Quotesurely, giving him time in a means-nothing friendly would be more of a token gesture?Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
To what exactly would a Walters 90 minutes in March be a token gesture?...
Scotland v England proved (or strongly suggrsted) to me tonight that Scotland can cope with spade loads of huff and puff but are shown up by a bit of patience and quality.
Anyone see: "Gibraltar - No rock unturned" on Sky ? http://www.sky.com/tv/show/gibraltar-no-rock-unturned
Followed the team from its first game against Poland, then us etc. The manager, Allen Bula, starts off talking about qualifying from the group and then dealing with the possibility of getting sacked after the Irish game. Much debate over substituting the keeper during our game. Apparently it's not something that should be done. Why not? If an outfield player is having a stinker, he is usually subbed. Why not the keeper? The team soon went from enjoying the experience to apprehension/worry.
Interesting insight in to the team and what was expected of them. To us, they were just sacrificial lambs - something akin to the saying: eaten bread is soon forgotten.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
23 goals scored by Scottish players this season.
10 goals scored by Irish players this season.
After Naismith & Arfield's goals this afternoon.
Literally every single Irish player is having a goalscoring drought this season. Some going back seasons (Gibson, Whelan).
Virtually every Scottish player has scored at least once already this season. (D.Fletcher, Bannan, Bridcutt & M. Phillips have barely played). Snodgrass is out all season and is usually worth 6 or 7 goals a season.
Truly remarkable, and depressing, stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if an Irish player doesn't score again this season. I can't see any more than 4 or 5 Irish goals combined between now and May,
Yeah, if only we had a player that knows how to find the net like all those clinical Scottish lads.
It wouldn't surprise me if no goals were scored by an Irish player between now and the end of the season, but even I am not that pessimistic. I think there will be 4 or 5 by the end of the season. There has to be. It's just hard to see where they are going to come from.
And I just like to see Irish players scoring on SS. As far as it's relevance to Intl. football, I don't think it has a drastic bearing. I'd be a little concerned about the fact that Keane is aging/Long is out of position and favor at Southampton/Doyle's career is in freefall/Murphy is turning 32 in March/no-one else looks ready to take the mantle. I'd be a little concerned about how our midfielders and wingers are completely incapable of sharing the goalscoring load. I'm not sure if I see any of our midfield players doing what Maloney did & stepping up in a situation like the one in November. Yes. But ultimately I still think we are on a similar level to Scotland - similar talent pool, they don't have a striker that has replicated their club form at Intl. level etc...
Mainly, it is just depressing watching SS and being resigned to knowing that no Irish players will score yet Scottish players in general (like Wallace! Arfield! Boyd!) score consistently at least every two weeks!
I really would have thought McGeady would have pushed on after his early season form or Brady would finally pushed on after his brace against the U.S.A.
Last edited by TheOneWhoKnocks; 10/01/2015 at 5:41 PM.
Your points about our midfielders not chipping in is a valid one, but I really couldn't care less how many Scots are scoring/have scored this season. It's pretty clear they're as weak in that department as us when it comes to the national side. McGeady stepping up in Georgia is comparable to what Maloney did against us, granted we're better opposition. I watched the Everton game earlier and McGeady looks like he's lost a bit of his early season confidence. I suppose only being in and out of the side, and invariably substituted when he does play, will do that to a player.
I thought there was a spell several weeks back where the Irish Championship players were out scoring the Scots? And if anything the fact that it was Mulgrew that was the difference (Naismith was a cut above most too) in glasgow shows that consistency and standard of week in / week out play counts for not that much at international level. Look at Costa Rica.
Yep, I'd prefer we had more guys featuring prominently on SS more frequently but all in all I think there's not much in it. I think our a Derby, Ipswich, Bournemouth and Brentford players are doing as well as the Scots at that level, at least.
TOWK, honest question: if Richard Keogh was Scottish would you think of him as a brave, honest and effective old school centre back who plays well more often than not, or a self-obsessed walking liability that we could exploit?
No answer, fair enough, to be expected.
Anyway, Alan McGregor looked rank shyte against West Ham today.
Last year they were heavily outscoring the Irish in the Championship. This year it's the Premiership. I should have quit while I was ahead.
I would figure Keogh as being on the same level as Hanley, Greer and Martin there or thereabouts. Do I think he should be ahead of O'Shea, Wilson, Clark or Delaney when they are playing Premier League football? No.
His performance against Portugal was the worst I have seen of an Irish CB in a long time. Before that, I thought his performances against Costa Rica & Serbia were cause for concern.
You could argue e.g. O'Dea had a rotter against Germany or the defence had a nightmare against Spain but O'Dea has been relatively faultless apart from that and there were mitigating circumstances for those results.
And I am not having any of this "Portugal are a great team" and "They will be one of the favorites for the World Cup" crap I heard after the match from one or two players. Excuse me but Portugal are a middlin' team that regularly struggle through qualifying campaigns and struggle to score against teams like Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.
I know, but in a modern context, they do struggle. They haven't topped a qualifying campaign since 2006 and the 2014 campaign was the first campaign they qualified for in relative comfort since 2006 - the 3rd placed team was Israel, who haven't qualified for a tournament since 1970.
They are not a Germany or Holland who storm through qualification groups. They have had several extremely embarrassing results in recent years so I don't think a 1-5 loss should be excused because of their pedigree.
I don't think anybody here thinks Keogh should be ahead of O'Shea, Wilson, Delaney or Clark...and he's not in front of the first two. We only know he was ahead of Clark when he wasn't playing at Villa which is understandable. The Delaney thing remains and probably will remain a mystery.
article on the man responsible for the thorough opponent watch. leaving his post...
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...vice-1.2073037
Keogh is another Ward, tries but not good enough...
I came across this interview with Grant Hanley while looking for something else. I couldn't help but feel slightly depressed when it was put down in black and white how they (quite rightly) see us. I really hope the Lansdowne Martin is a bit more expansive than Martin abroad. It's not that I have a major problem with direct football, if it's our best way of getting a result, I just don't think that it is anymore, and certainly not against the likes of Scotland.
This is a really long gap between internationals. A February friendly, as tame as it would be, would have been useful to keep us (the supporters) ticking over.
Gibraltar manager Bula is sacked, after an internal investigation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31694453
did they find out that the team is hopeless?
I heard they found coke.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
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