Came on for England U-21's last night against the Czechs: http://www.thefa.com/England/U21s/Ne...Rep_report.htmOriginally Posted by third policeman
It was a friendly, but I doubt too many people would be impressed if he changed allegiances now
eh yeah....whats the problem with that?
"Well I think they'll be a little disappointed with that" - Matt Holland on TV3 after 5-2 drubbing by Cyprus
Came on for England U-21's last night against the Czechs: http://www.thefa.com/England/U21s/Ne...Rep_report.htm
It was a friendly, but I doubt too many people would be impressed if he changed allegiances now
Gibson has played 120 mins of 180 mins of United's last two games, and should come into midfield with some more confidence, making a consecutive start.
I look forward to seeing Folan up front. He has only played 1 miute for Ireland, so it quite obviously is an experiment to start him.
I'd like to see more from Keogh on the right, so it is good to see him given a chance there again, especially with the type of central midfielders we will use tonight.
The replacement for Dunne will have a lot to do, but I think Bruce deserves a chance there, and keeping McShane on the right is for the best!
Considering we're unbeaten in six, the defence is looking very good and he has enough new, untried players in the squad to cover centre half, it seems like a pathetic thing to be moaning about. No doubt if Ledger was called up there'd be moans that there's a newer CB getting a game for Darlington and who does Trap think he is for not calling that bloke up.
are you serious??? so its "pathetic" to make the observation that, with Richard Dunne unavailable we are down to the bare bones for cover at centre back...
so lets go with this scenario, lets say we are without Dunne and O'Shea for a big qualifier so we start with McShane and Bruce at CB , would you prefer to have absolutely nobody on the bench to cover these guys in case something happened? what would YOU do as manager, throw Killer in as backup CB?
incidentally, I didn't mention StLedger exclusively but we need to blood a few more centre halves (surely you couldn't disagree with this fact??)...I'm happy with a Dunne O'Shea first choice combo but guys like StLedger, Paddy McCarthy and O'Dea (amongst others) need to be in the squad should the unthinkable happen to Dunne and/or O'Shea....sounds like common-sense to me....
"Well I think they'll be a little disappointed with that" - Matt Holland on TV3 after 5-2 drubbing by Cyprus
Milner went the other way, having represented us at junior levels. Personally I wouldn't object if he switched and I dont think too many England fans would notice never mind protest. We have let far too many 2nd and 3rd G players get away over the last few years. We were clearly a lot better at spotting and recruiting English born players during the Charlton era.
Attending a Poland friendly use to be a penance.
Fathers would drag their kids screaming.
I thought he was definitely motm vs Georgia and also played well against Norway.
Anyway, with Dunne injured I'd like to see McShane moved to centre half and Foley to right back. McShane's a poor right back and I'd like to see what Foley can do. I've seen enough of Bruce and I can't say I'd get excited about the thought of watching him again. At least Foley would bring some excitement to this game. Gibson is only other thread of excitement I can find so I'm hoping he comes out of his shell tonight.
False alarm - looks like Dunne will start.
False Labour or has Mrs Dunne let the Honey Monster comeback?
"It looked as if the defender's expectant wife might have been going into labour, but it now appears that it was a false alarm."
http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2008/1119/ireland.html
Maybe it was some elaborate excuse because some of the other squad members were teasing him about own goals, red cards, weight problems and his follicley challenged clubmates?
I think Glenn Whelan is absolutely hopeless from what I've seen so far. I can't understand how he got motm in the first 2 qualifiers. Twas probably cos he was slightly better than what everybody was expecting which wouldn't be difficult. I was at the Georgia game and hardly noticed him to be honest other than the goal which was a crap shot in the first place. He doesn't want the ball and doesn't throw himself about anywhere near enough to make up for that. He has played a combined total of 88 Premier Lge mins for Stoke this season which wouldn't inspire confidence either with what they have to pick from!!!I'd love to see Owen Garvan get a run, he is playing regularly for Ipswich and has scored a few goals lately. I seen him play in the England u21 qualifier at Turner's Cross and although we were well beaten he looked a very accomplished footballer.
OTT and unfair. He hasn't been outstanding by any stretch of the imagination but he is performing the role asked of him.
