Ireland v Slovakia - Pre Match thread

Staunton suggests that McGeady holds to key to unlocking Slovakia’s defence
Date: Tuesday, 27 March 2007
Section: International
Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Staunton suggested that Aiden McGeady holds the key to unlocking the Slovakians’ defence in tomorrow night's EURO 2008 Group D qualifier at Croke Park (kick-off 7.30pm)

The 20-year old Celtic attacker was today named in the team and will make his first competitive start in a home fixture for Ireland.

McGeady will replace Jonathan Douglas while the only other alteration to the team that beat Wales 1-0 was enforced. Robbie Keane's suspension paved the way for the return of Kevin Doyle to the Irish attack.

Staunton said in his pre-match press conference at Croke Park: "Aiden is very tricky winger who has played in the Champions League. He is as special talent.

"After analysing the Slovakians over the last few months, we feel that Aiden and Damien (Duff) will be the key to us winning the game tomorrow night.

"Slovakia will be a strong , physical side who break from midfield and are quick down the left flank. But we've got the right players in the right positions to cause them one or two problems.

"I've selected the right players in the right positions that I believe we will go out and win the game tomorrow night.

“The back four is the same as Saturday and on the two occasion they have played together, they haven't conceded a goal."

Staunton illustrated the importance of making it back-to-back victories at Croke Park, stating: "If we win tomorrow, it puts us in a healthy position in the group with no game coming up for six months, competitively."

He added: "Saturday should have been a bit more attacking than it was but unfortunately we didn't retain possession in the second half which caused us one or two problems."

"We got the three points on Saturday against Wales and the lads are looking forward to getting back on out there tomorrow."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Galwayutdcelt

everyone is talking about McGeady, what about Kilbane, what has this guy done recently, sweet f.a.

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It's a choice between Kilbane, Douglas or Quinn from the current squad to partner Carsley so it's much of a muchness. Ireland can't be trusted in that position yet, even at club level.

Andy Reid is an attacking midfielder that would be able to play a central role as he just sits in midfield spraying it around. That's not S.Ireland's style. He likes to support the attackers and against a counter attacking team like Slovakia Carsley would be left all on his own in midfield.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NeilMcD

Hunt will be on after 60 mins. I bet on it.

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yep, first sub to come on.

presumably the emphasis will be on attacking down the wings as we are endowed with two very good wide men. however as we all know the full backs are integral to this plan making it imperative that finnan is allowed to revert to his natural side and swing in plenty of good balls like he does for liverpool. at this juncture it may be worth raising the claims of harte to do likewise on the left, lets just hope josser can somehow be confident on the ball.

in the event, like saturday, that our full backs dont get into the game ireland's role will become paramount. hopefully he can float around getting the ball from mcgeady and duff play a one-two or settle on the ball and look for an incisive through ball to doyle(which he is well capable of doing).

carsley and kilbane should be able to dispossess the slovakians pretty regularly and do nothing else but get the ball wide. hopefully kilbane can bomb into the box the odd time and get his head on a cross(i love when he scores, it means so much to him)

the disappointing thing is that although this looks a reasonable team its quite a bit different from saturdays and one wonders if stan knows what he's doing long term at all. but i think we will win handy enough and i see this team as potentially a very good template for the future. replace kilbane with steven reid, then its between andy reid, ireland or possibly keane for the creative role with hunt putting pressure on mcgeady. i agree with the poster who said slovakia are no great shakes, i definitley wouldnt back them. i watched the wales match and 5-1 was a very very misleading scoreline, a draw or maybe 2-1 would've been fairer(wales had more shots,possession, territory). and now they are short a good few including their dangerman, mintal, and have an unproven new coach. however they know that if they lose they are out which is sure to motivate them.

prediction; 1-0 again, with kilbane soaring majesticly to crash home the winner!!

i find it hard to believe that mcgeady merited his place over hunt, but it's probably done to balance the team out a bit better right? although who actually knows these days...

can i assume they'll line up like this?

