Originally Posted by
tetsujin1979
Given was excellent when called upon, which was twice. The mark of a good keeper is having nothing to do for large parts of the game, and still keep up his concentration levels. Hope he gets the night off against Poland, he deserves it.
I felt the 2 full backs were the weak links, McShane moreso than Kilbane, but only because Kilbane wasn't as exposed. Constantly in the first half he was drifting into centre (which I've posted about before) and giving space to the opposing left winger. McShane was making the same mistake, drifting away from the touchline and giving the opposing winger space to move into.
Of the two central defenders, Dunne was imperious, clearances, marking, keeping possession, absolute masterclass. Another one. This was the worst O'Shea has played under Trapattoni at centre half, but still far ahead of anything he's done before this. He created problems for himself, and the rest of the defence with some poor clearances, including headers that went straight up in the air, instead of straight up the pitch!
Genuinely didn't think the centre of midfield was as poor as some here have said. Against Cyprus 2 years ago, Kilbane and Ireland didn't make a tackle and left the 2 central defenders (O'Brien and Dunne) completely isolated. Tonight, Whelan and Gibson protected the centre of defence, and gave the wingers an option when they needed someone to pass to. I didn't see Cyprus making any kind of progress through the middle of the park at all, their shots came from bad clearances, and all their creativity was on the wings.
Duff was the better of the two wingers, although McGeady had the better chances to score. Both gave their fullbacks a terrible time, and the switch before half time obviously caused confusion. McGeady had the better chances to score, and Duff could have ended it late on. After all the talk of set pieces over the last week, I thought that some of deliveries to the near post were poor, and Dunne was the clear target man at the far post. With a little more luck he could have had two goals. Surprised Sparky never taught him how to volley correctly! Duff linked better with Kilbane than McGeady did with McShane, although I'd blame the full back there rather than McGeady. Other than Lawrence, and possibly Keogh, I don't see who else can come into the side for McGeady, so I think he'll continue on the right for the forseeable future.
Up front, Keane scored early on, and Doyle should have had at least one. Both worked the Cypriot defence very hard, and forcing them into making mistakes. Keane dropped deep a lot in the first half, and may have just been exhausted in the second half.
Folan came on to win the ball from a kick out. Which he did. Probably the shortest debut since Jason Byrne!
The lack of substitutes was puzzling, some players were clearly out on their feet, and Cyprus used all 3 of their substitutes, so they were playing against fresh legs. On the other hand, bringing on players could have lost us the game. We can definitely say that not bringing on more won it.
One of the lads made the point after the game that we've played a very similar type of game for 3 games now, defensively solid and in the middle of the park, creative on the wings and effective up front. We won't need to change that gameplan for tougher teams. We could have beaten Cyprus by being more attacking or free flowing tonight, but teams like Italy and Bulgaria won't allow us to be as attack minded, so by keeping to the same gameplan tonight, the team will know what to do when faced with a stronger side instead of panicing when we're not given the same space. It's an interesting thought, did beating the likes of Canada, San Marino and the Faroes playing an attacking brand of football mean we didn't know what to do when faced with stronger opposition like France or Germany?
Actually he said it a whole lot better than that, but I felt it deserved to be mentioned.
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