You're right though I don't understand it. I think Andrews has been a better performer for Ireland for the past while nowQuote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
You're right though I don't understand it. I think Andrews has been a better performer for Ireland for the past while nowQuote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
This was the team:-
Given, O'Shea, Dunne, St. Ledger, Kilbane, Green, Whelan (Gibson 66), Lawrence (Long 62), McGeady, Keane, Doyle (Fahey 71).
Subs not used: Westwood, McShane, Keogh, Cunningham.
And the Italy team:
Republic of Ireland: Forde, McShane, Ward, St. Ledger, O'Dea, Foley, Coleman, Andrews, Hunt, Long, Keogh
Subs: Murphy, Kelly, Cox, Delaney, Whelan, Lawrence, Treacy
Trap needs to stop making these public utterances as they don't help, but cause anomosity. He should have learnt from the last McCarthy furore.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...s-2670079.html
I don't think there's anything wrong with what Trap said there. He wants them to answer his calls. He's the one holding the olive branch, not them. Not like he's saying they have to come back begging for their places. He just wants them to answer their phones.
I don't think they have a pre-ordained ranking of our forwards, after Doyle & Keane. It's horses for courses.
Long's day will come and probably sooner rather than later. Cox has more experience now* so whoever comes in for either of our main two will be able to do a job.
wrt Noble, O'Hara etc. Stuff them. It's too late to declare. The dressing room is a strong and united place right now. The "stay aways" have their chance to come back in, but there's no room for any more. Guys like Meyler and McCann could play their way in, but no late-deciders.
I think Andrews is nailed on to start, certainly against Russia. If he watched the Russia DVD he'll see that Whelan must have been on tranquilisers and Green couldn't do his own job, let alone the job of two. Andrews may not be Pele, but he snaps at ankles and is hard to play through. He is very athletic too, so covers the ground well. Against Slovakia, Trap may well go for a better passer like Fahey or Gibson.
However, a lot will depend on who is match fit. Last October I don't think any of Whelan, Fahey, Andrews or Gibson was starting for their club. Nor was Given, Keane and one or two others.
*edit: what I mean is that he has more experience than he did a month ago, not more experience than Long.
I agree. He's absolutely right.Quote:
Originally Posted by AlaskaFox
The point I am making is that while what he says makes sense, such public utterances can lead to miscommunication and crossed wires. We have seen this in the past and the last thing we need are players feeling they are being targeted.
Not tageted as such, but you know the fingers-to-eyes gesture that Robert de Niro does do Ben Stiller in "Meet the Parents"? That's what Trap is doing, and on everyone's behalf. I don't think much more should be made of it but Trap says he'll be getting in touch with everyone to ask if they're in, and to spell out that he requires responses to his and/or Mary at the FAI's texts and calls.
The worrying thing was that The Irish Times has quoted Trap as saying he'll be doing this by text!
If I was one of thoese players I'd be heading over to Dublin for the Croatia game no matter how 'injured' I was. I'd also make sure my iphone was on. NO MORE EXCUSES. If they want to make the plane for Poland/Ukraine (if we qualify, which is a big if) then they need to buck their ideas up.
There was a good bit of talk over in Skopje that Cox had been flying all week. This had come from one or two in the squad to one or two well placed fans. Cox was on fire all week, and was getting everyone hopping - infectious was one of the phrases used.Quote:
Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton
Shane Long is a star in the making, he's still relatively young and he will develop into a fine striker. But he's had a ridiculous season, and if he was on a bit of a downer after the playoff final, that was totally understandable. As it turns out "We love Cox" had a decent game (I was surprised how little was mentioned of his intelligent use of the knock down in the first half) and should have had a debut competitive goal (only when I got back home did I realise the goal was good). If we didn't get the three points, it wouldn't have been because of Cox.
If i was any of the 4 players, and especially McCarthy and Gibson, i'd be making myself unavailable for selection until Trappatoni was ousted. Results against NI, Scotland, Wales and Macedonia are hardly world-shaking news. Italy was a useless, end-of-season nothing game.
I'm not sure he is Noely. I think the circumstances around these games helped his cause no end. For a few reasons:Quote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
- The weather expected for Saturday was extremely humid - it was sticky but nowhere near as bad as it could have been. A fresher Cox definitely had the edge over a weary Longy in that respect.
- He definitely impressed during the Nations Cup. He had a decent rapport with Robbie
- His attitude (allegedly) extremely impressed both the management and the squad from the moment he arrived. Buzzing to play and eager to take whatever chances came his way. Unfortunately Longy probably arrived on a bit of a downer.
- Personally I felt Longy has been better being sprung from the bench ala Russia. I've no doubt he'll feature prominently in the new season.
To me, it would be a massive surprise if he starts Cox with Keane, not ahead of Long, but ahead of Doyle. That would be criticism worthy. Doyle offers something, and has done for a while that nobody has come close to doing since Quinn went au revoir. He is a totem up top, and works his nads off, all the while with an impressive skill set.Quote:
It would not be a huge surprise to me if Keane and Cox line out against Slovakia.
In our eyes perhaps, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have eyes on Walters too. They seemed to be at pains to get the media to mention that Walters was genuinely absent and there was no problem.Quote:
Long is now probably fourth choice forward.
