Kerr's Irish team so far

**thejollyrodger** · 14/10/2004, 5:08 PM

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**dynamo kerry** · 14/10/2004, 5:25 PM

Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

Carr - escapes a lot of critisim because of his last two games but his run in basel was a disgrace. Questionable temperment.

questionable comment

O Brien - seems to have shaken a lot of his ball watching habbits but against the israeli's it might cost us a lot.

fishin' - he's doing fine

O Shea - I reckon fergie will give him another season before he chucks him. Missed a golden oppurtunity in the Stade de France. Everyone let him off the hook but really should have scored. His positional play is terrible sometimes, so is his tackling and so is his passing.

needs improving - already better than last season

Duff - good player but defensivley needs to address a lot of problems. Very bad at tracking players down and winning the ball. Terrible at finishing golden oppurtunities on goal and his shooting outside the box is equally poor.

mourhino is happy with his defending - and so am I - again fishin for problems

Holland - forgot he even was there. Mr invisible for 89 minutes of the game. Only there to make up the numbers. not very mobile, few tackles, negative 1 meter passing. Only plus point is a sweet strike of the ball outside the peno area.

you forgot he was there because he hasn't played yet. fool.

Reid - some potential but a savage amount of problems. Serious attitude problem, tries the perfect goal ALL the time, poor ball retention, lots of incomplete passes. Dreadful at taking proper corners and free kicks. Off the ball he is worse. Very immobile, few tackles and rarely closes people down.

meh!

Robbie Keane - may well be the highest goal scorer ever but that doesnt say much for our strikers (Nial Quinn is now playing GAA again). One on one with a keeper he usually misses, not good in the air, poor communication with other team mates, out of form a lot of the time. Relies to much on feints and dummies when there is no one else around him.

not getting into this. record scorer/teammates incompetant at putting the ball away etc

in short - you're a moany pain in the hole

**eirebhoy** · 14/10/2004, 6:45 PM

Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

Carr - Questionable temperment.

Are you ever going to stop with this sh�te? He has one red card in his whole footballing career. He's an aggressive player which is what ever team needs.

Duff is absolutely superb with tracking back and winning balls.

Jolly, if there was an option to add people to your ignore list on this site you would be very close. You're either a troll or don't know very much about football and have higher standards than those accross the water.

**John83** · 14/10/2004, 6:50 PM

Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Jolly, if there was an option to add people to your ignore list on this site you would be very close. You're either a troll or don't know very much about football and have higher standards than those accross the water.

There is. On the green bar at the top of the screen (under the big foot.ie logo), click on User CP.

Then, on the panel on the left, down near the bottom, there's a link called "Buddy/Ignore lists". Add his username to that, and you're set.

**John83** · 14/10/2004, 7:02 PM

Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

well the thread was meant to be about the shortcomings of the irish side and what the side needs to improve on if they want to win the rest of their games.

Okay. I think we need to sign Kaka, Christiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, and a left back of some sort. Until that is likely, we need to stop whinging about the shortcomings of our players, and hope Kerr is competant enough to make them play to their strengths.

If you want to be whiney about it, there's hardly a player on the planet you can't find fault with. I mean, criticising Duff for his merely mediocre defensive ability... FFS.

**1MickCollins** · 15/10/2004, 1:49 AM

Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

I dont want to be negative but this thread is about the crap irish players and our limitations..

These are the crap Irish players that are pole position in their group at the moment? What Scotland, Norn Iron and Wales qwouldn't give for our crap players

England would take Duff & Given & Carr in a flash!

**Stuttgart88** · 15/10/2004, 8:01 AM

Way too harsh I think Jollyrodger. Incomepetent is hardly appropriate. Of course the team has its faults, but few don�t. I still see this as an evolving team and we�ve made an encouraging transformation to competitive football after a year of friendlies.

Some of the positives so far for me:

Given�s performances in Basle & Paris. Most talented �keeper we�ve ever had and one of the best international �keepers around.

O�Brien & Cunningham�s partnership has really gelled. I have no fears over O�Brien whatsoever. He has settled in well at this level.

Who will ever replace Cunningham? Dunne.

Carr has been fine: no more, no less. Lost his head in Basle but is generally safe and contributes going forward. His final ball was shocking at times in Paris.

