Gibraltar V Republic of Ireland - Saturday, 23rd March 2019 - Euro 2020 Qualifier

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Originally Posted by samhaydenjr

The following realistic options all have fewer than ten caps:

Doherty, Stevens, Cunningham, Egan, Hourihane, Williams, Browne, Robinson, Maguire, Hogan, O'Brien, McGoldrick and Curtis.

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Doherty is in my team
Curtis is in my team

Stevens is 28
Cunningham is 28
Hourihane 28
Williams is 32
McGoldrick is 31
Collins is 28

It may be worth Involving Egan, Browne, Maguire & Hogan but for the older lads the reality is that if we are saying that getting 10 caps is the bar for establishing themselves with senior players ahead of them none of them are likely to get there before they are in their 30s.

If you've not been good enough to already be on 10 caps by the time you are in your mid 20 years there isn't any point investing time in trying to develop you as a player. The potential returns no longer represent value for the investment. They need to be able to hit the ground running if a chance comes their way but we shouldn't be giving guys like Hourihane the chance of the run out when a soft game like this comes up. At that age if they can't show up and perform in a proper qualifier they has no business being involved in international football.

I think Browne deserves a real chance. He is only 23 and chips in with quite a few goals from central midfield - something we need to improve upon. It's difficult to predict what type of formation McCarthy will go with; earlier comments of his seemed to rule out a 4-4-2. The idea of a 5-3-2 versus Gibraltar seems odd so perhaps a 4-3-3, in which case I'd expect something like

Randolph
Coleman Duffy Keogh Doherty
Browne Hendrick Brady
Long Maguire McClean

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

Doherty is in my team
Curtis is in my team

Stevens is 28
Cunningham is 28
Hourihane 28
Williams is 32
McGoldrick is 31
Collins is 28

It may be worth Involving Egan, Browne, Maguire & Hogan but for the older lads the reality is that if we are saying that getting 10 caps is the bar for establishing themselves with senior players ahead of them none of them are likely to get there before they are in their 30s.

If you've not been good enough to already be on 10 caps by the time you are in your mid 20 years there isn't any point investing time in trying to develop you as a player. The potential returns no longer represent value for the investment. They need to be able to hit the ground running if a chance comes their way but we shouldn't be giving guys like Hourihane the chance of the run out when a soft game like this comes up. At that age if they can't show up and perform in a proper qualifier they has no business being involved in international football.

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Yes I know you included Curtis and Doherty - I wanted to show the full list of players who need bedding in now, considering that this is actually the beginning of a qualifying campaign, with a crucial game three days later - it's not a time for major experimenting (particularly not with teenagers with no first team experience), rather it's a time for finalizing plans and we should only include players who are ready to play a serious role in these qualifiers. In fact I wouldn't have had any experimenting if it was possible, only that we've had a bunch or retirements and injuries and a few of these players have made serious strides over the last few months - I'm not saying they'll magically become better players with a game against Gibraltar. But behind our Premier League players, they are our next best options for filling a few holes and need to settle into Mick's system, whatever that is.

Of the list I gave, I would narrow down the list of players who should actually play to the following: Doherty, Stevens, Browne, McGoldrick, Robinson and Maguire, maybe Egan.

As regards writing off players who are 28, I would like to note that Jon Walters got around fifty caps and 13 of his 14 international goals after turning 29. As for McGoldrick, he is in his best form in years and due to retirements and injuries is clearly our number 2 or 3 striker going into the campaign. He's still within his peak years for this campaign at least and could still be around when the 2022 qualifiers start.

Quite so re: Walters. Imagine what might have been if we someone had taken a punt on him when he was 20.

I quite agree about finalising plans. That is exactly what should be happening on the training field. With a particular focus on what we will need to do to break a tough Georgian nut or any other team who are happy to sit in looking for a point. Hopefully a lot of work on set pieces as well. We should be a big threat from a dead ball in this campaign.

10 caps and 28 years of age is fairly arbitrary. Doherty is 27 and has 5 caps and I'm sure nobody thinks we should park his international career.

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

Quite so re: Walters. Imagine what might have been if we someone had taken a punt on him when he was 20.

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He would have hardly fitted into your plans at that time though, would he? The young players you've included are all at major clubs - Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Liverpool, no less, so I find it unlikely you'd have taken a punt on a guy on loan at Crewe Alexandra.

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

10 caps and 28 years of age is fairly arbitrary. Doherty is 27 and has 5 caps and I'm sure nobody thinks we should park his international career.

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Doherty has forced his way in on merit. He's not being given a soft cap. He's played out of his skin for 2 years and forced his way in.

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

He would have hardly fitted into your plans at that time though, would he? The young players you've included are all at major clubs - Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Liverpool, no less, so I find it unlikely you'd have taken a punt on a guy on loan at Crewe Alexandra.

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Why even bother posting something so obviously factually incorrect. I've included 22 year old Ronan Curtis who is at Portsmouth and 19 year old Aaron Connolly who is on loan at Luton (Who is in fact injured but hey ho) . Apologies to any Portsmouth/Luton fans out there who consider Pompey or the Hatters to be one of the giants of European football.

Not sure why Curtis is even in this discussion. He's been capped, has played regular grown up football and, as you say, is 22. I forgot you included Connolly, my bad.

