Republic of Ireland V Croatia - Wednesday, 10th August 2011 - Friendly

One thing of note last night was when whelan got the ball he looked and turned in a few angles to actually see about passing forwad instead of his usual passing backwards.

Ward didn't do anything for me.

Interesting Ilic on sky sports couldn't understand what robbie was doing half the time, coming so deep, said he should never be doing this as that is not the type of player he is and for a forward he should never be looking for the ball that deep and effectively nullifying himself. He also said he felt long had the look of a good strong mobile centre forward.

I really think we are begining to get a bit of luck though - which will help us no end in the next few months.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

MP, the FAI would have made a loss last night with only 15k at it so that blows that out of the water
Waste of time, the players didnt want to be there as they were watching themselves all night
the fans didnt care
it was utterly pointless

---

Utterly pointless to watch. But I don't think these are ever pointless for squad and management.

Worst game of football ever. Hurry back McGeady, put some life in this team - if Trap will let you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

MP, the FAI would have made a loss last night with only 15k at it so that blows that out of the water
Waste of time, the players didnt want to be there as they were watching themselves all night
the fans didnt care
it was utterly pointless

---

The game was broadcast live on Sky so that blows you out of the water. It's tv money which makes these game profitable plus gate money of around €600,000 wouldn't show a loss.

The game was not "utterly pointless". How many times do I have to say that friendlies are all about practice, getting the team together, trying things out, testing players like Ward, looking at Long and how he gels with Keane (plus game time for the latter!!), trying starting with Hunt out etc etc. Otherwise we would have gone a number of months without a game straight in to a vital competitive game. I was sitting right behind the team and Trappatoni and judging by the number of discussions he had with Tardelli throughout the game, much to the annoyance of the 4th official, they obviously found there were things of interest about the game. Given had an ice pack immediately applied to his thigh when he sat down.

A draw with the 8th highest ranked team in the world wasn't bad. I wasn't bored. In fact I quite enjoyed the game. Yet another game unbeaten since the Russian debacle.

far from pointless exercise in fact.
having not been together as a squad in about 10 weeks the 3 days together and match against decent opposition will actually be invaluable come 3 weeks time. the other "pointless" friendlies we played in May culminated in a very valuable 2 nil win in macedonia.
should we just turn up cold to our early september qualifiers? far better having the match than not

maybe an omen..... the last time we qualified for a finals we also played croatia in the august friendly in the month before

Also the Croats play similarly to Russia. Even if they were half-baked and in pre-season mode, it's a useful run-out.

Does no one care as well as my season ticket, I paid out #20 for this yesterday?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shep

August and pre-season time always seem to throw up bad games.Anyone remember a horrible home defeat to Austria in Jacks era around this time of year(think Tony Polster bagged a few)

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mypost

Yes we do remember. A qualifier in June 1995, and our second loss at Lansdowne in 10 years.

---

Back to back 3-1 losses to a poor Austria side (NI dicked them home and away in the same group). Dublin in June and Vienna in September. Even by standards of the day there was very serious unprofessionalism and derogation of duty involved -from the players and especially the managment.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

The game was broadcast live on Sky so that blows you out of the water. It's tv money which makes these game profitable plus gate money of around €600,000 wouldn't show a loss.

The game was not "utterly pointless".

---

I'm no great judge of crowds, but I would have guessed there to be 20-25k there at the game. The South Upper tier was sparse, but the rest of the ground had reasonable numbers.

The game was very poor, with barely a shot on target. At times it was played at walking pace. The Croat fans are good for atmosphere but I think they just gave up singing after half time, so poor was the fare offered. We need to win these games to improve the coefficient. It does tend to be forgotten amidst the poor atmospheres and the multi-substitutions killing the games, but then when we get stuck in average pots for draws, people complain why we're not higher up. Can't have it every way.

easily makes my top 10 worst games of all time.

Quick summary from me:

Shane Long looked lively. Great first touch at times.

Robbie also looked sharp. Hope he gets a new club soon.

The defence on the whole was solid.

Central midfield was muck. Gibson was mr invisibile.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Does no one care as well as my season ticket, I paid out #20 for this yesterday?

---

Sorry Paul you're on your own on this one. No one can condone that level of stupidity . . . .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mypost

I'm no great judge of crowds, but I would have guessed there to be 20-25k there at the game. The South Upper tier was sparse, but the rest of the ground had reasonable numbers.

The game was very poor, with barely a shot on target. At times it was played at walking pace. The Croat fans are good for atmosphere but I think they just gave up singing after half time, so poor was the fare offered. We need to win these games to improve the coefficient. It does tend to be forgotten amidst the poor atmospheres and the multi-substitutions killing the games, but then when we get stuck in average pots for draws, people complain why we're not higher up. Can't have it every way.

