Just wondering about something the past while, and O'Neill's press conference yesterday had me asking the same question. He mentions going to Norwich v Swansea to watch Wes, but Wes doesn't start so obviously it's a blow, but he'd never complain about it being a wasted journey.
That irritates the hell out of me. In any given EPL match, you've probably the guts of 5/6 full internationals on show, and there is bound to be one or two that possibly will come up against Ireland over the course of the next two years.
Is it unreasonable of me to think that the National Football team has some sort of dossier on all of the countries in our Continent? That we won't just wait for the draw to be made in February and then start scouting sides out?
Surely he's bound to have a certain amount of scouting done on opposition players too. Michu is too obvious an example from Swansea, so what about Ashley Williams if we draw Wales. Trying to spot little weakness' that can be exploited such as his lack of concentration, or poor turning, ponderous on the ball etc. Or Vonk - what are his traits, double touch on a backpass, fondness for distribution.
If there is this kind of detail then when the draw is made, and if we were to draw Slovenia as a random one, O'Neill can turn to Delaney and say "I've scouted Slovenia and some of their players, they have an unusual style in that they play with such-and-such and I'd like a friendly against Hungary again because they have similar characteristics" and then it's done.
Am I alone thinking like that?
