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

[the doc]

A training game against as yet unknown opponents is likely to be arranged for midweek.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/socc...s-make-5325779

O'Neill has a few curious things to say about other subjects too..

Think MON is clutching at straws here, Mr Trapattoni got a lot out of the current players who played under him.

Yet MON hasn't produced such results, is he a spent force?

Think we should let the Sunderland fans answer that one.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

If we don't beat Poland or Scotland at home then we don't deserve to play in Euro 2016. It's as simple as that. We can moan about having such a difficult group (God knows I have) but at the end of the day if Slovakia are the only team of any caliber that you have managed to beat in a competitive situation over the course of 15 years then you are just taking up oxygen at a tournament.

Watching this team the last while, I just don't get the impression we have a team that believes they can win against good teams. Part of that is down to Trapattoni's tactics and put downs of the ability of his own players draining confidence. In fairness, before him, we lost points we should have taken under Kerr because of his negativity and stupid substitutions.

Ironically, some of the more stellar performances and results over the years have come under Staunton (Germany (Q), Slovakia (Q), Czech Republic (Q), Wales (Q), Sweden, Denmark).

I think people exaggerate how good Trapattoni was and how bad Staunton was. People go on about Cyprus but Kazakhstan was every bit as bad as that and Trapattoni wasn't working with a patchwork of players. He was working with a settled group of players.

Also, Trapattoni had the element of luck that Staunton didn't have numerous times against Czechs and Slovakia; and there was no shame in the goal we conceded to Germany.

Going on a tangent here but I think Staunton is worthy of a bit of revision.

Jonathan Douglas only said in The Sunday Times last week that he should have been given another campaign. I'm not saying I agree with it BTW.

[paul_oshea]

"waiting" for what? Godot?

“But if someone is hanging around waiting, I’m not overly enamoured with that sort of thing and therefore I’m not chasing it.”

[Charlie Darwin]

Ah, Staunton was a disaster, and whatever about how good or bad Trapattoni was, he managed a change in attitude that meant we were no longer almost guaranteed to drop points against inferior teams, and generally it was enough to get us there and thereabouts. O'Neill so far has been unimpressive for me and I can't imagine his legendary inspirational qualities will be quite so effective as long as he continues to talk down his player pool.

[paul_oshea]

I agree re the Staunton comment but for a defender to set us up the way he did was terrible.

He played some of the best attacking football we have played in 20 years but we were diabolically exposed like Elton John's back end in defence and on the counter. Unfortunately it doesn't seem we can play both games or weren't able to at least.

It will be interesting to see if one ill can be one of those managers who turns half decent players into a very solid performing and efficient unit so far bar USA and Germany I haven't seen that. Germany could have been seen to be a lost cause so defending all out and getting a point wasn't expected but understandable USA was a friendly
the Scotland game was the biggest test to date and the type of one we should win except we didn't and were very poor.

Some other countries have found those managers not sure we have.

[Stuttgart88]

I agree with both of the last two posts except I think its a stretch to say Scotlsnd away was a should win game. I'd say it was more of a could win game. Let's see.

The early signs for me are that O'Neill's thinking is out of date, unlike Strachan for example, but I have to agree with Roy Keane when he says in a tight game like Glasgow the home side tends to come out on top and O'Neill when he says the 4 home games are the critical ones. These home games are the first proper test and it's still too early in his tenure to rule out his ability to win this type of game regularly. I wouldn't bet on it but it's certainly within the realms of possibility.

[zero]

I agree with both of the last two posts except I think its a stretch to say Scotlsnd away was a should win game. I'd say it was more of a could win game. Let's see.

The early signs for me are that O'Neill's thinking is out of date, unlike Strachan for example, but I have to agree with Roy Keane when he says in a tight game like Glasgow the home side tends to come out on top and O'Neill when he says the 4 home games are the critical ones. These home games are the first proper test and it's still too early in his tenure to rule out his ability to win this type of game regularly. I wouldn't bet on it but it's certainly within the realms of possibility.

i would go along with this. much too early to judge o'neill/keane. initial signs have not been too promising but a win in the next game changes everything. i hope we play with a bit of purpose and intent and actually try to win the game, rather than avoid losing it.

[DeLorean]

I suppose whether the Scotland game was 'should win' or 'could win' isn't really important. The important thing is that he set us up in a way which gave us the least possible chance of winning. An unlucky 1-0 defeat after approaching the game the right way would have been acceptable, a deserved 1-0 defeat having offered no threat and making Charlie Mulgrew look like Andrea Pirlo wasn't. Anyway, hopefully he approaches the home games in a better fashion, some comments indicate he might.

[Crosby87]

Poland are saying Blaszczykowski is out due to injury, still not ready to come back, but rumor is Lewandowski is asking he be kept out due to the fact he hates him. This could affect the dressing room as you fine chaps well know.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Echo.

[DannyInvincible]

Whilst discussing pre-Poland training match plans, Martin O'Neill said the onus is on us to go out and attack and seemed to suggest that he's prepared to take a different tactical approach from previous games: http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-31062894.html

"We might bring a junior side in. The onus is on us to try and attack Poland in this game.

"We can't sit out and hope for the best and if our best options are to look at tactically something a wee bit different, it's not something we want to throw at players half an hour before we go into game.

"We'd like to have done some sort of practice with it. We could either play amongst ourselves, 11 v 11, that might be it, or else we might get somebody in to play against - even some sort of junior team."

