Cant be many Omanis in London, so wont expect many at this match..
Will go along hopefully see some of the players who will be playing for Ireland when Trap fups off..
Cant be many Omanis in London, so wont expect many at this match..
Will go along hopefully see some of the players who will be playing for Ireland when Trap fups off..
Westwood
O'Shea O'Dea St Ledger Wilson
McCarthy Andrews (if ban is over)
McGready Long McClean
Doyle
That should be the team
Andrews hasn't been called up, has he? Even if his ban wasn't up, he wouldn't be banned for a friendly anyway. O'Dea is gone back to Toronto so it'll probably be O'Shea/St Ledger in the centre and Kelly perhaps on the right.
Trapattoni's team :
Westwood
McShane O'Dea St. Ledger Ward
Keogh Whelan McCarthy Cox
Doyle Long
Keane, O'Dea, O'Shea, Whelan and Walters seem to have been excused from Tuesday's game so there will be a couple of changes from that team. I'm surprised that McGeady wasn't released as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapAPony
Hopefully, McClean will be given a game after apologising to his team-mates today for that tweet.
I think the squad now looks like this:
Westwood, Forde, Randolph, Wilson, St Ledger, Ward, Kelly, McShane, Gibson, McCarthy, Coleman, O’Brien, McGeady, Keogh, McClean, Doyle, Long, Cox & Robbie Brady
Westwood
Kelly McShane St Ledger Ward
Long McCarthy O'Brien McGeady
Walters Doyle
What I'd like to see from that.Quote:
Originally Posted by EastTerracer
Westwood
Coleman, Kelly, St Ledger, Wilson
McGeady, McCarthy, Meyler, McClean
Doyle, Long
What we'll probably see...
Westwood
McShane, Kelly, St Ledger, Ward
Keogh, O'Brien, McCarthy, McGeady
Doyle, Cox
Alex Pearce was been called up now
Apparently, Robbie Keane, Darren O'Dea, John O'Shea, Jon Walters & Glenn Whelan have all been released, with Robbie Brady and Alex Pearce called up.
I'd hope:
Westwood
Kelly Pearce St. Ledger Wilson
Coleman McCarthy Meyler McClean
Doyle Long
With maybe McGeady behind Long or something such similar. But I imagine Cox will start.
is there any chance pilkington will be called up?
Pearce will likely go straight in and be impossible to displace. Traps a bit weird like that.
I get the feeling Pilkington isn't the most committed to the Irish cause.Quote:
Originally Posted by liamoo11
Depends on his international clearance I'd have thought? He can play on Tuesday because it's a friendly but getting his papers in order could take a bit longer. All it takes is one claim from the IFA...Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
Clark, Pilkington and Hoolahan should be invited to train with the squad. London isn't far, and it would suit them better than dragging them to Astana with no chance of playing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
I don't think Trap will ditch the new system that quickly, nor do i think he should. I can see personnel changes being made that will be carried through for Faroes though. Based on that squad I would like to seeQuote:
Originally Posted by EastTerracer
------------------- Randolph -------------------
Coleman ----- Sledge ------- Pearce ----- Wilson
----------- McCarthy ----- O'Brien -------------
-------- Brady --- McClean --- McGeady --------
-------------------- Doyle ----------------------
though I suspect we are more likely to get westwood in place of Randolph, Kelly in place of Coleman and McShane in place of Pearce.
Be interesting to see Brady get a run (though I doubt he will; he's just being promoted for the experience, which is fair enough).
But a bit disappointing that he's in ahead of the likes of Hoolahan in particular (assuming he's not injured)
Re the Omani's: there was an Omani boat in Dún Laoghaire this week as part of MOD70 European Tour. Spied a few of the crew whilst having my break in the Royal Marine Hotel on Thursday.
Saw their boat down by the East Pier too.
Have a gander here...
http://afloat.ie/port-news/dun-laogh...-on-dublin-bay
I thought the coincidence was quite something.
I have never been less enthused about an Ireland game despite an offer of free tickets...
