I think Knight and McAteer have to play against Greece
I think Knight and McAteer have to play against Greece
I just found it totally depressing tonight. We looked like a championship team playing a top 6 team in the 4th Round of the cup and we just got swatted aside.
Ireland are always nasty and hard to play against. Did a single English player even break sweat over Ireland. Even the majority of the crowd lost the will to boo Rice by the end.
Like an eejit I’ll be there on Tuesday but I sense a good few others won’t be there.
Coleman is gone for pace now at fullback, but considering how desperate we are in midfield, and considering his experience, could he not do a job in the centre of the park? Obviously as part of a three man central midfield.
You might laugh, but I'm reminded of how Dwight Yorke played midfield in his mid-thirties, and we stuck Kevin Kilbane there ourselves.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
And yet somehow he wasn't man of the match.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jolly Red Giant
Tonight was so bad it made me miss the days when we had no matches and no manager
Chin up RLP - only three days till the next instalment!
That was grim.
We went with the wrong set up and I suspect O’Shea was to blame. The new manager has only had them for a couple of days so he gets a pass from me (for now). If there is anything about him he’ll hopefully soon suss out that Idah is a waster and we need to move on from the likes of Brady & Doherty.
There was obviously a gulf in class but inferior teams can still pick up the odd freak result if you deny space in the middle of the park & every player works their socks off (take note Idah).
Dan McDonnell on X ( this does not read well lads )
https://x.com/McDonnellDan/status/18...7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Hallgrimsson repeating afterwards that he's still leaning heavily on John O'Shea and Paddy McCarthy. "I'm learning as we go," he says. "Hopefully I will have more authority when time goes on"
July 10th he was appointed. He's had 2 months to learn the players and he's still relying on JOS.... Ive never seen someone so adverse to taking charge. He's had plenty of time to get up to speed, enough of using other people as a crutch. It comes across as weak.
It makes me genuinely wonder if Hallgrimsson was put there to appease us, while the FAI put the man they really wanted in charge. When Steve O'Donnell was at Pats, Alan Matthew's was listed as manager to get around the badges rules, but everyone knew O'Donnell was in charge. Could the FAI have done similar here, but for PR purposes? It's a stupid theory, but until Hallgrimsson actually starts acting like the fcukin manager it's hard not to think that way
Just think in November they will have Bellingham, Foden, Palmer and Watkins back !
https://x.com/itvfootball/status/1832481343650857346
I wish these lads didn't trigger me so much. Rice spoke a little better with regards to his grandparents. Why on earth would there be "bad blood" on the side of these lads? I genuinely don't think either of them understand why fans they anger and/or upset Irish fans so much. Grealish definitely doesn't.
Rice spoke also about there being no "animosity" on his side. The lads are really clueless.
Great players. I just wish their Irish caps didn't exist.
McDonnell was a big Kenny supporter so he isn't going to be doing Hallgrimsson any favours. But even still the comments come across as kind of odd.Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
Time going on needs to be Tuesday in terms of our prospects in this group. Greece won tonight so if we don't get a draw minimum at home to Greece we're already into a two way fight with the Finns to avoid automatic relegation.
Ronnie Whelan picked the MOTM from the commentary box and said Kelleher was the best Irish player on the pitch but he was going to pick the only outfield player who offered anything going forward.Quote:
Originally Posted by liamoo11
That's a pretty stupid reason in fairness, if Kelleher is the best Irish player you give it to him. But then again, it's Ronnie Whelan so...
I love ronnie what a player he was but that is a strange callQuote:
Originally Posted by Jolly Red Giant
Was looking back at some of the pre-game posts and it's honestly scary that more or less every poster that posted on this thread between the team announcement and kickoff correctly identified problems with the selection (see posts 165-177), but whoever picked the the team couldn't see them.
Even scarier that that person was almost certainly someone who has been working with the team for a year and a half. What is with the insistence of having O'Shea involved in some way with the management of the team? He clearly isn't a tactical coach and isn't able to pick a sensible team or formation, yet it feels like his position as the future manager of the team is being marked out as an inevitability in some quarters. I just don't get it.
After being part of the previous management group, followed by a hugely dispiriting spell as caretaker manager, how much further evidence is needed to show that this is not his calling?!
Can we just not give out an Irish man of the match in situations like that. Give it to the actual best player on the pitch even if it's on opposition. It's such a nonsense
This post is 100% correct. Gobsh1tes like us should not be able to see things that professional coaching staffs cant, especially such glaring ones. Not one person who has seen any of our games for the last year looked at our set up, especially in midfield and not know what was comingQuote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
Why not just give it to the best player ?
Ogbene looked embarrassed and that's because it was an embarrassing moment. On Robbie Keanes home debut v Argentina, he was spectacular but I think the Argentinian 10 was given MOTM. In a stadium with plenty people in it who are there to watch the EPL lads anyway today, just give it to the best one because it certainly wasn't any Ireland player. I guess it's more corporate matchday influence creep into the game, some strategist has decided it'll give a better match day experience if an Ireland player always gets it but people aren't stupid. Even the day trippers hoping to get a shirt signed by an EPL hero know full well Ogbene was not man of that match & no amount of forced hype announcement fixes that.
In fairness to Ronnie, Kelleher made 3 saves after it had been given and announced in the stadium. Was early, probably about the 86th minute.
Kelleher was already the correct choice but giving it to a keeper in a 2-0 loss is pretty damning.
With those late saves, it became overwhelmingly obvious but you couldnt really take it off Cheo at that point