Republic of Ireland V Poland - Sunday, 29th March 2015 - Euro 2016 Qualifier

It's not often someone would say this on here, but I almost entirely agree with TOWK on that one. Paul Green is flying in the Championship this year and is every bit deserving of a place as anyone else.

There's a handful of players in that squad with less than 10 competitive appearances in all competitions with their clubs since August.

There's no need for 5 goalkeepers. Provisional squad or not.

A handful of injured players in the squad is nonsense.

I don't agree that League One players should be called up. If you're going down that route, then call up Keith Fahey, Colin Healy, Chris Forrester and a few League of Ireland players.

Damien Delaney missing out is a bit of a strange one alright, but in fairness, he'll be 34 in a couple of months.

Positive to see Harry Arter involved though after a good season with Bournemouth.

It seems MON has just decided he's going to name a GAA style panel for every qualifier - I don't agree, I think it's a barmy on paper. But maybe he's decided to avoid any Trap style confusion by telling a huge amount of players that they're in the mix.

I still don't agree.

As for injuries, that'll thin things out. And lack of playing time or not, it's hardly surprising Ward and Quinn are in there given they've been a big part of qualifying so far.

The selection isn't too exciting but I think it's a bit far fetched to expect a raft of inclusions for reasons such as getting a move to a Championship club, and then discounting guys that have been solid performers at that level for years. In an emergency, MON probably wants to fall back on guys who have the experience to come in at the drop of a hat, and not have to place some random punt on kids (or others) that have showed a bit of promise in the lower leagues. He's already incorporated Christie and McGoldrick into his plans and now he's shown that Harry Arter is on the radar. I don't have a major problem with him waiting for the others to prove something substantial at club level before earning their call up. That's not to say one or two more shoudn't have been called up. The Delaney thing is a pointless discussion at this stage, everybody knows he should be in and, it seems, only Martin knows why he's not.

"Jack Grealish was an unsurprising absentee from the sheet given the uncertainty that surrounds his future and Tim Sherwood's suggestion that the player might be leaning towards England.

When it was put to O'Neill that it looked as though there have been no fresh developments, he replied: "It would be pretty safe to say that.""

When did Sherwood say this?

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

When did Sherwood say this?

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A few days ago, but we aren't allowed to talk about it ;)

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

It's not often someone would say this on here, but I almost entirely agree with TOWK on that one. Paul Green is flying in the Championship this year and is every bit deserving of a place as anyone else.

There's a handful of players in that squad with less than 10 competitive appearances in all competitions with their clubs since August.

There's no need for 5 goalkeepers. Provisional squad or not.

A handful of injured players in the squad is nonsense.

I don't agree that League One players should be called up. If you're going down that route, then call up Keith Fahey, Colin Healy, Chris Forrester and a few League of Ireland players.

Damien Delaney missing out is a bit of a strange one alright, but in fairness, he'll be 34 in a couple of months.

Positive to see Harry Arter involved though after a good season with Bournemouth.

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Some good points made, are we progressing under MON?

Sadly I don't see it myself!

Good to see Arter involved. Nothing too surprising otherwise.

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

When it was put to O'Neill that it looked as though there have been no fresh developments, he replied: "It would be pretty safe to say that."

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Not wishing to open a debate - simply seeking clarification - but did O'Neill say that as in it would be pretty safe to say there have been no fresh developments (i.e. Sherwood was getting ahead of himself) or as in it would be pretty safe to say that Sherwood suggested correctly? Surely the journalist was being a bit mischievous there in name-checking said player considering there's no certainty he'd be in our squad otherwise.

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Originally Posted by the doc

Some good points made, are we progressing under MON?

Sadly I don't see it myself!

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There'll be no progress until St. Ledger is selected, no doubt.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

full squad announced: http://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/o%E2%...or-poland-game
apparently nobody at the FAI has figured out HTML tables either

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Has Forde really only got 12 caps?

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Originally Posted by Fixer82

Has Forde really only got 12 caps?

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Yes, it is true.

Scratch that. Just looked through, stats are way off. Says Alex Pearce has no goals when I distinctly remember him scoring V Oman in Craven Cottage. To say i am shocked and horrified is an understatement!!! :think:

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Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks

Yes, it is true.

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According to Wikipedia he has 23 caps

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Originally Posted by Fixer82

According to Wikipedia he has 23 caps

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That's the last time i trust the FAI website.

Was thinking 12 was suspiciously low.

Just watching Everton game. McCarthy didn't look too sharp for Kiev's goal.
Am I the only one that thinks, while a good player, Macca is a wee bit overrated?

Yeah, he was asleep for that one.

Lovely, reactive finish by Gusev though.

I haven't really seen the goal properly but was it definitely his fault? It kind of looked to me like McCarthy was covering the near post but moved towards Gusev when he saw he was free and approaching the ball, obviously it was too late at that stage as Gusev got their first and finished brilliantly. Was he McCarthy's man to begin with? Like I say, I'd need to see it again.

He was Barry's(?) man. McCarthy's duty was to cover the front post.

Yeah looks like he was Barry's man. Maybe McCarthy should have stayed on the post but definitely couldn't accuse him of being asleep... too awake if anything!

Poland squad for Ireland match:

KEEPERS: Boruc (Bournemouth), Fabianski (Swansea), Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal)

DEFENDERS: Cionek (Modena), Glik (Torino), Janicki, Wojtkowiak, Wawrzyniak (L Gdansk), Komorowski (Terek Grozny), Olkowski (Cologne), Szukala (Al-Ittihad).

MIDFIELDERS/FORWARDS: Gajos (Jagiellonia Bialystok), Jodlowiec, Zyro (Legia Warsaw), Krychowiak (Sevilla), Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Linetty (Lech Poznan), Mila (L Gdansk), Milik (Ajax), Peszko (Cologne), Rybus (Terek Grozny), Teodorczyk (D Kiev).


From the Polish team that played Scotland, 2 of their starting 4 defenders will be absent ie. Pisczcek (injured), Jedrzejczyk (injured) ie. their right & left backs. Grosicki of Rennes who started in midfield v Scotland is out with injury. Also some Polish website says Milik isn't match fit as he is just back from a hamstring injury & Rybus isn't match fit with the Russian league only returning from the Winter break last week. Fabianski is tipped to start in goals due to Szczesny's lack of game time. Everything is in our favour. We won't get a better opportunity.

http://eurosport.onet.pl/pilka-nozna...wskiego/j8d63g

Kuba Blaszczykowski out of Ireland game.

I found this interesting.

"- Every coach has the right to his vision, and I hope that the result will defend Nawałka. In my opinion for this decision does not stand still, health and sports. It has long been said that Lewandowski from Błaszczykowskim do not like each other, and it seems to me that the coach wanted to avoid corruption of the atmosphere in the locker room and the destruction of a hierarchy in the team. But Robert took over the band just after Cuba, and the latter certainly was not happy with the fact that it was deprived of the master function - assessed".

A training game against as yet unknown opponents is likely to be arranged for midweek.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/socc...s-make-5325779

O'Neill has a few curious things to say about other subjects too..