O�Shea: I haven�t seen too much wrong with him. I thought he & Duff had their hands full in Paris, but they were up against Pires & Gallas � a quality pair. Duff�s defensive work was important in the second half. I could see this really well from my position in Tier 3.

Kilbane�s performance in Paris was immense. The whole team was off colour in Basle, not just KK.

Keane still has great influence on a game.

Duff is on great form. Also Morrison.

Our passing & shape in last two games was firm, accurate and at a good tempo. Ball retention is key in international football and in Paris it was excellent. We�ve played a lot worse than we did on Wednesday and still won handsomely in the past.

Finnan on the right. I think the team is way more balanced when he�s there. Our game deteriorated when he moved to replace O�Shea on Wednesday.

Negatives:

Robbie�s finishing in one-on-ones is poor. We need to take more chances. Even with a bad performance in Basle, Morrisson & Keane missed clear opportunities. Despite all that Keane is a valuable asset to the side.

Lack of depth upfront. Hopefully Elliott & McGeady will come into the picture.

Lack of cover for Given.

Who�s to say we won�t have another one or two more Basle type performances?

Set-pieces have been poor.

Miller�s situation at MUFC.

The general perception that we�re in pole position. We�re in a healthy position but there�s a shed load more to be done. One lapse and we could be back to square one, though I take comfort in Switzerland�s dodgy away record.

**zinedineontour** · 15/10/2004, 8:01 AM

I think we must be one of the few countries in the world who put there players down constantly.. We have not a huge pool of players to choose from unlike say england but we grind out the results and how anyone can criticise our team at the moment is beyond me . Fair enough Robbie missed a few last night but he scored 2 as well. Hes a striker at least hes getting in the positions to score for **** sake. WE are a country of begrudgers we should be very happy with the squad we have instead of this constant criticism..

**drummerboy** · 15/10/2004, 8:26 AM

I think thejollyroger is hopping the ball here, looking for a reaction. As regards Stephen Carr I think the move to Newcastle has worked wonders for him. He seems to have rediscovered his adventurous nature and has started getting down the line again. We struggled on Wednesday when Steve Finnan had to revert to left full. He's not a natural left-footer, hence he continuously turning inside, which starves Duff of the ball. O'Shea has a decent left foot, even if it is not his strongest feature. What a pity Ian Harte became a defensive liability as he has a wonderful left peg.

**Superhoops** · 15/10/2004, 8:50 AM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Lack of depth upfront. Hopefully Elliott & McGeady will come into the picture.

Agree, this is our biggest problem area, after Robbie and Clinton, we have very little up front. What about trying O'Shea up front?

He can head, shoot, hold up and pass. The only thing he can't do is the what he is in the team for at the moment, i.e. defend! Also, gives an option to bolster midfield if necessary, something that neither Robbie or Clinton are good at.

**Kingdom** · 15/10/2004, 8:56 AM

Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

I dont want to be negative but this thread is about the crap irish players and our limitations..

I just want to highlight some of the incompetent players who are in the starting 11 and highlight where it's going to cost us in the forthcoming WCQ's.

starting at the back.

Carr - escapes a lot of critisim because of his last two games but his run in basel was a disgrace. Questionable temperment.

O Brien - seems to have shaken a lot of his ball watching habbits but against the israeli's it might cost us a lot.

Cunnigham - who is going to replace him when he retires. He is getting slower by the day.

O Shea - I reckon fergie will give him another season before he chucks him. Missed a golden oppurtunity in the Stade de France. Everyone let him off the hook but really should have scored. His positional play is terrible sometimes, so is his tackling and so is his passing.

Duff - good player but defensivley needs to address a lot of problems. Very bad at tracking players down and winning the ball. Terrible at finishing golden oppurtunities on goal and his shooting outside the box is equally poor.

Roy Keane - solid player.

Kilbane - starting to address all his shortcomings. I reckon he will be decent midfielder but really has to expect to make more tackles than he is at the moment.

Holland - forgot he even was there. Mr invisible for 89 minutes of the game. Only there to make up the numbers. not very mobile, few tackles, negative 1 meter passing. Only plus point is a sweet strike of the ball outside the peno area.

