Originally Posted by
Stuttgart88
Agree to a large extent but what many here have pointed out that it's a dearth of central midfielders that is the root of the problem. Central midfield is so sub-standard that the rest of the team struggles to function. CM should be a conduit from the back 4 to the front 2 or the wide men. I also think that speculative rather than measured passing is far too common in our game. Full backs chipping the ball 30 yards up the touchline, Carsley thinking he's Tom Brady picking out Robbie Keane from 40 yards etc.
Bill, did you see the U21 game? From the start Ireland set about playing a crisp, up-tempo passing game and having seen the drivel we've seen from the senior team in the last few years it was really good to see. You might even have liked it.
As for the atmosphere: it was an exhibition match with even less meaning than the usual friendlies as there was no manager in place. When the Bulgarians or others come to town with something for us to play for it'll be a different story. You don't tend to get an atmosphere at club friendlies either and I'll bet there wasn't much atmosphere at many of the other friendlies last night.
Croker is too big for us in my opinion anyway. Many have criticised the capacity of the new Lansdowne as beeing too small, I think it's just right.
I didn't realise Neil was joking. I was putting Tuesday nights into my diary :(