Serbia v Rep of Ireland - Rajko Mitić Stadium, Belgrade (WCQ) Monday, 5th Sept. 2016

*Squad on previous page

Squad announced and he clearly put the bare minimum of thought into it.

Forde, Wilson, Pearce, McShane, O'Kane, Quinn and McGeady shouldn't be anywhere near it.

It's getting beyond a joke at this stage how some players keep getting selected despite being injured, out of favor at their clubs, out of match practice, off form or all of the above.

Egan, Doherty, Pilkington, Gleeson, Hourihane, Browne, Stokes, Byrne, Mason and Rooney off the top of my head can all be disappointed.

Three of the four strikers are in their mid-thirties for crying out loud.

Alex Pearce, Eunan O'Kane and Aiden McGeady have started about 20 games between them over the last season. David Forde playing in League Two.

A Trapattoni squad announcement never disappointed me as much as this one.

Lazy, lazy stuff. I had a fear MON would have been on holiday mode when he decided who to put in. And sure enough it looks like he spent about one minute considering it.

That might be the least inspiring squad selection ever. Surely should have been a few more fringe players included for the Oman game.

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Originally Posted by passinginterest

That might be the least inspiring squad selection ever. Surely should have been a few more fringe players included for the Oman game.

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It looks like Keane is staying on for the Serbia game.

He is done at this level. He has nothing to contribute.

Never mind being on the bench for the Oman game, a Mason, Stokes or Rooney should have been given the chance to start for the Oman game and build confidence for the more difficult tests to come.

Keane scoring against a team that drew with Cork's reserves is not going to tell us anything that we didn't already know.

No point risking Long against Oman, Murphy is on a goal drought at club level and Walters is still probably not 100%.

It leaves us incredibly short on strikers. Then factor in doubts over O'Shea, Wilson and Hendrick's fitness.

It really is asinine decision making. But then again we are talking about someone who would have named Duffy in the squad if some randomer didn't tell him that he was suspended.

Slightly surprised no Kevin Doyle actually.

Otherwise, that squad is a damning indication that we simply have no players coming through.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

squad announced. bit disappointed at the lack of new players if I'm honest: https://twitter.com/FAIreland/status...48250806501380
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqoThgTWgAAuPcR.jpg
Few players included despite being injured as well

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For those of us lacking twitter access in work: Ireland squad to face Oman (31 August) and Serbia (5 September):

Goalkeepers: Randolph, Westwood, Forde
Defenders: Christie, Coleman, Keogh, O’Shea, Pearce, Wilson, Clark, McShane, Ward
Midfielders: Brady, McCarthy, Hendrick, Arter, Kane, Whelan, Meyler, Quinn, McGeady, McClean, O’Dowda, Hoolahan
Forwards: Keane, Long, Murphy, Walters

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Slightly surprised no Kevin Doyle actually.

Otherwise, that squad is a damning indication that we simply have no players coming through.

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There is simply no justification for Alex Pearce being in there ahead of John Egan. Or Eunan O'Kane instead of Jack Byrne or Conor Hourihane. Or Aiden McGeady ahead of Anthony Pilkington. Or Robbie Keane ahead of Anthony Stokes.

Greg Cunningham is another player who deserves to be there on merit.

You pick players on merit. I get the impression that Pearce or McShane could have announced their retirement and O'Neill would still select them.

What I don't understand is the delay in naming the squad. It couldn't be about waiting to find out if players are healthy enough to be selected, because he has selected Wilson, O'Shea, Hendrick and Coleman even though all are unlikely to be in a position to feature (Koeman has even said Coleman is out for another 2 weeks minimum). Even Stephen Quinn has just completed his first match off the back of a lengthy injury.

Then the majority of the other players selected are all in their thirties.

There doesn't seem to be any kind of foresight, or anticipation, that through the attrition of a two year qualifying campaign it might have been wiser to select a few of the on form younger players - as there is no guarantee that a good quarter of the players selected will be in any kind of position to participate in the offchance that we qualify for the WC.

Given the only player from the Euros not included (apart from the suspended Duffy)

Forde, Pearce, Wilson, McShane, Arter, Kane and O’Dowda are all in. I don't know is there a final cut planned wihch might do away with some of them.

I think the final squad will be a good bit different to this. I reckon 4 players minimum will be in/out.

Christ that's deflating....

Egan, Hourihane & Doherty should be in there, all 3 have started the season well. Pearce & O'Kane's inclusion is baffling.
Not surprised with McGeady, he could have a leg amputated and he'd still be picked by MON.

Pretty uninspiring alright.

Nothing to get excited about at all really.

Goalkeepers- Pretty much picked themselves with Given's retirement & Elliot's injury. Maybe Henderson could have been added instead of Forde, but I wouldn't know enough about his form really. Forde might add more to the group when you consider neither are likely to feature anyway. I don't really know how Lawlor is doing these days either?

