I watched the repeat last night. I nearly put my fist through the TV.
I don't know which was worse, Bill & O'Connor's whole 'isn't being from Cork great' 'Fine Gael are just brilliant' or 'Roy Keane is God' ****e!!
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:) Yes, stats can be manipulated just about any old way. I say he has scored 1 competitive goal, you say he's only started two competitive games. But if you add up all the minutes he's had on the pitch in competitive games, I wonder what does that add up to? I don't think any or at least very few Irish fans have anything negative to say about Long. He's just the media's latest stick to beat Trapp with. I wouldn't select him ahead of either Keane or Walters but I can understand why others might. However, it's not as cut and dried as a few recent goals in the EPL might make out.
If Westwood is to continue with launching missiles, then hulk Walters would be favored over Long.
Google has all the answers. :smile:
Long has 341 minutes over 10 competitive appearances. This gives him an average of 34.1 minutes on the pitch for each competitive cap he has under Trapattoni.
In comparison, Simon Cox has 503 minutes of competitive action (0 goals) spread over 12 competitive caps. An average of 41.9 minutes per competitive cap.
Jon Walters has 439 minutes (2 goals (Estonia, Faroes)) spread over 8 competitive caps. An average of 54.9 minutes per competitive cap.
We have played a total of 2,700 minutes of competitive football under Trapattoni (disregarding injury time and extratime in Paris). Using this;
Long has played 12.6% of all competitive minutes under Trapattoni,
Cox has played 18.6%, and
Walters has played 16.3%.
Dunphy is slating Man City saying they are brutal. He said they only won the league because they can get away with being a poor team when playing against clubs like Swansea who will just give the ball straight back to them. It wasn't even 6 months ago that auld Eamo was showing clips of Swansea playing before Ireland matches and saying that's how we should be playing
Did he use Swansea as an example? Otherwise I think he's basically right. I think City (and United) benefit from teams basically writing the game off and concentrating on more important fixtures. In the Champions League, every game is a huge game and teams will be going out with the belief they can win.
Ye he named Swansea and Fulham I think. Darragh gave out to him for calling Mancini a clown as well
Those were some odd examples to pick. Fulham are playing some lovely stuff with fairly limited footballers under Jol. I'd say it's more a case that players at Swansea and Fulham don't have the quality to concentrate for 90 minutes with the likes of Silva and Aguero bombing at them incessantly.
Sure doesn't Eamo only watch Spanish football anyway?
I'd share a lot of your opinions usually, but what constitutes a limited footballer these days? I would say Fulham have one of the most techically gifted squads around, with a number of superb players. Even the limited players they have (the likes of Sidwell
I took their first team squad from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulham_...rst-team_squad
They have a competent back 4, with one of the best centre backs around in Hangeland (he struggled with the supposed attentions of Arsenal a bit last season). They have players like Diarra, Duff, Ruiz, Petric, Berbatov, Rodallega and a couple of excellent young players in Dalle Valle and Kaca.
They are far from a limited team. But they do play lovely football.
Agree with the main point of the last few posts re: the bigger teams and the perceived weaker teams. The capitulation of the smaller clubs in England is a real head-scratcher.
:D And the thing was, Tony thought it was all great gas as he managed to pull off an incredible string of goofs and fumble about blindly when a more sensible individual would have been hoping to be beamed out of there, up to RTE heaven.
Paul Jewel leaves Ipswich Town bottom of the Championship. The man the Panel was touting to be our new manager when Stan departed. Not even touting, I mean interviewing. Pity this thread is closed: http://foot.ie/threads/76585-Paul-Jewell/page7
Didn't see the programme last night. I cannot believe Dunphy was using Swansea as a negative example last night. A few weeks ago he was holding them up as the shining example of how Ireland should be playing including showing clips.
Yeah he used Swansea as an example of a team that gives the ball straight back to them. I got the impression he probably knew after saying it that it wasn't the best example to use, but he continued with his nonsensical rant instead of back tracking. Ironically enough, he continued by saying Manchester City would be far better off with Martin O'Neill or (and wait for it.....) Brendan Rodgers managing them. Now, one can only assume that he chose Rodgers as an example because of the lovely controlled football he had Swansea playing last season! Darragh really could have laid in to him after that one but I suppose with the likes of Dunphy you can't win, no matter how stupid you make them look.
