Skinny little rat at it again...

[bennocelt]

So are Russia the only "top side" we've played against competitively under Trap then? We managed a point against them away; a nerve-wracking one, sure, but a point nonetheless. Our home performance against them started with promise - I recall McGeady, especially, starting well - before our early collapse, but we were quite close to a comeback in that game, eventually losing to just a goal after having been three down. That shows spirit at least and I don't think these two games can necessarily be used to write off our Euros chances before we even get to Poland. A larger sample "area" would be required to give a more reliable prediction of how we can expect our games against "top sides" to go. Anyway, if Italy are indeed as woeful as you claim, that's three points in the bag already.

Russia, yes, were/are a top team. That was a good result and fair dues there.
Still IMHO I didn't rate either of those French or Italian teams, and the Wcup was good proof of that. New men in charge so cant say about the current French or Italian teams. Still France dont look too great, dont know a whole lot about the new italian team.
Having said all that Croatia are a bit overrated as well, and its very possible to get a result here for the Irish team.

[geysir]

Slovakia fair enough have a good side on paper - but for every Weiss, Stoch and Hamsik they have we have plenty top players like Given, Dunne, O'Shea and Duff who should have been more than capable of dictating play much better than we did at home to the aforementioned Slovakians.

Dunne and O'Shea are not what you'd call technical players. Our back 4 have a square style of play when with the ball. I suspect you are imagining qualities which do not exist with them. They are not the type of players to dictate the play. Often they are the source of the biggest eye sore, the unprovoked hoofs upfield.
Our best play at present is when we press high up the pitch. Sometimes we start like that, other times the opposition back off after going a goal up.
Where could we start to retain possession better?

[DannyInvincible]

Still IMHO I didn't rate either of those French or Italian teams, and the Wcup was good proof of that.

Fair enough, although we certainly weren't anywhere near being outplayed by either in any of the four games.

[Spudulika]

At home against Russia Ireland had the first clear cut chance and were aggressive, attacking and if they'd taken the lead, the visitors would have buckled. At home, Arshavin was running the show (as against Slovakia) but once he got it up him, he drifted from the game and wanted off. The Russian team can match any of the top sides in the World, but they have a poor coach, no plan B and an inability to make the step up. Ireland matched them in Moscow, rode their luck but overall the job of shutting up the home crowd was done by half time. After that, the point was in the bag - and we could have won with a little bit of a push, but we achieved our objective.

Croatia are good, with a poor coach, Spain are good (if beatable) while Italy will be a test. Contrary to the 2 players who never made the grade (Dunphy and Sadlier) Ireland won't be humiliated and should come out of the group once they don't lose the first game!

[OwlsFan]

A Thread dedicated to Drunkphy! When will we ever learn. It's all about RTE Ratings. "What did Dunphy say?" he's attacked every Irish manager since Eoin Hand ad nauseum ( nausea might be better). He picks a subject be it Andy Reid, style of football, Roy Keane, Liam Brady, Dave O'Leary and does it to death. He calls the third most successful manager in European history an amateur. 'Nuff said.

[geysir]

Owls, i was getting worried, I thought you had passed away prematurely.

[mypost]

Yet you cant name them,lol

I did name their clubs six months ago. Hence the link.

Ah come off it - are you seriously trying to tell me that Armenia, Macedonia and Estonia have players that play regular football in top leagues with significant European experience ?? ? Slovakia fair enough have a good side on paper - but for every Weiss, Stoch and Hamsik they have we have plenty top players like Given, Dunne, O'Shea and Duff who should have been more than capable of dictating play much better than we did at home to the aforementioned Slovakians.

I mean if Armenia - with their talented array of top footballers, can beat Slovakia, and all that significant European experience, 7-1 over 2 games - surely we can keep the ball for an extended period of time against the same opposition?

I doubt very much that we will be embarrassed at the euros but if we can't pass and keep the ball to some degree, at home against the likes of Slovakia or even in a friendly against the Czech Republic , then we have very little chance against Croatia, Italy and Spain, come the summer.

The only glimmer of light I have; is the last time this team had their backs against the wall they actually came out and played - and that was Paris. Since then we have done well to beat teams of inferior ability to us, draw twice with Slovakia who I thought were similarly limited going forward to us and struggle big time against a top side like Russia - we play 3 top sides in the summer - the only logical conclusion you can draw from past performances is that we will struggle in each game come the summer.

The only logical conclusion we can draw from last week is that it was a friendly.

