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O'Shea has gone from bad to awful to disaster to bad and back to disaster at center back, I'd rather have Andy O'Brien, McShane or Anyone! (I know they may not be available!). I'd nearly put Kilbane in CB before O'Shea, that's how bad he has beenQuote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
And your solution is McShane?Quote:
Originally Posted by Scram
O'Shea has a careless error in him in every game, so has Dunne - still. But these are by far and away our best CBs available. Like Breen before him, O'Shea has never been as bad as many here make out. I'd like to have a 27 year old Kenny Cunningham available again but we don't.
lol at boards.ie
not a thread about the ireland squad named last week, yet the england squad has 20 replies in like 20 minutes.
Great news if this is true, taken from FAI website...
http://www.fai.ie/index.php?option=c...k=view&id=3506
What a legend.
kilbane should go down as one of the great Irish players.
It's been a long time coming.
As it looks now, these are 2 good games to start our campaign.
Trap rightly dismisses any talks of advantage with playing in Mainz.
And as clear as anyone could be without saying it, he indicates that Andy Reid will not play. Two wingers is us, in place of Duff will be either Keogh or Hunt.
It's a huge game for Glenn Whelan and a huge ask. I'd prefer Carsley but I can see that there are good reasons to move on even if Whelan is raw at this level.
Not many managers would get away with dropping Carsley from the squad and Reid from the team. He has explained in simple terms his reasons for doing so which makes a nice change from hiding from the question.
Everybody is holding fire waiting to see how it will work.
I would prefer to see A Reid replace Duff but I can live with Hunt if that is what Trap goes for. But under no circumstances should Keogh be played as a winger. He is a good player but it's not his position and he won't provide the required service to the front two.
I have a fear the Trap might go for this option. McGeady will then switch to left and Keogh comes in on the right. Hunt will be p*ssed for the second time this week if it does indeed happen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dotsy
playing keogh ahead of a reid would not be cool
I don't know, I'd like to see a more attacking options in the middle of the park.Quote:
Originally Posted by cudsy1
Long gone are the days of matty holland holding the ball in midfield, we need some fresh blood in there to create a buzz, and hopefully give the georgians and serbians something which they wouldn't have planned for.
Sure you still need some expierence on the field, but surely, Keane and the back 4 (or 5) enough for this.
IMO i'd play a 4-5-1 option, with keane up front alone, to stop him wandering back into midfield, with 2 wingers supporting him, McGeady and Murphy, and 2 attacking midfielders, Keogh and Hunt and then stephen reid to hold down the fort in midfield.
Still i'm not trap yet, so lets see what happens.
I'll be very worried if I see Keogh line up on the wing - anyone remember the home game against Germany?? He was a disaster out wide. A blind man can see he's not comfortable there. Can someone please send Trap a video of that game?
And if both Hunt and A Reid are fully fit and left on the bench while inferior players are starting, it'll remind of the Slovakia away game when I was never more furious coming out of a stadium after Stan left Hunt and Reid warming the bench while the likes of Douglas and Gibson strutted their stuff...
With regard to the wide options, I think it's important to differentiate between a winger (e.g., Duff) and a wide midfielder. Duff and McGeady are more like traditional wingers. Kilbane too.
In the past we've used Finnan, Miller, S. Reid. A. Reid and even Keogh and Elliott as "wide midfielders". Liam Lawrence is a classic wide midfielder. Poor Rory Delap was often used RHM, in fact any position other than where he plays naturally, CM.
I'd see Hunt as having the attributes of both - a winger/wide midfielder hybrid if you like.
Replacing a winger with a good wide midfielder doesn't reduce the balance of a team, but putting a square peg in a round hole (S. Reid / Miller / Keogh out wide) has never worked.
In my opinion the only credible candidates to replace Duff (whether it be RHS or LHS) are Hunt, Kilbane and A. Reid. Andy Reid has played wide for Ireland before and has done quite well.
Trap appears to be quite fixed on not having Andy Reid play wide.
When mentioning who would replace Duff he quoted Hunt, McGeady and Keogh.
Not only is A Reid behind Miller at CM but behind Keogh at RM,
'tis strange.
In the past though trapp has spoken of the importance of patience and retaining posession... I don't think Hunt is condusive to that kind of game so, for me, it's a bit of a contradiction if he plays him.
Could it be that Trapp is unhappy with Reids physical condition???
If Trap doesnt see Reid as a central midfielder even ahead of Miller and doesnt see him as a winger capable of replacing Duff, I really wonder what position he sees him in...Im not gonna start critising Trap but it really makes no sense to me
freezing out could be the correct term it looks as though a. reid has no hope of getting anywhere near this team unless two wingers are gone
Looks like we will be seeing very little of Andy Reid then. The Lawrence omission seems a little strange too. I cant wait for Saturday to see how Trap's strategies really play out. This is the big-time on Saturday and it is a must win game.
Will Trap not select Lawrence, Treacy, and Andrews even if they continue to play well in the Premiership?
In fairness, Treacy & Andrews have an awful lot to do before they'd be considered controversial ommissions.
"Freezing out"?
Trap was quite clear in saying that he felt A. Reid's most likely role was behind a main striker.
I have already answered the question about what Andy can do for me.
It's about balance. I saw many, many times before here that Andy is a good player.
But if I decide to play Andy in a game, maybe it would be with one striker. That's my opinion.
At the moment, I look forward to building a big strong team with spirit but every game is different.
The Nordic game is about strength but against one of the Latin sides it's possible to play a Latin game, like against the Portuguese. That is my experience.
