Poor game overall but at least we won it.
McShane can't play full back and we need someone in midfield who can hold onto the ball. Duff and Doyle were great but I wish McGeady would get a cross in after making good runs.
San Marino?Originally Posted by TheBoss
We're not arrogant, we're just better.
I don't get why so many people are saying Doyle had a great game and Robbie was poor. Sure, Doyle was the better player on the night, but not by much. Robbie scored the winner too. They both worked incredibly hard; Doyle was constantly chasing balls but Robbie was getting back and helping out the defence a lot.
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Yeah I thought Doyle was man of the match with Dunne just behind him. Robbie played well. Mc Shane was the only one who had a very poor game. GIbson and Whelan, were carrying out orders but did not impose themselves on the game at all so basically we were playing without a midfield in a constructive sense, as they were both there to destroy and did that ok.
Duffer was great.
Crowd was not great again. It was one of my quietest games for standing up due to injury but I still tried but the atmosphere is still very poor.
Its probably down to the fact not enough people knowing how you are supposed to behave at a football ground.
In Trap we trust
i have found this for years. i didn't make it myself last night but in general i have found supporters at ireland (home) games to be less well educated in football terms than almost any grounds i go to.
Lads all is going well , 6 games un beaten now (also the games against the clubs in Portugal and Notts) its all about getting a few results which we are now doing.
The 3 steves will be back for the next match and if we win that ( which I think we would) we are in the driving seat ! Gibson will improve and Whelan will need S Reid with till he develops a bit more...
On what basis are you sure that they will all be back. They could get injured or anything could happen.
In Trap we trust
hopefully between now and the georgia game whealan either starts more games for stoke or gets out of there. read in the papers last week that he said if he didnt soon get a look in he might look elsewhere. id say he'd get a game every week with most champs teams. better than sitting on the bench in the prem. key is to hope steven reid stays fit.
Got the three points.
IMO, the best thing a team can do is play poorly and win. Don't think Gibson is up to much at the moment. Whelan wasn't too bad. The main problem last night was that the players were very quick to get the ball out to Duff and McGeady. It didn't always come off. Both those players did well though, Duff especially. I think Robbie had a better game than people are giving him credit for. Defence still looks a bit shaky. McShane needs to be replaced. How he gets his game (for Hull or Ireland) is beyond me.
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i thought kilbane was a bit dodgy with possesion at times last night aswell.
Was that Keanes first goal at Croke Park. ?
In Trap we trust
If injuries arent a problem then switch
Finnan for McShane,
S. Reid for Gibson,
J. O'Brien or A. Reid for Whelan (depending on the opposition).
That would be a very decent team.
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Agree with the first two suggestions, but Whelan doesn't really deserve to be dropped unless Joey O'Brien really proves to us in a friendly that he can play at this level in central midfield.
I'd be frightened of playing him in there after the Cyprus debacle.
I realize he's been doing well for Bolton in a 4-3-3/4-5-1, but I'm not convinced he is miles better than Whelan, and not sure he would work in our system.
qill take 1-0 victory and three points. Bulgaria drawing their third team really gives Ireland the chnace to at least get second place in the group
really worried about centre mid field though. Whelan was worse than Gibson. Yard off the pace was Whelan. Ireland as a team not enough ball retention.
They missed Finnan and S Reid. A Reid should be in team but will not be. Trap should be making subs too in the games. He is very very cautious, a bit too much I think
Taught McGeady was OK but why cannot he do things a little faster instead of taking 3,4 or 5 touches which gives the defenders the chance to get goalside in centre of defence then make clearances easier. McGeady looks to have low confidence too. I think he is over rated by a lot of people but he is improving...
Three points against Georgia and we are on 10 after 4 games. Its been years since we have had that many points after 4 games
Homer did it ever occur to you to let go of the Candy?
I generally dont feel the need to post as its generally already been said, but waht were ye weirdos doing up till 4 in the morning writing essays?!
