for set piece delivery alone he's worth having in our team
Brady's showing tonight will do him no harm when it comes to potential places in the MUFC line-up. They're having some problems at left wing at present, League Cup coming up. He'll get at least one start between now and Germany.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
for set piece delivery alone he's worth having in our team
If we struggled to break them down and scraped a 1-0 win would we have learnt any more from the experience?Originally Posted by Manblue
Oman are ranked 93 in the world; Kazakhstan are 142. Now the FIFA rankings are somewhat skewed as they more often than not seem to favour most Confederations over UEFA due to UEFA's incredible strength-in-depth. But there's no denying that in theory tonight should have been more difficult than it was on Friday. We were playing a notionally better side with a completely changed team that had never played before together.
I think we learned a lot tonight.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Couldn't agree more.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
What did we learn though?
Getting a brief look at Brady and Pearce I suppose, checking out Coleman at RB. Nothing you wouldn't get from a behind closed doors training match. Perhaps there were no better teams available for the friendly today, looking at the friendly fixtures only Brazil, Czech Rep, Finland and some African teams who may not travel were playing friendlies. If there was nothing better today was marginally better than nothing but it's going to be of no real worth for our germany game. Impossible to learn anything playing a B team against poor opposition.
i was at the game tonight and was a bit surprised how poor oman were. they're not such a terrible side based on recent form and have a reasonable chance of actually qualifying for the world cup. however 3 of our four goals came from crosses into the box which they failed to deal with.
plus points: long and doyle both looked sharp and strong. brady provided a lot of creativity though was ambling all over the park as if in a free role. hard to believe trap authorised this... meyler looked like a good version of paul green. i personally thought coleman was a bit erractic, i can't see him starting at full back against germany or in any other competitive fixture for a while. mcclean looked good when he came on.
minus points: keogh. he was our weakest player and did very little against a defensively poor side. both forde and randolph looked shaky. mccarthy didn't do much - i reckon we're back to whelan/andrews for the germany game. meyler had the better game of the 2 centre midfielders.
On that note why wasn't Andrews called up for this game? There's always the chance with Trap that like with Hunt he could just exclude him entirely for no good reason, although unlikely.
Also there's a very real chance Whelan could be dropped for Stoke and play very little in the next month, if that happened it may have a bearing on Trap's decision. He tends to make his most erratic calls against the big teams so I'm sure there'll be something we don't expect.
Accept the point about availability of stronger opposition, Perhaps a behind closed friendly against premier league opposition who are looking to settle in new players after the transfer window may of been a better option (provided a club were willing to oblige). I know a couple of clubs played games at the weekend to do this amongst themselves so don't think it would of been impossible to arrange.
As i said, i do want to see new players and its nice to see them get an opportunity but against such opposition i feel it is a bit pointless. Oman are doing ok in there group and have drawn with Australia but that doesn't mean much when you see them losing to Jordan tonight.
Nice to here comments from someone who was at the match. Mostly I agree with you.
Worrying that we still have to rely on set piece goals against such a poor defensive team. Although we did come up with some promising interplay that unfortunately ended up at Keogh's feet, who you are right is woeful.
I think describing Colemans performance is erratic is off the mark although i understand what you mean. I would see it as opportunism which is very important to a FB's game and he should go roaming if he is allowed to. However I'd say Trap would see this the same as you. I was very impressed by him in CM. He looked assured, composed and direct.
Meyler and McCarthy were trying things throughout the match, a lot of it wasn't working out for them but I think they are small mistakes that will be ironed out after they get a couple of caps behind them. We could of got a glimpse of the future of our CM tonight.
Was hoping Wilson would get more time. very hard to judge him on tonight and unsure of how Trap ranks the LB's now. Hopefully Pearce can be a good player for us. As i mentioned above Brady should go straight into the team now. We are a team that looks to score most of our goals from deadballs. With deliveries like tonight we'll score plenty
Well you would not be watching it Trap, you would be reading itI am not angry with him ( McClean) [about the Tweet]. I never get angry with my players and I don't watch Twitter."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...?newsfeed=true
For what it is worth Oman do not play much outside their 'zone', games they have played include away to
Australia and Japan, who are ranked 1 and 3 places above (ie better) us respectively.