Dunphy's reaction to Darragh saying that he's not comfortable with calling Mancini a clown was funny enough- "Ah come on, it's only TV".
It was if Dunphy was saying 'look Darragh, you can't be serious, I'm only following the script of my contract with RTE to be overly hypocritical and contradictory, don't give me a hard time about it'
Bill O'Herlihy has written a book - Eamonn encouraged him!
http://www.independent.ie/entertainm...s-3278267.html
Mick McCarthy looks set to replace him: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/engli...er-at-ipswich/
Watched the highlights programme of Ireland Poland match on RTE2 last night... Is it just me, or does there appear to be ongoing tension between Darragh Maloney and John Giles? I've seen Maloney be spikey with Giles on-air in the past and certainly last night there were a few dirty looks on both sides...
Personally, I find Maloney heavy going as a presenter... like Matt Smith on ITV... doesn't flow IMO....
While George was out on sick leave, Darragh took over the match commentaries and afair had a 100% record. Whatever irritation he might inspire in anybody, that record forgives all. Another plus for Darragh is that he's not Bill.
I missed the post game rte punditry on Wed night. Bill, in order to introduce debate, would quote some nonsense from some paper or another, thereby denying responsibility for asking the nonsense, claiming that it was in the papers and not from him. Darragh will at least ask follow on questions, something Bill was incapable of.
For my part, I'd rather he developed the knack of good debate rather than making himself likeable and everybody's chum.
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I don't think there is any tension between them to be honest. I seen Darragh have a few similar spikey moments with Dunphy recently as well. I think Dunphy being Dunphy was calling one of the managers a clown or something and Darragh pulled him up on it and wouldn't let it go when Dunphy tried to laugh it off. I think Darragh Maloney is a good presenter myself.
Darragh's very solid and isn't trying to be controversial in the old British style (a la Bill), though he does need to lighten up a bit. It'll come though, once he starts to realise his place int eh pecking order! :-)
I like Darragh. RTE could do a lot worse. Anyone ever watched football coverage on TV3? Morbid.
Also, I think John Giles' default expression just happens to coincide with the average dirty look. I reckon you could be his best mate, having the craic together and he'd be looking at you during the silences like you'd mentioned John Fitzpatrick.
John 'it was a 50 50 tackle, my leg wasn't broken and I played on' Fitzpatrick?
That's the chap.
I think Maloney is excellent. Eamon was banging on about Ronaldo never doing it against Barca not so long ago and Darragh told him he got the winner at he Nou Camp last season and has scored in his last three games against them (or something like that). Eamon just said something ridiculous like..."I know but before that I mean". The other night he asked the right questions also when Whelan and Giles were banging on about there being no point in playing the likes of Sammon and Cunningham when they won't be playing against Sweden. Darragh basically said "hold on, weren't ye complaining that he wasn't giving players a chance not so long ago, I mean what's he going to learn that he doesn't already know about Cox or Walters?". To be fair Giles eventually started making sense (after Whelan went completely off track avoiding the actual question) saying, "these players should have been tried out ages ago but now is the time to prepare for the Sweden game".*
*Lots of quotation marks but no exact quotes!
Agree with Delorean. Bill and co for years now have been asking the questions the people who have no interest in the Irish team want answered. How many times did you hear some random person who only watches at tournaments say something like "Trap is a disgrace...sure he won't select Stephen Ireland".
It was really refreshing to see Maloney call Ronnie's bluff and see Ronnie's expression of, "Oh crap...how will i get myself out of this one".
The unfortunate thing about years of Dunphyism is that aspiring soccere commentators in Ireland see that being sensational is what gets them gigs. Giles as the resident 'Expert' has been saying the same thing for years now regardless of the performance. Nothing Giles or Dunphy suggest as solutions to our problems, when tested, have actually been solutions.
Maloney is of a younger, tech-savvy generation. I'd say he does a fair amount of his research online (online media, forums and the blogosphere) rather than rely heavily on opinion in the mainstream printed media. Where do Bill, Dunphy and Giles do their research on the latest debates and issues in Irish football?
It has dawned on ITV which RTE realised 25 years ago. Get a pundit who will shout his mouth off and you get viewers watching:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...-a-pundit.html
Interesting comments about Keane and the Charlton era as well.
It's funny reading that. Keane is in a Souness role rather than Dunphy.