Are you talking about Griezmann's winner or the sending off? There was no penalty.
Are you talking about Griezmann's winner or the sending off? There was no penalty.
Sending off.
Forgot it wasn't a penalty.
God I'm having a nightmare here.
It's Griezmann's winner that I think he has to take most of the blame for.
And most of the blame for TOWKs inaccurate posts..Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
TOWK, if its any consolation, my thoughts were "oh yeah, the France peno - yeah he was definitely at fault for that"
He was at fault imo for the Dutch goal in the friendly before the euros as well.
Ha me too. I was even thinking, "oh come on Stutts, it's obvious what penalty he's talking about". :DQuote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
squad to be named on Monday morning according to RTE: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017/...eland-defence/
Quote:
O’Neill will name his provisional squad next Monday morning.
The FAI have denied the Wales supporters' band - the Barry Horns - permission to bring their instruments into the stadium for the game on the 24th and the band naturally aren't too happy about it: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wa...-cant-12704311
Sounds like petty stuff from the FAI. What's the security risk posed by a couple of musical instruments exactly?Quote:
Originally Posted by Huw Silk
Is that similar to the English brass band?
Security risk? Trombone up the hole if I heard them anyway.
Good enough that they're banned.
Ha, I suspect they are a similar outfit. They wouldn't be my cup of tea either, but meh... What's the harm if that's what floats their boat?Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Ah, the world has gone too soft with "What's the harm?" and "Sure let them at it"
Trombone and hole is the harm. :)
Irritating crap; well done the FAI for once.
Those brass bands are terribly annoying at games. Great move by the FAI that.
Complaining about 3,500 tickets is another laughing matter altogether. They're only due to get 2,500 under the 5% rule.
If Ireland get 2,000 tickets for the game in Cardiff that'll be the height of it.
Fully in the FAI corner here, for one brief time. Let them sing, isn't that the Welsh way anyway, the choirs and what have you ...
Yeah, the security risk seems a petty excuse but I can't see why we would accommodate and banging atmosphere coming from their supporters. Sorry, but we have a World Cup to qualify for guys. If ye can't make enough noise with your vocal chords then tough sh!t. :)
As it is, it annoys me that we put the opposition's supporters in such a prominent spot behind the goals, if I'd my way they'd be hidden away in some corner.
I think if we put them in the top deck and spread them around it would be best. Like we do for the English...Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
I can't see McClean not starting. It's not like he's been out in the cold at West Brom, he's comes on as first sub in most games. There's just no way O'Neill will drop a player who has basically won us four points in the last two matches, is there?Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
With Bale tending to drift out to the right MON will probably see McClean as a better fit to track back and help out as well. I think if he does make room for McGeady it will be at Hoolahan's expense, but I wouldn't expect that to happen.
I think the main question marks are:
Keogh or O'Shea?
Arter or Whelan?
Long or Walters? (History would suggest Walters but I think this will probably reduce Hoolahan's impact. Worse still he'll probably end up bringing on Long and taking off Hoolahan so they'd see little or no time on the pitch together. Therefore I'd start Long, but I suspect O'Neill will go with Walters).
He could go with Long upfront, with Wes behind him. Then have Walters on the right, Hendricks and McCarthy in the Centre and one of Mclean or McGeady on the left
I watched the Swansea v Burnley game the other saturday, not just to witness the latest exploits of the icelandic hero Gylfi, but there happened to be 3 Irish players on the Burnley team.
It was a sobering experience, Brady (although banned v Wales) was anonymous, as Trap might say 'little personality', same with Hendricks who added nothing of note. Wardy on the other hand hit the ground running and picked up a yellow card in 10 seconds flat, but managed to solidly plug away through some mistakes and poor positioning to give a decent account of himself. I guess that's the Bale threat scuttled.
Fortunately when the players arrive to play for us the dynamic changes and O'Neill will have them mentally prepared for this high profile game, with Roy in the background saying "lookit, it's only Wales". All the same, I think we are false favourites to win the game.
-
Never mind Walters, it should be either Long and Murphy up front together or one or the other if we are going to pick our strongest team - but of course this isn't even a possibility for some reason.
Walters and Murphy didn't work against Scotland.
Walters and Long doesn't work.
Murphy and Long are both better as lone frontmen.
Murphy and Long were excellent together against Italy and France, and in addition to scoring against Serbia, Murphy put Long through twice.
And is he really a better option than McClean and McGeady out wide at this stage of his career? You would swear McClean and McGeady don't/can't track back.
What really annoys me is that you can tell the idea of dropping/rotating Walters is never even broached.
Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale being undroppable okay.
Jonathan Walters undroppable.
Jesus wept.
And you wonder why you never see Coleman having as much success driving forward and linking up at Intl level the way he does at Everton with Gerard Deulofeu or Kevin Mirallas.
And IMO there would be no point in playing Hoolahan if Walters is the lone forward. It would completely negate the point of playing him.
Look at the performance in Dublin against Scotland in the last campaign.
Whelan, Hoolahan, Murphy and Walters in the same team.
One of the leggiest, leaden performances I have seen in recent memory.
It will be another Scotland(Or Poland) game, 1-1 draw written all over it. As long as the other 'top' teams draw against each other I'd take that.
