Republic of Ireland V Poland - Sunday, 29th March 2015 - Euro 2016 Qualifier

[paul_oshea]

Now that trap ended the love affair and the heartbreak is over SvD speaks a lot of sense in the clear light of day rather than the blurred skies of love.

Those having a go at Mons tactics and lineup and yet who watched frustratingly over and over again traps one dimensional mickey mouse philosophy have me baffled.
Mon had a plan A and a plan B and even a plan C. He cannot be to blame for bradys mistake or the Irish players fear to get on the ball.
what he can be blamed for its our lack of coherence /cohesion or inability to do anything with our setpieces and the utter disregard for anything
that looked like urgency. We wasted nearly as much time as the polish did jig acting as we did from our own frees.
Still if a player is afraid to take ownership of the ball then Mon can't be blamed for that either.its all comfort zone stuff.
I still hope he can address it - it doesn't help that we have had so many different starting 11s and 7 from the previous competitive game.
By the time we have Scotland at home we will have played 3 home games so no excuses, there should be some consistency in team selection and player
familiarity by then.

Mccarthy annoys me time and again we needed someone to take the ball off the full backs something he does regularly and well at
Everton yet he never came to support the full backs and offer himself, available for a pass, or a nice turn and go.

Don't forget McLean came on when they were wrecked. His direct running works wonders after 70 mins and against mediocre opposition
but against a decent full back his pace is matched and that's all he's got let's face it.

Long did his usual give away a petulant free when he had no need to do it, he could have dispossessed the Centre back but needlessly pushed him
in the back instead. He took the ball down well for the goal, but he was lucky with the deflection, it looked like slow motion because it took an
age to get in because of said deflection. Everyone over scrutinises keanes input and game, yet Longs is not scrutinised nearly enough by those keane haters, people
only want to see the good he does in the same way they only want to see the bad in keane, he has nothing to prove, why is the world always trying to
bring in the next new thing and write people off before time? Having said that Keane didn't have a great game and I thought his positioning and
reactions were poor, mentally slow. I'd still probably go with him and long or walters for scotland. Long is a great impact sub, plenty of running
and of running and changing things up when a defender is mentally tired and assured that he has the beating of the attacking team after stifling them
for 70+ mins. Same goes for McClean.

I am quite worried about the players reaction and what they have been coming out and saying in the papers, I always get the impression
they dont grasp the importance of each fixture and where we stand relatively, the possible permutations etc. They should be disappointed that
they didn't take the poles yesterday as it would be far more difficult in warsaw if its a must win game, which it will more than likely be.

I was happy with the performance yesterday, I thought we would draw but the performance would be good, it was, except only for about 1/3 of the game.
We needed to bring it to them and tire them early, but we were poor and although wessi sprayed the ball around we were fairly one dimensional in attack.
We should have exploited their right back more often and earlier on, but robbie didnt offer much, and there was no overlap. Which brings me onto wessi
he usually gets involved in lovely 1-2s with the wide players or full backs but he didnt do it yesterday, he also got muscled off the ball too often, and
against superior opposition it would have ended a lot worse, away from home I would be a lot more worried about that.

"But when you look back on that era, there was a sense that Trap got away with it. How many 'big' teams did we actually beat in a competitive match? None."
-Stephen Reid.

ALways felt this with Trap and always said it too, interestingly it's what everyone has been saying ever since Trap left!.

Great to see CD consistent again, one thing ye have to give him, he is always wrong!

I think everything else has been pretty much covered already so I won't bother repeating it.

[paul_oshea]

OH ya and TOWK he pressurised fabiwanski 4 times and won 4 throws off it! Not once!

[Stuttgart88]

Good stuff above Paul, bar the needless dig at CD. If all it takes to get 6/10 is to pressurise a keeper into misplacing his kick outs I'd have 50 caps by now and could still be playing at 47.

[Charlie Darwin]

No Stutts, he's right. I did it get wrong, and Paul is always right (eventually). I will invoke Paul's caveat and say that Clark will start for Ireland... eventually. And then I'll have been right all along.

[paul_oshea]

It's amazing the conspiracy theorists haven't accused McCarthy of deliberately trying to get sent off to miss the Scots game! It was so out of character that it's almost worth a second thought.

Yes that and he wanted to prove his passion for the Irish Shirt after brady called him into disrepute and Oneill stuck up for him. It was a double edged sword. Great thinking, pity he didnt use his brain more often like that on the field.

[paul_oshea]

No Stutts, he's right. I did it get wrong, and Paul is always right (eventually). I will invoke Paul's caveat and say that Clark will start for Ireland... eventually. And then I'll have been right all along.

NO Cd, i was wrong about Seamie, but yesterday he had another sly dig and got away with it, granted outside the box. I really still cant fathom how he does, and many I know Evertonians and Irish fans agree.

There was also a walters elbow in the back i dont know how he got away with that and we still got a corner - not the goal one a previous one, far more subtle, but yet way more obvious.

[paul_oshea]

Good stuff above Paul, bar the needless dig at CD. If all it takes to get 6/10 is to pressurise a keeper into misplacing his kick outs I'd have 50 caps by now and could still be playing at 47.

