Irish team v France

**eirebhoy** · 06/10/2004, 4:02 PM

Originally Posted by barglee

harte(he shud be in the squad as hes our only left back)

Jesus lads, Harte moves to Spain and suddenly everyone rates him.

**thejollyrodger** · 06/10/2004, 4:03 PM

still dunno why harte isnt in the squad.

cos he's crap

that might just be crazy enough to work Jolly

I think so too

**tricky_colour** · 07/10/2004, 1:47 AM

Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

cos he's crap

Well crap he maybe, but is he any worse than our other
options?

Yes he has had his moments of crapness, but are they any
more frequent than those crap moments of the other options?

I remember Harte clearing a lot of balls off the goal line (goal bound).
I aslo remember some great free kicks.

He also is a good passer and crosser of the ball.

Ok he is not as fast as Henry, but Henry will skin whoever replaces
him anyway

so whats the difference?

Offensive Harte is a pretty good option, he can pass, cross and
shoot from distance better than any other left back we have I would
imagine.

Can O'Shea or Finnan score from 35 yards? Answer No.

We may be in need of some decent 70 yard long balls from defence

Just take hin off when he becomes knackered.

barglee · 07/10/2004, 8:48 AM

>>Jesus lads, Harte moves to Spain and suddenly everyone rates him.

more like he moves to spain and Brian Kerr doesnt bother travelling over to have a look at him..........

Surely Ian Harte must rank above Alan Maybury(natural right footer ) at left back as well as finnan and o shea.
I'm sick of watching full backs turn on to their right foot for a defensive pass instead of overlapping on the wing..... (Being a liverpool supporter ive watched Carragher do it for years)

Anyway Harte had one bad world cup (of which he played in everyqualifier) and didnt feature much in the last campaign. I'm sure playing for Leeds didnt help his confidence either......

**thejollyrodger** · 07/10/2004, 8:50 AM

I think the problem is that we cant have that many attacking minded people on the pitch. Thats not to say that any of the players are any good, its just that whatever they are good at is bringing the ball forward and defensively they are a mess. We need a solid back 4 who may well be crap going forward but can simply boot the ball away at the right time.

**eirebhoy** · 07/10/2004, 10:26 AM

At least he wants to play for his country which is a good sign:

�France is such a big game and to miss it is really hard for me. Even being in the squad would have been good but I�m nowhere and that�s hard to take.

�It�s not as if playing on the other side of the world ... This part of Spain is just a two-hour flight away. I�ve improved since I came here and I would happily pay for the tickets myself to persuade Brian Kerr to come and watch me. There�s eight defenders in the squad and not one of them is a natural left-footer.�

**koneinc** · 07/10/2004, 2:54 PM

Originally Posted by eirebhoy

At least he wants to play for his country which is a good

Yes this is true but I just don't think he has it in him

**eirebhoy** · 07/10/2004, 3:37 PM

Originally Posted by koneinc

Yes this is true but I just don't think he has it in him

TBH, I am one million percent sure that most of Harte's bad performances are down to confidence (Just as Kibane went through a spell of 3 or 4 years of non stop bad performances). I can relate to it because I was a big confidence player when I played Sunday league football but if I had one good match I was flying for the next couple of games at least, I can only imagine what its like when the whole world is watching. There are a few things you can do about confidence (a lot of snooker players get hypnosis for example) and judging by Harte's recent comment's to the media (he never used to speak to the media) I honestly think he's sorted it out.