On injured players, he said:

"I spoke to Aiden McGeady six or seven days ago. He felt he was pretty good, that it was just a matter of time. He had been running. He's pretty hopeful.

"Robbie Brady desperately, desperately wants to play. It is a calf injury, I don't know about time but he said, 'Don't rule me out please' and 'give me every opportunity' which I fully intend to do.

"Stephen Ward should be okay. Shane Long is back again now."

[Yard of Pace]

Adopting a different tactical approach!

Why didn't Trap think of that???

[Littlest Hobo]

Poland squad for Ireland match:

KEEPERS: Boruc (Bournemouth), Fabianski (Swansea), Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal)

DEFENDERS: Cionek (Modena), Glik (Torino), Janicki, Wojtkowiak, Wawrzyniak (L Gdansk), Komorowski (Terek Grozny), Olkowski (Cologne), Szukala (Al-Ittihad).

MIDFIELDERS/FORWARDS: Gajos (Jagiellonia Bialystok), Jodlowiec, Zyro (Legia Warsaw), Krychowiak (Sevilla), Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Linetty (Lech Poznan), Mila (L Gdansk), Milik (Ajax), Peszko (Cologne), Rybus (Terek Grozny), Teodorczyk (D Kiev).


From the Polish team that played Scotland, 2 of their starting 4 defenders will be absent ie. Pisczcek (injured), Jedrzejczyk (injured) ie. their right & left backs. Grosicki of Rennes who started in midfield v Scotland is out with injury. Also some Polish website says Milik isn't match fit as he is just back from a hamstring injury & Rybus isn't match fit with the Russian league only returning from the Winter break last week. Fabianski is tipped to start in goals due to Szczesny's lack of game time. Everything is in our favour. We won't get a better opportunity.

Good post mate.
Poland are without quite a few of their regulars. In addition to the two full backs and Grosicki - Right midfielder who are all injured, they are also missing Maczynski - Defensive midfielder who has played 3 games.

I reckon this will be the Poland team and 4-2-3-1 formation;


Fabianski
(Swansea)

Olkowski Szukala Glik Wawrzyniak
(Cologne) (Al-Ittihad) (Torino) (Legia Gdansk)

Krychowiak Jodlowiec
(Sevilla) (Legia Warsaw)

Rybus Milik Mila
(Terek Grozny) (Ajax) (Legia Gdansk)

Lewandowski
(Bayern Munich)

[Stuttgart88]

Do you think somewhere in rural Poland someone on a fan forum is writing that of our usual back four Ward hasn't played for a few months?

[DeLorean]

The Poles in urban Ireland are probably filling them in.

[Olé Olé]

(C+P) Krychowiak in the middle of the park was linked with Arsenal during the January transfer window and garnered excellent reviews up till then for Seville. Not sure about his form since.

What's the verdict on Lewandowski at Bayern? 13 in 23 in the league isn't a bad return but his supply line is pretty immense and I heard stories linking him with summer moves. Probably overstatements arising from a couple of mediocre performances. A very, very potent striker that could create/score from nowhere (v Real Madrid in CL that time- sensational). Although, we didn't cope too badly with him in that friendly last year.

Their 3 strikers all have strong international records and Fabianski has actually been very good for Swansea this season but it's not exactly stellar names in defence and midfield. Although, I said that about the Scotland side we faced but that performance is pretty indicative of an Irish side going away from home and failing to get a foothold in the game. We have home advantage this time which will, hopefully, raise our control and influence in the game early on.

[Bungle]

Neither Poland or Scotland are particularly good - much like ourselves unfortunately. With the Poles, they do have some really top players, while Scotland are well drilled.

I wouldn't be happy with less than 4 points. I'm hopeful because we're bound to win a big game eventually!!

[geysir]

I gather from this that Delaney has chosen to exclude himself from international duty, therefore he has not been in previous squads, therefore clearing up the mystery.

'Damien Delaney has not even made the extended list and while the manager says he and the Crystal Palace defender have had “a good conversation” after which the Corkman said he would make himself available if required, it seems that, at 33, the player prefers to concentrate on extending his club career as long as he does not feature more prominently in O’Neill’s plans. So his international career might well, in effect, be over.'

[Littlest Hobo]

(C+P) Krychowiak in the middle of the park was linked with Arsenal during the January transfer window and garnered excellent reviews up till then for Seville. Not sure about his form since.

What's the verdict on Lewandowski at Bayern? 13 in 23 in the league isn't a bad return but his supply line is pretty immense and I heard stories linking him with summer moves. Probably overstatements arising from a couple of mediocre performances. A very, very potent striker that could create/score from nowhere (v Real Madrid in CL that time- sensational). Although, we didn't cope too badly with him in that friendly last year.

Their 3 strikers all have strong international records and Fabianski has actually been very good for Swansea this season but it's not exactly stellar names in defence and midfield. Although, I said that about the Scotland side we faced but that performance is pretty indicative of an Irish side going away from home and failing to get a foothold in the game. We have home advantage this time which will, hopefully, raise our control and influence in the game early on.

There's a few polish playing tonight in the europa; Krychowiak for Sevilla, Glik for torino and Milik for ajax. cynically hoping for injuries here.
Everton could field 4 irish lads in kiev now that Mc geady is back in the squad. Apparently the pitch is crap as the players had to train on the surrounding running track. Hope mc carthy doesn't do a hammy on the bumpy surface!
should be an interesting night ahead.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Anything to be optimistic about in this?
Personally dreading this fixture...