Austria will the pressure game to win, though the Georgia/Serbia double-header scares me.
i wouldn't be so sure. josh got the axe essentially when the management team decided we needed fresher legs at the back. walters time will come too, and it could be sooner than we think.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks
there will be a temptation to play him though as he did well in austria... but that was away from home. the easy and arguably risk averse choice is to start with walters with long to come off the bench if things aren't going well. the only reason you'd do vice versa is to close out a game we are winning. but to start long would be the braver choice - wales have to go for it so counter attacking with pace could undo them.
Having missed Everton's game against West Brom yesterday, James McCarthy is a doubt for the Wales game and is in a race to be fit: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017/...verton-koeman/
It's that hamstring again and he's "one or two weeks" off fitness, according to Ronald Koeman.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RTÉ
Sounds like Koeman has had a good read of the fifa rules on player's international call-up.
Quote:
Koeman "the FIFA rule is that they have the possibility to call the player. If they call the player the player will go and they will see how his fitness is at that time."
39 man squad named, including every Irish midfielder: https://twitter.com/FAIreland/status...42409883324416
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6yxfXRXUAAnPuu.jpg
Good to see Liam Kelly and John Egan in there, although I'd imagine Kelly won't make the final squad
It's Rob Elliot's first time back in a squad since we played Slovakia in March last year, although he's been Newcastle's back-up keeper this season, hasn't he? A decent keeper and it's good to see him back, but I'd still like to see Westwood given more game-time.
Happy to see Andy Boyle make it again; he has two games under his belt now for Preston and is fitting in well, according to reports. Preston recorded a clean-sheet against Reading last weekend with him playing the full ninety minutes. I don't think there was any doubt over Horgan getting called up again.
John Egan and Matt Doherty are two other inclusions of interest. Hourihane too. Reading's Liam Kelly has never been named in a squad before. I don't know a huge deal about him, to be honest.
McCarthy is named despite being an injury doubt. Gibson also returns to the frame; first time in a squad since the pre-Euros Belarus friendly in Cork.
If Adam Rooney merits a place, Cillian Sheridan - now playing (and scoring, kind of...) for the second-placed team in the Polish league (a stronger league than the Scottish league) - is definitely worth consideration too.
No Stephen Quinn (is he a forgotten man?), Alan Judge (is he fit?), Ryan Manning, Chris Forrester, Marc Wilson (probably fair enough considering he hasn't played a minute of club football this season), Greg Cunningham or Lukas Jutkiewicz (who was also mentioned in the media recently as a potential call-up).
Quinn's been out injured since October, but is expected back soon. Judge is back in training, but still a few weeks off a first team return.
It was a close call between Manning and Kelly, Kelly's been a first team regular since the start of the season, Manning's only just gotten into the QPR first team.
Cunningham the harshest and strangest omission for me (especially with Brady suspended) but positives are the presence of Kelly, Egan, Hourihane and Doherty. Sheridan has Long, Walters, Murphy and Doyle all rightly ahead of him as strikers with some physicality.
Judge isn't back playing yet.
I see that Stephen Glesson seems to have fallen out of favour at Birmingham, an unused sub in their last five matches.
it was probably a close call between Doherty (who's been playing at left back for Wolves) and Cunningham as well.
As much as I know you love him, Doyle might be slightly stretching that notion at this stage? His career has been in decline for a decade or so, plays in the MLS and will be nearly 35 by the time the WC rolls around. With Long, Walters and Murphy all ahead of Doyle as it is, surely there could be some long(er) term gain from selecting Sheridan? We know what Doyle can do if we do need him in an emergency, but I think it would be no harm to see what Sheridan can bring.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Absolutely, especially with Horgan and Boyle (two starts?) at the same club. Ouch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
O'Dowda very lucky to still be in also, but O'Neill has been proven right before with McGeady & club form vs Ireland performances.
We're a bit short up front, between the injured, lightly used subs and those from distant leagues.
I thought Cunningham was worth his squad place as reserve LB. I'd assume Ward will be starting, at least he's in a vein of form right now.
I wouldn't see O'Dowda as being lucky really, and definitely not lucky to be in the 'catch-all' provisional squad. He's looked good in his cameos for us. He's in and out of the Bristol City team but this season was always going to be a big challenge for him, a massive step up from League 2 to the Championship on top of leaving his home comforts at Oxford. I wouldn't see the sense in knocking his confidence any further right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
He was lucky to get a call up in the first place though it has to be said, seeing as we don't usually cast our net any wider than Championship level.
Preston forward Callum Robinson was another potentially-eligible player discussed recently. The FAI confirmed he is indeed eligible, but he'd presumably have to undergo a formal switch-process before being able to accept any call-up (if he would indeed be interested in representing us). He has quite a few England caps at under-age level and I'd imagine at least one would have been competitive, meaning a formal switch would be required.Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
Wales to announce their squad on Thursday: https://twitter.com/FAWales/status/841244497484865536
Quote:
@FAIreland have announced a provisional squad for their match against Wales. Chris Coleman will release his squad on Thursday.
O'Neill seems optimistic about the fitness of McCarthy and Clark. - http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...ales-1.3008242
maybe sean maguire could have been called up to the provisional squad at least - however it would likely mean him missing some important games for cork city.
cillian sheridan and greg cunningham may feel a bit aggrieved.
O'Neill dripping with sarcasm :DQuote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
“He (Ronald Koeman) is disappointed that he’s got another injury,” said the Irishman, “but I don’t think we can be blamed for that. We haven’t had him for the a few months, Everton have had him all the while so I don’t think any blame could attach to us.... although you never know.”