Ireland V Germany 12th October & Faroe Islands 16th October 2012 - World Cup 2014 Q

[placid casual]

ah well shure not to worry.
there's always the trip to the faroes and we'll shake a shamrock for the boys in green.
tell davy keogh i said a big hello

[abcd]

The time has come for a fresh approach. Whether it will or can come to pass I don't know but it must. Have always backed Trapattoni but things have been on the slide for a while now and such an abject performance at home just caps off our decline really. Staunton got the boot for his failings now Trap must be moved on.

However, everyone needs to bang their heads together for Tuesday because any slip ups there and the campaign can't be ressurected. If we get a win, 2nd is still to play for as I don't think Germany will drop any points in this campaign and there's about 5-6 months until our next competitive game so we can examine all our options.

For all Trap shortcomings recently, the players owe it to themselves and the Irish people to not make any stupid f*** ups on Tuesday.

[schoolboygodno9]

lads just back from the local rte should be ashamed of themselves giving jon walters mom surely we can see that the superior team won and give the mom to them fellas must have fell off the chair when they saw that come on in fairness

[Uncle_Joe]

the team be set up to play hoofball with no confidence or strategy to play it on the ground, quite astonishing really.

I actually thought we passed it about a lot more than usual in the first half. Up to O'Shea's lucky escape we tended to try and pass the ball out of situations rather than hoof it. I thought this might be because of Fahey but it's more likely that it was simply the fact that we had 5 in midfield at that time.
So many things seem against us at the moment. Playing Croatia, Spain, Italy and Germany in so close together has really shown us up but I really don't think we have the players to even bother top international teams at the moment. I don't think changing the manger will change that much to be honest but I'm starting to feel horribly numb to our results at this stage. Defeats have always made me feel depressed but like Worm mentioned earlier I'm starting to feel depressed in the build up before games.

[schoolboygodno9]

lads we were on a hiding to nothing tnite but look we have the faroes nxt and sweden struggled tnite against them zlatan got the winner id be more worried tues night than i was tonight

[mark12345]

i hope trap has enough dignity to offer his resignation after this.

You think Trap is the only problem? Really? How about eleven players offering their resignation as well? As Ray Houghton said - this is how far Ireland are behind the good teams in Europe.

Bottom line we have to go back to the basics. It's football, not air ball. That means you keep it on the floor, you pass and move for a return pass, and move again for another return pass.

Another bottom line. Did anyone see any Messi or Ronaldo tricks out there from the Germans? I know I didn't. So what does that tell you? It tells you the Germans played simple intelligent football, no frills, just bloody simple stuff. The game is simple and we can't even play it. So that makes us simpletons.

[Crosby87]

The big question is, will there be a hangover for the Faroe match?

[mark12345]

ARE THERE ANY COACHES OUT THERE AMONG YOU?

If so I would love to hear your thoughts. Wave the magic wand and put yourself in Trap's shoes for the remainder of the campaign. What are your priorities to right this ship before it sinks? I know from the coaching I've done, I would find players to trouble the opposition defence. You have to have a tip to your spear - if not it's a pointless exercise. We didn't have that today - our best option was to have a Long, Brady axis. But we didn't. First mistake. You also need to be a fortress in defence. We don't have that right now. O'Dea is somewhat blameless because he was a second or third choice but O'Shea is certainly to blame and so is Trap for persisting with him. If you've seen my posts on here over time you know I've called him the worst defender Ireland has ever produced. Nothing that we saw from him today changed that. We have persisted with players who are substandard defenders. As a coach you should move others into plug the gap - perhaps Andrews playing beside Dunne or Sledge or keep going down the pecking order to find a jewel of a player. Any thoughts on coaching?

[shaneker]

Trying to think what to write, but what's the point. We've been destroyed at home.

It's time for Trap to go. But he should be remembered alongside Jack and Mick as one of the few who took us to the top table. For me, he'll always have that and be regarded as one of the best we've had. But we can't accept this - he's clearly lost the players and he took far too long to accept that we needed to change the way we played.

Sad that it ended this way.

[mark12345]

Yeah - O'Shea as interim player manager - Trap bye bye.

My friend, if you want O'Shea as an interim manager or indeed if you want him to have anything more to do with this team, you need to find a different sport to follow because you clearly know nothing about football.

[Noelys Guitar]

This guy is clearly not going to resign so we have a fairly horrible situation developing. A manager not wanted by players/fans/pundits/media is a dead man walking. The FAI allegedly don't have the money to pay off Trapatonni and his entourage. Will O'Brien stump up the dough? We probably won't know what is going on behind scenes until the Sunday papers are published.

[peadar1987]

My friend, if you want O'Shea as an interim manager or indeed if you want him to have anything more to do with this team, you need to find a different sport to follow because you clearly know nothing about football.

And who would you have replace him? Apart from an average central midfielder? Paul McShane, perhaps? The only person looking like they might be a prospect is Duffy, and he's barely played for his club.

[Diarmo]

And who would you have replace him? Apart from an average central midfielder? Paul McShane, perhaps? The only person looking like they might be a prospect is Duffy, and he's barely played for his club.

