Ireland the New Brazil?

With O'Donovan attracting bids from the higher tiers of football across the water we are starting to look like we could well have nearly 20 strikers playing regularly in the top two divisions in England next year. Considering traditionally our forward line has been one of the weaker parts of the team this seems to represent a significant change in how our young players are developing and how they see themselves as footballers.

Take into account we've only about 2 centre backs getting regular football in the same two divisions (a position we have historically been very strong in) then it looks to me that we are going to end up to be quite lean at the back but top heavy at the front in the near future.

All the following Irish strikers are, or have been until recently, getting regular football for their teams in the higher two tiers of English football:

Keane, Doyle, Long, Connolly, Folan, Murphy, Elliot, Stokes, Ward, Keogh, Lee, Clarke, Rooney, Best, Byrne, Morrison, Foran.

Add to that lot Roy O'Donovan and Cillian Sheridan at Celtic and our forward line looks like it could have an unparralleled level of depth in a season or two.

The future looks good (at least in an attacking sense). Now does anyone know of any good defenders with an Irish granny (as Steve Claridge would say)? Roll on 2010.

Sadly not one of those strikers would even get a look in with Brazil's B team

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Originally Posted by jebus

Sadly not one of those strikers would even get a look in with Brazil's B team

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er i think he's referring to strength in dept when referring to brazil. but your right though

Definately. The days of having to wheel Gary Doherty on for the last 10 mins if we are a goal down are gone forever.

What is also encouraging is the amount of players coming through that are NOT from Dublin or Cork (indeed some of the players on the above list are not even from ireland :-)), it is a good indication that young talented lads around the country are turning their backs on Gaelic games and turning to football.

This of course might p1ss some people off but speaking as a soccer fan first and foremost, I think its great to see.

If we can discover a new central midfielder in the Roy Keane mould we really would have a good team.

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Originally Posted by neutrino

er i think he's referring to strength in dept when referring to brazil. but your right though

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Even Brazil had their odd Scheidt.

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Originally Posted by neutrino

er i think he's referring to strength in dept when referring to brazil. but your right though

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The reference to Brazil was a bit tongue in cheek but in reality it was just to emphasise the large disparity between our quality and depth in attack compared to the lack of such in defence. Like the great Brazilian teams of yesteryear.

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Originally Posted by youngirish

The reference to Brazil was a bit tongue in cheek but in reality it was just to emphasise the large disparity between our quality and depth in attack compared to the lack of such in defence. Like the great Brazilian teams of yesteryear.

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I agree that we lack in cover for CB but at least we have a decent enough starting pair in Dunne and McShane. However, we have yet to see how they cope away from home against a half-decent side. Then we are looking at O'Dea, O'Brien, Doherty (I know, but he's playing regularly at CB), O'Shea, St. Ledger and maybe McCarthy as cover. So some potential and some players who haven't been great shakes at international level at CB. I really hope O'Brien can turn things around and get a club where he will be regularly playing. Lack of match practice IMO was the reason for his disaster in Cyprus, before that I can't really pick out a game where he let us down and he has lots more experience than the other cover.

Getting back to CMF we don't even have a decent starting CMF partnership, never mind cover. The Reids, J. O'Brien, Gibson, Garvan are all options but they are unproven in CMF at international level.

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Originally Posted by Irish_Praha

I agree that we lack in cover for CB but at least we have a decent enough starting pair in Dunne and McShane. However, we have yet to see how they cope away from home against a half-decent side. Then we are looking at O'Dea, O'Brien, Doherty (I know, but he's playing regularly at CB), O'Shea, St. Ledger and maybe McCarthy as cover. So some potential and some players who haven't been great shakes at international level at CB. I really hope O'Brien can turn things around and get a club where he will be regularly playing. Lack of match practice IMO was the reason for his disaster in Cyprus, before that I can't really pick out a game where he let us down and he has lots more experience than the other cover.

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To be honest I would give up on Irish football if I was ever that unfortunate to witness Andy o Brien wearing the green shirt ever again.

Please recall Germany nthe previous game when he gave away the free from which Germany scored for a needless high foot.