Given that we have a campaign defining week next month and have been playing very poorly recently shouldn't we be playing our first team for this with a view to getting them prepared for Germany rather than testing a bunch of fringe players who won't feature?
given the complaints about not bringing fringe players into the starting XI, isn't it better to give them a run in a friendly, rather than not having any other options against Germany?
Our "full-strength" side have been gash. We NEED to change it around.Quote:
Originally Posted by Murfinator
He's not going to make 7 changes for the German match. If he wants changes the best way to test and integrate them would be to make 2 or 3 changes within the template of the full strength team. Change everything and its hard to learn anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
No one is saying that he has to change everything. but it's not beyond the realms of logic to, I dunno, put a winger on the wing and drop Glenn Whelan and Wardy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Murfinator
Whelan is currently the most disliked player on here I think. JOSH, take solace.
I still think Wardy edges him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
There's nothing wrong with that but this Oman game is the perfect game to do that. So why isn't he starting the same team minus Whelan, Ward and Cox? We might actually learn something useful if he did that, we'll learn nothing from a reserve team.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
I honestly didn't think Whelan was that bad against Kazakhstan. He didn't have much chance to get on the ball, but he held onto it much of the time he did (bar one or two sloppy passes). I think it was tough to assert himself on the game and if one player is going to be dropped for Andrews, it will be McCarthy. Partly due to Trap's favour for Whelan but also because Andrews and McCarthy are somewhat similar in terms of their roles (even though McCarthy is more gifted, obviously but whether he can apply this against Germany when Andrews has done so against, for instance, France).
It's such a pity that when discussing the merits of a player in a starting line-up, the overriding factor in the context of the discussion is Trap's favour. This would be fine were Trap's favour in line with reality.
Ward is a definite weak link in defence. Gives away far too many free kicks as a result of his poor positional sense. I hope Cunningham can step up soon.
Any thoughts of us playing a central 3 in defence rather than obsessing with a makeshift 4?
It would allow us 5 in the middle.
I've always loved 3 at the back but I don't expect to ever see an Irish side do it.
We played 3 at the back for a while under McCarthy around 1996/7. Didn't help himself by playing Irwin and Keane (at different times) as centre-backs, but it really didn't work, we were all over the place. It was scrapped after the defeat in Macedonia, reverted to a back four thereafter.
I think it didn't work SF for a reason you've touched on - we had excellent, world class full backs at the time and a scarcity of genuine wing backs. It might be different now but I don't know that it's the solution.
Ward isn't a great defender but he helped create a chance for McGeady to stick in a good cross by actually running at the Kazahks. I wish we'd done more of that. I think the next time it happened, it was Doyle and we got a goal out of it.
With the scarcity of proper 21st century FBs we need a solution. 4 isn't gonna work for that very reason. And if our FBs could defend consistently you would except it... But they don't.
With 5 in the middle it allows us McGeady and McClean on the wings. They're also very good tracking back as well which provides us with good cover in the FB channels. Id play a centralised three with McCarthy in the middle and Andrews between him and the back three.
Id put Hoolahan in front of McCarthy to complete the 5 and then flip a coin for the front two... :-P
Doesn't matter if we have 3, 2 or zero in central midfield they'll continue to only be there for defensive purposes so long as our gameplan is a long ball over their heads.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
I'm expecting a completely different back four from Kelly, OBrien, Pearce, Coleman McShane against Oman, plus many other squad players getting game time.
I think that would be good as it will give us options should we pick up injuries or suspensions during the qualifiers.
Stephen Henderson called in for Keiren Westwood
Out of interest, why would you have McClean in the middle instead of McGeady, who I would think is more suited to the role?Quote:
Originally Posted by backtowalsall
I wouldn't mind Cox starting. As a striker.
Meyler starting in midfield would be incredible, though.
Emmett Malone reckons Brady is going to start on the wing, with Coleman right-full, Marc Wilson at left back and David Meyler in midfield : http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...323799375.html
He suggests the side will be:
Forde
Coleman Kelly St Ledger/McShane Wilson
Brady McCarthy Meyler Keogh
Long Doyle
I am both surprised and intrigued.