Given
Finnan McShane Josh Kilbane
Miller Carsley Reid McGeady
Keane Doyle
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Given
Finnan McShane Josh Kilbane
Miller Carsley Reid McGeady
Keane Doyle
no complaints there is there?.....Givens for Ireland manager!!!!!
Not a bad side, Kilbane at left full can cover for McGeady's lack of defensive acumen, Miller is not a right winger, but if he stays in midfield, it'll mean Finnan can get forward to deliver crosses.
Ireland in predictable and normal team selection shocker!
More or less anyway. Hunt could have been in McGeady's place and maybe McGeady in Miller's.
Hunt as impact sub and we should be ok. Miller needs to step up and demand more of the ball.
I worry for us if Kilbane is the only left full we have though....keep an eye on him on Saturday and I guarantee you that 99% of the time he'll be tucked in on top of the CB's practically playing as a third centre half, his positioning is woeful...we need a decent LB to emerge and we need it quickly (O'Halloran anyone??)
Apart from that can't complain actually!! :eek: :)
In fairness most of the team was ineffective against Cyprus, I'd still play him ahead of McGeady or Miller
How keane still gets his game is behond me.......how many sitters does he have to miss......:confused:
Givens out!
That line up has a decent chance of keeping a clean sheet ...though JOS is a slight worry for me though he really only has Earnshaw to contend with. All in all I'll call a scoreless draw thus ensuring my pre-summer prediction that we'd only pick up 3 of the last 15 points on offer is destroyed by our picking a mightier 4 points from 15 on offer.
suspended i think
Where have you been, he is suspended.
The Republic of Ireland starting team to face Wales tomorrow in Cardiff (3pm) has been announced by caretaker manager Don Givens.
Ireland will conclude their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign looking to consolidate third place in the group.
Shay Given has recovered from his recent groin injury to take up his position in goal. Steve Finnan and Kevin Kilbane have been selected as the full-backs, with John O'Shea partnering Paul McShane in central-defence.
The midfield quartet will be Liam Miller, Lee Carsley, Andy Reid and Aiden McGeady while Kevin Doyle will play alongside captain Robbie Keane in attack.
Givens said today he hoped that Aiden McGeady would carry his recent form at club level into tomorrow's game.
"I watched Aiden play for Celtic against Benfica and he destroyed them from his attacking position. He's a lad with great technical ability and he's starting to apply it. Hopefully that will give him the confidence to do the same to the Welsh defenders tomorrow."
The Under-21 manager also insisted that Stephen Hunt was unlucky to miss out on a starting position but could be brought in to affect the play.
"I think that we'll be more solid with Lee Miller in one of the wide positions. I felt we could be exposed slightly if we used both Aiden and Stephen as the two wingers. That was my thinking behind that. But the option is there for Hunty to come in, if needed."
He added: "There is a lot to play for in tomorrow's game. The players are going into the game in a positive frame of mind."
Captain Robbie Keane, who has overcome a foot injury to play, said: "This game gives the players the opportunity to get some pride back in the country. We need to stand up and be counted.
"I can feel the injury a tiny bit but it won't stop me from playing. I missed the training session yesterday but I feel okay now."
The team is: Given (Newcastle United), Finnan (Liverpool), O'Shea (Manchester United), McShane (Sunderland), Kilbane (Wigan), Miller (Sunderland), Carsley (Everton), A. Reid (Charlton Athletic), McGeady (Celtic), Keane (Spurs), K. Doyle (Reading).
I hope Lee Miller does the business.
Sigh! Apparently for Keane, he must now only score in important matches and anything else is irrelevant. So who is going to score in the other games :confused:
If Robbie never scored another goal for the rest of his life, that goal against Germany and the peno against Spain will remain with me forever. Our greatest scorer ever but apparent he must now only score against top teams, otherwise he's rubbish. Young people of Ireland, I love you :rolleyes:
The vast majority of Irish fans would be content if he scored at all and not just exclusively against 'top teams'. You can look back with all the dewy eyed mysticism you want at the world cup in 2002 but it doesn't change the fact when Ireland needed him most and the heat was on in the last five years, he dissapointed.
Not trying to defned him but just to put it in context you are saying in the last fiver years we needed him the most, why did we need him the most because we had an average team and I use the word team there as I dont think we had average players. So as a result the team was not performing it is very hard if not impossible for a player to play even better when playing upfront for an average team.
The reason he has not produced for Ireland is that he is part of the problem that the team have not been performing so therefore it makes it hard for him to perform. A vicious cirble that can only be sorted by a top class manager and players willing to learn and do whatever is necessary for the jersey.
Surely any left back, as a left back, would cover for a left midfielder's lack of defensive acumen? Understand if he was playing a 4-3-2-1 with Mcgeady on the left of the 2 and you said Kilbane was on the left of the 3 to cover for McGeady's lack of defensive acumen.
Anyway, Mcgeady does do a lot of chasing back, the only problem is that a lot of the chasing back is because he left the ball behind him going forward !
on paper that team looks a lot stronger than the Welsh 11. Watch us go and get thrashed now..... :(
Well Robbies just equalised 1-1.
Nothing game though, can't read anything in to it.
Keano
Yes!!!!!! 2:1
Hunt makes immediate impact and puts Doyle in to score.
tempting fate i know but would this be our best competitive away win for 20 years?????
nice one McShane, it was outside the box but how you think you can grapple with someone like that is beyond me. Can we hold on to a ******* lead???
Given 8
Finnan 6
Kilbane 5
McShane 5
O'Shea 5
Carsley 6
A Reid 7
Miller 4
McGeady 7.5
Keane 7.5
Doyle 8
Subs
Hunt 8
Penalty decision was thoroughly dubious but we deserved at least a point from the game. For the first 15 minutes of the second half it was one way traffic, and your goal to make it 2-1 was against the run of play.
Given was absolutely brilliant and stopped us from scoring more, but we were crap defensively too (cough, Gabbidon) so it could have been 6-6 at the end.
One thing you can say is that it was a much better game than the one in Dublin. Both sides seemed to actually want to win instead of not losing.