Republic of Ireland v Austria - Sunday 11th June 2017 - World Cup 2018 Qualifier

Walters sat out training earlier: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017...land-training/

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Originally Posted by RTÉ

Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill is keeping his fingers crossed after Jonathan Walters sat out training just four days before the World Cup qualifier against Austria. The 33-year-old Stoke striker was not involved in an open training session at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday morning because of a knee problem picked up earlier in the week.

O'Neill will hope there is no lasting damage with Ipswich frontman David McGoldrick having already left the camp - also with a knee injury - to join Shane Long on the casualty list. That has left him with only Walters, who scored in Sunday's 3-1 friendly victory over Uruguay, and Newcastle's Daryl Murphy as options to lead the line, although in-form winger James McClean has been used in that role in the recent past.

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If Walters goes, we'll be left with Murphy as our only striker. Surely another striker should be called in at this point.

RTÉ also mention that there's possible "unrest" in the Austrian camp due to Andreas Ulmer missing the game to get married - naturally, their manager isn't happy with that and expressed his disapproval - and Arnautović being suspended (although I think RTÉ are overplaying it a bit).

God, I hate stories about "unrest" in the opposition camp. They usually turn out to be drivel and we end up with egg on our face.

Don't forget we have another striker in James McLean :)

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Walters sat out training earlier: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017...land-training/



If Walters goes, we'll be left with Murphy as our only striker. Surely another striker should be called in at this point.

RTÉ also mention that there's possible "unrest" in the Austrian camp due to Andreas Ulmer missing the game to get married - naturally, their manager isn't happy with that and expressed his disapproval - and Arnautović being suspended (although I think RTÉ are overplaying it a bit).

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doesn't he often sit out training? seems a bit more serious though.

i'm not sure i can face TOWK's reaction if a half-fit walters starts...

Ullmer hasn't played for the national side since 2014! Is his absence really going to be that badly felt?

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Ullmer hasn't played for the national side since 2014! Is his absence really going to be that badly felt?

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Yes the Ulmer story seems much ado about nothing. I didn't realise however how many injuries/suspensions they were suffering.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-35799501.html

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Janko, who is tied for fouth among Austria's all-time leading goalscorers with 28 goals in 61 games, is the seventh player to drop out of Marcel Koller's squad with midfielders Marko Arnautovic and Stefan Ilsanker unavailable through suspension, while goalkeepers Robert Almer (cruciate) and Andreas Lukse (calf strain), and Schalke midfielder Alessandro Schoepf (knee) have all been sidelined through injury

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Probably not the right thread for this, but just since we are running low on strikers for this game and some people are suggesting Maguire gets a call up.

Would Paddy Madden not be ahead of Maguire in the order of strikers we have? I would suggest that League 1 is overall more competitive than the League of Ireland. The Cork team would probably be at that standard but the opposition they play every week would be below it. Horgan got his call up based on the standard of opposition Dundalk were playing against in Europe, not so much on the week to week opposition.

Im far from saying Maguire isn't good enough, but I can understand O'Neill being hesitant at the moment.

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Originally Posted by joe_denilson

Yes the Ulmer story seems much ado about nothing. I didn't realise however how many injuries/suspensions they were suffering.

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I hadn't realised Janko will miss out. That's good news. He'll be a big loss for them up front. He's their currently-active top scorer (fifth in their overall history) with 28 goals from 63 caps.

I always remember Janko from the time RB Salzburg played Bohs in the second qualifying round for the Champions League back in 2009. Bohs were all set to go through to the next round on the away-goals rule (as they'd managed a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Salzburg) until RB Salzburg scored a cruel 86th-minute winner in the return leg at Dalymount Park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-5L_OsSeuI

For some reason, I have Janko down in my head as a really annoying play-actor since. Pretty sure he dived to win a first-leg penalty that he then went on to have saved by Brian Murphy.

Austria's other two recognised strikers - Guido Burgstaller and Michael Gregoritsch - have never scored an international goal and have only 12 caps between them. Their main remaining goal-threats will be from Martin Harnik (who has 15 goals from 65 caps) and David Alaba (who has 11 goals from 56 caps).

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Originally Posted by Razors left peg

Probably not the right thread for this, but just since we are running low on strikers for this game and some people are suggesting Maguire gets a call up.

Would Paddy Madden not be ahead of Maguire in the order of strikers we have? I would suggest that League 1 is overall more competitive than the League of Ireland. The Cork team would probably be at that standard but the opposition they play every week would be below it. Horgan got his call up based on the standard of opposition Dundalk were playing against in Europe, not so much on the week to week opposition.

Im far from saying Maguire isn't good enough, but I can understand O'Neill being hesitant at the moment.

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If the level at which the striker is playing is the barometer, Cillian Sheridan has proved himself at a much higher level than both Maguire and Madden. He's played in the Champions League group stages in recent years.

Also, for what it's worth, Paddy Madden's League of Ireland record wasn't anywhere near as impressive as Maguire's record at present.

[QUOTE=

Also, for what it's worth, Paddy Madden's League of Ireland record wasn't anywhere near as impressive as Maguire's record at present.[/QUOTE]

That's a fair point. I am playing a little bit of Devils Advocate. From the very limited bits Ive seen of Maguire he has looked good and I really hope he does it in Championship.

Sheridan is an interesting one. When he was making the Irish squad I thought he was awful. He is worth having a look at now though considering what he was done with his career.

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

If the level at which the striker is playing is the barometer, Cillian Sheridan has proved himself at a much higher level than both Maguire and Madden. He's played in the Champions League group stages in recent years.