Reid - some potential but a savage amount of problems. Serious attitude problem, tries the perfect goal ALL the time, poor ball retention, lots of incomplete passes. Dreadful at taking proper corners and free kicks. Off the ball he is worse. Very immobile, few tackles and rarely closes people down.

Morrison - had a good WCQ so far.

Robbie Keane - may well be the highest goal scorer ever but that doesnt say much for our strikers (Nial Quinn is now playing GAA again). One on one with a keeper he usually misses, not good in the air, poor communication with other team mates, out of form a lot of the time. Relies to much on feints and dummies when there is no one else around him.

So much bull above no point discussing even further especially after the Mattie Holland 'review'...

**Adrianovic** · 15/10/2004, 9:21 AM

Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

Roy Keane - solid player.

How can Roy Keane be the one player that is completely absolved of fault on your list!? No worries about his temprament? No concerns for his legs going? How about where he went second half in France? No questions over his desire for the cause? No issues over his respect for the backroom staff? Not even a questionable bloody jockstrap?

Ade

**eirebhoy** · 15/10/2004, 12:23 PM

_______________Games_Played___Predicted_Points____ Points____Difference
Cyprus________________4___________8___________1___ ______-7

I read this in the Indo today and I couldn't stop laughing. Cyprus have played Ireland (a), Israel (a), Faroe's (h) and France (h). That fella must be mental if he thought Cyprus would get 2 wins and 2 draws from those 4 games.

**tony_grealish** · 15/10/2004, 1:01 PM

What a ****ing whinger this Jollyrodger character is. I can only surmise that either:

a) He is an angst-ridden teenager who by virtue of his relative youth is unfamiliar with the days when we turned up to follow loveable but genuinely shambolic (remember the 84 euro and 86 wc qualifiers - jayzus wept!) irish sides.

b) He is a complete moron whose canon of footballing 'knowledge' could be easily inscribed on the back of a very small stamp.

I haven't got time to address his comments on each individual player - I' afraid I got bogged down in the mire of cliches ("good player", "solid player", "questionable temperament"...for ****s sakes) and football focus thieved guff that comprised the majority of the post.

These kind of trite generalisations are forgivable if you're 16 or under - if this is not the case then maybe it's time this pillock engaged his brain before inflicting this kind of laughable, unsubstantiated ****wittery on the rest of us.

**Stuttgart88** · 15/10/2004, 2:21 PM

Eirebhoy, can you re-write the Indo's predictions for me pls if it's not going to take ages?

When I call up their website the numbers are all muddled up and the results are unintelligible.

I put a post up of pssible outcomes on soccercentral yesterday. Afterwards I did a spreadsheet where you can enter the predicted scores and a group table is calculated - how sad is that?

**Stuttgart88** · 15/10/2004, 3:10 PM

I'm neither, just sad.

I'm glad I didn't put my name to that thread. I thought it'd get a more symtpathetic response on soccercentral than here, and I was right!

**Irish_Praha** · 15/10/2004, 3:36 PM

Originally Posted by pronane

hehe, ya exactly, we are a big happy family over there.

Sush! We want to keep it that way too

**eirebhoy** · 15/10/2004, 3:37 PM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Eirebhoy, can you re-write the Indo's predictions for me pls if it's not going to take ages?

I actually quoted that bit on Cyprus from a post by thejollyrodger but it has vanished (it wasn't the opening post I'm talking about.

Anyway:

_______________Played___Predicted_Points___Actual Points___ Points_Difference
Ireland________________4___________7___________8_________ +1
Faroes________________4___________0___________1_________ +1
France________________4___________10__________8_________-2
Swtzerland____________3____________7__________5__________-2
Israel_________________3___________6___________5________ __-1
Cyprus________________4___________8___________1___ ______-7

**Stuttgart88** · 15/10/2004, 3:40 PM

Jaysus, I see what you mean about the Cyprus prediction. Mental.

**eirebhoy** · 15/10/2004, 3:52 PM

Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Jaysus, I see what you mean about the Cyprus prediction. Mental.

Just looking at it again, its definitely a mistake.

The Swiss were predicted 7 points which means they were predicted to get something from every game. If they got something from every game they would have had to get at least a point from Israel. Since Israel were predicted to get 6 points, for Cyprus to get points from every game it wouldn't be possible for Israel to be on 6 as they weren't predicted to beat the Swiss.