QuoteCan't really disagree with that.
Not sure about 2 positions in midfield and two at the back but id go with this:
Given
Finnan Dunne McShane O'Se
Ireland Reid Reid Duff
Doyle Keane
Subs: McGeady, Hunt, Kelly, Long,
Last edited by kingdomkerry; 26/11/2007 at 8:07 PM.
Can't really disagree with that.
Given
Finnan Dunne O'Brien O'Shea
Ireland Carsley A Reid McGeady
Doyle Keane
Only slight concern about that team is that it is too narrow as Ireland and McGeady will be cutting inside. However with Ireland and Reid in there they should be more than could enough to work in tight spaces. An option I'd prefer (although I doubt we will stray from the traditional 4-4-2) would be a midfield and attack like this:
-------------Carsley
-------Ireland-------Reid
Keane---------------------McGeady
--------------Doyle
Seems to be a better shape to the above option.
Duff would be an option too obviously if he gets fit. Given Carsley's form at the moment I'd have him ahead of a fit Steven Reid.
What about centre back and centre midfield? No class players for those positions.
bar richard dunne
Given
Finnan Dunne A O'Brien J O'Shea
A Reid S Reid Hunt
Ireland Duff
Keane
It's not an Xmas tree formation! The two reids and Hunt would get through enough work in midfield. Duff and Ireland have the freedom to play wide off Keane or drop in more central - When we don't have the ball they'd drop back and deny space down the flanks. This formation would certainly mean no long balls up front!!
Last edited by kennedmc; 26/11/2007 at 9:17 PM.
Originally Posted by kingdomkerry
I would pretty much agree with that but possible swap O'Shea and McShane. A midfield that timid would put a hell of a lot of pressure on S. Reid though. Still that would be a good attacki minded team. BTW what has happened Doyle at Birmingham. He isnt even second choice now
My top 11:
GK: Given
RB: J O'Brien
LB: Finnan
CB: Dunne
CB: O'Shea
RM: McGeady
LM: Duff
CM: S Reid
CM: Ireland
FW: Keane
FW: Doyle
I'd agree with that I think. Very light on midfield tacklers but since Carsley is unlikely to still be about at the end of the next campaign I think its a team that has potential.Given
Finnan Dunne McShane O'Se
Ireland Reid Reid Duff
Doyle Keane
Stephen Reid again.
Face it lads, he aint never gonna be fit.
Pointless picking players that will never play, you may aswell pick Kaka and Messi FFS.
Write him off and move on.
Ditto with Supergran.
Palyed 442 with no rewards for too long now.
maybe keeping carsley in there would be an idea. when i was playing at a decent enough level i always appreciated a def. mid in there who allowed you to make an attempt at being creative without overly worrying if you were to lose the ball. If we want to utilise our creative players (and we do have some) it may be useful to revert to this formation. Won't always work for games but certainly for home games and games we should be very confident of winning i would possibly look at:
----Given
Finnan Dunne O'Shea
Carsley
Ireland Reid Reid Duff
Keane Doyle
the DM in this formation needs to have more pace than Carsley, he has to slot in as a centre-back/sweeper when finnan or o'shea defend in the channels. If S. Reid can mark and tackle and has pace, he could do that job. I say if because its been so long I only ever remember him playing wide right for us and centre-forward for Millwall several divisions down.
If venables gets appointed he is bound to experiment with this formation, as England's Euro 96 team was the best England side in my lifetime.
"No regrets, none at all. My only regret is that we went out on penalties. That's my only regret. But no, no regrets." -Mick McCarthy
i agree with this. this really puts the onus on Ireland and Duff to dig in and defend at times, and I think in fairness both have shown reasonable ability to do that. I thought Duff was as good defensively at home to slovakia as he was going forward. Ireland has chased back for City this year as well. carsley does his best work sitting deep and there are enogh skillful players in front of him to keep and pass the ball (as as to give him a breather when needed)
But with that formation we wouldn't really have any player on the right wing. Finnan would be mainly working as a centre back and therefore wouldn't be able to attack down the right and Stephen Ireland isn't a right winger and would be cutting inside all the time. It would seriously limit our game plan IMO. I can understand the idea behind it though as defensively it could potentially work, especially as we don't really have anyone who is good enough to play left back at the minute. Hopefully O'Halloran really starts to progress this year.
Given
Finnan-O'Shea-Dunne-Kilbane
Duff-Andy Reid-Carsley-Hunt
Doyle-Keane
on the bench:
McShane
Harte
Steven Reid
Long
McGeady
that's not a bad team lads......let's hope we don't lose a bunch of our best players to injury this campaign.
I think the XI will be
Given; Harte, Dunne, O'Brien, Finnan; Kilbane, S Reid, Carsley, Duff; Doyle, Keane
McGeady and McShane haven't done anything to justify their inclusion. Ditto Shane Long, Daryl Murphy, Stokes etc.
Only Doyle, Hunt and Ireland have been the business for Ireland in terms of new blood in the team since Mick left the position
The Staunton era was a disaster, for the 400 thousand caps he awarded, only 3 or 4 players have been unearthed, and it looks like the team for 2010 Qualifying campaign is going to be largely Mick's heroes.
If only we didn't hound him out.
"No regrets, none at all. My only regret is that we went out on penalties. That's my only regret. But no, no regrets." -Mick McCarthy
Keane hasn't done anything of note since WC2002 yet he's the one player on everyone's list. During the next year I'd like to try other options alongside Doyle.
I wouldn't criticise him for trying to bring through new players, Kerr was routinely criticised here for not bringing through any new players, and pretty much finished with the same team he started with. In the early days of McCarthy's reign, he had to award caps to see who would be decent players in the future, everyone remembers Butler only getting 1 cap, but there's plenty more on 2 and 3 (mainly from US Cups) that never get a mention.
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