Very poor performance. They let the occasion get to them. Incredibly important that we get 6 points from Poland and Scotland at home. 4 points might be enough but 6 points has to be the mindset.
Hendrick is going to be a very good player, but tonight he was very poor. We all criticise Glenn Whelan but he would have at least been a calmer head out there. Hard to pick a good performance bar Walters.
On that performance, do you reckon any of those players would get a game for Luton Town?
FFS. Mountain to climb now.
The emotions of the match got to McGeady I think. I feel for him because can only imagine how much he wanted to perform tonight of all nights. He, like Coleman suffers because of our all round crappiness.
Walters should have been taken off instead of Long and just Gibson, not Hendrick.
Very disappointing and we need some big home wins to get us back into contention.
Keogh really isn't cut out for international football.
Midfield was poor.
We were awful at set pieces until Brady came on.
I think taking off Long was a mistake.
Gutted.
It's a group with one brilliant side and three average sides. If we are outclassed by the poles and the Scots, we have no business at France. Don't get me wrong I respect those two teams but if they are able to outclass us it's scary what the bigger countries could do to us.
Fair play to the poles. They are getting great results. I still think Georgia could take points off Scotland in Tbilisi.
I'm still hopeful that we can get third. One concern is that with some of the unusual results in the other groups, we could end up playing some very decent teams, but right now I'd settle for third.
Why are we so utterly hopeless on the ball? Is it because of inherent traits of football culture in Ireland.
Not much between the two teams, a very nice goal for them and no goals for us. That was the difference.
We will have the chance to play them again at home.
Keogh is too rash and tempestuous but that's the least of our problems. There is no reason why McCarthy couldn't have played and he could have made the difference. It's just a maddening state of affairs.
Why the dependence on Walters? I just don't get it. Long is a better player and he poses more problems.
Same old negative football but in fairness Hanley should have been sent off twice let alone once.
Lads,
we couldn't get the ball down and play at all - we hoof the ball long nearly all the game. We only came to life a little when we went 1 down instead of going for the win from the start and that is not good enough - we allow Scotland to dictate the pace of the game from the 20 minute mark onwards ......
And i cant only see us getting 4th in this group after that - we couldn't get up for a local derby! - what chance have we for the other games so?
Ah, don't be ridiculous. He was Ireland's best player out there, comfortable in possession and apart from one incident did his defensive job brilliantly. I'm not looking ahead to the hypothetical squad for France.Quote:
Originally Posted by mark12345
I'm no fan of Keogh but he did very well out there, no complaints at all about his performance.
Really disappointing performance. I think Keogh did ok. We defended well under pressure for most of the game. Where we really lost out tonight was centre midfield. Charlie Mulgrew looked like a top player at times, controlling the pace. Gibson wasn't fully fit and Hendrick didn't have the experience to slow things down. Quinn is a great worker but isn't going to create any goals for us. We really missed Whelan, despite all the crap he might get. He can slow things down when needed.
Anyway, I guess we really need 4 points from Scotland and Poland at home. That won't be easy at all.
The big difference was Scotland had a system they were comfortable with and stuck at. We didn't have that. I'm sure O'Neill is trying to instill that in the team but it'll take time.
I taught Keogh did ok - did as well as O'shea in fairest - no problem with either. Our central midfield - as most lads are saying - let us down badly
The Scots come from the same culture as we do.
To be honest, both Gibson and Hendrick are technicaly good. The problem is that we resorted to the old hoof ball rather than try and play football. We are probably better man for man than Scotland, but tonight they looked a far better team than us and played good stuff.
Gibson lacks the drive to be the top player he threatens to be, while tonight Hendrick looked like this game showed why he isn't ready for the premiership or a big international game (I believe he will become a top player in the coming years). The occasion got to him.
Its easy to criticise McCarthy right now, but I believe he was injured. The bigger concern is that we don't trust our midfield to get on the ball and influence games. Nothing new there but we've learnt feck all from Poland and the wq qualifiers.
I thought long was ineffective. For me, he is actually a better option off the bench. Maybe the way we play doesn't help him but for all his qualities as a player, he has rarely delivered for us.
Scots deserved their win, like ourselves pretty ordinary team ,big difference with us is the extraordinary expectation.i agree with Liam Bradys assertion at the beginning of the group that we just do not have the quality players.the fact that Whelan and McCarthy are considered a loss sums it up.i am surprised that Coleman always seems to avoid any scrutiny when it comes to our defence,his performance tonight like many of his in a green shirt in terms of defence was,,non existent can not blame Mcgeady for all that was going on down the right hand side tonight.
Gibson in no universe has ever threatened to be a top class footballer. He's the definition of average, and Hendrick will spend his career knocking between the Premiership and Championship, again, average.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungle
Fair enough but in gibson's younger days, fergie clearly saw great talent. If he had half the attitude of Roy Keane, I think he'd be a top premiership player rather than a decent premiership player.
Regarding Hendrick, I believe he will become a top player. One **** poor performance from him doesn't change that opinion.
He's 22 and flying at the upper end of the Championship. Making negative predictions about his career at this point is frankly ridiculous.Quote:
Originally Posted by irishultra