only played well in 2nd half as Poland let us have the ball"
"we only got an equaliser as the ref didn't give a foul on the polish keeper in the lead-up"
etc. etc. etc.

all a bit tiring really

No Jbryne stop getting trapeyed again.

McClean has some great games and some ok games for ireland. The great games are usually when he comes on circa 70min time. No luck was mentioned from me above.

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

No Jbryne stop getting trapeyed again.

McClean has some great games and some ok games for ireland. The great games are usually when he comes on circa 70min time. No luck was mentioned from me above.

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it's a dilemma. i do tend to agree that mcclean had such an impact as he was facing a tired, relatively inexperienced full back. i would stick with mcgeady against the scots as he'll have something to prove and has the ability to create something from nothing.

mclean doesn't really have a trick in him as such. they are very different prospects.

i don't think i would go for quinn in the middle - he is 'busy' but lacks a bit of quality. i'd probably look at gibson.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

McClean was class because their right back was mediocre and was tired, he never has the same impact from the start.

Hoolahan i have a feeling would be really bullied against Scotland, they will have their homework done on him they know our players inside out.

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I dunno, in Glasgow we had nobody to occupy their midfielders. Our two against their three made Mulgrew look like Maradona. Hoolahan will give them something to think about and he plays against Scotland's standard of player week in week out. Don't be afraid of what Scotland's players think about ours. football can be over complicated sometimes. We need to put out a team to beat Scotland while being mindful of their own strengths.

I disagree with littlest Hobo above sbout Whelan. I thought he did fine on Sunday. One thing that bugged me on Sunday was how early our CBs played the ball even when they had space in front of them. A CB should be able to carry the ball ten yards before passing. Our inability to do this meant Whelan and McCarthy always received the ball deep in our half rather than just inside Poland's. That's a huge difference and made life much easier for Poland.

One quality I admire in Keogh is his willingness to carry the ball out. I'd like to see more of that in our better players. Only Hoolahan (all game) and McCarthy (late stages only) looked to actually carry the ball any distance, bar the wide players and full backs who you expect to do this. Driving the ball through midfield is how to break down two banks of four. Passing it wide always means the two banks of four have won.

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

as fans we just love making excuses when we do something well don't we?

"we only played well in 2nd half as Poland let us have the ball"
"we only got an equaliser as the ref didn't give a foul on the polish keeper in the lead-up"
etc. etc. etc.

all a bit tiring really

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oh come on, it's completely fair to comment that we got lucky with the Fabianski foul and it is not at all the same as saying we only got the result because of it. It was I who brought up that decision in this conversation, but I also said from the start that the draw was the very least our performance deserved.

Didn't mcClean start really wellin Stockholm and set the tone for a confident performance?

I'm not sure he's only an impact sub. I think it might be more that he is hit and miss, sometimes ineffective, sometimes inspirational.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Didn't mcClean start really wellin Stockholm and set the tone for a confident performance?

I'm not sure he's only an impact sub. I think it might be more that he is hit and miss, sometimes ineffective, sometimes inspirational.

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yeah - a dilemma as i say! in a way i'd rather bring him off the bench for mcgeady though rather than the other way around. i think he is capable of making more of an impact against a tiring full back than mcgeady but they are very different.

on the other hand, mcclean sticks to the touchline more than mcgeady thus offering a bit more protection to the left back - and if that's to be brady we will need it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Didn't mcClean start really wellin Stockholm and set the tone for a confident performance?

I'm not sure he's only an impact sub. I think it might be more that he is hit and miss, sometimes ineffective, sometimes inspirational.

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Ya but he faded, lustig is no great shakes either an average right back who was marking him that night, although i think he switched to Safari park.

Disagree on Whelan as well, did a lot of cleaning up and covering when Coleman/Hoolahan/Brady were bombing on

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

as fans we just love making excuses when we do something well don't we?