I will say this though, I thought Whelan was dangerous in possession, dangerous in the fact he could give the ball away if he didn't pass it backwards 6 yards. Gibson when he had hte ball sprayed it nicely, granted this was limited to about 5 passess. There is no excuse for sitting so deep outside your 18 yard line that you let wave after wave of attack and dont show for the ball from wingers. This happened continuously last night where duff and mcgeady were running down blind alleys becuase there was no support form midfield, in mainz i noticed how much off the ball running reid does to support both backs and wingers. Gibson has a football brain at least, whelan doesn't seem to have a brian or much else either. The simple fact of attacking is the best form of defense is true, if gibson was played further up then all the clearances (headers, blasting hte ball into the air forward from kilbane and oshea etc) then he may have picked up on some of these and held the ball up and sprayed it out to the wings. We didn't do this and therefore we invited cyprus to come onto us, we did defend well, but we also were lucky because we defended so deep that in other times(times as in managers/eras/games etc) we would have conceded(so maybe that in itself shows luck is on our side).
On mcgeady, lads he overran it so many times agani, where he took one touch too much, because playing in the SPL he gets the chance to do this and retains the ball, but in international football you cant get away with this. His end product is very poor too, his crossing is poor, he did show for the ball though and his pass to duff for the goal was great. The one thing I will say for him is that he is getting better with every game, and all that should be required is Trap to say to him when exactly he needs to release and where he neeeds to be putting his crosses in, then practice it in training sessions. I think he can get better, and hopefully stronger.
We proved last night that we have 4 very good attacking players, we also proved that we have a solid CB pairing. We were also shown how a right back is not meant to play, McShanes positioning is terrible(its already been mentioned though so not going to repeat whats been said), and his tackling was poor yesterday, but lads the balls kept going over Kilbanes head too, reminds me of harte when he used to keep getting caught out as he was coming too far infield and not quick enough to get back out to the full back area. Both our full backs were poor yesterday. I think with finnan back and stephen reid back we are two players short of a seriouslly strong team, a team that could compete with anyone else. If we can find those 2 by the end of the campaign and we are on our way to SA then we could do very well out there.
Oh and bringing on Hunt would have been even worse, mcgeady and duff made breaks and held the ball up well, even created chances on teh counter attack, Hunt would have been dangerous as well except dangerous for cyprus rather than us, giving hte ball back.
The space in the midfield is worrying though, Trap wants us playing so deep that we dont have anyone cutting out that space.
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''but lads the balls kept going over Kilbanes head too, reminds me of harte when he used to keep getting caught out as he was coming too far infield and not quick enough to get back out to the full back area. Both our full backs were poor yesterday. ''
Exactly what I was thinking Paul. It was real head in hands stuff at times from both fullbacks. McShane should not get another chance as from where i sat behind him in the first half in the Davin Stand he really did look like he was not a professional footballer. Kilbane has also always been a liability in possession with possibly the worst first touch I've ever seen in the top flight and really needs to be given his well deserved testimonial and retired.
People need to realise that football is a results business. It is a good sign that we are grinding out results without actually playing particularly well.
We are certainly a lot more robust and determined in our approach to defending and closing down the opposition. Every team is built on a solid defence and we have only conceded 1 goal in 3 games. We carved Cyprus open on a number of occasions and with a bit more composure we could have been 3 nil up.
At this moment in time we are a team in transition .i.e. we are adapting to a new tactics and system, this takes time. I believe we are fortunate to play the so called weaker opposition first to enable us to fine tune our game for the more difficult games against Italy and Bulgaria.
I think Gibson and Whelan do not deserve the flak they are receiving. These two are young players who need to gain experience and could become vital components of the team in years to come. By giving these young players experience we are increasing the depth of our squad.
I think it is unfortunate that neither Gibson nor Whelan could play with a more experienced midfielder such as S Reid or Carsley. Most promising young players require some guidance.
I also believe that if it was not such a tight game, Trap would have brought on Andy Reid. If we were 2-0 up I’m sure Andy would have been brought on. He also has the chance to stake a claim during the Poland friendly.
Yeah I think Reid will play against Poland.
In Trap we trust
Post match interviews and analysis on rte.ie: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/
1994/95 I reckon. 3 wins to start, draw at home to NI then beat Portugal. We finished with 1 win (Latvia H), a draw (Liechtenstein) and 3 defeats and lost out in a playoff.
Still a good start. We need to improve though.
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