I think kevin kilbane was excellent tonight.
The CM should have no place for Whelan & Green - I don tthink I have seen a worse Irish midfield & that is saying something!
I think kevin kilbane was excellent tonight.
I wouldn't be so pessimistic. What we saw tonight was a return to typical form for us -- good and bad in parts. Standard Trap fare, but that's where we're at. Group still winnable. We've lost at home but so have Russia.
Italy v Serbia abandoned due to crowd trouble
Some may disagree, but that second half performance was every bit as bad as the first half performance against Russia. the only difference being that Slovakia had no quality whatsoever to punish us.
We can come out with the horsesh*t that a draw is not bad there. It is. They were there for the taking and now we have said goodbye to any chance we had of winning the group. You could see tonight exactly why Slovakia were so outplayed by Armenia.
Knee-jerk ratings:
Given - 6 - Needs a move pronto. Made a few decent saves, and that one from the shot from distance was pretty sharp, but he looks rusty. Did his job though.
O'Shea - 5 - After 30 seconds when he was almost up to their penalty area, I thought he would be rampaging up and down, and he did for a bit. Slowed down though, and really struggled in the second half, almost every ball down our left ended up in a cross. Not entirely his fault, mind.
Killer - 6 - One of his better games, I thought. Didn't get stung for pace too badly, got forward a fair bit, was a bit predictable in his distribution (ie give it to Aiden). Few good blocks too. Still needs replacing.
Dunne - 7 - One daft moment aside, had great positioning and generally did well in the air. If Clarke/Duffy end up anything like him, we're blessed.
Sledge - 7 - Fantastic goal, strong in the air, and didn't allow himself to get frustrated or bullied. We looked pretty steady down the middle of defence tonight.
Fahey - 6 - Great for a while, he really does seem to have a bit of class about him, but didn't track back anywhere near enough in the second half. Tended to get sucked inside; if he defended better, I'd say stick him in the middle, but I think he'd be a bit overrun. Fantastic freekick for our goal.
Whelen - 5 - Mixed bag. A few good tackles, and occasionally pressed well but also seemed to stand off so much in the second half. Was balls for their goal. Decent passing from time to time.
Green - 5 - Give him a 7 for effort and harrying, and a 3 for what he does with the ball. However, he had clearly been told not to do anything with the ball, and just looked to give it to Fahey every time. It's a good way to avoid him giving the ball away, which he managed to do several times anyway.
Gibson - 4 - CRAP. Totally invisible, never moved for the ball, provided nothing in attack or defence. He was as poor tonight as Green/Whelen were on Friday, and I think he's the main reason we were overrun in midfield. Terrible attitude too, the way he was waving his arms around 5 minutes after coming on. Set-piece delivery was okay (although Fahey was much better in this regard.)
McGeady - 7 - Effort, penetration, winning free kicks, and bags of stamina. He had them worried, just a shame that Gibson never decided to come forward to provide him with an option. Final ball wasn't always great, but when you have to keep sprinting like that it's hard to get your foot around it. Probably our best player. Defended as well as he could, too, tracked back well and made a few decent tackles.
Long - 5 - Started great, and we could rave about his work rate and attitude (both top class, similar to Doyle) but he gave away a lot of free kicks. A few were harsh, but most were pretty standard and difficult to argue against. Lacks a bit of all-round skill (first touch was poor a few times, and after about 30 minutes he struggled in the air) but is a proper option at this stage. Don't think Doyle would have done much better.
Keane - 5 - He'll get caned for the peno, but that happens to everybody (has he missed one for us before? I can't think of one). The chance second half was tough, the chance first half wasn't, and he should have buried it. But he was in two great positions, looking to score. He came into midfield several times when we were under the cosh and provided an extra body - without that we would have lost the game. Not his worst game. Christ, he needs a move though.
Trap - 6 - He let us off the leash the perfect amount in the first half, and I think the players let him down a bit in the second. After a while, it became clear that a point would be a good result; if we had poured forward like some people wanted (and I was shouting as well) we could well have been caught. For our free in injury time, I was furious when the Sky commentator mentioned that Dunne hadn't gone forward, until we lost the ball and were massively vulnerable to the counter. The man isn't an idiot, and he's still in credit for me. He's lost a few points though.
Crowd - 10 - Came through loud and clear, the whole 90 minutes. Did yourselves proud.
Last edited by shaneker; 12/10/2010 at 10:36 PM. Reason: Keane
I think Kilbane played well in the last 2 games to be fairOriginally Posted by richieos
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Keane bottled d peno, once d slovaks stalled d peno he was always gonna miss, did absolutely nothing for the side ,let Long run his ass of and never contributed to the attack.Did his usual gesture of a run looking as if he was shutting down Slovak players until he gets within 5 yards and then slows and does nothing at all.Whats that about.Absolutey anonymous for 92 minutes.