Defenders- I don't think Pearce and McShane are worth their places. I guess if Duffy was available one of them would have missed out. I would have liked Egan to have been brought in ahead of one of these. Doherty should be a no brainer at this stage, considering his versatility and left back being such a problem position for us.

Midfielders- I don't have a major problem with any of the guys selected, a such, but it would have been nice to have seen a Bryne or Hourihane alright, probably ahead of Quinn. That said, Arter, O'Kane and O'Dowda are still pretty new in terms of proving themselves. O'Kane looked very decent in the friendlies against Switzerland & Slovakia so I've no major issue with his inclusion, but it seems he really needs to find a new club.

McGeady was always going to be included after contributing reasonably well in France. His club situation is very worrying obviously, I read somewhere earlier that he has two years left on his Everton contract and could be earning somewhere between 50 & 70k. If that's true it makes it kind of easy to see why a resolution hasn't been found just yet. He's hardly going to take a massive wage cut at this stage of his career but where does that leave him? Rotting in a pile of cash on Merseyside I suppose.

Forwards- I see Germany are selecting Podolski & Schweinsteiger for one more match despite their international retirements. I was thinking the Oman game might present the same kind of opportunity for Robbie Keane. I presume that's not the case though as they would have surely marketed it as such. I can't say I'm overly distraught that the likes of Rooney & Stokes haven't been selected, are they really good enough? Admittedly I haven't seen a huge amount of Rooney but I just find it hard to believe he'd be much use to us.

Murphy did enough in France to hold his position, as limited as he is. Stokes had a really average spell on loan in the Scottish Championship, papered over by his Scottish Cup Final performance. I wouldn't mind if he was selected but I don't think he's being hard done by. A couple of months of scoring goals in the Championship and he might have a case.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Slightly surprised no Kevin Doyle actually.

Otherwise, that squad is a damning indication that we simply have no players coming through.

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That's assuming O'Neill has picked the right squad and is right to overlook Doherty, Cunningham, Egan, Mason, Stokes, Doyle, Mason, Rooney, Forrester, Hourihane, Hogan, Hoban etc.

I don't think he is for the most part.

This is right up there with the most deflating squad selections ever.

as expected, Robbie Keane has announced that he will retire after the Oman friendly: https://twitter.com/RTEsoccer/status...71671929991168

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Robbie Keane has announced he will retire from international football after friendly with Oman on 31 Aug #rtesoccer

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So will he get a Liam Brady-esque first 20 minutes?

Probably still enough time to add to his goal tally though.

They should have really tried to cash in on that.

Doherty, Pilkington, and Hourihane would have been nice for Oman. O'Neill might be looking at nailing down more of a system since the Euros was choppy as get out. But, we need some fresh blood and Oman was the chance.

The manager's proved himself adept at bringing players through when needed and giving them opportunities so I'm not overly upset.

Kilbane suggested there would have probably been more adventure if it was a couple of friendlies as opposed to a friendly/crucial qualifier. Okay, you'd still be hoping for a couple of new faces but it was a point worth making I think.

Id imagine that he just wants to continue the momentum from the Euros considering how big a game it is in the context of qualification already.

Also it might be a bit early in the season for any new players to have made a strong claim for inclusion. I haven't looked at the fixtures but we usually have friendlies around November and February so that might be a better time to blood the players who have made strong claims for inclusion over the space of a few months.

Most important thing is 3 pts against Serbia and not to check if Callum O Dowda or Jack Byrne can cut it against Oman!

Sometimes needs must.

This is a long qualifying campaign and the World Cup is two years away.

Half of the 28 players are in their thirties, it's an old group.

Three key players in the squad out of hope more than expectation. O'Shea unlikely to recover in time, Coleman's prognosis is two week minimum recovery and Hendrick's expected to return after the Intl break. Wilson hasn't kicked a ball in approximately a year.

Forde is playing in League Two. Pearce, O'Kane and McGeady have barely kicked a ball over the last year.

There is no depth in there and the presence of the likes of Pearce and McShane exacerbate matters.

I don't understand the reluctance to throw in inexperienced players or debutants.

Hungary did it in a Euro 2016 playoff and Laszlo Kleinheisler scored a crucial goal and went on to be a pivotal player for them in the summer. Yussuf Poulsen was a year removed from his Intl debut and he scored in Denmark's playoff against Sweden.

Joe Mason has scored in a League Cup final against Liverpool. Matt Doherty was voted Wolves's POTY by his peers and supporters. John Egan does not strike me as a lad who would be awestruck by making the transition into Intl football.

It's just a lazy, lazy squad selection and I hope it doesn't come back to bite us.

Im happy enough for him to play as close to the Euros starting 11 as possible. We don't have any top class young fella setting the Premiership alight and making a huge claim to start in this game.