It's something that I'd use as a stick to beat him with though. International managers have to be pragmatic to an extent. Obviously he doesn't do it to spite himself, but there is more merit to returning Walters and say, Gibbo, than there is Stokes or Wilson. Wilson is covered potentially by a fit Cunningham, Ward, even Ciaran Clark. Stokes is competing with Robbie and probably Long. So there's no real need there.Quote:
And thats why I would not rule out the selection of the "gang of four" for the Croatia friendly. Things can change rapidly under Trap.
I hear what you're saying. I agree too. He has to have realised that he was out-thought in Lansdowne. We're probably in a slightly unfortunate situation where our players that are first choice, don't really fit the system he needs to play to maximise the chances of 1/3 points in Moscow. Russia have/had a really fluid 5 behind what will surely be Pavlyuchenko. Shiranov, Zyrianov and Denisov totally ran amok. Shemsov is equally decent, and I wouldn't be surprised if Billy features for them in Sept. So how to stop them controlling the game deep in our half is what is key.Quote:
As of today most fans would predict Trap starting Whelan and Andrews against Slovakia and Russia. I don't think he will. I'm just not sure who will come in if either Whelan or the more likely Andrews is "rested". I bet Trap has been watching dvd's of the home Russia defeat over and over again. He will look at who played, how they played and what went wrong. And he will not want a repeat performance. The Irish squad for the Croatia game will be very interesting.
Wouldn't surprise me if Trap goes extremely narrow limiting the space in the middle, forcing Russia to play totally around us, rather than through and then out the back of us. How does he do that? Does he sacrifice the wingers? McGeady has to play because for all his faults, he is genuinely getting to a level now where he draws fouls to the level Duff was at, while he is more than capable of running deep at opponents with the ball, creating opportunities for others.
If he is to jettison the wingers, then surely he has to pick somewhat attacking full-backs, Ward and Coleman, or full backs capable of using the ball sufficiently in the middle and top 3rd - Foley and Clark perhaps? Which leads on to the next possibility - the use of John O'Shea or Kev Foley as a shield behind a midfield three or two?
Something like:
---------------------------Given--------------------------
FB-------------Dunne---------------Ledger-------------Fb
---------------------------Shield--------------------------
--------------------Andrews-------Whelan-----------------
----------------McGeady------------Keane----------------
---------------------------Doyle--------------------------
Something that has to be remembered about Dublin - we started like a train, could have been one up, and then absolutely gifted them a goal (Whatever about Whelan being blindsided, Given was totally at fault to begin with), which then allowed them to dictate the next hours football.
Point taken, but technically I was referring to the end of season games, where will I'm sure they're still injured, surely they get some sort of a break from treatment also.Quote:
Originally Posted by passinginterest
Training during the season does continue for PL squads from what I've read - it's curtailed for sure, but doesn't stop.
There's a lot of accuracies there. I'm equally adept at criticising a players performance, but it has to be said, we were out of shape against Russia. Whelan hadn't featured much for Stoke, and was barely fit. Green to give him his credit was all over the place trying to win the ball, but (and it's been commented on before) the indiscipline in breaking the line of two is what allowed Whelan to be isolated. Whelan could be termed pedestrian at the best of times, but this added to his lack of match fitness left him badly exposed. That cannot be ignored, otherwise it's just poor analysis.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
What I like about Andrews is, pardon the vulgarity, there's a bit of a cúnt about him. not in the Joey Barton sense, but that he's prepared to be in the opposition faces as much as possible while staying the right side of the law. He got to a new level of respect with me for his affront on Diarra in Dublin, but rose up a notch by outdoing himself in Paris.
Zhirkov ran the show for Russia against Armenia on Saturday, especially in the second half. Everything went through him. Not beyond the bounds Trapatooni could stick Steven Hunt on him. That might mean sacrificing a winger or just playing Robbie up front on his own but I can see Trap doing something like that.
How can you break a line of two? :)
Zhirkov is a fine player. Given the room he could hurt us. The same could equally be said about McGeady or Duff. A feature of the Macedonia selection was Hunt on the right and McGeady on the left. All seemed to agree that this was in order for the player to cut in on the favoured boot and shoot/cross. I don't believe it was for that reason at all, even though it was a good aspect as it so happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar
Popov was one of three star Macedonian players, their left full. Their right back, was a second choice centre half. Playing McGeady on the right and Hunt on the left would have been a mistake - limiting us going forward, while exposing us at the back. McGeady isn't as good at tracking back as Hunt, a valid criticism. Hunt himself was criticised for his handling of Popov in the first half, but he didn't do a whole lot wrong, he tracked Popov's runs, forced him infield, and generally made a nuisance of himself - he just did a better job of it the second half.
As for McGeady, well he minced the right full time and again. So we got the best of both worlds.
then the merits have to be discussed. If we had to play one person up front, which would that one player be. If it's Robbie, then we sacrifice everything about his game to basically run around and put pressure on.
By drawing one of the two out?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
:-)
For all the talk of the Italy win being a nothing win, I can't help but think if we had lost this "nothing" game, as we did against Australia, the press and fans would be all over Trapattoni for ruining the good run built up in the previous three games.
Completely agree. I have a feeling life at Wolves will have softened O'Hara's cough though and he'll be looking to declare during the new season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88