Gary Kelly is living in Ireland now AFAIK
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Gary Kelly is living in Ireland now AFAIK
Mark12345 and anyone else debating Robbie's best position will be interested he hear this from Ken Early on Twitter, about tomorrow's selection against Czech Republic.
Quote:
why shane long? trap: "i wish give robbie opportunity to play between midfield... robbie can read the game... can feel which game will be."
Robbie rubbishes last week's media story claiming he was homesick in LA:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Early on Twitter
Duffer is the man to play behind the strikers in my opinion. He doesn't have the pace for the wings anymore, and has more brains than Robbie.
I'LL ACCEPT MONEY OR ALCOHOL OR MAYBE JUST PLAIN APPLAUSE!
For all those who doubted me (I said Robbie should be Ireland's creative midfielder) and went into lengthy arguments against me, read the following from Fai.ie
"Republic of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni has asked Robbie Keane to be his Francesco Totti as he begins his plans for the Euro 2012 finals.
Keane will play a "number 10" role behind West Brom striker Shane Long in the absence of hamstring victim Kevin Doyle in Wednesday night's friendly against the Czech Republic at the Aviva Stadium.
Trapattoni, who has spent the last month studying DVDs of Ireland's Group C opponents Croatia, Spain and Italy, believes the system, which is a modification to the tried and tested 4-4-2 which booked their place in Poland and Ukraine, could come in useful in the tournament, and is keen to see how it works.
The Italian said: "Two years ago, maybe three years ago I said about Robbie, Robbie can play like Totti. Remember? I said he can play in this position and he can play well
Longer quote from Trap:
http://greenscene.me/2012/02/trapatt...zech-republic/
Quote:
“Two years ago, maybe three years ago I said about Robbie, Robbie can play like Totti. I said he can play in this position and he can play well. At this moment, I want to give Robbie the opportunity to play between the midfield and a striker, because he can read the game and feel how the game will be. Long is a player who can allow Robbie to play deep. For the last month, I have watched Spain and Croatia and other teams, and I want to try this. Tomorrow is a test of this situation. I think Robbie can do both jobs well.”
like the sound of this. long is a beast up front on his own.
Revisionism of the highest order!
What you actually said originally (unless you said something different behorehand) in post #5299 was
I thought we all came to agreement a page or two back, and earlier, when several of us said that Keane could play the withdrawn role Trap wants him to play tomorrow. Let's face it, it's pretty clear to all to see that his talents suit it.
I'm quite excited by this variation. I hope it works.
I used to work with a scouser and a Belgian in London and we're all still good friends. My scouse mate repeatedly says that he doesn't see me as foreign, but our Belgian mate clearly is.
I fully agree with him. I can speak fluent scouse(!), London rhyming slang, I know my football, regional English accents, I remember all the same TV programmes from childhood, and so on. Our Belgiamn mate is clueless about all of these! I don't see myself as British one jot, but I don't see myself as foreign. If I was in Belgium I would.
I'd be curious to see what Trap envisages. I'd see a withdrawn role for a striker different than an attacking midfielder role.
I have my doubts that using Keane as an attacking midfielder, can work for us. With both Whelan and Andrews dropping deep to hold the line, the gap between them and Robbie will be too long and if Robbie has to come into the last 1/3 to receive the ball, then it's dead in the water. Robbie is not a natural at that part of the CM role. We would need a player at midfield who is also comfortable with receiving the ball in our half, maybe if Duff sticks close to Robbie, it can work.
My boss is English and is a learned man. Has a PhD. We were going on a trip once and he had to photocopy all our passports. "Oh, I didn't realise you Irish have separate passports." He often refers to me as British to other people an points to Ireland and calls is British.
An English girl with a Master's degree (once again, no idiot) once called me British. I told her I wasn't British. She said, "Oh sorry, of course, I mean from the UK" I don't think they actually know the extent of their own country. The consider us to be seperate, yes, but in the same way as the Welsh and the Scots.
It doesn't help that their textbooks and the BBC shows a map of both Britain and Ireland when referring to their own country.
Also, most Europeans consider the Irish as British as well.
Hi. Was over six hours ahead of you there if you scroll up the page.
As Stutts quite rightfully pointed out, Trap's employment of Robbie at 10 is more in line with what was agreed upon with most arguing against you saying it was worth looking at. Your point was very strongly made for Robbie to play in central midfield, which is certainly not what Trap is doing tonight.
So much for education in the rest of Europe.
I feel better now about all that basic politico/geographical knowledge I picked up in primary school.
Too true. Certainly not what Trap did with Robbie tonight.
Robbie looked lost at times but that's simply because all we could do is bang the ball long from the back, to no one in particular. I saw someone earlier in a post saying that Whelan and Andrews were holding the line - what was that the clothes line?
Hopefully Trap's vision for Robbie is a player who operates in the middle third, coming to receive and distribute the ball. I know he has the dexterity to do the job but I lament sometimes for us as a team. We simply cannot pass the ball with any fluency and far too many of our players are scared out of their wits when pressured.
Only Keane, Duff and McGeady remain as those players who can hold up the ball and make things happen (although Walters looks extremely promising and must be in the starting eleven) in the opposition half.
Keane suffered from Long being off the pace tonight, he was almost playing up front by himself at times. Did have the best chance of the first half to score though.