Completely pathetic as one of the senior members of the team in the friendly with Holland, remember that ? 4 - 0

Responsible for the 2 goals against Israel @ home (inc. peno) - Did not play in any of the remainder of the world cup qualifiers after that embarassment.

And Cyprus, I would worry for anyone who still want him anywhere near the Irish set-up after that.

This is a question: can anybody recall as bad a performeance by any player in the green shirt that played as bad as he did in Cyprus? because I can't!

I hope he lives a happy life but I don't want him to break into any club team for the time - being, so there are no excuses for Stan to call upon him.

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Originally Posted by Irish_Praha

I agree that we lack in cover for CB but at least we have a decent enough starting pair in Dunne and McShane. However, we have yet to see how they cope away from home against a half-decent side. Then we are looking at O'Dea, O'Brien, Doherty (I know, but he's playing regularly at CB), O'Shea, St. Ledger and maybe McCarthy as cover. So some potential and some players who haven't been great shakes at international level at CB. I really hope O'Brien can turn things around and get a club where he will be regularly playing. Lack of match practice IMO was the reason for his disaster in Cyprus, before that I can't really pick out a game where he let us down and he has lots more experience than the other cover.

Getting back to CMF we don't even have a decent starting CMF partnership, never mind cover. The Reids, J. O'Brien, Gibson, Garvan are all options but they are unproven in CMF at international level.

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Jesus don't mention McCarthy in a thread started by youngirish....apparently only he knows anything about him and he's cack:D

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Originally Posted by zenokelly

Responsible for the 2 goals against Israel @ home (inc. peno) - Did not play in any of the remainder of the world cup qualifiers after that embarassment.
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I thought that was O'Shea. Maybe I'm wrong.

[QUOTE=zenokelly;660674]
This is a question: can anybody recall as bad a performeance by any player in the green shirt that played as bad as he did in Cyprus? because I can't!

QUOTE]

Yes, the entire midfield were worse. In fact they did not even turn up.

Anyway, I disagree I think he has served us well over the years.

Billy Clarke has barely featured for Ipswich since he caught a few headlines before Christmas and had ITV raving about him. Any news on him?

Has Jonathan Walters been getting his game for them recently?

I'm still backing Stephen Elliott to be a big player for us, though I fear he may be permanently injury prone.

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Originally Posted by zenokelly

Responsible for the 2 goals against Israel @ home (inc. peno) - Did not play in any of the remainder of the world cup qualifiers after that embarassment.

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it was john o'shea that conceded the peno. i dont think andy o'brien has an international future. taken a bit of a nose dive in recent years.

The only blame attributable to O'Brien in the Israel home draw was an overhit backpass to Given which Given skied in the air and led to the foul...

O'Brien was a disaster against Cyprus but his selection was (certainly in hindsight) an error of judgment as he hadn't played all season and was poor against Holland. Funny, if Stan had actually meant what he said about blooding youngsters maybe we'd have escaped the torment that was the Cyprus match. In my opinion Finnan was every bit as poor if not worse in Cyprus, Kenny made a critical error and central midfield was utterly destroyed.

You could maybe point the finger at O'Brien for the late equaliser in Israel, but by and large he was one of the best performers in the WC06 qualifying campaign. His performance in Basle stood out for me, second only to Given's and for a guy of limited ability he actually did very well for us.

McShane's emergence is very welcome though.

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Originally Posted by geysir

Even Brazil had their odd Scheidt.

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Too right they did not to mention some seriously DODGY KEEPERS!:D

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Billy Clarke has barely featured for Ipswich since he caught a few headlines before Christmas and had ITV raving about him. Any news on him?

Has Jonathan Walters been getting his game for them recently?

I'm still backing Stephen Elliott to be a big player for us, though I fear he may be permanently injury prone.

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Clarke has been making a few sub appearances but Danny Haynes has overtaken him in a pecking order as third choice striker for Ipswich. He needs to bang in a few goals before the end of the season to get back on track.

