Ireland v Wales - Post Match Thread

I thought the second half was really poor and we could not keep the ball at any time. I think we paid too much respect by playing Douglas and Carsley in the centre and it was madness to play Ireland on the right wing. I have no problem going with an attacking 4 5 1 on Wednesday night with Hunt on instead of Kilbane Doyle on instead of Keane and Alan Quinn on instead of Douglas. Dont think this will happen but I think Quinn and Ireland would keep the ball far better than Douglas and Carsley would.

Keane had a decent game but again he is not a striker his is a support stirker and it would be like playing Brian O Driscoll on the wing for Ireland in rugby. He should not be played out of position. But him Duff and Ireland provided the only piece of quality and imagination in the game for Ireland. Dunne and Mc Shane were solid. But Finnan and O Shea were very poor with the ball and not bad without it.

This thing about players not trying, I dont buy at all. It did not seem like that to me on Saturday but it was a game without any midfield creators. Simon Davies and Stephen Ireland were the only midfield players who played with their heads up. Ireland is becoming and important player for us and we need to play him just behind Doyle with Hunt and Duff on the wings. I think we can win on Wed but we need to keep th eball a whole lot better.

Poor match. I thought we were the better team but only because Wales were ****e. No one stood out as brilliant except Hunt.

Keane is out for wednesday which is refreshing as he is more frustrating by the day. Give one of the other lads a shot up front and keep Duff away from the striker position. Staunton is clueless and I expect to be beaten on wednesday.

Poor show again.

:(

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Originally Posted by livehead1

One final point:
Ireland have 10 points from 6 games.
England have 8 points from 5 games.

I here very few people in the English media calling for Steven MacClaren's head...

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not true, if ye read the tabloids here

ireland aslo played san marino twice, 6 points, jeez where do ye guys come from, a hole in the ground:rolleyes:

The abuse of the team on here is way over the top.Anyone would think its only since stan came in that we have had ****e performances by Irish Team.I remember many unbelievably poor games in our golden era where not alone did we play ****e but we didnt win.

The media driven hate campaign is nothing short of disgraceful and yesterdays sindo made me ashamed to be Irish from its front page rabid headline to its over the top attack by a journalist who is only in the job because his ponce of a father is the editor.

I will be at the game on wednesday and cheering Ireland from First to final whistle and anyone thats just going there to abuse the team and Manager id say stay at home if thats all your interested in.

We have had the last 2 managers chased out by a rabid media why dont the silent majority stand up to the bully boys enough is enough or have we even sunk lower tahn the scum across the pond.

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Originally Posted by gufct

The abuse of the team on here is way over the top.Anyone would think its only since stan came in that we have had ****e performances by Irish Team.I remember many unbelievably poor games in our golden era where not alone did we play ****e but we didnt win.

The media driven hate campaign is nothing short of disgraceful and yesterdays sindo made me ashamed to be Irish from its front page rabid headline to its over the top attack by a journalist who is only in the job because his ponce of a father is the editor.

I will be at the game on wednesday and cheering Ireland from First to final whistle and anyone thats just going there to abuse the team and Manager id say stay at home if thats all your interested in.

We have had the last 2 managers chased out by a rabid media why dont the silent majority stand up to the bully boys enough is enough or have we even sunk lower tahn the scum across the pond.

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Where have you been the last six months?

We have been hammered by Holland and Cyprus, couldn't muster an attack against Germany, struggled to beat the worst team in Europe and stopped playing at half time against a brutal Welsh team.

We are sh!t. Extremely sh!t. And every fan who goes to Croke park are there to cheer on the team. Its not their fault that the players can't even string three or four decent passes together against shoddy footballing nations.

I was actually at all the games bar San Marino away. But im a pure thick Irish Supporter not well informed like Dion Fanning and Roy Curtis.

I think whether you abuse the team or support the team has got nothilng to do with how many games you go to. There are guys that go to every game that support the team and cheer them no matter what and there are guys that go to every game that were hurling loads of abuse at the team at the end in San Marino. None of these are Ole Ole supports. Football is about opinions and I think too often on this forum, if someone does not agree with another persons opinion they accuse the other person of being an Ole Ole fan. There are people on here who spend loads of money going to games all around Europe and to games all around Ireland and they are all entitled to either cheer their team on or to hurl abuse in frusrtation also.


Having said that and Kerr said it today there were quite a number of "out for the day!" people at the game on Saturday but that is always going to happen in a larger ground.

