Jesus how f***ing bad do you think we are if Germany hammer us after those results and performances against Scotland and Poland? You're like a broken record. Why buy tickets to a match if you know we are going to get Mullered? Give them to someone else.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Teams like Germany must have a field day playing us. Nice stadium, nice fans, nice players. No edge or any kind of belief whatsoever.
We're mediocre, Germany are better. Get Over It!
And if anyone's like a broken record...
;)
At least I expound on it a bit. You just say "we are sh*t" or "we are going to get hammered" or "it doesn't matter" repeatedly.
What kind of motivation tool is that? When you have a kid and he tells you that he gets picked last in PE, are you just going to tell him "you're ****, it doesn't matter"?
It doesn't matter, because;
a)It's true
b)Do you really think MO'N, RMK et al give two fecks what we think? They never have and probably never will...
So what?
Looked nearer 40k at it I must say.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter
Crowd was amazing. Fair play to them. I thought the ovation for their keeper was a moment of class.
Quite weird when his replacement got (jokingly) booed on. Maybe the crowd knew he was going to complete a personal clean sheet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
My mate had bets on Ireland to score 8, 9 and 10 goals. At 55 mins he texted me to say he was worried it'd be 11.
All things considered it was a great atmosphere. Fair play to the Gibraltar fans who travelled in good numbers considering there's only 30k who live there and made lots of noise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
I thought it slightly worrying how utterly ineffective and uncreative we were once Hoolahan (and Robbie) went off. The game changed completely. Gibraltar began to look OK actually after that point. We were relinquishing possession. They found themselves in possession more deep in our half, had a few chances and won a few corners; embarrassingly they could very easily have nicked a goal or two. Up until that point, it was a solid, professional performance and great to see us rack up such an amount. Especially pleased for Robbie further adding to his staggeringly impressive tally and McClean getting a brace. We learned something from the game in the sense that it demonstrated in such glaring fashion how influential or crucial a player in the mould of Hoolahan is to our creativity.
My mother and sister were visiting Manchester for the weekend; they're not avid football watchers, but they decided to watch as well. They were in genuine stitches laughing at the goalie's own goal. The standing ovation upon his exit had them nearly falling off their seats. Did it begin sarcastically or was it completely genuine? I was humoured myself by it so couldn't quite tell for sure.
The Poland-Germany result has really set the cat amongst the pigeons, so it will be intriguing as to how Martin approaches Tuesday now. I was only able to see the first half-hour of that game, but, considering the result and the German result against Scotland, we should have nothing to fear on Tuesday. It will frustrate me if we go for the negative option and try to shut up shop. I'd like to think Hoolahan will have some role to play.
I'm aware certain players smoke the odd cigarette when off-duty (Jack Wilshere, for example), and other players like Robert Prosinečki used to smoke regularly throughout their careers, but they were the good old days. Fitness and conditioning has moved on. To be smoking in public in your official gear the day before a competitive international qualifier is beyond unorofessional; it's farcical. Then again, I guess the guy is an amateur...Quote:
Originally Posted by tricky_colour
Even when Robbie scores a hat-trick, you have to find fault with him somewhere... You're truly unbelievable.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks
Pretty sure it was called for offside, even though O'Shea didn't appear to manage to get his head to it, although you could probably still consider him to have been interfering with play.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Part sarcastic, part genuine goodwill to a guy who was having a particularly bad time.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
In hindsight Robbie was right to take the penalty. It would have been a different story, perhaps, if he was on a fourth goal.
Saying a hat-trick is a formality for him is a compliment on my part. He has an astonishing record against bottom seeded teams. You only need to look at to how Daryl Murphy made minced meat of the chances presented to him to appreciate it more, granted Murphy may have been affected by an achilles problem.
In hindsight it probably would have been wiser to bring on Long and either Doyle or Walters to take advantage of the the tiring opposition. But our gameplan, tactics, personnel changes and concentration over the last third of games is continuing to be a slight worry under O'Neill. McGeady's last minute goal aside, the Georgians looked as likely to score as we did and we looked woefully unprepared to deal with it.
Keane is still the best option for days like yesterday but it's pretty optimistic to think he'll have an impact against Germany on the basis of any of his other appearances over the last two years. Pre-2011 Keane yes but not present day Keane.
But we're going to have to show blind faith on Tuesday as O'Neill seems to be pooh-poohing the idea of playing Hoolahan and Long and seems to have hinted at playing Jonathan Walters.
I was wondering the same, I.e., did he hint at starting Walters? He said Walters did very well in Tbilisi, that's all I heard but I took it to mean he'll be likely to start.
At any club has O'Neill ever not used a big guy / small guy partnership? He always liked a Sutton or Hartson or Heskey character, but was also blessed to have Larsson. Did he ever use Moravcik in tight away games? My recollection is that he trusted the likes of Moravcik and Miller, the lightweight but skillful types.
Btw, Hendrick didn't impress me at all yesterday. I'd have thought he'd have relished the chance yesterday but I barely noticed him.
Ya I agree with the point from di about oneill seeming a bit inept about making the right changes and changes to effect the game on the 65th to 70th min. It's kinda worrying and it's almost trapesque.
I also thought the same of hendrick. But i've felt for a while he has been bigged up more than he deserved. He has been pretty average in most of his games. I think some thought because of his age he would naturally improve but I haven't seen anything in the last year or so to suggest that. We seem to give too much credence to a young player coming in and their game improving through playing more games at senior level.
Just for sake of balance: was taking Wes off not wise in terms of keeping him fresh for Tuesday - even if he won't have a starting role? Also, I won't blame O'Neill for Doyle and Murphy looking ineffective. They should both be good enough to make their presence felt but neither took his chance. Ok, neither had Wes feeding them but still they made no impact. Keane showed his class in that position last night even though the standard of opponent was dreadful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingdom
I think that's the thing that really worried me. To be ineffectual is one thing but to be ineffectual against for all intents and purposes the worst team in the world is quite something.
Wrt Hendrick, I've seen him play much better and against better opposition. I don't think he's hyped up that much. He's a decent player but you wouldn't think so on yesterday's showing. Maybe still a bit rusty after his layoff?
Sometimes people play better v.better players, because they have to.
Inconsequential re.Tuesday, but hopefully can be some sort of 'impact' player later in the campaign?
Hendrick was actually worse than ineffective in the first half, he was very sloppy in possession and even seemed a bit nervous. Thought he had a better second half but nothing to write home about. Saying he's bigged up too much in a seriously dubious statement but he's better than he played yesterday. He could have been slightly rusty (maybe) and possibly a bit nervous, still pretty new to the Irish scene and it was probably a slightly unexpected start in his first really serious game, even if the opposition were less serious than his friendly outings. His club form did kick on to another level in the last year or so and he was excellent for us against Italy. He's got a lot of potential, if that's bigging him up to much then guilty as charged.