Can't we all just get along?

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Originally Posted by Kingdom

Can't we all just get along?

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Healthy debate. :)

OKay, how about this?

_______________Randolph_______
_____Coleman____ Duffy____Egan
Doherty______________________Brady
_____Hendrick___Browne__O'Dowda__
_________Long_____McGoldrick_____

Coleman and Doherty to exchange positions every so often. Second-half subs (assuming no injuries): Stevens for Brady; Robinson for McGoldrick; and either McClean for O'Dowda or Maguire for Long

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Originally Posted by samhaydenjr

OKay, how about this?

_______________Randolph_______
_____Coleman____ Duffy____Egan
Doherty______________________Brady
_____Hendrick___Browne__O'Dowda__
_________Long_____McGoldrick_____

Coleman and Doherty to exchange positions every so often. Second-half subs (assuming no injuries): Stevens for Brady; Robinson for McGoldrick; and either McClean for O'Dowda or Maguire for Long

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I've said what I've said about Gibraltar but that's very similar to what I would play against Georgia. Robinson would play in place of Curtis if fit but it looks unlikely (and possibly After in place of Hendrick)

________________Randolph_______________
______Coleman____Duffy____Egan_______
Doherty____Hendrick___Browne____Brady __O'Dowda_____McGoldrick_____Curtis__

Not entirely sure a 3-7-0 formation is what's called for against Gibraltar tbh

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

I've said what I've said about Gibraltar but that's very similar to what I would play against Georgia. Robinson would play in place of Curtis if fit but it looks unlikely (and possibly After in place of Hendrick)

________________Randolph_______________
______Coleman____Duffy____Egan_______
Doherty____Hendrick___Browne____Brady __O'Dowda_____McGoldrick_____Curtis__

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Then I guess my point is that this is still, to a large extent, an untested line-up, so a run-out for this eleven against Gibraltar would be far more beneficial in advance of the Georgia game than playing talented underage players who probably won't be playing high-level first team football for 12-18 months, if ever.

Sidenote: I has dismissed Conor Hourihane as serious contender a midfield role in the upcoming qualifiers, based on a recent game I saw where he was anonymous in an insipid performance by Villa and was substituted to cheers. Today he scored two goals, so what do I know?

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

Where have we ever seen the likes? How could anyone contemplate something so crazy?

Short memories.

It's Gibraltar. That side is easily good enough to put 9 past them. I'm suggesting this because we need to get some youth and pace into our side. We've looked utterly turgid since the Euros.

If we invest minutes into these lads now at 17 or 18 their development will benefit tremendously. With any luck by 20 they will be in the team on merit and will hopefully be part of our team for a decade or more to come. Fairly symptomatic of the issues we have been having in recent years that experimenting by giving a debut to a 17 year old kid who seems to be very highly regarded at Bayern Munich is deemed "hallucinogenic", while experimenting by giving a 3rd cap to a 32 year old playing in the English 3rd tier with Millwall is deemed as an entirely sensible approach.

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I would not field too weak a team for they might put 9 by us.

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

I've said what I've said about Gibraltar but that's very similar to what I would play against Georgia. Robinson would play in place of Curtis if fit but it looks unlikely (and possibly After in place of Hendrick)

________________Randolph_______________
______Coleman____Duffy____Egan_______
Doherty____Hendrick___Browne____Brady __O'Dowda_____McGoldrick_____Curtis__

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Not sure we should be fielding a 7 man defence with Randolf up front, Gibraltar are not that good.

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Originally Posted by samhaydenjr

OKay, how about this?

_______________Randolph_______
_____Coleman____ Duffy____Egan
Doherty______________________Brady
_____Hendrick___Browne__O'Dowda__
_________Long_____McGoldrick_____

Coleman and Doherty to exchange positions every so often. Second-half subs (assuming no injuries): Stevens for Brady; Robinson for McGoldrick; and either McClean for O'Dowda or Maguire for Long

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Swap Stevens for Egan, Crowley for Hendrick and Maguire for Long. Might be a bit harsh on Egan as he is playing really well according to reports. But to keep the balance Stevens with the left foot would be optimal.
At the end of the day I want to see us playing the ball on the floor and this will be a good game to start that practice.
We are going to need goals and three points, but I would like to see, at some stage of this game, the Irish lads try to put together
some cohesive passing moves.

When is the squad being named?

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Originally Posted by IsMiseSean

When is the squad being named?

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Thursday

Code:

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    Randolph/Westwood
  Coleman Duffy Egan
Doherty Browne Arter Brady
    Hendrick/Hourihane
    McGoldrick Maguire

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Either/or in goals, I've no preference. Westwood to let him know he's still in the manager's thoughts, Randolph because he hasn't done anything to deserve losing the number 1 jersey. To be perfectly honest if either of them have anything to do for the game, we've bigger problems
Coleman and Doherty to switch, i.e. Coleman pushes up, Doherty goes into defence, and vice versa
Duffy and Egan to do centre half stuff, Duffy the obvious target at set pieces
Browne in the holding role, Arter pushing forward
Brady crossing, because Brady
Either/or in the hole behind the front two. Hourihane in decent form for Villa, Hendrick getting back into the first team at Burnley