We went to the 1990 WC after a 1-1 draw at home to Finland. It wasn't a great performance and like last week, we came from behind in a friendly, but we reached the quarter finals of the tournament. We went to the 1994 WC after a heavy home loss to the Czech Republic. We went to Japan following a loss at home to Nigeria. We got to the second round of both tournaments. You can't draw major conclusions from friendlies, but people bizarrely do.

In Paris we were losing when we were out there, and had to chase the game. If not, we would have played our usual containing game. Indeed from the goal scored in Dublin, there was a noticeable difference in how we played the remainder of the game.

Did you not watch that World Cup? Italy and France were pretty woeful, before n after

No I didn't. Couldn't after what happened to us. It wrecked the whole tournament for me. I didn't see one full live game. I saw most of the final, but just bits and highlights of the rest.

At home against Russia Ireland had the first clear cut chance and were aggressive, attacking and if they'd taken the lead, the visitors would have buckled. At home, Arshavin was running the show (as against Slovakia) but once he got it up him, he drifted from the game and wanted off. The Russian team can match any of the top sides in the World, but they have a poor coach, no plan B and an inability to make the step up. Ireland matched them in Moscow, rode their luck but overall the job of shutting up the home crowd was done by half time. After that, the point was in the bag - and we could have won with a little bit of a push, but we achieved our objective.

I remember that trio of early chances against the Russians, and hitting the bar, but the reality is if we scored first, we would have sat back until such time as we lost the lead. We didn't score first, then had to chase the game, and the Russians took full advantage, because we can't play them or sides like them, at their game. So we have to play a different way.

[SolitudeRed]

BBC football page has an article about Traps 'controversial' approach on it, Dunphy even gets a mention

'Republic of Ireland fans vent frustration over Trapattoni tactics'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17274585

[bennocelt]

I did name their clubs six months ago. Hence the link.

Just curious who these great players are (apart from Hamsik)

[Paddy Garcia]

Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

Truth is Dunphy's statements reflect a fair groundswell of opinion on this board and beyond. Not such a maverick view this time.

[DannyInvincible]

BBC football page has an article about Traps 'controversial' approach on it, Dunphy even gets a mention

'Republic of Ireland fans vent frustration over Trapattoni tactics'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17274585

What prompted this piece of "news" today in particular?

[Real ale Madrid]

We went to the 1990 WC after a 1-1 draw at home to Finland. It wasn't a great performance and like last week, we came from behind in a friendly, but we reached the quarter finals of the tournament. We went to the 1994 WC after a heavy home loss to the Czech Republic. We went to Japan following a loss at home to Nigeria. We got to the second round of both tournaments. You can't draw major conclusions from friendlies, but people bizarrely do.

In Paris we were losing when we were out there, and had to chase the game. If not, we would have played our usual containing game. Indeed from the goal scored in Dublin, there was a noticeable difference in how we played the remainder of the game.
.

Why did you quote all of my post if you were only going to address the second part of it? Myself ( and Bennocelt I think! ) would love to know who are all of these top players at Macedonia, Armenia and Estonia you were referencing earlier.

With regards your point above - fair enough I never read too much into the results of friendlies either, but I was merely pointing to our regular style of play with which we choose to operate - and giving the opinion that similar tactics will lead to a disapointing end result at the championships.

In Paris we were losing when we were out there, and had to chase the game. If not, we would have played our usual containing game. Indeed from the goal scored in Dublin, there was a noticeable difference in how we played the remainder of the game.
.

I must say I admire your possitivity, but given the evidence of what we have seen in this campaign - then our chances, according to your above post, basically comes down to how we will react when inevitably our backs are against the wall at some stage - otherwise its containing tactics all the way? Is that really how a serious team approaches a major tournament?

[gastric]

Every time I read this post's heading I think of Stephen Ireland. Anyone else think the same?

[geysir]

Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

Truth is Dunphy's statements reflect a fair groundswell of opinion on this board and beyond. Not such a maverick view this time.

Which of his statements? or all what he said?
That McClean is a fantastic kid?
That Trap is an amateur know-nothing and an arrogant fool?
That he was lucky that we qualified?
That you are baffled by the stupid irrational substitution of Whelan by Green instead of McCarthy?

Any moron can say, I wish we could play better, it's frustrating at times, why don't we play better football, the Czech's looked much better and more technical.

