Malicious and provocative. Abidal's comments

**Stuttgart88** · 13/11/2009, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by weldoninhio

I'll give you Given, Dunne (to an extent), and Duff (if he is on top form). The rest are nowhere near top class. Doyle and Keane are decent, but a few rungs down from Torres, Henry, Eto'o who are top class strikers. O'shea is solid in a variety of positions but nowhere near top class, while McGeady is headless with poor delivery and one of the most over-hyped players in Scotland.

It's time O'Shea gets the credit he deserves. He's an important member of one of the world's top club sides. I'll grant you that Keane & Doyle et al are not threatenting the Torres, Kakas & Ronaldos of the world game but in the context of the games coming up in the next week and in the context of what France has faced so far in NOT qualifying outright for the WC they're probably better than France has faced yet. Don't pick me up on semantics - they players I mentioned can cut it at the top table. It's the 4 players we have filling gaps that concern me. You know as well as I do that football does not always result in the best XI winning. It's the relative uncertainty of outcome that makes it a far more popular game than any other in the world. You can wallow in your perpetual misery all you like but I'm happy to say that I've every confidence that the players I mentioned can stand up to their opposite number and be counted. Will it be enough? I guess not but I'm not for a second believing that it's only a bit of grit and aggression that can win this for us. Quality can too, and we have it.

**kkdub** · 13/11/2009, 10:36 PM

One of the readers comments on "L'equipe" was "please Ireland, rid us of Domenech!" For a nation founded on patriotism, it is significant that a recent poll found that 49% of the French public expect Ireland to triumph. I think that while we consider qualification to be above expectations, the French fear facing the superpowers next year with the current unrest in the squad.