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As much as there are arguments for and against Sheridan, participarting in the Champs League shouldn't be all that relevant - some truly dreadful players have played at that level.

And did he prove himself? He didn't hang around that level, as much of an achievement was for an Irish player to get that far.

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

As much as there are arguments for and against Sheridan, participarting in the Champs League shouldn't be all that relevant - some truly dreadful players have played at that level.

And did he prove himself? He didn't hang around that level, as much of an achievement was for an Irish player to get that far.

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Fair point, although he has certainly proved himself in the Polish top division, which I would say is considerably stronger than both the League of Ireland and League One in England.

According to Sheridan's stats on the UEFA site, he scored three goals from ten appearances for APOEL in the Champions League and scored four goals in nine games for Omonia in the Europa League: http://www.uefa.com/teamsandplayers/...ile/index.html

That's a decent enough record on the face if it.

In saying that, he also played in three games for Celtic in the Champions League years ago without scoring a goal and also played five games in the Europa League for APOEL in more recent years without scoring.

Also, I'm not sure which of those goals mentioned above would have been scored in the qualifying rounds and which might have been scored in the group stages or competition proper. At one point last year, sure didn't Dundalk's Dave McMillan lead the Champions League goal-scoring chart? Heh.

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Originally Posted by Razors left peg

Probably not the right thread for this, but just since we are running low on strikers for this game and some people are suggesting Maguire gets a call up.

Would Paddy Madden not be ahead of Maguire in the order of strikers we have? I would suggest that League 1 is overall more competitive than the League of Ireland. The Cork team would probably be at that standard but the opposition they play every week would be below it. Horgan got his call up based on the standard of opposition Dundalk were playing against in Europe, not so much on the week to week opposition.

Im far from saying Maguire isn't good enough, but I can understand O'Neill being hesitant at the moment.

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I agree that O'Neill's hesitancy is justified until Maguire proves himself at Preston - after all, as I've said before, there's been four prolific Cork City strikers who have tried their hands in England in the last dozen years (Kevin Doyle, Dave Mooney, Roy O'Donovan and John O'Flynn) and only Doyle went on to become a full international. And the more recent League of Ireland stars who've gone there have had mixed success - Horgan has done well at Preston, with Boyle having a lesser impact; Forrester is still in League One (albeit doing well there); and Richie Towell hasn't broken into the Brighton side in a year and a half, something which will become even harder to do now that they're in the Premier League. I would say the most likely call-up at this point should be Adam Rooney, based on three-and-a-half seasons of regular goal scoring in the SPL. After all, if his Aberdeen team-mate Jonny Hayes is good enough to play in a position where we have options, surely Rooney is good enough to provide back-up in an area where we're having a mini-crisis

There was a pub on Haddington Rd called the 51. Does anyone know what it's called now? I plan on meeting people there Sunday. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

If Alaba (as expected) plays in their central midfield, would it be worth having Whelan man mark him in a five man midfield? I don't think any of Hendrick/Arter/Hoolahan have the discipline to do that job, and it would mean sacrificing an attacking threat by asking them to do it anyway

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I'm not sure Whelan would have the legs for that particular man marking job. It's rare enough you'd see it these days. I know Ander Herrera was praised for following Eden Hazard around Old Trafford recently but he's a box-to-box, ground covering type in general anyway. Whelan's main strength is his positional awareness, I'm not sure it would come naturally to him.

As good as Alaba is, I don't think he's the type of player that really needs to be man marked anyway, keep a close eye for sure but I think I'd prefer to try to crowd him out with energetic players covering the space in front of him. We did that fairly well against Bale, bar a couple of scares, and obviously Alaba himself in Vienna.

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Originally Posted by Siberian

There was a pub on Haddington Rd called the 51. Does anyone know what it's called now? I plan on meeting people there Sunday. Thanks.

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Is this not it ? Changed its name to The51Bar ;)

http://www.the51bar.ie/

Dan McD edging towards Westwood

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-35796989.html

I've found myself agreeing with everything McDonnell has said this week, in relation to Westwood/Randolph, Arter/Whelan/Hoolahan and the way he's interpreted O'Neill's comments. He was on Off The Ball the other night also - http://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/Off...ep_for_Austria

Cheers, they must have reverted back to the 51 as I know they had changed name at one stage.

So a question for the eggheads: Have we ever done the double over a higher rated team in the group? Before the blitzkrieg in Austria last year, our last major win away from home against a higher rated group rival was Scotland in 1987. I think we drew with Scotland in that group at home. So have we ever ? DeLorean ? tetsujin1979 ? Time to make history?

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

So a question for the eggheads: Have we ever done the double over a higher rated team in the group? Before the blitzkrieg in Austria last year, our last major win away from home against a higher rated group rival was Scotland in 1987. I think we drew with Scotland in that group at home.

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yes, was nil-nil on a dreadful Lansdowne pitch

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

So a question for the eggheads: Have we ever done the double over a higher rated team in the group? Before the blitzkrieg in Austria last year, our last major win away from home against a higher rated group rival was Scotland in 1987. I think we drew with Scotland in that group at home. So have we ever ? DeLorean ? tetsujin1979 ? Time to make history?

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I've only checked the World Cup Qualification campaigns but we did the double over Denmark in the qualifiers for the 1958 tournament. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_F...80%93_Group_1)

Whether we were ranked higher than them, or whether there were rankings at the time at all, I don't know!

Edit- nothing of relevance in the Euro qualifiers.