Irish team for the Spain Match

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Originally Posted by SkStu

I thought Ward did fine.

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I have just been looking at the Ward pass which went astray and in a way lead to the second goal.
First time I looked at it I put it down to a Ward mistake but having seen it again a dew time I have changed my view.
Firstly negative pay all round, the ball was played to McGeady but instead of attacking he passed it back to Whelan,
he could have played it to Keane or Doyle, both unmarked. Whelan then plays it (again backwards) to Ward when he
too could have played it to either Keane or Doyle both unmarked and in acres of space.
Ward seems to have twigged 'the plan' now (pass it towards your own goal). He too could have played a ball up
to Keane or Doyle, who appear to be in acres of space (can only see the area covered by the camera).
(By the way the Croats seem to have figured there is no point in marking Keane or Doyle because nobody passes to
them anyway!).
So Ward plays a back pass to Whelan who seems slightly asleep or slow to react, the Croats gain possession, a corner and a goal.

So what is the point of Keane and Doyle being up front if nobody passes to them.

OK so Keane or Doyle might have lost the ball, but it is far better to lose it in the oppositions final third than your own,
hell they might even have gone on and scored a goal!!!

Negativity is the key, we had settled for a draw at half time and thus go in a goal down.

If I can make a clip of it I might put it on youtube, however it is the passage of play from 41.28ish to 41:45 on the official clock.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

I'm surprised nobody has suggested Hunt in the centre yet.

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Originally Posted by legendz

Has he played there much? As I say, possibly 3 players could interchange in that role but can't see Trap adopting that approach.

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Originally Posted by geysir

I can't see a reason from our last 2 games, for O'Shea to play anywhere on thursday (apart from CM of course).

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Originally Posted by legendz

I've seen him play full-back for Sunderland and have not been impressed. He has no distribution at all. I actually would agree that if he was to play anywhere, it'd be slotting in as an extra midfielder but again, can't see it happening. He's done alright CB under O'Neill as well but no place there.

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Legendz, there's a 'slight' possibility Charlie was being sarcastic about Hunt for CM and a stronger than slight possibility that I was being sarcastic about O'Shea for CM.

On a serious note, O'Shea is not match sharp and is showing it in spades.

Just back from Poznan.

Duff is beyond criticism in my opinion, he was the only guy who actually seemed comfortable on the ball all night. Of the back 5 I thought Ward was nervous, JOS and Dunne off the pace, Shay sluggish and only St. Ledger was firing on all cylinders from the go.

McGeady was just awful I thought, always waiting for the ball to arrive and getting off from a standing start and then doing sod all.

On the basis of what I saw on Sunday:

------------Shay ----------
Kelly -- Dunne -- SSL -- O'Shea
---------Whelan--------
Duff--Gibson--Andrews--McClean
---------Walters--------

I like that team Stutts. It's what I went for.

Keane can come back for the Italy game.

However the Trap will remain loyal and hope they repay him by having the games of their lives.

RTE reports (training match spy) suggest Kelly is inline to replace O'Shea and Keane to play with Wally.

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

I like that team Stutts. It's what I went for.

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Not guilty of plagiarism, honest! I didn't have time to catch up on the earlier posts.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Not guilty of p[agiarism, honest! I didn't have time to catch up on the earlier posts.

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Sounds like the only change is Walters for Doyle. Sigh.

3 central midfielders plugging the gaps and forcing the Spanish out wide would seem the sensible thing to do....

Lee Carsley:

Ireland need a high-tempo strategy to throw the gauntlet down to classy Spain

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...zrgieo.twitter

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Originally Posted by Crosby87

I hate to say this b/c Duff is a great guy but he is way past his prime. Just invisible out there.
Spain must be licking their chops.

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Are you mad, he was the only one playing football and was Ireland's MOTM by far.

Trap left him play the whole 90 minutes because he was our best player.

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

Sounds like the only change is Walters for Doyle. Sigh.

3 central midfielders plugging the gaps and forcing the Spanish out wide would seem the sensible thing to do....

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Yep. Xavi, Iniesta and Xabi Alonso are going to slice through Andrews and Whelan.

Could end up being very embarassing.

Hope not of course.

But you look at how Paraguay and Swtizerland - small countries like ourselves - got under Spain's skin and it was by choking the midfield. We seem to have misinterpreted "choking the midfield" as "choking in midfield".

Even Jack understood this when he went 4-5-1 against the Italians in Giants Stadium.

Against the Italians that time we hadn't we virtually no fit forwards?

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Originally Posted by brine3

We seem to have misinterpreted "choking the midfield" as "choking in midfield".

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We will have to interpret "choking the midfield" as; "choking the midfielders" if we are to have any chance I fear.

