Squad for France and Faroes

[harps1954]

Brian Kerr today, Wednesday, 29 September 2004, announced a squad of 24 for Ireland’s upcoming World Cup games with France and Faroe Islands.

Matt Holland and Liam Miller having missed the last two games against Cyprus and Switzerland through injury, return to the squad. Matt has played two reserve games in the last week and hopes to be involved with the first team at Arsenal next Saturday. Liam came on as a substitute in Manchester United’s last two games on Saturday and Tuesday night. John O’Shea has recovered from the thigh muscle injury that forced him out of the match in Switzerland is also back in the squad.

Richard Dunne returns to the squad and Graham Barrett retains his place having been a late addition through withdrawals in the September games.

The squad will assemble in Dublin for training on Tuesday 5th October and depart for Paris on Thursday 7th returning to Dublin on Sunday 10th in preparation for the game with the Faroe Island on Wednesday 13th in Lansdowne.

Squad v France & Faroe Islands

Shay Given (Newcastle United) Born: 20/04/76 Caps: 63
Paddy Kenny (Sheffield United) Born: 17/05/78 Caps: 3
Nick Colgan (Barnsley) Born: 19/09/73 Caps: 8
Stephen Carr (Newcastle United) Born: 29/08/76 Caps: 33 Goals: 0
Andy O’Brien (Newcastle United) Born: 29/06/79 Caps: 15 Goals: 0
Kenny Cunningham (Birmingham) Born: 28/06/71 Caps: 60 Goals: 0
Alan Maybury (Hearts) Born: 08/08/78 Caps: 9 Goals: 0
Richard Dunne (Manchester City) Born: 21/9/79 Caps: 20 Goals: 4
Gary Breen (Sunderland) Born: 12/12/73 Caps: 61 Goals: 7
John O’Shea (Manchester United) Born: 30/04/81 Caps: 16 Goals: 1
Steve Finnan (Liverpool) Born: 20/04/76 Caps: 31 Goals: 1
Andy Reid (Nottingham Forest) Born: 29/07/82 Caps: 10 Goals: 1
Matt Holland (Charlton Athletic) Born: 11/04/74 Caps: 43 Goals: 5
Roy Keane (Manchester United) Born: 10/08/71 Caps: 61 Goals: 9
Kevin Kilbane (Everton) Born: 01/02/77 Caps: 56 Goals: 4
Liam Miller (Manchester United) Born: 13/02/81 Caps: 5 Goals: 0
Graham Kavanagh (Cardiff City) Born: 2/12/73 Caps: 8 Goals: 1
Alan Quinn (Sheffield United) Born: 13/06/79 Caps: 5 Goals: 0
Graham Barrett (Coventry City) Born: 6/10/81 Caps: 5 Goals: 2
Damien Duff (Chelsea) Born: 2/3/79 Caps: 46 Goals: 6
Gary Doherty (Norwich City) Born: 31/01/80 Caps: 28 Goals: 4
Alan Lee (Cardiff City) Born: 21/08/78 Caps: 7 Goals: 0
Clinton Morrison (Birmingham) Born: 14/05/79 Caps: 24 Goals: 7
Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspur) Born: 08/07/80 Caps: 54 Goals: 21

[Plastic Paddy]

Alan Maybury? Nick ****ing Colgan?

What planet are you on, Mister Kerr? I really do wonder sometimes...

PP

[Peadar]

What planet are you on, Mister Kerr? I really do wonder sometimes...

PP

Squad PP, Squad.

It's the starting XI you need to worry about.

[inexile]

cant really argue with that squad no notable omissions except for macken maybe, i think i would have included him he is playing at a higher level than lee has ever done no dispespect to Alan Lee but is there any chance Kerr is omitting him to avoid a backlash over the Granny rule?

[NeilMcD]

Before people start giving out about who is in the squad etc, lets point out who is out of the squad and if they would have done any better


Ian Harte, David Connolly and Jonathan Macken, Stephen Reid (injury) Colin Healy (injury) Graham Stack, Stephen Elliot, Jason Byrne, Glen Crowe, Wes Houlihan, Joe Murphy.

If there are any more could people please add them.


I think only Harte for Maybury would have been a viable option and maybe Stephen Elliot, but I think his time will come in November with the friendly. Harte is the only one who appears to be in trouble and have a fight on his hands to get back in

[Kingdom]

Kerr has picked a fine squad regardless of whether Maybury is in it.
Nicky Colgan is a fine keeper , no doubt some people would have preferred Graham Stack. I'm surprised the Honey Monster is back considering his comments to one of the Sunday papers a couple of weeks ago,

Surely Brian could have given the Gooch the chance to claim a place....

[Dan K]

cant really argue with that squad no notable omissions except for macken maybe, i think i would have included him he is playing at a higher level than lee has ever done no dispespect to Alan Lee but is there any chance Kerr is omitting him to avoid a backlash over the Granny rule?

Rory Delap.

Confused how Kerr calls him up when he's on **** form, then leaves him out as he gets better.

[Donal81]

How fit is Liam Miller? Will he start, do you reckon? Haven't heard anything about him for a while...

[inexile]

Surely Brian could have given the Gooch the chance to claim a place.... [/QUOTE]

for all his qualities id rather have seamus moynihan there unless Gooch could play left full!!

