He was arguably the best of a bad bunch, but it doesn't say much after that game. Whelan was shocking and I think Given's lack of game time is showing in his positioning.Originally Posted by Paddy Garcia
He was arguably the best of a bad bunch, but it doesn't say much after that game. Whelan was shocking and I think Given's lack of game time is showing in his positioning.
Russia very good and we were very poor, the bit of a fightback has some merit but it had little to do with cohesive football.
Jebus as usual write sh'ite - Russians didn't make the slightest protest with the penalty award, a clear clip on Keane tripped him up.
Of the 2 at cm, Whelan was much more culpable, hid too far away from Greene and left him to try and deal with everything in the first half. I suspect he had taken a heavy knock to explain the performance or just should not have started.
It will definitely be interesting to see who Trap starts with against Slovakia. After that, he has to make some changes. The midfield was definitely the worst area. Whelan and Green were anonymous and McGeady should have supported Kilbane better.
Christ almighty. He was touched alright but made a huge deal of going down to ensure the referee bought the penalty. Didn't expect much from the guardians of honest football on here to be fair so I'm not surprised
Three steps forward two steps back. You just don't know what you will get with this team. Unfortunately you do with Trap. Didn't change things radically or soon enough during the game, and actually seemed bereft of ideas. To be fair tonight was more the players fault than his. Despite what's being said by some we have no white knghts waiting in the wings - I think the difference McCarthy et al would make would be marginal. Oh, and if Keane's blatant dive had stolen us victory we'd have to stay silent forever more about cheats and Henry and Paris.
That sucked. Will be interesting to see how they come out in Slovenia.
If they lose we can start talking about who the next coach should be for '14. Not Tardelli. Sigh.
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
On the penalty - I thought we were a bit fortunate. Keane was definitely clipped, but I don't think the defender even knew Keane was coming in behind him. No real protests from the defender though.
Other than that, it was just an awful performance. The contrast between the speed and fluidity with which the Russians played the ball out of defence and the plodding way we tried to do the same before eventually lumping it long was pretty bleak.
More than anything, I think it showed us that you are going to find it very hard to win games when your tactics involve giving away so much possession so cheaply. Especially when the other team can pass the ball. And especially especially when your midfield destroyers aren't really functioning.
That said, despite this shocker, we're still very much in the thick of things, and a good perfromance in Zilina to bounce back from tonight would make things feel a lot better.
McGeady was enigmatic as always I think. Showed some very very bright flashes but then also showed why I used to refer to him as "the black hole" because the ball came in and never came back out. Sometimes he tries to do too much but then again today it was permissable as no one else was doing anything. He reminds me of Wile E. Coyote on occasion (did someone else make that comparison before on here? I feel someone did) where his feet are moving a mile minute but hes not going anywhere.
Given - 4
O'Shea - 5
Dunne - 6
St. Ledger - 3.5
Kilbane - 5
Lawrence - 5
Green - 3.5
Whelan - 2.5 ("we've lost that Glenny Whelan")
McGeady - 6.5
Doyle - 5
Keane - 5.5
Long - 7 (didn't really do too much wrong)
Gibson - 5
Fahey - X (not really enough time)
Both Given and Keane need to get some games under their belts. Rowlands and Andrews hopefully will get some time against Norway. Hopefully Coleman and Walters will get a game as well though neither would have made a huge difference today I don't think as Kilbane wasn't too bad and I don't know what Walters would've added that Doyle didn't. First obviously is Tuesday though.
Last edited by theworm2345; 08/10/2010 at 9:46 PM.
My Guarantee
Am looking for old Irish matches on VHS, PM me if you have some and I'll upload them here
I don't think we are giving Advocaat and Russia enough credit they were excellent reminded me of how Advocaat had Zenit playing. He knows these players inside out and stamps his style of football all over them.
Dzagoev in midfield times his runs to perfection getting into the box.
From my minimal football knowledge 4-4-2 against 4-5-1 will only work if the two wide mid-fielders tuck in when you do not have the ball. Then it's up to the full backs to put in a shift and track the runs.
We did tuck in but the long ball crap with small midfielders doesn't seem to work against a packed midfield.
IMO it's up to the players on the pitch to get on the ball if they are only playing one up front we should have had loads of time on the ball at the back to try get the Russian mid-field to push up. Full backs have a massive part to play in todays game and even though O'Shea plays for Man Utd I think his distribution is crap he doesnt put in enough crosses or get up the line well enough.
Green is not up to it. Kilbane is past it. St Ledger needs to play at a higher level if he wants to defend against this type of attack. Not the static Italian like one but the fast paced interchanging one.
Why Seamus Coleman ain't starting is beyond me for me he has been the best Irish player in England even if he doesn't start every game.
Last edited by gaiscíoch; 08/10/2010 at 9:47 PM.
"Joe Jordan is off to watch Young Boys tomorrow" Ian Darke
I still hold to the belief that McGeady is not a proper winger. To get the full use of his abilities, I feel he should be played in a free role. Trapattoni has already alluded to this, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see him deployed here during this campaign.
That sort of statement kind of sums up the talent at our disposal.
I suggest you watch that incident again. The defender knew Keane was there when he clipped him. He looked over at Keane who had surprised him by darting in front, then after noticing Keane - he clipped him. What the féck is so fortunate about the Ref giving us a penalty. It was a penalty.
He tried to con the ref twice. I don't think he should be the Captain I hate the constant arm waving. Surely given the defensive set up we should have Richard Dunne as captain....
Last edited by gaiscíoch; 08/10/2010 at 10:01 PM.
"Joe Jordan is off to watch Young Boys tomorrow" Ian Darke
Agreed. Keane is always at it at both international and club level, he's not fit to be captain
Yes talent we have at out disposal that gets over looked in favour of...... Paul Green????
"Joe Jordan is off to watch Young Boys tomorrow" Ian Darke
On the penalty... I was watching a fuzzy image on a poor stream but I saw no contact. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt if he was clipped. On the bigger picture it's hard to see where we go from here. We#re still in it, even for top spot. But Trap seems unlilely to make even minor adjustments in mid-campaign. What I find frustrating is he didn't really respond to the situation the way he did in Bari, with a tactical rethink.
On Paul Green, I am in complete agreement with you. He is clearly inadequate at this level.
One possible positive out of this debacle is that they cannot play as bad against Slovenia.
Have the FAI arranged another friendly?
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