Republic of Ireland V Turkey, Italy, Costa Rica & Portugal - May/June 2014

[Charlie Darwin]

My suspicion is that O'Neill was planning on moving on without calling up Dunne but last night may have caused him to rethink.

[OwlsFan]

As I say though, apart from all the negativity of last night, Ireland actually showed signs they can keep the ball on the floor and move it out of the back quite well. Kudos to O'Neill if that is what he's trying to get them to do. That result last night won't mean a jot come next September.

To try and put a gloss on a 1-5 defeat is certainly giving O'Neill a lot of leeway. Any combination other than the management dream team would have the shouts for sacking already. To end up with 4 centre-forwards on the field at the end was bizarre and never mind giving everyone a run - I see Forde stayed on.

However, O'Neill will stand or fall by the competitive results and luckily enough they are not against world beaters in the beginning although strangely enough that puts more pressure on him. I wouldn't place huge hope in Gibson since his previous outings for us have been nothing special but that was under Trap and perhaps the new style might suit him better. I taped the game and got up at 6.30 to watch it with a friend who called over. I think the first two goals were by us giving the ball away in dangerous positions which is and always will be a risk under the play out from defence policy but nothing ventured...etc

Had to laugh at the commentator. The Irish were exhausted after a long season and then he said many had spent much of the season on the bench and apparently the Portuguese weren't exhausted. Curtis thought we were "back in it" when we scored to make it 3-1. We were overrun after that.

Wes continues to shine like a beacon but I wonder what all our results look like since he played? I still prefer 4-4-2 and somehow accommodate Wes in that. Rumour that Norwich want to offload him. I hope a rich Azerbaijani owner of a Championship side might fancy him for his new club.

As people say, friendlies don't count for much except ranking points and morale and spirit and optimism and history and statistics. No matter how "brilliant" we were in patches, 1-5 sucks. Germany aside, when did we last concede 5? Cyprus strangely enough is the only one I remember in the past 20 years but someone no doubt will correct me.

Enough rambling. Beat Georgian and Gibraltar and I'll sort of forget the embarrassment which is what it was.

[mark12345]

And last nights performance was atrocious, the players were atrocious generally, and hendrick and meyler were not oustanding or anything close,

Have to disagree Paul. Hendrick and Meyler were not comparable to Iniesta and Xavi or Modric and Rakatic last night, but their performances, individual and combined, were a damn site better than anything we've seen in the Irish midfield for about a decade. Granted the play of Hoolahan was exemplary in helping them on the night, but both lads (Hendrick and Meyler) actually wanted to get on the ball and play a one-two or play a diagonal in the middle of the park. That for me was a bright new beginning, and long may it continue.

As some have posted on here, there will be a few better players available in September than were there last night. We should see off Oman and then it's off to Georgia on a positive note.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Amazing how everyone has done a complete 180 on Keogh based on that performance. It was obvious against Serbia and Costa Rica too that he is out of his depth. Costa Rica's best chance in that game arose because of his getting completely outmuscled and dominated; something that recurred four times last night. Pearce is guilty by association.

Definitely some combination of O'Shea, Wilson, Dunne, Delaney, Clark or St Ledger in the Qualifiers though. I wouldn't rule out McShane or O'Dea either. Neither of them looked as God awful as Keogh and to a lesser extent Pearce did.

The LB problem complicates things if Wilson has to play there. I would say O'Shea would be a decent bet but he has been one of the only near ever presents at CB over the last year and a half. Take him out of the CB reckoning and you are looking at a rusty/new partnership.

Forde is in the doghouse too. I think he is someone that makes the mundane look spectacular and sometimes can't even perform the basics right.

Hendrick and Meyler look really good together. Amazing to think that neither will feature from the start in the Qualifying campaign.

[Charlie Darwin]

I get the impression that every goal last night made the smile on your face grow a little wider.

[paul_oshea]

So does everyone think then the only real positive to come from these friendlies were the new midfield partnership of Hendrick and Meyler?!

Interesting...

[Razors left peg]

So does everyone think then the only real positive to come from these friendlies were the new midfield partnership of Hendrick and Meyler?!

Interesting...

No, Hoolihan becoming a growing influence, Pilkingtons performance against Italy, Shane Duffy getting his first cap, and the passing attacking football we played at time were positives too

[Razors left peg]

Oh and Doyles performance too

[geysir]

My suspicion is that O'Neill was planning on moving on without calling up Dunne but last night may have caused him to rethink.

It's a thought but it was Dunne's choice to pull out of the summer games and declared he would be available after the summer.
He's not a player that would be hanging around the squad, unless he was important to the team.
Of course the declaration could be shameless self promotion that irish players of low repute are prone to doing.