----------------given--------------
-----------------------------------
finnan---mcshane---dunne---o'shea
-----------------------------------
--------carsely------kilbane--------
mcgeady-----ireland------------duff
-----------------------------------
-------------doyle-----------------

or should i assume that at least half these players will be in different positions? duff up front, with kilbane on the left? mcgeady up front, ireland on the right?

have they any injuries or are they at full strength

I'm pretty sure they'll line up like that. As others have said, Finnan and O'Shea most likely swapped positions to mark their club teammates against Wales. It was succesful from a defensive point of view. They'll surely be swapped back for this match.

To be perfectly honest I wouldn't at all be suprised if Stan played Kilbane at left back with O'Shea in the middle. :)

The 4 attacking players will probably just be switching about all over the place.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

The 4 attacking players will probably just be switching about all over the place.

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I'm not sure if that will be by design or if they don't have a clue what system they should be playing. It could end up with the team having no structure or it could totally confuse their markers. I hope it's the latter but for it to work they will need to have the sort of understanding Reid and Keane showed for Keane's goal against Israel, and I wouldn't be too confident about that.

very impressed with the lineup. hunt to be impact sub. best possible lineup he could pick after saturday. unfortunately like eirebhoy said no one better than kilbane at the moment. quinn isnt ready!

Now is a chance to see how Ireland do without Robbie Keane...

He's a skillfull player but I think we'll have a lot more shape tomorrow night
hopefully Doyle will not keep on straying onmot the wings...also we won't have the falling over and crying to the referee...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Galwayutdcelt

have they any injuries or are they at full strength

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They have 3 players suspended i believe, one of which was a scorer against Cyprus.

I too am happy with the line-up. While Hunt did very well (MOTM?) in his cameo appearance last saturday I'm not convinced he has more in his locker than McGeady. Only worry is Aiden's obvious confidence issues (especially with Ireland - I reckon it's cos he knows people don't know him and his ability as well as they do in Scotland) and the fact that this season Hunt is on the form of his life. He will be useful for the impact sub role as others have suggested if McGeady is playing poorly, but remember, he hasn't done an awful lot before this season and McGeady has been playing exciting football for a couple of seasons now.
I like the 451/433 line up (if thats the way we play), its flexible and offers different attacking options from the usual get it wide cross it in 442 we generally play.
Optimism aside we all know this could go horribly wrong, again. Let's hope the more studious among you suggesting the Slovaks are no great shakes are correct, and we are all smiling tomorrow night.

After seeing the team my fear is slowly being replaced with optimism and dare i say it, Excitement! A win tomorrow may not win over the media but it will give stan and the players time and breathing space before the two tough away games in september.

Yep, completely agree with the lineup (Hunt/McGeady was a close one). If they line out as an attacking 4-5-1 with Carsley and Kilbane sitting I think we can deffo get a win out of this and, low and behold, we're back in the running!! Who'd have thunk it??!! :eek: :)

Well its the strongest lineup we could have at the moment.At least Douglas is not playing,he is not international standard and proved that on Saturday. I feel sorry for Hunt but he will get his chance tomorrow and will run his ar*e off. I have a good feeling about this match and i really think we could nick it.

Best possible team presuming Kilbane and Carsley get stuck in quick and hard, O Shea and Finnan get on the good foot and Ireland/Duff/McGeady playing some quick passes...

Quite optimistic about tomorrow and looking forward to the trip to Bratislava and Praha in September.....

1-0 up at half time, Hunt coming on to influence No.2,

A much more electric atmosphere at Croker tomorrow!!

COYBIG

Info on the Slovakian team thanks to another guy on a betting forum.