---

15,600 was the appx crowd given by Sky & RTE
They are not making it up...........

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mypost

I'm no great judge of crowds, but I would have guessed there to be 20-25k there at the game. The South Upper tier was sparse, but the rest of the ground had reasonable numbers.

The game was very poor, with barely a shot on target. At times it was played at walking pace. The Croat fans are good for atmosphere but I think they just gave up singing after half time, so poor was the fare offered. We need to win these games to improve the coefficient. It does tend to be forgotten amidst the poor atmospheres and the multi-substitutions killing the games, but then when we get stuck in average pots for draws, people complain why we're not higher up. Can't have it every way.

---

We have now identified, one thing, that you are no good at judging crowds.

THere will be quite a few like myself who are tied up with Season tickets/block booking who just cant/dont go. That would be an extra 1k max id say though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Interesting Ilic on sky sports couldn't understand what robbie was doing half the time, coming so deep, said he should never be doing this as that is not the type of player he is and for a forward he should never be looking for the ball that deep and effectively nullifying himself.

---

What do you make of that? I wouldn't agree with it at all actually.

Right I watched the highlights tonight knowing full well by their very nature the chaff was weeded out but, I can't really see what all the "most boring match ever" talk was about. I judge all games of a boring nature by the Norway 94 Scale and this was not next to near it.

There was a lot to talk about and debate however.

It's clear that Long needs to be played in the right position to get the best out of him and that position is not with Robbie.
Long is class but last night wasn't a good example of what he is capable of.
If he's allowed to be the main man we can get the best out of him.
By no stretch of the imagination would I suggest to dropping Robbie but we do need to start considering utilizing Long properly and maybe start considering our strike forces as pairs rather than individuals and last night would have been ideal but for Doyle's injury and Robbie needs the game time.
Long harried well but a lot of the time it was too far away from the Croatian goal to be his normally effective self.

I thought Ward played well and sprayed a couple of decent balls about. Definitely should be a strong consideration for LB now.
Duff was imperious as ever and we're really really going to miss him when that horrible day arrives.

The Honey Monster and Kelly did well and Sledge was very good. Leicester don't a great piece of business there.
All in all we had little to do in defence bar couple of lapses but they can easily be put down to early-season rustiness.

In the middle of the park though is where the problems are showing.
Whelan had a stormer and had one of his best games for us; made all the better by the nature of his partner.
Gibson was anonymous and he should've easily been sent-off for that challenge. The problem here is where does he fit in because its not in a 442 with us and I shudder to think what the Russians would do faced with him.
One always felt that if he was played behind a proper front 2 then maybe we could utilise his passing ability and get the odd shot here and there but that option isn't available to him with Ireland due to the dearth of CMs and Whelan couldn't do that job on his own and no one would expect him to.
And there's Andrews and Lawrence available when needed.
Maybe Josh? Hmmmmm...

Anyway all in all it was a useful exercise and will hold us in good stead come next month.
Thankfully the Slovakia game is next up.

EDIT: fixed spelling and grammar along with the expansion of a point or two.

I'd agree re:whelan as i mentioned earlier, but i put that down to pre-season and being given a lot more space, plus it was a friendly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

I judge all games of a boring nature by the Norway 94 Scale and this was not next to near it.

---

egypt in italy '90 for me, good lord. these friendlies should never be scoffed at - if we'd lost heavily to italy in belgium i'm sure a few more would be saying less meaningless friendlies please! if we'd throttled croatia with slick one-touch football the friendly would all of a sudden be as valuable as the u.s. fed's hoard of gold sitting under wall street.

but surely you learn more from difficult/tight games, or the management does at least. which players listened, which hid from the ball/play, which players were dogged even if limited by the lack of 'occasion'? wasn't it albert camus who said he learned everything about the morality of man from the game of football??

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

Gibson was anonymous

---

this just beggars belief.
the lad is being slowly but surely frozen out at utd and needed a big performance to either impress his current club or help find him a new one. his down right apparent lack of interest on tues baffled me. lost count of how many times he gave the ball away in very dangerous positions and contributed zero overall.
if andrews is out of slovakia and russia games o'shea (his own fitness permitting) has to start in ctre mid. russia especially will murder us if gibson starts in the middle.

I'd have josh at RB tbh.
Lawrence starting in the middle.
Unless Andrews is back.

Is there something up with Gibson, family problems etc?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BonnieShels

Lawrence starting in the middle.

---

lawrence looked really sluggish the last few games he played for us