Republic of Ireland V Croatia - Wednesday, 10th August 2011 - Friendly

**SwanVsDalton** · 09/08/2011, 1:08 PM

Team as per Dan McDonnell via Twitter:

Ireland team v Croatia: Given, Kelly, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward; Duff, Whelan, Gibson, Hunt; Long, Keane

Expect Doyle and Cox will both get maybe even a half each. The rest largely picked itself.

**tommy_c12000** · 09/08/2011, 1:27 PM

It's a very strong Irish side with the usual weakness in centre midfield. I thought Trap had said he was going for a Long Cox partnership?

I'm thrilled to hear about Clifford's call up. I'm a huge fan. Hopefully he will get some game time. It will be great exposure for the lad.
Top news on Chelsea's official website: http://www.chelseafc.com/page/Latest...414914,00.html
Cannot be a bad thing. AVB appears intent on giving youth a chance and has not gone down the route of buying expensive established "superstars" thus far, so you never know.

Best of luck to Conor anyways!

**Sullivinho** · 09/08/2011, 1:28 PM

I think Trap has spoken about seeing Long and Cox together (shhh) so Cox on for Keane in the second half with little or no involvement from Doyle perhaps? Predictable enough side given what was available anyway.

**TrapAPony** · 09/08/2011, 1:29 PM

Doyle is out with a knee problem

**Sullivinho** · 09/08/2011, 1:36 PM

Originally Posted by tommy_c12000

I'm thrilled to hear about Clifford's call up. I'm a huge fan. Hopefully he will get some game time. It will be great exposure for the lad.

Ditto. Great to see one of these 'one for the future' lads in amongst the senior squad although the circumstances played their part. Despite being an ever presence in the U-21's I doubt Trap will have seen enough of him at close hand to trust him but either Whelan or Gibson not going the 90 and you never know..

**tetsujin1979** · 09/08/2011, 3:37 PM

must be the most amount of Irish-born players to start a game in a while? (queue debate on whether or not Gibson is Irish-born - he is)

**EastTerracer** · 09/08/2011, 10:29 PM

Tony Pulis is complaining about his players having to travel to Dublin to have their injuries assessed - why are so many club managers in England such complete gob****es?

They are only friendly games and we are paying their wages. Our supporters want them to be fit for Sunday and the Irish supporters are not paying for them in a game that's a meaningless fixture.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...Stoke-duo.html

Meanwhile Slaven Bilic has been revealing some unorthodox coaching techniques - there are more English-born players in the Pogues than in the Irish team.

"We have done the homework - we even went to see the Pogues in Zagreb!"
"They were playing in a small open-air arena to about three or four thousand people. They are very popular - they are a world-class band."

**Kingdom** · 09/08/2011, 11:25 PM

Originally Posted by EastTerracer

Tony Pulis is complaining about his players having to travel to Dublin to have their injuries assessed - why are so many club managers in England such complete gob****es?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...Stoke-duo.html

Pulis and Allardyce are buddlies.

**ArdeeBhoy** · 10/08/2011, 2:04 AM

Well, if we are to rely on the Daily M*il...

**jbyrne** · 10/08/2011, 7:20 AM

Originally Posted by EastTerracer

Tony Pulis is complaining about his players having to travel to Dublin to have their injuries assessed - why are so many club managers in England such complete gob****es?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...Stoke-duo.html

well tony, maybe if your players could be trusted to be honest where supposed injury is concerned...

**an_ceannaire** · 10/08/2011, 8:39 AM

Pulis is right lads....
This IS a meaningless friendly and Stoke DO pay their wages
No one in Ireland outrside of Foot.ie seems to give a toss about this game so if one of the stoke contingent got injured and missed a few months of the premiership as a result of a game even the Irish Public dont care about............
How is he wrong?

15,000 max crowd tonight........says it all

**OwlsFan** · 10/08/2011, 9:22 AM

Originally Posted by an_ceannaire

Pulis is right lads....
This IS a meaningless friendly and Stoke DO pay their wages
No one in Ireland outrside of Foot.ie seems to give a toss about this game so if one of the stoke contingent got injured and missed a few months of the premiership as a result of a game even the Irish Public dont care about............
How is he wrong? 15,000 max crowd tonight........says it all

The fact that the Irish public don't care about this game does not make it meaningless. It is the last game we have before we face the vital qualification games. If it is meaningless, why did Stoke have three or four pre season games before the league starts? Why do teams have in house practice games. If Ireland didn't have "meaningless" friendlies, we'd never get a chance to practice before we had competitve games.

**shakermaker1982** · 10/08/2011, 12:44 PM

I think Pullis is spot on.

If you don't trust the Stoke club doctor then hire an independent doctor.

**paul_oshea** · 10/08/2011, 2:10 PM

It is a bit unnecessary to have to get a plane over to dublin just to have a doctor there, they should have an irish doctor in England or something and go there. It would be cheaper and also less hassle for all concerned.

Oh but wait that would be logical.

**SwanVsDalton** · 10/08/2011, 2:23 PM

If the players could be trusted not to cry off it would make things much easier.

**shakermaker1982** · 10/08/2011, 2:34 PM

If you don't trust em don't call em up.

If I played for Forest and was asked to report to Dublin I'd have the following pleasant trip to contend with (ok I have to do this every time I travel for a home game but I'm usually half cut so it numbs the pain): an hour to get to the airport, have up to 2 hours to kill at the airport before I board the plane, 50 minute flight, waste another 30 minutes walking the length of Dublin airport to get my luggage & then finally hop in a taxi to the team hotel to report to the doctor (up to an hour). Reverse that for the trip home. Genuine injured players shouldn't have to endure that.

**SwanVsDalton** · 10/08/2011, 2:48 PM

Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

If you don't trust em don't call em up.

We'd be down about a dozen players at that rate. There's clearly better alternatives if you don't have a bottomless pit of talented players.

Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

If I played for Forest and was asked to report to Dublin I'd have the following pleasant trip to contend with (ok I have to do this every time I travel for a home game but I'm usually half cut so it numbs the pain): an hour to get to the airport, have up to 2 hours to kill at the airport before I board the plane, 50 minute flight, waste another 30 minutes walking the length of Dublin airport to get my luggage & then finally hop in a taxi to the team hotel to report to the doctor (up to an hour). Reverse that for the trip home. Genuine injured players shouldn't have to endure that.

If it's a blanket policy, then yeah I think it's a little extreme. But I don't think it is - Trap's line on it has been (per usual) contradictory and McCarthy didn't have to come over this time. Simply put the pull-out's last time were a joke and if player's had to take an inconvenient couple of hours out then it's difficult for me to sympathise. Moreover it appears to have worked. Nary a word of controversy this time around. If this keeps up maybe management will be happy to cut them some slack but until then it doesn't bother me.

**paul_oshea** · 10/08/2011, 3:13 PM

Lads i give a very simple solution, its far quicker and easier to get down to london for most players or even birmingham. Stop over complicating.

Everyones happy, its a lot cheaper, and a fair compromise.

**SwanVsDalton** · 10/08/2011, 3:22 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Lads i give a very simple solution, its far quicker and easier to get down to london for most players or even birmingham. Stop over complicating.

Everyones happy, its a lot cheaper, and a fair compromise.

It's not necessarily about fair solutions though, is it? In this instance it's about drawing a line with some players about do's and don'ts. In the future I'd look at fair solutions.