Keane scores on instinct when he has time to think, forget it
Bull**** just because he isnt playing first team football, his form he has been ****e for far too long,but no one wants to admit it, look at David Healy in NI campaign a few years back when he wasnt playing firts team football, ended up top european scorer.
Try Long and Doyle up top and give Stokes a run....
Central mid needs to be amputated enough said
Trap give players the nod in Norway game, Coleman, McCarthy,Cunningham,Stokes,Walters,Wilson,Hoolahan
It would be easy to sit here and slate this team, I am just very well perplexed by Trap- we had no depth on that bench Keogh not good enough for Wolves an average prem team, Kilbane no good enough for Hull, Whelan not good enough for Stoke but on tonights performance well, where is the likes of Stokes for Celtic and Mc Carthy (much talked about). We do not have a real depth to our talent but Robbie was awful, Kilbane awful, Green awful, whelan poor and we had no depth to sub them. I know a draw was a good result considering Fridays performance but we have not played well since the France match and alot of these lads are passed it or not up to it and thats a fact I hate to highlight.
Where are the likes of Stokes, Walters, Mc Carthy in the squad his training camp mentality shows a lack of insight into our team and his stubborness around Reid plus his lack of ability to make key subsitutions at any point in any game will be our downfall-Russia and tonight are prime examples
I thought Keane looked shattered for most of the game. Don't know if he was carrying an injury, but I think two sets of 90 minutes in 4 days was a bit much for him now that he's not getting regular football at his club.
Fahey was great on the ball, especially in the first half. I thought Gibson did OK when he came on but he is still too timid when it comes to demanding the ball.
The real problem is we are not improving in any shape or form now. Same mistakes at the back every game. And you always have to take into consideration the calibre of opposition. And that Slovakia team are a very poor team by any ones standards. We had a neutral ref so no excuses there. We will regret dropping these points.
Awful game really but can't say it lacked huff and puff.
McGeady with the pass off the game, to pick out Gibson. Fahey was my motm until he faded or maybe it's just my desperation for a touch like that in midfield.
Brady saying that the player most likely to come into the team is McCarthy. I cant wait. The alarm bells are wailing.
I think an Ireland team with Fahey and McCarthy at CM would beat an Ireland team with Andrews and Whelan at cm- hands down.
England 0 Montenegro 0.
Mind you Montenegro are fifa ranked 40, not far behind us. theiir fifa ranking should hit no 1 in 18 months time at the current rate of ascent.
Last edited by tricky_colour; 12/10/2010 at 9:01 PM.
You vendetta against him is pathetic. Your first comment on this game is to single out Fahey? According to the RTE panel he was one of the better players.
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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Its amazing how people's opinions are different. I thought we played quite well for long stages tonight - created some chances and probably should have won the game. I thought Gibson improved the midfield immeasurably when he came on - showed for the ball and we started using it well for a 15-20 minute spell thereafter. I thought McGeady had his best game in an Ireland shirt - always a threat and did more of his usual tracking back, made a few tackles and even dispossessed his opposite number a few times. Thought Shane Long was a little disapointing and with McGeady picking up a bit more of the slack, I thought Kilbane looked a lot more composed. Plenty twists and turns to come yet. Thought Fahey got tired in the 2nd half, physical game for him perhaps.
I don't remember McGeady making a single pass though. Definitely didn't complete a cross. beat his man plenty of times. Then either fell or squared it to their centre half
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Careless at both ends, just like last year.
That said, it was generally a good performance. I think the difference between winning and not winning was Robbie. Long outshone him all night and without club football - for anyone, even Celtic he'd be better for us - he's a shadow of himself. Same applies to Shay - he doesn't have that aura about him that being a valued number 1 provides. Two CBs played well.
Fahey & Long came of age tonight. The message is that some fresh faces can make the difference. Gibson is certainly no worse than Green so there's no justification for persisting with Green, much as I love his attitude.
According to just about everyone he was one of the best players on the pitch. Colbert just seems determined to have the unpopular opinion on everything.
As much as I like to defend Killer, I think he inhibits McGeady going forward. A more athletic full back would really open up space for him (a centre midfielder showing for the ball would be nice too).
Pass of the game was the ball to McGeady for the penalty.
Was it Dunne or Whelan? Magnificent pass!!
Folding my way into the big money!!!
It was Whelan I'm fairly sure. He tried it a couple of times before the penalty.
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