Clarke is IMO a similar sort of player to Keane and Andy Keogh. Very skillful, scores the spectacular, good for a few assists but doesn't weigh in with enough goals at the end of the day for a striker. I think next season will be make or break time for him at Ipswich (who I fancy to do well under Magilton).

I forgot about Johnathan Walters so you could add him to the list. He has been playing regularly for Ipswich fairly recently (unfortunately at the expense of the far more talented Clarke and Haynes).

Stephen Elliot needs to move from Sunderland if he's to reignite his career. He's 5th choice striker there at the moment and if they get promoted and buy some new players he's likely to be even further down the pecking order. Going to Wolves with McCarthy would be a good move for him.

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Originally Posted by youngirish

With O'Donovan attracting bids from the higher tiers of football across the water we are starting to look like we could well have nearly 20 strikers playing regularly in the top two divisions in England next year. Considering traditionally our forward line has been one of the weaker parts of the team this seems to represent a significant change in how our young players are developing and how they see themselves as footballers.

Take into account we've only about 2 centre backs getting regular football in the same two divisions (a position we have historically been very strong in) then it looks to me that we are going to end up to be quite lean at the back but top heavy at the front in the near future.

All the following Irish strikers are, or have been until recently, getting regular football for their teams in the higher two tiers of English football:

Keane, Doyle, Long, Connolly, Folan, Murphy, Elliot, Stokes, Ward, Keogh, Lee, Clarke, Rooney, Best, Byrne, Morrison, Foran.

Add to that lot Roy O'Donovan and Cillian Sheridan at Celtic and our forward line looks like it could have an unparralleled level of depth in a season or two.

The future looks good (at least in an attacking sense). Now does anyone know of any good defenders with an Irish granny (as Steve Claridge would say)? Roll on 2010.

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I wouldnt say we have that many more strikers than defenders. Alot of the players you mentioned above are squad players and we have a few more in defence than you think with St.Ledger and a few others getting games regularly in the championship. Its nice to see abit of competition for strikers places but its quality and not quantity that we need.

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Originally Posted by KopKiller

Definately. The days of having to wheel Gary Doherty on for the last 10 mins if we are a goal down are gone forever.

What is also encouraging is the amount of players coming through that are NOT from Dublin or Cork (indeed some of the players on the above list are not even from ireland :-)), it is a good indication that young talented lads around the country are turning their backs on Gaelic games and turning to football.

This of course might p1ss some people off but speaking as a soccer fan first and foremost, I think its great to see.

If we can discover a new central midfielder in the Roy Keane mould we really would have a good team.

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I don't think its a great thing that young talented irish lads are turning their backs on gaelic to play soccer, although i believe there to be an element of truth in that suggestion. Gaelic is our national sport, not soccer, and whenever that happens it cannot be a good thing. A great thing for soccer fans, but surely a negative thing for irish sport fans.

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Originally Posted by livehead1

I don't think its a great thing that young talented irish lads are turning their backs on gaelic to play soccer, although i believe there to be an element of truth in that suggestion. Gaelic is our national sport, not soccer, and whenever that happens it cannot be a good thing. A great thing for soccer fans, but surely a negative thing for irish sport fans.

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Aren't we Irish Sports Fans????? Maybe you meant fans of ( indigenous ) Irish Sport. I would've thought we have a right as Irish Soccer fans to enjoy good times too? Surely it's a good thing for kids to have a choice of what sport they play, and many play more than one sport up until their mid-teens. I went to a GaelScoil and I was no-good at GAA, if we had a soccer team I might have taken to that -I'll never know at this stage anyway but it would have been nice to have a choice! ( I know some of you will say that there are local teams etc etc but they were very limited in availability when I was a young fellah ).

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Originally Posted by youngirish

Stephen Elliot needs to move from Sunderland if he's to reignite his career. He's 5th choice striker there at the moment and if they get promoted and buy some new players he's likely to be even further down the pecking order. Going to Wolves with McCarthy would be a good move for him.

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I thought he was just injured, no?

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Originally Posted by jmurphyc

I thought he was just injured, no?

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Yeah, he should be back in the squad soon enough.

Seemed to be playing regularly before his injury, albeit sometimes on the right wing.