So it seems like a par performance all round, making the team as good as our first team.
As for the choice of opposition, I don't know when the fixture was arranged but I doubt Trap wanted to go into the German game on the back of a defeat.
It also give him a chance to get a look at some players in a safe environment.
Last edited by tricky_colour; 12/09/2012 at 1:11 AM.
If you're as bewildered as me as to why we struggled with our best team against the lowly Kazakhs and yet beat Oman handily with a B team yesterday - Ramadan. The Oman players had just finished observing Ramadan and their fitness levels were not up to snuff according to their manager. Makes sense to me, the reason we played Oman at this time of year looks like a smart move from the FAI.
always better to play than not play no matter what the opposition. i doubt too many other better teams were idle / interested in playing a friendly last night.
as a minimum it means that when brady, meyler etc are required when it counts it wont be their first cap and they should be more comfortable with their surroundings as a result
I lost all my objectivity, in the giddiness and excitement of seeing all these young players playing in front of me under traps reign, that the closest sniff of a touch of a ball and I was giving glowing assessments.
But if I were to look at the positives this is what I saw:
Doyle and long were good, long had a very good half but not so much in the second.
Brady has something special about him, but id worry about his weight in the future, strong lad, good leap, great touch, and very quick – also most importantly he is a natural left footer.
Mccarthy very good first half but probably tired a little in the second half.
Meyler had a good 25 minutes but at least he got a full run out. He was a bit too casual for traps liking at times I would say. Only playing 10-15 minutes a week so it’s understandable really.
Wilson was solid, I know it was only oman but he played some lovely balls as well, only on for a half but id definitely start him ahead of ward.
Keogh tried hard but really saw his limitations.
Kelly was solid.
Coleman was very good in the second half some of his running in the midfield was very good but he wouldn’t get away with it against stronger opposition
Mclean didn’t do a great deal.
Pearce looked good when he came on.
St ledger showed experienced and talked a bit which was good.
I think brady or less likely Wilson are they players to get that 1 spot trap was on about.
And yes the keogh and mcclean comments are seen as positives...
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
My only concern is that 3 of the 4 goals were set pieces against a side I hear are quite short? I guess I've learned that even against weak oppostion scoring goals from open play is going to remain a challenge.
We learnt that a Trap team can try to play with the ball on the ground for 90 mins and we could see a few new players in the flesh in amongst that team.
What matters is what Trap takes from it, re players like Pearce, Meyler, Wilson and Brady, but I wouldn't hold my breath that there will be much deviation from lumping it up towards Walters or Doyle.
Good news I hope for Cox, who (according to a Trap prognosis) should be okay.
Great to see some of the young lads doing well, especially Coleman and Brady.
Will they have a chance of starting the next competitive game? Hello no!
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Traps comments after the game suggest little change from the team that started against Kaz. He mused about a 5 man midfield or a 4-4-1-1. Whether to attack the Germans or sit back(easy one to answer). Maybe McCarthy in a 5 man midfield with Whelan and Andrews(not going to happen). Sounds like a 4-4-1-1 then against Germany very similar to our formation away to Russia in the last campaign. Looking at last nights game through Trap glasses Wilson might have played his way into the team. But I still think he will go with
Westwood
Jos Dunne Sledge Ward
McGeady Andrews Whelan Cox
Walters
Keane
against the Germans.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...86.html?via=mr
I will despair if Trap picks this team next month. A repeat of the Euros so.... the same mistakes repeated again and again, nothing learnt. The definition of madness.
For all his strengths and limitations, picking Walters always encourages us to lump the ball to him. And what on earth does Long need to do to get into this team? The energy and interaction shown by Long and Doyle together last night was great. Will we see it in the Aviva? Like hell we will.
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