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Originally Posted by gufct

I was actually at all the games bar San Marino away. But im a pure thick Irish Supporter not well informed like Dion Fanning and Roy Curtis.

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Fair enough. But the players and the manager deserve the criticism they are getting. They have brought us into a black hole and it is upto them to get us out.

p.s. Roy Curtis is a grade A ****.

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Originally Posted by gufct

The abuse of the team on here is way over the top.Anyone would think its only since stan came in that we have had ****e performances by Irish Team.I remember many unbelievably poor games in our golden era where not alone did we play ****e but we didnt win.

The media driven hate campaign is nothing short of disgraceful and yesterdays sindo made me ashamed to be Irish from its front page rabid headline to its over the top attack by a journalist who is only in the job because his ponce of a father is the editor.

I will be at the game on wednesday and cheering Ireland from First to final whistle and anyone thats just going there to abuse the team and Manager id say stay at home if thats all your interested in.

We have had the last 2 managers chased out by a rabid media why dont the silent majority stand up to the bully boys enough is enough or have we even sunk lower tahn the scum across the pond.

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This has nothing to do with a media driven campaign. Stan is a ****e manager, its unfortunate but true. Given the guys playing record with Ireland and in England I'd have thought he might do ok but how wrong I was. We were beateb 5-2 by Cyprus and almost held by San Marino. This has nothing to do with a media campaign and everything to do with Sans failure as a manager.

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Originally Posted by Torn-Ado

Fair enough. But the players and the manager deserve the criticism they are getting. They have brought us into a black hole and it is upto them to get us out.

p.s. Roy Curtis is a grade A ****.

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But knocking them all the time is not going to do much for their confidence.If you were a player how would you like to face the Personalised abuse that Stan and Robbie Keane have got on here in the last 9 months.

IF and its a big IF we win on Wednesday we have every chance of finishing second in the group and I for one would be more than happy with that but will certain sections of our media (Dunphy,Fanning & Curtis ) be happy with that.

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Originally Posted by youngirish

Great he passed the ball a few yards to Ireland who still had it all to do. Through ball me bo**ox. Kilbane could have made that pass. Ireland made that goal himself..

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See what I mean about not giving credit where credit is due. It was a nice through ball to Ireland. If it was so easy who else provided such a ball for the rest of the game?

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Originally Posted by youngirish

He was on the floor everytime he went for the ball. What about his chance where Kilbane played it through to him 6 yards from an open goal? On his ar*e. Also he could have cost us the game at the end by his silly idiotic play outside the box when he gave away possesion whicc resulted in Giggs crap freekick. Would you be singing his praises then? I expect more responsible play from the captain than giving away a needless freekick at the edge of our box in the last few minutes of the game...

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Exaggeration "on the floor everytime". He also made a good run to get in on goal but his finishing was poor and yes he gave the ball away carelessly in the last minute. I am not "singing his praises". I am defending him against the snide attacks of you and others who seem to think he's not doing his best. He worked very hard as the sole striker and had the assist in the goal.

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Originally Posted by youngirish

Watch it on telly next time man you must have been singing Ole Ole Ole and moaning about the atmosphere for most of the match instead of watching the game....

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Sonny boy, I have been following Ireland since you were in nappies and am not a member of the Ole Ole brigade. I don't need to watch it on tv. I was at the game supporting the team, not jeering or mocking our players. Defensively we did well and Bellamy and Giggs were kept quiet by both full backs (even O'Shea). We have a medicore midfield and alas that is at the core of our problems.

I think I'd prefer to go back to the days when real supporters went to the games instead of the large batch of moaning minnies we now get who think we should be playing like Brazil despite having some pretty average players in the side. I think all the players do their best. Some like Kilbane and O'Shea are not international class but I won't jeer and mock them. Strangely enough I think supporters should support, although this will come as a shock to some.

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Originally Posted by gufct

But knocking them all the time is not going to do much for their confidence.If you were a player how would you like to face the Personalised abuse that Stan and Robbie Keane have got on here in the last 9 months.

IF and its a big IF we win on Wednesday we have every chance of finishing second in the group and I for one would be more than happy with that but will certain sections of our media (Dunphy,Fanning & Curtis ) be happy with that.

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You play bad, you get criticised. Its simple as that and ithappens in every sport in every country in the world.

I'd rather they got criticised than the players believing that they are still as good as they think. Players like Keane and Duff were beginning to believe their own hype. They were brought down to earth with a bang.

Play bad:Expect criticism.

Simple logic.