[paul_oshea]

pilkington had loads more chances why get excited about one? The others were average at best so it's a bit silly getting happy that he had 1 good game in 3.
Shane Duffy was always going to get a cap I don't see how that's a particularly positive thing to take it doesn't influence how we played.
finally hoolahan has always been playing for oneill or mostly anyway and we all knew his ability before this.its not something new.

so I'd go back to the original and maybe throw in 30 mins of Doyle but again it's one half of 4 games and it's hardly like that Costa Rican defence contained any world beaters.

[Razors left peg]

You're a hard man to please Paul

[Charlie Darwin]

It's a thought but it was Dunne's choice to pull out of the summer games and declared he would be available after the summer.
He's not a player that would be hanging around the squad, unless he was important to the team.
Of course the declaration could be shameless self promotion that irish players of low repute are prone to doing.

Or he called up Dunne knowing he'd played 47 games or whatever and would likely pull out. It's hard to know. Instinctively, I don't foresee Dunne being able to play a full Premier League season and flying to Dublin for mid-week fixtures when he does get the opportunity for a rest.

[SwanVsDalton]

So does everyone think then the only real positive to come from these friendlies were the new midfield partnership of Hendrick and Meyler?!

Interesting...

If the management team have refined their thinking on who the best XI and from here can put together a coherent plan to get to the Euros, then yes it was very positive.

Of course, that remains to be seen but I'd say most international managers would say out-of-season friendlies are mostly of long-term value ie blood new players and partnerships; get the group away for a prolonged spell of squad building.

Getting a tanking is far from ideal but you learn more from mistakes than just cruising along.

As an aside, I think the problem with this group of Irish players isn't so much a complete lack of talent, so much that there are so many decent players of roughly the same quality. With a lack of real gimme's in the team, there's a lot of different players being tried out for a number of available roles. To me it seems O'Neill is casting his net wide and far in order to refine who's who in the pecking order. He's largely leaving no stone unturned. That's fair enough, as long as he now has a good idea of his best XI and his best squad.

Hendrick and Meyler look really good together. Amazing to think that neither will feature from the start in the Qualifying campaign.

I think there's a real chance one of them has or will displace Whelan.

[Charlie Darwin]

I am convinced Hendrick will start the first Euro qualifier if fit, alongside McCarthy.

[tricky_colour]

What in 'the hole'?

[Charlie Darwin]

Tricky, you've done it again.

[tricky_colour]

Tricky, you've done it again.

Yes I forgot to quote the post about Cox playing along (no pun intended) side Long

[Stuttgart88]

pilkington had loads more chances why get excited about one? The others were average at best so it's a bit silly getting happy that he had 1 good game in 3.
Shane Duffy was always going to get a cap I don't see how that's a particularly positive thing to take it doesn't influence how we played.
finally hoolahan has always been playing for oneill or mostly anyway and we all knew his ability before this.its not something new.

so I'd go back to the original and maybe throw in 30 mins of Doyle but again it's one half of 4 games and it's hardly like that Costa Rican defence contained any world beaters.

You're right as always Paul. The whole thing was a disaster. O'Neill will have learnt nothing and will not have benefitted from spending a long time with the players, nor will the players have learnt anything about O'Neill's plans and methods. We have no better players who didn't make the trip. When it comes to playing Georgia we might as well have let the players go to Iboza with their friends and families, and we might as well cancel the Oman friendly too.

[pineapple stu]

Germany aside, when did we last concede 5? Cyprus strangely enough is the only one I remember in the past 20 years but someone no doubt will correct me.

No, you're right. Before that, it was the 7-0 in Brazil... And before that, it was the 6-0 in Austria in 1971.

So once every ten years bar our successful period, give or take.

[Closed Account 2]

As people say, friendlies don't count for much except ranking points and morale and spirit and optimism and history and statistics. No matter how "brilliant" we were in patches, 1-5 sucks. Germany aside, when did we last concede 5? Cyprus strangely enough is the only one I remember in the past 20 years but someone no doubt will correct me.

Enough rambling. Beat Georgian and Gibraltar and I'll sort of forget the embarrassment which is what it was.

Agree completely, I can't see how people are sugar coating a 5-1 with lines like "we passed it well in patches". It's not like we were down to 10 men or the goals were all clustered at the end of the match. The defense was an utter shambles, the subs were bizzare and there was no cohesive team structure for huge chunks of the game. It's a worrying trend, even factoring in the fact they are friendlies we havent won in 5 matches and have shipped 10 and scored 4 which, as you say, isn't great form to take into the qualification matches.

The (probable) world rankings don't make for great reading, we're looking at 71st place and I dont know if this has even factored in the Portgual game.

http://www.football-rankings.info/20...e-ranking.html

As you say judge him after Georgia and Gibraltar, but any excuses about him needing games to asses the squad or try things out will sound a bit hollow after these five games.