Ciaran Clark
Alex Pearce
Marc Wilson

That 'peno' that O'Shea nearly gave away in the 1st half was criminal defending for someone with over 80 caps.

[Bungle]

Before the Euros, I was very disappointed with Trap's handling of players who should have been integral players for us. I watched him treat James McCarthy and Ciaran Clarke disgracefully. Two young lads who have lots to learn (as can be seen from Clarke with Villa this season and James tonight against Germany) but who could be top class in the future. I watched him leave a competent decent young player with a good future like Wilson out of squads for the totally mediocre Ward and totally ignore Hoolahan completely. However, as annoyed as I was and as dismayed by our style of play I was, my attitude was hey we're back at the top table and I'm going to head to Poland and enjoy the ride. I actually thought we deserved a bit of luck after Paris and I thought we might get out of the group.

Now, I cannot understand how anybody can support Trap. We have a bunch of young lads there who offer hope and this man will stifle them and ruin them. He has lost the dressing room and he must go.

[Manblue]

ARE THERE ANY COACHES OUT THERE AMONG YOU?

If so I would love to hear your thoughts. Wave the magic wand and put yourself in Trap's shoes for the remainder of the campaign. What are your priorities to right this ship before it sinks? I know from the coaching I've done, I would find players to trouble the opposition defence. You have to have a tip to your spear - if not it's a pointless exercise. We didn't have that today - our best option was to have a Long, Brady axis. But we didn't. First mistake. You also need to be a
fortress in defence. We don't have that right now. O'Dea is somewhat blameless because he was a second or third choice but O'Shea is certainly to blame and so is Trap for persisting with him. If you've seen my posts on here over time you know I've called him the worst defender Ireland has ever produced. Nothing that we saw from him today changed that. We have persisted with players who are substandard defenders. As a coach you should move others into plug the gap - perhaps Andrews playing beside Dunne or Sledge or keep going down the pecking order to find a jewel of a player. Any thoughts on coaching?

What are you on about. You don't have to be a coach to know stuff like that and secondly that's a managers job not a coach. There were so many fundamental errors tonight I couldn't begin to start. Perhaps I'll be calmer tomorrow

[tricky_colour]

We will bounce back, we will stuff them in the return leg for sure.

[Murfinator]

To me tonight confirmed how poor our player pool is and that our golden generation of players have papered over the cracks for long enough. There was no paper tonight and the cracks were plain to see for all. Wouldn't blame the management, buck stops with the players for that and they just weren't good enough. Most of them will never be good enough. Fahey and Cox were desperate tonight, I cringed watching McCarthy's token effort at a block for Kroos's second and not one but two of our centre backs gave away a penalty (or what should have been) tonight. Long had 40 minutes and did nothing.
Even during the anthem at the start, barely anyone sung it and the passion shown there was echoed throughout the game. Limp and disjointed. Given, Keane, Dunne, Duff, Kilbane and Doyle were the heart and soul of our team, without them we're nothing. We don't have the characters, we don't have the leadership, we just have a bunch of journeymen who aren't and never will be good enough for this level. This was always going to happen sooner or later. The criticism of the management for not blooding these guys sooner is a false assumption that with time and experience they'll ever be good enough, I don't believe they will.

Dark times ahead, just how great Duff, Keane, Given and Dunne were/are is going to become very, very apparent over the next few years. People will hide behind Trap as the problem for now but they'll see our current pool of "talent" for what it really is soon enough.


On Germany, they were fantastic as expected and one of the great teams of our time. Like with Spain we were close to them 10 years ago but the flourishing grassroots for La Liga and the Bundesliga compared to the floundering EPL mired in the past has widened the gap to a chasm. Hard to see how we'd ever not get destroyed by either in the foreseeable future.

[wonder88]

strange that Marc Wilson can't get a place in the Irish defence, however Germany have a lot of very good players and I don't think another change or two in our starting 11 would have made much difference. Game against Faroe Islands is a must win, hope Long starts up front with Waters and maybe we might see Wilson in at the back, give Brady a chance as well from the off and leave Fahey out. I would also ask Gibson to come back and play Clarke instead of O Dea and drop Ward.

[Murfinator]

This guy is clearly not going to resign so we have a fairly horrible situation developing. A manager not wanted by players/fans/pundits/media is a dead man walking. The FAI allegedly don't have the money to pay off Trapatonni and his entourage. Will O'Brien stump up the dough? We probably won't know what is going on behind scenes until the Sunday papers are published.

If we beat the Faroes we'll have 6 from 9 and the most we could realistically have at this stage leaving us on course for our targeted 2nd place finish. The signs are bad but no football association or chairman is going to sack someone because of signs when they've achieved the targeted points.

[bishbash]

The nobody could do any better argument is criminal. Is Ciaran Clark better than O'Dea? Yes. Is Marc Wilson better than Ward? Yes. Is McClean better than Cox as a winger a million percent yes, then someone please enlighten me as to why they don't play. Trappatoni was very lucky to qualify for the Euros but credit where it's due we did. People have constantly said its a results game, well if it is the last 5 results are embarrassing and I include that win against the country with superior potassium! Also if no one else can do any better and the players are not good enough then why is he being paid nearly 2 million a yr, just pay someone a tenth of that for the same results. His time has come and gone.