Personally I think Reid is good as an orthodox central midfielder (the best we have - he was superb in that role against Germany) or as an advanced playmaker. I'd have less confidence in a deep lying role where although his distribution and composure on the ball would be useful, you'd prefer someone better able to offer defensive protection. Also, Trap does have a point in that when you have 2 relative lightweights on the wings, you can't afford any weakness in the middle.
Whelan is a poor man's Andy Reid when it comes to dictating midfield but is far more mobile and in Norway he showed he could put in hard tackles when needed. He is good on the ball, protects it well and plays good, crisp & accurate passes.
Miller is a different story. I don't know what Trap sees in him!
What about Keogh, a benchwarming striker from the Championship, getting a midfield role ahead of Liam Lawrence, a Premiership right midfielder?
I'd hate if Keogh got a start RHM. He should be in the squad as a forward, nothing else.
Keogh playing right midfield is just a wrong choice. He doesn't even get his game for Wolves.
Trapattoni is a brilliant manager, and I'm delighted to have him but it looks like he is being a puppet in relation to team selection.
Well it looks like he is relying too much on the players he had from the training camp from Portugal. Does he really think he can persist solely with members from that group for the next two years?
Not a puppet, just a "genius" determined to show he can get results without the need to deploy one of our most talented players. Maybe I am totally stupid, but given the extremely slender playing resources we have, I would have thought that the first principle of team selection would be "pick your best players."Quote:
Originally Posted by irishultra
I'm not going to criticise Trap until/if we start losing even if I do think some of his choices are baffling.
"pick your best team"Quote:
Originally Posted by third policeman
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan 82
Given
J O' Brien Dunne O'Shea Finnan
S. Reid
McGeady A.Reid Kilbane
Keane Doyle
I have to say I don't see much wrong with this team. Although I would have Hunt in ahead of Kilbane - Hunt would provide more cover in midfield than Duff and is a much better winger than Kilbane.Quote:
Originally Posted by third policeman
As Stutts said earlier, Hunt is as much a left sided midfielder as he is a left winger. I think this would allow Trap to play A Reid ahead of Whelan as Hunt would provide more defensive cover than Duff.
I'd love to see the above team start (with Hunt in for Kilbane) but it's almost definitely going to be Kilbane left full, Finnan right full, Whelan instead of A Reid and Hunt/Keogh on one wing with McGeady on the other.
:eek: Players out of position all over the place.Quote:
Originally Posted by third policeman
why is Joey O'Brien not an option at DM in place of Whelan?
im sorry but im thinking Trap is pretty much getting his selections as wrong as Stan did. I think the organisation/experience he will bring will see us not getting embarrassed but we are not going to qualify for the world cup without all of our best players on the park for the majority of the games.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
Totally agree. And what really worries me is that Trap is almost conceding the point that we dont have enough quality (in his mind) to play our way into the World Cup so we must achieve results by "playing to our traditional strengths" of organisation and physical aggression. He seems to have a stereotype of what Irish football is about, hence his preference for the players who epitomise that stereotype. If he was managing Italy would he prefer Whelan to Reid? I suspect not. The tragedy is that we do have some very good technical players and could embrace a much more progressive style. We should have appointed a Dutch coach rather than someone who believes that we are a poor man's England. Of course I stand to look totally stupid if his approach pays off, but I honestly suspect it wont.
Finnan/Kelly at left full? Joey O'Brien at centre half in one game, then centre mid in the next? Steven Reid on the right?Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
Can't see Trap making any one of these choices.
i think andy reid is terrific with the ball and works very hard without it. though i watched him a bit closer without the ball v. spurs and at times he was getting murdered for pace as younger players seemed to glide past him as if he weren't there. again, he's one of our most skillfull players, undoubtedly, but with the trappatoni-goggles on i could understand his omission from the starting 11 more logically.
When has he said that?Quote:
Originally Posted by third policeman
What I read after the Norway game was that against a team like Norway a more physical game was required but that you can play a latin style ame against latin style opposition. In any event, the first half in Norway (the second half was a farce) showed that we moved the ball well for practically the first time since 2002.
I don't think this is true. Many commented on the conviction of our passing in the Norway game.Quote:
Originally Posted by third policeman
Also eirebhoy pointed out before that Trapattoni dropped Pirlo in favour of Gatusso while manager of Italy.
Are you not contradicting yourself there? Whelan is a better user of the ball than O'Brien in my opinion. Picking O'Brien would be a more physical / less technical option, no?Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
Thanks Stutts. I thought I was going mad for a moment. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
This thread is starting to show the change in mentality of our fan. We starting to look no better than that shower across the water.
He hasn't even had 1 competitive game, he's undefeated as manager with a squad he barely knows. Give him a break. We lose on Sat and don't win on Weds, go mental. Hold fire till then lads.
Trap will play Given; Finnan, O'Shea, Dunne, Kilbane; McGeady, S. Reid, Whelan, Hunt; Doyle, Keane
A few things to note though.
1) Thus far McGeady has been a failure in the green shirt. the talent is there but how long can we wait for him to perform
2) McGeady is uncomfortable on the right for some reason, and Hunt is untested on the right
3) If we are going to displace Hunt to the right hand side to accomodate McGeady, I think i'd take the risk of dropping McGeady, playing Delaney at left full and letting Kilbane play on the left wing. Cue the chorus of Kilbanes a terrible winger, but so far McGeady has been rubbish. With Kilbane at least we have defensive awareness and physical presence in the midfield. If he is ineffectual he could be substituted for McGeady at half time.
^I disagree. We need to use McGeady against these "weaker" teams especially without Duff. He could be the key to unlock a stubborn Georgian defence.
If we were playing Bulgaria I might agree with you as McGeady has been poor for us so far.
Just thinking about it, Duff is a big loss for these matches, a real big loss.