"we only played well in 2nd half as Poland let us have the ball"
"we only got an equaliser as the ref didn't give a foul on the polish keeper in the lead-up"
etc. etc. etc.

all a bit tiring really

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I am guilty of that I have to admit but bearing in mind how fussy the ref had been throughout the game, if he had blown for a free no one would have been surprised.

Forde/Given coming down to form. Not sure about that. Given was selected on presence and leadership apparently. On form it would actually be Westwood but I am sounding like a broken record.

Back 4, on the basis that Brady will have learned from his mistakes, I agree.

I'd stick the to the 4 O'Neill selected. Whelan had a good game and doesn't deserve to be dropped. McGeady is McGeady - who knows what you'll get.

I'd still stick with Robbie and release the pace of Long and McLean as he did on Sunday but perhaps with 25 minutes to go rather than 10.

Staying with 4-4-2 which most thought was antiquated?

Soccer Republic last night, Stuy Byrne suggested that Dane Massey of Dundalk be given a look at for the left back role. It's a very interesting point too, given that it is certainly a problem area for Ireland.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Soccer Republic last night, Stuy Byrne suggested that Dane Massey of Dundalk be given a look at for the left back role. It's a very interesting point too, given that it is certainly a problem area for Ireland.

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I can see why he'd pick Massey as he's arguably the best performing left full in the league, but the whole argument over LB is that the other options are weak at defending, and Massey's strong suit is not his defending. And I'd argue Brady and Ward, though they're not great defenders, have defended to a much higher level than anyone in the LOI.

Owlsfan they were introduced with more, its just the time wasting from 70-80 mins and the fact we were so slow in taking our corners and set-pieces. I think it was about 4 and half mins of actual play in that period.

But I also suggested the 65 min mark as a good time to make the change - the mcclean one anyway, long for whelan was risky anytime sooner, but if he were to come on for robbie or someone then no problem.

Was it 442?

It was 4411 or 4231 to start with, though Walters interchanged between RHM and Central forward. So at times we had two upfront, other times Walters was wide right waiting for the long ball but going central when a wide player had the ball on the right.

When Whelan was subbed the shape was a bit of everything, 433, 424, whatever. I'd say there was relatively little of that game that was played as a rigid 442. It was about as tactically flexible as I have ever seen Ireland, though that's not saying much!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Was it 442?

It was 4411 or 4231 to start with, though Walters interchanged between RHM and Central forward. So at times we had two upfront, other times Walters was wide right waiting for the long ball but going central when a wide player had the ball on the right.

When Whelan was subbed the shape was a bit of everything, 433, 424, whatever. I'd say there was relatively little of that game that was played as a rigid 442. It was about as tactically flexible as I have ever seen Ireland, though that's not saying much!

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It was pretty fluid. When the ball was with Given (such as a goal kick), Walters drifted right for the kick and sometimes popped up there for long balls.

Actually thought that was part of our long-ball issue. They were always angled wide to Walters, who was quite far from Keane and Hoolahan on most occasions.

On that note - I suppose the idea is to have Walters up against a less aerially strong full-back, but if we're going to barrel it up there I'd rather have it going into the aul proverbial mixer.

Whelan has to play - he played really well on Sunday.

There's increasingly a debate about McCarthy but I think he gets another shot if he's fit.

Given will be our keeper from now until the Euros, unless he gets injured. It was a cert from the moment he joined the squad.

I'd go fluid 442, Wilson for Brady, Clark at centre half and Long for Walters (harsh but simply as a change of philosophy because I'm not convinced our long ball game is up to anything).

[QUOTE=Stuttgart88;1811727]
One quality I admire in Keogh is his willingness to carry the ball out. I'd like to see more of that in our better players. [QUOTE]

Quality and Keogh????

You've lost all credibility with such a comment!

Dreadful CB, gives it away more times than a Dublin Barmaid!

I didn't say Keogh was quality, you know that. I said his willingness to carry the ball forward was a quality I admire and something I'd like to see O'Shea and Wilson do more of.