I'm sure that plenty would agree with you but I can't see it myself. The Cyprus game in particular he was worse than useless, it was like he was trying to stay out of the Cypriots way or something. I'm not really blaming him to be honest, it's not his fault he's in the team. Have u an opinion on why he's played so little for Stoke? I know they have immense quality in there like Faye and Diao but even so!!!!! it wouldn't surprise me if he did ok tonight against a half paced Poland but if we qualify for the World Cup with Whelan having played 4 matches in the centre of the park against the Italians and Bulgarians it'll be a minor miracle.
Well I can confirm that Whelan was heavily involved in that game. And I certainly didn't imagine that. Goal or no goal Whelan was my motm in that game.
If I was watching the match as a neutral in the pub I wouldn't have remembered Whelan doing much at all. But watching as an Ireland fan and focussing on the game he was absolutely not anonymous. He had a really good game in Georgia.
btw, if you're at an Ireland away game I'd recommend watching a tape of the match when you get home. From being put in corners of stadiums, to being pretty drunk, to singing songs it's very hard to actually make an accurate judgement on a player. Especially someone like Whelan who doesn't do the spectacular.
I think the Cyprus game shows exactly why he's not playing for Stoke. Without Steven Reid the team was forced to sit back and let Cyprus dominate a lot of the possession. That's exactly what Stoke do for the most part. Whelan wasn't great. Against Norway (1st half before the floods), Georgia and Montengegro we dominated possession for a lot of it and Whelan thrived in that. He's not bad defensively at all but in terms of simple passes to keep the game ticking over he has been excellent partner for Reid.
Maybe in that sense he is a bit of a luxury player but as I said he isn't bad defensively. Carsley's better though on that score.
Totally agree about Whelan. He is not a Premiership player and he's not an international player either. Trapp defends his selection philosophy on pragmatic grounds. He has taken a look at what we've got, devised a way of playing, decided which players are best suited to it and will stick with this approach in order to get through the qualification process. It seems like a sensible approach and so far the results have been OK even if the performances against Montenegro and Cyprus were less than impressive.
The flaw is simply that he made a fundamental decision about style and personnel on snapshot evidence in the games against Columbia and Serbia and advice from Brady who was gloriously ignorant about our player base outside the Premiership. It's now "too late" to integrate Andy Reid, or introduce players like Garvan, O'Toole, McCann etc who would give us different options in midfield. And I dont think that there is any real will from the management to seek a reconcilliation with the Premiership's most outstanding midfield performer (ie Stephen Ireland!!). Well I hope it works out, but I suspect the wheels will fall off this team before too long. Organisation and motivation will only get us so far and if Cyprus can outplay us at Croker god help us when we face up to Italy and Bulgaria. If we do fall down in these games then we simply do not have a plan B and we dont have players in the squad who can give us anything different.(Does anyone think that the introduction of Keith Andrews, Caleb Folan, Darren Gibson would change the dynamic of an international football match?)
If Poland are really up for it tonight they could make this selection look very inadequate and in the longer term that might not be such a bad thing.
Fair enough you're right about not seeing a match properly when at it and I haven't watched it since to be honest. I thought his performance in Montenegro was grossly overrated though. To be fair if we need to dominate possession for Whelan to be effective then he's a waste of space in my book. By the way I hardly watch these matches as a neutral in fairness and I take more than a little interest in how each Irish player is playing, especially the newcomers.
I would agree with Third Policemans analysis of the current situation and I think the lack of a Plan B will ruin us. All we have in the squad is like for like. If Cyprus had got the equaliser they more than deserved in the final few agonising mins in Croker I think Traps support would have collapsed in a big way. I like the fact that he's strong willed and so on but I just can't see this midfield holding up in the long term ie. last 5 or 6 mathches of the group.
My starting team would be
Given
Foley O'Shea Ledger Kilbane
Duff Andrews Reid/Gibson Hunt
Hunt Doyle
If Reid is match fit I'd start him, if his fitness is as bad as some make out I'd start with Gibson. So far I've seen Whelan play 4 times for Ireland, had 2 good performances and 2 poor ones so he deserves to be in the squad but probably shouldn't be a starter. I'd also like to see how a Hunt/Doyle partnership would work, they may well have a better understanding of each others game than a Keane/Doyle partnership which would give Trap an interesting dilema
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