Originally Posted by
brine3
He was bloody good then. I would say his peak was between 2001 - 2004. He's one of those players who peaked early. I remember seeing him when he broke into the Man Utd team in 2001-2002 and failing to understand how he wasn't in the World Cup squad.
Ian Harte was a liability for much of the 2002 World Cup. We didn't really have anybody take his place at left-back. Stan's pace was too much gone for playing at left-back. We could have had O'Shea at left-back, and that would also have allowed us to play Duff on the wing instead of having Kilbane cover for Duff. Steven Reid was also really good back then (pre-injury), but Mick stayed loyal to McAteer (when he was clearly injured) and Gary Kelly (who was off the boil).
Below is a possible 2002 Starting XI in an alternate universe, which would have put Duff out on the left where he could do maximum damage, and taken advantage of the fact that we had three class central midfielders (play them all! we were always dropping one of Kinsella or Holland... Mick not being able to accommodate multiple top players is a recurring theme).
Given
Finnan - Cunningham - Breen - O'Shea
Reid - Kinsella - Keane - Holland - Duff
Keane
There has always been too much of loyalty to existing players in the Ireland squad and it has done my head in for years. Not just by Mick but by all managers. Places in the team should be continually earned, there should be no favouritism.