Yeah, it's the thought of more nights like Wales Serbia & Austria at home, the Denmark games that's deflating.
Hopefully some fresh faces in the squad in March might get the enthusiasm going again.
The way O'Neill's squads have been in the past I'm expecting more of the same with the fresh faces being Alex Pearce, Stephen Gleeson & Adam Rooney.
i must admit i was a little surprised that people seemed to think it was wrong of o'neill / roy to consider another job offer. it's a positive thing that our management team is in demand in my opinion.
i can't think of a viable, realistic alternative to the current team either. in terms of irish candidates, hughton is unlikely to leave brighton i suggest even if they are relegated.
To be fair, I think 60% is an exaggeration. There are always those who leave before the final whistle for a host of reasons even when their team is winning. Add to that then those who left because we were being trounced, I'd say you're talking at most 25% but I can't really remember as I was too stunned to notice and I don't fancy looking at the video againOriginally Posted by jbyrne
Why always concentrate on the negative though ? What about the two German games and the games away to Austria, Wales and Denmark ? The pleasure of those games will go with me for an long as I live.
Last edited by OwlsFan; 18/01/2018 at 10:57 AM.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
And that's not even mentioning the Euros. I'm willing to give MON a chance to help provide some more great moments. The players have massive respect for both himself & Keane, the importance of that shouldn't be underestimated. I don't think the, admittedly uninspiring, events of the past couple of weeks will jeopardise that too much. The alternatives really aren't too inspiring. Stephen Kenny? bah.
Last edited by DeLorean; 18/01/2018 at 11:19 AM.
I think literally the only good thing in the 180 minutes in Wales and Denmark was McClean's goal. The rest was utter cack. Denmark tore us open too many times for enjoyment. And in both games, our own footballing contribution was as caveman as in the defeats/bad draws. Even our goal, well-worked as ultimately it was, came from a daft unforced error from Wales.
Unforced?.. i think the superb closing down by two of our players (Hendrick and Brady?) had an awful lot to do with the error....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KueXCT9VA-Y
I'll give you the German games. Austria away we played well and played some decent stuff, can't say the same for the games in Wales & Denmark.
That night in Copenhagen almost felt like a defeat, the performance was so dire I couldn't see how we'd manage to go through in the 2nd leg.
And more of the same to come....
I suppose the difference between us is that you want to win having played well. I just want to win or get a result. I am not bothered about the performance. Obviously I would prefer if we played attractive football getting those wins but perversely a win obtained by the skin of our teeth is probably more enjoyable in the long run. I will admit though that after the Cardiff game I said to my friends that our performance was terrible as we cracked open a bottle of Champagne. And that is the point. Money can't buy the highs of that victory over Italy, the last minute goal in Germany, Shane Long's winner against Germany, the victories in Austria and Wales and I also came home happy from the Danish game. Even under Jack I can only think of a handful of similar results and other than in Scotland, no victory of significance away from home.
My worry about MON is that history tells us that managers find it hard to recuperate from bad results. A few bad results at the start of the next campaign and it will start to turn ugly (and not just the football) so we need to start firing on all cylinders straight away.
I wonder though what does Keane with his Notts Forest and Man U background think of our style of football? I doubt if he approves or maybe he's just glad of a job and does whatever he's told. What exactly is the role of the Assistant Manager? Does he only put out the cones ?
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
OK, fair enough point from re-watching alright.
Still doesn't negate the overall point that neither game - particularly Denmark away - gave any particular pleasure. Both were torturous drivel for the main. And the worry watching them always was that a hammering was coming, which it very quickly did.
Not that I think commitment is an issue, I just don't like spin.
In the video interview, Delaney presented an example of "O'Neill's 100pc commitment to Ireland",
"I believe he had a bigger offer from Stoke,"
that O'Neill rejected a higher salary before renewing his contract with ireland as undoubted evidence of his "100pc commitment" to Ireland.
Fwiw, Hughes was on £3m p/a at Stoke for a 6 day a week job, O'Neill's probably on a basic €1.2m before bonuses, for a one day a week job. Which one pays the better?
That depends on how much you like money and how much you are willing to work for it .
Perhaps Martin O ‘ Neill should have taken the Stoke job on a 5 day a week job and done the Irish job on a one day a week job .
Results would have to be tres good for this to last......
I kind of get the impression O’Neill is pleased all of this came out,a sort of ‘see how lucky you are to have me’ spin.He was obviously taken aback by the backlash after Denmark I think he may have wanted to demonstrate he has other options.I think he’s been arrogant and unnecessarily *****ly with the press from the outset,he doesn’t seem to be able to deal with the most basic queries about his tactics without spluttering in outrage.His now customary death stare at Tony O’Donoghue is grating now. For a man of his age and achievements he seems petty,insecure and emotionally immature.Which don’t mean that he’s a bad manager (Ferguson was all those things) but this ridiculous game playing that’s going on with him now,.....it’s cheap and low brow
Wales away performance was poor but it led to something else (playoff), which made it easier to take.
The game in Denmark was probably the worst I felt leaving an Ireland game in which we didn't lose. It was a terrible performance. My main memory of that game is Arter lumping the ball up field to no one when he had options to play it simple. We never threatened their goal once. Trap had his negative game plans, but I can't remember one as bad as that.
The mistake was made keeping Trap after Euro2012 and we threw away the next campaign. I think history is going to repeat itself.
I’d say he has struggled to cope since John Robertson has had to retire due to health problems .
Pretty much all of his good stuff was when John Robertson was his main coach .
Martin and Roy haven't signed on the dotted line for the FAI yet...
Michael O'Neill is considering Scotland...
GO GET HIM!
I don't remember losing 5-1 to a mid-tier European side under Jack.Even under Jack I can only think of a handful of similar results and other than in Scotland, no victory of significance away from home.
Lets be honest here... We played Italy when they had nothing to play for and sent out a half-motivated B team. It was luck of the draw that we played them in the last match with already Italy guaranteed as group winners. Meanwhile Sweden had to play the Italy A team. A different draw, and Sweden would have been going through instead of us.Money can't buy the highs of that victory over Italy
I don't remember drawing 0-0 with a minnow under Martin O'Neill
So they had a team of fresh players going up against us? Also, we dropped John O'Shea (the captain) and Ciaran Clark, gave Coleman the armband for the first time (I think), gave Shane Duffy his first competitive start, and dropped Glenn Whelan for the first time in ages,
always annoys me how people leave that out of the narrative.
Drawing 0-0 is better than losing 5-1 at home.
I don't see how any of this is relative to Italy fielding a B team?Also, we dropped John O'Shea (the captain) and Ciaran Clark, gave Coleman the armband for the first time (I think), gave Shane Duffy his first competitive start, and dropped Glenn Whelan for the first time in ages, always annoys me how people leave that out of the narrative.
Aha, so you are implying that those benched players were being rested!? That we also were putting out a B team?! Those players were dropped. They also didn't start against France. We were trounced by Belgium (who Wales would beat) and MON changed up the team out of desperation.
Italy benched players because they were being rested. Buffon and friends were all back in the team for the next match.
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