[OwlsFan]

Listening to Ray Darcy "interviewing" (more like putting his head up his backside) Dunphy on Today FM this am and almost crashed the car. Let us not forget that this is the man who wanted Paul Jewell to get the job (currently 2nd from bottom in the Championship and reigning over some of the biggest hidings Ipswich have ever had) and he had the nerve to mention Mick McCarthy, primarily as a "man of honour" who didn't take any money when he resigned (hounded out of the job by him in a most vitriolic way) and hinted that he or primarily Owen Coyle might get the job if it became available. How does he get away with this? Is there ever going to be a journalist to expose the hypocrisy of this man? A man who once described Mick as "a boil on the ar+e of humanity".

As for Owen Coyle, I think he is on the way back to Burnley.

[Murfinator]

Listening to Ray Darcy "interviewing" (more like putting his head up his backside) Dunphy on Today FM this am and almost crashed the car. Let us not forget that this is the man who wanted Paul Jewell to get the job (currently 2nd from bottom in the Championship and reigning over some of the biggest hidings Ipswich have ever had) and he had the nerve to mention Mick McCarthy, primarily as a "man of honour" who didn't take any money when he resigned (hounded out of the job by him in a most vitriolic way) and hinted that he or primarily Owen Coyle might get the job if it became available. How does he get away with this? Is there ever going to be a journalist to expose the hypocrisy of this man? A man who once described Mick as "a boil on the ar+e of humanity".

As for Owen Coyle, I think he is on the way back to Burnley.

I've never known one intelligent person to take what he says seriously, those that do are of the ilk that they'll attach on to something else of dubious credentials if not Dunphy.

His reel of "players trap should be calling up" was pretty hilarious at the start of the last show. He showed pilkington despite his reluctance to claim for us, Clark whos been shaky at the best of times and Hoolahan who barely plays for Norwich anymore. Contrast that to 3 months ago when his reel contained McCarthy and Coleman who he failed to acknowledge Trap's decision to include them this time.
It's very easy to be cynical and highlight a few players who aren't getting called up tagging them as our saviours. You could do that for every single team on the planet. But then this is the same man who claimed Cristiano Ronaldo was a poor player so I wouldn't expect much.

[PatJR]

I've never known one intelligent person to take what he says seriously, those that do are of the ilk that they'll attach on to something else of dubious credentials if not Dunphy.

His reel of "players trap should be calling up" was pretty hilarious at the start of the last show. He showed pilkington despite his reluctance to claim for us, Clark whos been shaky at the best of times and Hoolahan who barely plays for Norwich anymore. Contrast that to 3 months ago when his reel contained McCarthy and Coleman who he failed to acknowledge Trap's decision to include them this time.
It's very easy to be cynical and highlight a few players who aren't getting called up tagging them as our saviours. You could do that for every single team on the planet. But then this is the same man who claimed Cristiano Ronaldo was a poor player so I wouldn't expect much.

But you will find that a lot of people now believe that there is a host of outstanding Irish players sitting around wondering why they're not in the squad or playing. This has tended to skew the whole Trappatoni debate. There are issues with his selection for sure but really it is the approach that is all wrong. I suppose it's immaterial now because his position is untenable. A mixture of retirements, injuries and luck deserting him has exposed his methods, he had opportunity to address this but chose not to. Even playing the 5 in midfield was not a change of approach, instead of four players sitting too deep and not pressing in unison we just had 5 doing it!

It's sad because he took over a mess, put good structure around the side and made us hard to beat. The football wasn't sensational but we had a team to be proud of - who wasn't proud of Paris, Moscow or Estonia away. That's gone now and we've almost come 360 in terms of a mess.

[tetsujin1979]

I've never known one intelligent person to take what he says seriously, those that do are of the ilk that they'll attach on to something else of dubious credentials if not Dunphy.

His reel of "players trap should be calling up" was pretty hilarious at the start of the last show. He showed pilkington despite his reluctance to claim for us, Clark whos been shaky at the best of times and Hoolahan who barely plays for Norwich anymore. Contrast that to 3 months ago when his reel contained McCarthy and Coleman who he failed to acknowledge Trap's decision to include them this time.
It's very easy to be cynical and highlight a few players who aren't getting called up tagging them as our saviours. You could do that for every single team on the planet. But then this is the same man who claimed Cristiano Ronaldo was a poor player so I wouldn't expect much.

Clark was on the bench, and Pilkington turned down a call up in August for the friendly against Serbia as he was injured

[IsMiseSean]

The only thing worse than Dunphy is the Dunphy wannabee Richard Sadlier!!

[seanfhear]

The only thing worse than Dunphy is the Dunphy wannabee Richard Sadlier!!

If you were a young "pundit" and saw how much money Dunphy has made out of mouthing-off then there would have to be a temptation to become the new "dumb dunphy"