Possible starting eleven for Slovakia:

-------------Čontofalský--------------
Šinglár----Škrtel---Ľ. Michalík---Greško
----------------Borbély---------------
Žofčák----------Sapara--------Švento
-----------------Vittek---------------
----------------Jakubko--------------

Čontofalský - very prone to mistakes but can be good on his day
Šinglár - relatively new RB in the team, hasn't been too convincing so far - possibly a weak spot in the team
Škrtel - European if not world class (the likes of Liverpool are rumoured to be after him), scores quite often for a defender
Ľ. Michalík - replacement for the suspended Durica, tall fecker but might lack experience at this level... a recent Bolton acquisition, currently on loan to Leeds
Greško - sucks imho
Borbély - decent, honest and hard-working player imho
Žofčák - replacement for the suspended Krajčík, might be a blessing in disguise for Slovakia... created 6 goals in last 3 games for Slovakia whenever he came on
Sapara - playmaker, extremely gifted player but might lack match sharpness as the Norwegian league hasn't started yet
Švento - a very fast winger with decent dribbling, can get past players but tends to lack calmness in certain situations... very lightweight and might struggle against physical opposition
Vittek - another classy player in the team apart from Škrtel, plays "in the hole" and scores quite often
Jakubko - excellent in the air but that's about it, not sure why he is in the team

Alternatives:
J. Kozák in the creative midfielder role instead of Sapara - I pray that this will not happen as Kozak is slow, lazy and needs acres of space for his lethal passes (which is the only thing he is good at but it only works if he gets space which won't happen tomorrow)
M. Čech - Porto regular, I'd play him at LB instead of Greško who is pap

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Good to see they're weak at full back with McGeady and Duff in our team.

I hope someone texted Stan to let him know that in Pro Evo Slovakia don't have the real player names, it could cause him some confusion when he does his scouting

Actually he could learn a few things from it. Like the only way to get results is to get the ball wide to Duff, run down the wing, and cut it back. Works everytime :)

Some of the comments here are a bit strange.
People complained about Douglas's inclusion as too negative at the weekend, and now they complain about replacing him with McGeady (an attacking, positive player)
Hunt has been proven as an impact sub, so why complain when he is kept on the bench - where he has been effective? From the midfield, the only player he could replace is Kilbane, and if he starts in the centre alongside Carsley there will be no place for Hunt in midfield.
Slovakia are a strong side organised side away from home, but they haven't won a competitive international against a side ranked higher than Cyprus, and before that Wales. Even in the Cyprus game, they were 1 down until the Cypriot goalkeeper was sent off.

nice work eirebhoy.

the bolton CB is meant to be have been decent enough in a few games on loan at leeds but has made a few costly mistakes. possess a fearsome shot which hopefully we wont see. 6'4

the only player i've seen play a few times is gresko when he was at blackburn, didnt think much of him, not too bad but more jos than finnan. he missed the whole of 05/06 due to injury, his contract wasnt renewed and he's only started eight times for nuremburg this season so thats eight starts in two seasons, auguring well for mcgeady.

the goalie plays in russia, where they've just resumed playing football following a cold snap so he could be a bit rusty. the same applies to that 'european class' CB, and their striker. only two games played in the league. looks like their manager might wheel out the oul 'we're not good this time of year' excuse.

their lee carsley plays occasionally for kaiserslautern, who've really struggled since bohs beat them, and are now in germany's second tier.

their playmaker is meant to be pretty good but hasnt played a club game in months and only plays in norway anyway, where standards seem to have dropped over the past few years. he's only 5'8 and ten and a half stone though so he could be mulucked out of it. one thing to watch out for, according to wikipedia, is his supposed highly rational style of play!

the left winger is only 21 with a handful of caps, a regular for slavia praha which is decent enough but a big step up tomorrow. those who say mcgeady is anaemic ought to have a look at this guy.

vittek is definitely the dangerman. very highly rated in german football, one of the main reasons for the great form of nuremburg over the past two years. scored 16 goals in 16 games at the end of last season having not scored for 17 games previously! this lead dynamo kiev to bid 10m for him, but he didnt go. having a reasonable year this year, creating a good bit but only 4 goals in 23 starts. decent enough in the air as well as a good ball player but shoudnt be too much of a burden for dunner.

overall, they have a few guys trying to make a name for themselves on this stage but the standard of the team would appear to be well back on what it was for the last campaign when they came close to qualifying. the results against germany and the czechs would appear to evince as much. my view would be that there isnt much to fear at all, the team are on a downward curve, are relatively inexperienced and should be beaten. and before anyone asks, no i'm not brian kerr!!