Maybe but no one else was doing it, and its probably the most often we got the ball back, from an Irish player I mean...

[the doc]

the ones above.

We can wrap it up any way we want on this to back our opinions.

Bottom line Trap got us to one major tournament and was close to making another.

The guy was a living legend, ultra professional and rightly in my opinion stuck to what he believed was the best way to go with the players available.

In contrast MON has so far failed to make an impact and got lucky against Georgia, Germany and Poland, not forgetting to being out thought by Gordy in Glasgow.

You can't deny that.

This is the easiest it's been to qualify for the Euros due to the increased amount of teams for the final stages in France.

Yet we are in danger of not qualifying!

How can you defend that?

[CraftyToePoke]

In contrast MON has so far failed to make an impact and got lucky against Georgia

yada yada yada
How lucky was Trap away to Kazakhstan in '12 ? Keane 89 & Doyle 90 for an act of robbery of the three points. And we were well into his reign and his 'ways' by then, a lot more time than MON has had thus far.

[ArdeeBhoy]

I did say clearly that as I agree that he is past it against the top sides.

I did use the word 'most'.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Oh and PO'S right about yer man. So not 'needless'!

[geysir]

I don't share much of the optimism, imo we were poor overall, outplayed and out thought on our own turf, by a middlin' internat team, who allowed us the ball in the 2nd half.
We had to win this game. Getting a draw like this in any other qual campaign would mean we would be virtually out, end of story, worse than Stan's era, but we still have an outside chance for 3rd spot, just consider that when you compare this campaign to any other.
If Poland hadn't scored via Brady's mistake, they would have scored sometime after, as they were the only team who looked threatening, their determined plan was to go a goal up and we were awful in response, a disjointed undefined football rabble in the 1st half.
If we had scored earlier than we did, Poland would have taken the game up the field and scored as they could have done, look what happened in the few minutes of play after we scored.

For example we have Wes and he should start because he's our best playmaker, but he's just okay, he makes plenty of mistakes and he can also do the beautiful match saving assist. But compare him to the industrious hyperactive box to box playmakers from intl teams that we might aspire towards, Czech Rep and Croatia, Wes would in the lower league of international playmakers. He ranks as adequate not the 2nd coming.

As was said by many before, O'Neill was gambling playing Brady, where his weakness (lack of natural LB ability) would be exploited, but who knows what effect having Clark at CH and Wilson at LB would have had.

[mark12345]

that's harsh on given. I thought the pole finish was superb. not much shay could have done in my opinion

Agreed. At first glance I thought Shay should have saved it, but on replay the lad had most of the goal to aim at and had no challenge coming in. And he fairly rifled his shot which would have beaten any keeper for pace.

[mark12345]

Brady did make a costly mistake at LB, but he offered quite a lot going forward. I feel that the Polish full back was fearful of him and that pegged him back for a while. It translated into an inhibited defender in the second half and allowed Brady space to roam which was ultimately telling in the second half performance

[SkStu]

I did use the word 'most'.

What else did I say that you found so disagreeable??

(No need for the rolly eyes now Mr AB)

[Charlie Darwin]

Agreed. At first glance I thought Shay should have saved it, but on replay the lad had most of the goal to aim at and had no challenge coming in. And he fairly rifled his shot which would have beaten any keeper for pace.

I'm not sure Forde or WW would have saved it either. It was hit with such venom that it would have taken an amazing save to keep it out. Stutts might have more input than me as I stopped playing goalkeeper when I was in my teens, but surely he was right to cover his near post and invite Peszko to take on the more difficult shot? It was just a great finish. Forde was caught out by a similar shot (a header) from close range against Sweden if memory serves.

[jbyrne]

Brady did make a costly mistake at LB, but he offered quite a lot going forward. I feel that the Polish full back was fearful of him and that pegged him back for a while. It translated into an inhibited defender in the second half and allowed Brady space to roam which was ultimately telling in the second half performance

if he could only sort out his crossing which was dreadful on sunday. will excuse him given his recent injury lay-off but too many times his crosses were too short or too long

[jbyrne]

Long did his usual give away a petulant free when he had no need to do it, he could have dispossessed the Centre back but needlessly pushed him
in the back instead.

have a look at the incident again. the polish defender cuts across long and falls to the ground. a decent ref would have seen through what happened and no free. it was pointed out on the commentary by Ronnie Whelan and his analysis was spot on.

watched the second half again last night and the poles diving and rolling around was pathetic. I stopped counting past 5 times in the 2nd half when they just fell over and were awarded a free. poor poor refereeing

[KK77]

Everton’s James McCarthy may continue to win admirers for his Premier League displays, but Dunphy isn’t a believer in the attributes of the Glasgow-born star.

“McCarthy is turning out to be a terrible flop. He doesn’t do anything," he said.

“He’s a hyped player. He’s a player that everyone thinks is far, far better than he is.

[Fixer82]

Dunphy's comments at half time were ridiculous. Saying Coleman has been non-existent. It may not have been happening for him but you couldn't fault his effort.