I agree with you completely on Hendrick and Whelan. Hendrick is now as bad as Whelan used to be. Everything Jeff did today failed. The most damning aspect of Mick McCarthy's performance today was his persistence with Whelan and Hendrick until the death. Hendrick"s quality was abysmal while Whelan, although much better than Hendrick, was tiring badly and should have been replaced by Cullen or JudgeOriginally Posted by Fixer82
We are better off going out. We have no business going to a tournament where football will be played. A couple of encouraging displays today, but the reality is that we have had three successful managers now who don't want to roll up their sleeves on the training ground, and demand from their players precise and deliberate passing moves which keep the opposition chasing shadows, much like Switzerland did to us today
By my reckoning, if Slovakia uses their game in hand to overtake Hungary for second in their group, it's beginning to look like Wales, Bosnia and Northern Ireland. That's doable, but we'll have to beat two of them, starting with an away game in Wales, with no return leg. Potential improvements in personnel over today: Matt Doherty proves himself better than Coleman over the next two games; James McCarthy starts playing regularly and replaces Glenn Whelan; McGoldrick returns - he and the other Blades players continue to improve with more EPL time; Connolly gets two more caps and 15-20 EPL games under his belt, with a few more goals; Robbie Brady returns; Shane Long and/or Michael Obafemi start playing (and scoring) more for the Saints
You’d have to opine that Shane Long would offer more than James Collins if the last two games were anything to go buy . It was big step up for Collins . I wouldn’t write him off . He certainly will have seen what it is like to play at this level and who knows , maybe he can get a better undressing of what is needed and improve .
Long has sometimes produced for us and its not as if we are overflowing with options that have done that .
I wonder what's the ‘ difficulty ‘ Mick has with Shane ?
He's 28 years ago. 29 in December. He's at his peak, it's downhill from here. Write him off because he's not good enough for international football.
Pretty depressing in several respects, not least in the feeling that we keep handicapping ourselves by picking McClean. I’m torn on Whelan. He’s too slow but still plays some great balls and plays with a determination that sets example.
It was also frustrating that last night showed we can play good football – but only if we adopt the mindset that we need to play good football. If we played more games with the attitude and courage to take risks and show for the ball like we did at the start of the second half yesterday then I can see a brighter future for Irish football. A mere whippersnapper mid-30s Stuttgart88 used to bemoan our lack of willingness to engage teams in a game. We did this in parts last night. I have doubts that Stephen Kenny will be tough or savvy enough to be genuinely successful in international football, but I’m looking forward to his “yes we can” attitude. We still have the Jack Charlton “take no risks, we’re not as good as them” attitude ingrained in our senior team’s culture.
I loved Connolly’s attitude. Gesticulating at poor service or bad decision making. He knows how the game should be played, and it wasn’t how we played for most of the first half. Hopefully that’s the standard his generation expects.
Parts of last night were encouraging and with a good starting XI we can give the Danes a good run for their money. I’d be inclined to go 3 at the back because Doherty & Stevens are such accomplished wing backs. At the very least make it a 433. Drop McClean, retain Browne, retain Connolly, bring back Long, pray Brady gets fit again…
[QUOTE=Stuttgart88
Parts of last night were encouraging and with a good starting XI we can give the Danes a good run for their money. I’d be inclined to go 3 at the back because Doherty & Stevens are such accomplished wing backs. At the very least make it a 433. Drop McClean, retain Browne, retain Connolly, bring back Long, pray Brady gets fit again…[/QUOTE]
You can add James McCarthy to that list as well.
Think you can read that two ways :-)
But agree with the attitude part of your post. I like to see more intent to "win" games. Georgia game was reduced to hope of nicking a goal on a set piece and giving Connolly a run against tried legs. Last night's start and formation was akin to "I'm not sure now what to do, let's try this".
Whatever approach is decided, hopefully use the opportunity of New Zealand as a trial run and have a go.
Don't like Mick's post-match interview. We played a totally untested system in the first half, he changed it at half time and we played marginally better. And in the interview he's saying it's mostly the players' fault that they played bad in the first half.
Did you ever see a top manager like Wenger or Ferguson throw his players under the bus like that? I sure as hell never did.
Long is not a natural goalscorer, but he is a natural forward. He runs good lines that takes out defenders for others (watch his movement in that goal that Walters scored with the Hendrick assist against Georgia a few years ago, for but one example), he is always open to take the ball, he put defenders under pressure, he wins you headers, he has pace that can stretch defenders. When Long is on the pitch, we have a higher chance of scoring, simply because he helps the others into the game so that they can score. He's a very good player.
The bandwagon Premier League crowd don't understand that.
Last edited by brine3; 16/10/2019 at 9:32 AM.
He’s no spring chicken alright . Shane Long would have offered more whether as a sub in the last two games or as a starter .
Obviously some history between those two . Did Mick try to sign him and Shane declined somewhere along the way ?
I have always liked a bit of Shane Long .
Wenger constantly suggested his players were mentally brittle.However, I didn’t like the blaming of the players either.Some of them were dire, the interview suggests that they should now fear for their places.But you’re right, he shouldn’t be doing it publicly.Much of the blame lies in the fact that not only are the wrong players on the pitch, many of the right ones aren’t even in the squad. There’s only one man at fault for that.
Yep, your ideal Irish striker would be Shane Long with Robbie Keane's finishing abilities. Or Robbie Keane with Shane Long's positional sense and pace. Yes, Robbie Keane is a natural goalscorer, but we always sacrificed a bit of team cohesion to make space for him in the team. He's the Irish Pippo Inzaghi. Very good at what he is good at, but has other shortcomings. There's very few perfect strikers who have everything, of course.
All Mick had to say is "it didn't work out for us in the first half" and leave it at that. They can discuss amongst themselves in the changing room if it was the players or the formation or both.
I have been Glen Whelan's biggest critic over the last several years. But credit where it's due, he turned in one of his best performances in an Irish shirt yesterday. With that said he was tiring badly in the last 25 or so minutes. Criminal that Mick didn't replace him with Cullen or Judge. What both of them must think now about their value to the team........ Also if I was Sean Maguire I would be slightly miffed that an U21 player with one Premier League start to his name gets in ahead of me
Agree. I'm no Whelan fan but I thought his workrate last night was great and although he was tiring badly towards the end, he kept going and showed the fight that seems to be lacking from other players. The block was him wasn't it? Or have I remembered that wrong.
So, is Duffy suspended for Denmark or not? I thought he was... If we're playing a very inexperienced centre back pairing (or trio) then they might well need the deep 'protection' from centre mid that Whelan provides (sometimes). We might also need a captain...
Although if Duffy isn't suspended, then i'm just talking b****cks.
The premier league has been around for almost 30 years.
I'd be more miffed that Scott Hogan gets in ahead of me if I were Maguire. I don't think he has the right to be miffed regarding Connolly.
Duffy is available to play
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