Summary - the Litany of Mistakes - top 10
Without even having to think too hard - I know there are many more:
1. Leaving our two in-form midfielders at home: Carsley & McPhail.
2. A few days before the game stating that he was more than willing to drop Keane. May be the case, but if you want to build confidence and get the best out of a player there are 1001 better ways to do it in the run-in.
3. Playing a winger and a youngster, who still warms the bench for his club, in the most important area of the pitch: the consequence was that the defence was terribly exposed. And what about the damage to both players.
4. Confirming after the game his position re-Carsley! Then having to backtrack.
5. Selecting young Alan O'Brien, who has hardly (if at all) played a competitive league game for his club. Shane Long would be a better option, or even James O"Connor (currently playing very well) if he had thought to give him a chance in a friendly.
6. The whole 'build for the future' position. The excuse for Don Givens' poor performances is that he is primarily there to support the full squad; therefore it is acceptable for him to fail. Pass the excuse up & down. However it seems this lack of accountability for winning does not extend to the under 19's.
7. Believing Ireland was our best player on the night.
8. Not understanding that droping in the rankings now will make qualification even harder for the world cup.
9. Bluff & more bluff, - all the talk about bringing back passion & Mick Byrne, when what the team needs are astute tactics.
10. "You can't legislate for errors". You can & it's your job to. Basically blaming the players - whether he believes this or not - he should take the responsibility: it was he who left the backs with a midfield incapable of providing any protection.
11. "We have a few things up our sleeve on the granny front" (or something along these lines). If you are going to make this type of statement in public, you had better deliver on it. I don't think he was talking about St Ledger at the time.
....ok top 11. This without even considering the **** ups with Andy Reid still at Tottenham & Jay Tabb still at Brentford.
It's frankly unbelievable that so many errors could be made in such a short space of time by one individual.