I suggest to everyone if they can go back and watch the game again. Tricky colour points out exactly what happened for their second goal. We should never have gone back into our shell after scoring. Blaming McGeady (who made the goal and almost sent in an identical ball for Ward soon after) is wide of the mark. He was being double marked and was not receiving the ball back from Whelan. McGeady would pass back to Whelan expecting a ball back that never came. Whelan would turn 180 and play it back to a nervous defense.

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

I suggest to everyone if they can go back and watch the game again. Tricky colour points out exactly what happened for their second goal. We should never have gone back into our shell after scoring. Blaming McGeady (who made the goal and almost sent in an identical ball for Ward soon after) is wide of the mark. He was being double marked and was not receiving the ball back from Whelan. McGeady would pass back to Whelan expecting a ball back that never came. Whelan would turn 180 and play it back to a nervous defense.

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We shouldn't have gone back into our shell but after the shaky start and getting a goal back, Croatia were turning the screw a bit before half-time, we could've done with going in level at half-time.

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Originally Posted by Mr A

Against the Italians that time we hadn't we virtually no fit forwards?

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The tactic worked though. I believe we need to play 5 in midfield against spain with a forward with some pace and ideally the ability to hold up the ball .

Long ? Walters ? Keane ?

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

He was being double marked and was not receiving the ball back from Whelan. McGeady would pass back to Whelan expecting a ball back that never came. Whelan would turn 180 and play it back to a nervous defense.

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This is it, Bilic did his homework. Double mark Duff and McGeady and don't worry about any Irish threat from the centre of midfield.

If we had done our homework we'd have had an extra midfielder to double mark Modric.

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Originally Posted by brine3

This is it, Bilic did his homework. Double mark Duff and McGeady and don't worry about any Irish threat from the centre of midfield.

If we had done our homework we'd have had an extra midfielder to double mark Modric.

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That was it and we had nothing to offer. Whelan seemed to have some belief before the game that he'd outplayed Modric before and that he would do so again. When Croatia were on top, Modric picked up a needless booking for clattering into Whelan in the second half, seemed to be some form or retribution.

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

The team which cheated the most won. If the CRoats had any decency they woudl agree to a replay.

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Can we be the 9th team in the quarters?

Spain are not going to play a cautious game so as far as I'm concerned the players (or at least those who can think for themselves) should only partially follow what Trap tells them. We are going to have to somehow score a goal/goals to get anything from this game. And that means having a real go from the off. I believe we will start with the same team that started on Sunday. I would have dropped Given and Whelan but Trap won't. The two of them scare the bejasus out of me after Sundays game. On the plus side we scored a really well worked goal against Croatia and that gives me some hope. What gives me more hope is the way we played for about 10 mins before our goal and about 5 mins after our goal. I don't believe the Spanish will double up on McGeady and Duff which should help us. I didn't think Keane and Doyle played that badly on Sunday so understand if they start again. But I can't see anyway we won't concede a goal. None. We only had one corner on Sunday which tells its own story. We have to give our front players whoever they end up being some type of service. That means O'Shea and Ward pushing up when able. That means no Cox on the left when/if we have to chase the game. It means taking off those contributing zilch and replacing them with better players rather than sticking with the 'system' or going route one. If we try for parking the bus it won't work.

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Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar

I suggest to everyone if they can go back and watch the game again. Tricky colour points out exactly what happened for their second goal. We should never have gone back into our shell after scoring. Blaming McGeady (who made the goal and almost sent in an identical ball for Ward soon after) is wide of the mark. He was being double marked and was not receiving the ball back from Whelan. McGeady would pass back to Whelan expecting a ball back that never came. Whelan would turn 180 and play it back to a nervous defense.

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I am not blaming McGeady exclusively (blame is the wrong word anyway), it just looked to me that Keane and Doyle were available for a pass, they may not have had as much space as appeared from the camera shot, but none the less, surely it is better to have a go maybe lose the ball in their final 3rd, rather than ours. His was one of three back passes after all. I think I can safely say Croatia never strung three back passes together!!
Point is we say our back four and central midfield are not the best in the world so it seems sensible not to have them constantly under pressure?
Having said that I do not think we were that bad, ( on another day with things going our way we would have won!!) I don't want to sound over critical, I just think we could be more positive.
Why not make a pass to Doyle, he would more than likely get pushed over and get a free kick?
We seemed to want to settle for a draw at half time and ended up going in a goal down.

Actually I don't like to criticise any of the players because I know they are all trying hard, just try to make a positive
criticism to be more positive in the game, we are better going forward than sitting back. But obviously easier said than done at times lol.

I'm still optimistic!!