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Originally Posted by gufct

But knocking them all the time is not going to do much for their confidence.If you were a player how would you like to face the Personalised abuse that Stan and Robbie Keane have got on here in the last 9 months.

IF and its a big IF we win on Wednesday we have every chance of finishing second in the group and I for one would be more than happy with that but will certain sections of our media (Dunphy,Fanning & Curtis ) be happy with that.

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Well thats the business these guys are in. This is the biggest sport in the world and as such comes under the most scrutiny and they haven't been performing so they have to accept the criticism, their massive pay packets should help to soften the blow somewhat.

After the Cyprus debacle we played the Czechs and the team got far more support and backing than they deserved given the circumstances and how did they repay us, with more dross against San Marino and we needed a last minute goal from one of our youngsters to rescue the situation. So then we rightly expect something more against Wales who aren't any better than Cyprus and we don't get it, instead we get more disjointed football and negative selection and tactics. People can blame the crowd for a lack of atmosphere but the crowd need to be entertained, they need to see something to get excited about. Stans lucky it was such a nice day on Saturday cos had it been 2 degrees, ****ing rain and blowing a gale the mood would probably have taken a turn for the worse.

You say yourself its a big IF, well I'd say its a massive IF and if the Slovaks are anyway decent they should stroll out of Croker with the 3 points, they'll have seen the Czechs stupidly settle for a draw and they'll know they can make ground here.

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Originally Posted by gufct

The abuse of the team on here is way over the top.Anyone would think its only since stan came in that we have had ****e performances by Irish Team.I remember many unbelievably poor games in our golden era where not alone did we play ****e but we didnt win.

The media driven hate campaign is nothing short of disgraceful and yesterdays sindo made me ashamed to be Irish from its front page rabid headline to its over the top attack by a journalist who is only in the job because his ponce of a father is the editor.

I will be at the game on wednesday and cheering Ireland from First to final whistle and anyone thats just going there to abuse the team and Manager id say stay at home if thats all your interested in.

We have had the last 2 managers chased out by a rabid media why dont the silent majority stand up to the bully boys enough is enough or have we even sunk lower tahn the scum across the pond.

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POTM.

I still think there's nothing wrong with the team that 2 good midfielders wouldn't sort out.

You can blame O'Shea all night long but any time he had the ball I looked to see who was showing for it. Nobody was, and if anyone did he didn't have the touch to control it anyway. He had no option but to hoof it up the wing most of the time.

Wales passed the ball well, why couldn't we?

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

I still think there's nothing wrong with the team that 2 good midfielders wouldn't sort out.

You can blame O'Shea all night long but any time he had the ball I looked to see who was showing for it. Nobody was, and if anyone did he didn't have the touch to control it anyway. He had no option but to hoof it up the wing most of the time.

Wales passed the ball well, why couldn't we?

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Thats very true, Carsley and Douglas had to take some responsibility and didn't. I'd be happy to see Carsley alongside Stephen Ireland because with Carsley being purely defensive and offering little or nothing on the ball surely can afford to accomodate a ball player beside him. Hopefully we can scrape a win on Wednesday (unlikely) and come September we should have the Reids back who are at least options there, Steven Reid in particular.

Yeah I think in this country we have a fear of ball players. Do arsenal think that Fabregas is too lightweight. Football is nearly a non contact sport at this stage and I think you can get away with players like Ireland in your midfield whereas before players were not as protected as they are now. Get passers in midfield and we wiill get the best out of Duff and Keane and Doyle.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

I still think there's nothing wrong with the team that 2 good midfielders wouldn't sort out.

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Yeah I agree, we've very little strength in depth in that area. The 2 Reid's are huge misses for us. With everyone fit I'd try...

--------------Given---------------
Finnan---Dunne---McShane---O'Shea
-------------Carsley---------------
---------Reid-------Reid-----------
--Keane-------------------Duff----
--------------Doyle---------------

Yeah I like that team with the exception of O Shea. A bit harsh on Ireland too. I said from the start that he will score goals for us.

Stan's tactics now are a result (literally) of the Cyprus game. Think back to the team we had out that night. It looked like a very attacking team. But McGeady and Ireland in midfield was a disaster. We got hammered. I don't blame either player for the 5-2 but now we have Stan doing the complete opposite in playing Carsley and Douglas in midfield with Ireland on the wing. If we win again on Wednesday (which I firmly believe we will do) then this is the way we are going to play for awhile. It is awful to watch but this is what happens when you have a manager under siege.