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Not a great performance but we did what we needed to.
I was impressed with Andy Reid. He looked the part though I can see Staunton dropping him for the "tricky" away fixture against San Marino.
McGeady looked solid when he came on and no major problems with the defense other than O'Shea's woeful crossing.
Thoughts?
yeah i was happy for Doyle... felt sorry for mcshane though he looked gutted when he missed the header.
Andy Reid wasn't too hot he looked off it half the time.
Worst player had to be John O'Shea bad at everything
O'shea awful again.Thought Douglas also had a bad game when he came on.
Fair play to McGeady, gave us some entertainment.
Staunton goes 4-5-1, against San Marino, at home!!!!!!!!!!
Possibly thought we were away to Brazil!
Thought Andy Reid was good - should have had another 4 goals from his crosses, excellent passing in the main.Quote:
Originally Posted by rambler14
Also thought Finnan was excellent.
Doyle should have been kept on a little longer. He has the makings of a very useful player for us. In hindsight it would have been interesting to see Stokes out there tonight! Alan Lee offers us very little. He's just not up to simply. O'Shea - well what more can be said about him? It was useful to get McShane and Dunne together for the first time. Why did he decide to move Duff up front, when he said before the game width was important. On the basis of that decision he seems to think Kilbane was doing a better job on the left than Duff could do?:rolleyes:
I thought Duff looked very low on confidence, and had a very poor first half. Improved in the second, but worringly for us looked a pale shadow of the Duff at Blackburn.
altho we won but wat was Staunton thinkin when he plays o'shea right back and Finnan left back? surely it suda been the other way about and if this happens against the stronger teams and we get beat! all i say is god bless staunton. surely he's not gona b in a job long if he continues to play players out of there natural position!
Let's not forget the witnessing of the unique experience of a Robbie Keane headed goal.
Doyle first goal for Ireland was a header too, he seems to be a very good header of the ball.
No this was sensible from Stan, we all know O'Shea is sh1te, so lets see what other options we have at LB. Our best full backs are Finnan and Carr. Maybury and Harte are the only other options, if Finnan can adjust to LB then Carr and Finnan it is. O'Shea may offer a bit more in midfield. Or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delbertt
Quote:
Originally Posted by Qwerty
Stop it please, O' Shea has never offered anything anywhere. His main contributions in an Irish shirt have been missing a sitter in Paris and conceding a vital penalty at home to Israel. If he had a blue jersye on tongight no one would have noticed. Its time put him out of our misery
Staunton is still a clown. Take off an in form striker, who just scored his first international goal, and bring on a winger? Embarrassing
Anybody else notice the way Dunne kept heading the ball towards goal when a better option would have been to put it back across the box.Taking Doyle off was insanity, we should have went three at the back.
This really only proves that were 8 goals worse than Germany (who did draw with Cyprus...at least they got that). In my opinion, this really means nothing, we should do the same in February, but if we lost this, it would all be over. Unfortunately, Germany isnt really the team we needed that result to happen to as much as we needed the Czechs. 5-0 is fine though, even if San Marino is the worst team in Europe (have only one professional player)
I cannot believe that substitution he made in the second half, when McGeady came on the obvious change was to take off Kilbane, who despite a few crosses in the first half was terrible, put McGeady on the right Duff on the left and leave the strikers on. After all our first aim should have been to better the Czechs seven if we have any ambition of finishing second.
My overall view is that we were very poor against dreadful opposition, no tempo, lots of possession, no penetration, reminded me of Shels when Joey Ndo is not playing
Think people are reading too much into insignicant events of this game. It was a lose lose situation for the Irish. The opposition didnt really want to play. O Shea made about 3 mistakes. People just have it in for him at this stage. Kilbane looked "rusty" I suppose would be the kindest thing you could say about his performance. 5-0 would have been taken before the game.Biggest winners were people who chose to stay at home on the night. Second half had to be the most boring 45 minutes in memory. Nearly fell asleep.
What worrys me about O'Shea is he seems to have lost it completely I counted 4 or 5 really bad first touches, I know it was a crap night but no one else (even the San Marino Boys) seemed to have problems controlling the ball.Quote:
Originally Posted by Billsthoughts
Kilbane is an honest pro whose best days are behind him, I would have preferred to see Doyle & Keane get the 90 together to start building on the partnership, also McGeady should have come on for Kilbane taking Doyle off meant we had no aerial threat (ironic that the last goal was a header I know).
I thought Andy Reid showed the benefit of regular football at Charlton, should have been MOM last night IMO.
Is it really needed to bash the San Marinese people? I for one greatly respect teams like San Marino (or Luxembourg, or Malta, ...). These people go for it every single game despite all the losses (and despite the fact they have to sacrifice their holidays for it and don't get paid) purely out of love for the game. Big respect to that. I highly doubt the big players of this planet would even bother if they didn't get paid. Seriously, to me teams like San Marino are much more respectful than the majority of professional teams who turned sports into business. OK, they were weak, but that's no reason to ridiculise them.
And before the game most people I spoke with were hoping for something like 5-0 or 6-0. Mission accomplished, no? Although the second half was bad indeed, mission accomplished. With Germany and Czech Rep dropping points, Ireland even had a very good night.
Decent result but why not try and entertain the public and play with a team with a lot of flair in it.
McGeady should have started and we should have went for this mobs throat and tried to get double figures.