[Plastic Paddy]

Squad PP, Squad.

They're still nowhere near good enough for the squad, P.

It's the starting XI you need to worry about.

Believe me, I am worried. Despite the optimism expressed by many posters that is currently bathing this site in bright light, I think the French could still cream us. And that's made all the more likely with journeymen like Maybury and Colgan littering the place.

Kerr has picked a fine squad regardless of whether Maybury is in it.
Nicky Colgan is a fine keeper , no doubt some people would have preferred Graham Stack.

I think bringing Sam home must be going to your head. Unless I've missed a huge dollop of irony somewhere...

PP

[inexile]

Rory Delap.

Confused how Kerr calls him up when he's on **** form, then leaves him out as he gets better.

Id have Delapdancer in there for the same reason id have Macken because they are playing regularly in the premiership. IMHO I think you have to pick players who are playing at the higher level and no disrespect but that why at the moment when there is a full squad available to chose from there wont be any EL league players in the squad, i know ill prob be lynched for that but im afraid its a fact

[Kingdom]

I think bringing Sam home must be going to your head.

I think you're right

[thejollyrodger]

I think the sqad is decent enough. There are lots of crap irish players and its difficult to exclude them all.

France could well make an example of us and it could end up 4-0 to France.

A draw would be a great result

[Kingdom]

Thats a sobering thought as well. Surely the poor performances of the French can only go on for so long. Maybe we will take a trouncing. Maybe we won't. After their result at home to Israel the Frogs will be up under pressure to perform.

[Peadar]

Surely the poor performances of the French can only go on for so long.

They've been going on since the 2002 World Cup!
It's the mood in the camp that's wrong.
All we can hope for is that they play all their disgruntled star players.
If they bring in French based players with a point top prove then we could be in trouble. That said, if we keep our shape and decipline, no one will beat us 4-0

[drinkfeckarse]

Nicky Colgan is a fine keeper ,

, thanks for that Kingdom! Was having a bad day at work until I read that.....cheered me up no end!!

[inexile]

i think thats the french teams problem they dont perform under pressure when they are expected to do well, they won the world cup as underdogs, didnt perform in euro 2000 final or semi and were relativley lucky to win that, they were shocking at Japan/Korea 2002 and not so great this Summer they just dont seem to have the heart for it especially without Paddy V, the likes of Pires, Wiltord etc look great when things are going well but give them and aggressive marker and they may as well be up in the stand i think we will definitly get a point outta Paris

[tetsujin1979]

Before people start giving out about who is in the squad etc, lets point out who is out of the squad and if they would have done any better
Ian Harte, David Connolly and Jonathan Macken, Stephen Reid (injury) Colin Healy (injury) Graham Stack, Stephen Elliot, Jason Byrne, Glen Crowe, Wes Houlihan, Joe Murphy.

If there are any more could people please add them.

I can only think of Clarke and Rowlands.

I'd have Clarke in for more cover at left full, O'Shea's been playing at right full and centre midfield for United lately, think Rowlands would just be a squad player, going on recent performances for QPR. Why Stack isn't in ahead of colgan (higher league, better form, European games) is beyond me

[Stuttgart88]

For a start, why do we always insist on 3 keepers? You can always call someone up at the last minute if needed. Even still, surely Stack can benefit going forward but Colgan???

Dunne deserves his place back so that’s good. But with Dunne back is Breen really required? Doherty, O’Shea, Dunne are cover at CB if necessary.

I'd prefer Delap over Holland as the latter can’t possibly be fit enough. I wonder is there an issue between Delap & Kerr? Every time he’s selected he drops out. When he’s fit & on form he’s not selected.

I really feel for Delap. Has he ever played for Ireland in his preferred position?

He played in that weird Ireland vs Ireland game at Tolka years back at left-back and subsequently has always been played at right midfield, including that humiliating pre-WC2002 warm up game against USA(?) where McCarthy gave him the illusion he had a chance of playing his way into the WC squad. That was a humiliating disgrace that Mick should be ashamed of. He even played upfront in the away leg of the Turkey play-off if I remember right.

Delap is a central midfielder and one of our better ones. I’d have him in over KK all the time, quite simply because he’s suited to the position.

And in terms of the bigger squad picture, I’d include Delap ahead of Breen. This is contentious (and contradictory) but if we needed a centre-half with 20 mins to go I think Delap could do a job there too. In reality what are the chances of us needing to bring on a centre-half and Doherty, O’Shea AND Dunne are no longer options?

I said on another thread that Macken should start. I thought he looked good at the weekend. Clinton can’t get a game and Macken is currently preferred to Fowler at City, albeit by default because Fowler’s apparently got attitude problems.

I don’t rate Maybury and think that Clarke is a better bet, and possibly Michael Doyle too.

Elliott’s exclusion I’m less concerned with as I’d like the U21’s to do well. He’s getting close though.

[eirebhoy]

Dunne deserves his place back so that’s good. But with Dunne back is Breen really required? Doherty, O’Shea, Dunne are cover at CB if necessary.

Breen is a replacement for Cunningham. Dunne/Doc are replacements for O'Brien. Whatever you think of Breen as a footballer, every centre half partnerships needs an organisor, in my opinion of course. I'd prefer to drop Doc for Macken. Doc hasn't played at centre half for his club since last season.