Absolutely not.Originally Posted by IsMiseSean
The guy is a supreme bluffer, and his formations make Trap look adventurous.
I kind of assumed that access to or engagement with a psychologist would be part and parcel of a modern set-up. Do the FAI not employ a psycholgist at all? I assume most top-level clubs have psychologists on their payrolls?
He'll still get an interview. The man's CV must be printed on sheets of gold.
Phew!And the Troussier comment was in jest
Tony Pulis. Maybe he would fancy having a go at international football.
He would be looking for big men with attitude and we could delay dreams of tiki take football.
Put Em under Pressure ! ! !
If a manager doesn't go for the "don't lose at all costs, qualify or bust" mentality, he is very soon out of a job, especially in international football. I have always been of the firm belief that you play your best team until such time as qualification is no longer possible and the best team is nearly always made up of those playing in the EPL or sometimes the Championship and not players on loan at Bury or playing for Gillingham. There is no time in international football for a manager to "build for the future" until such time as the campaign is lost. Mick made a play-off, that bought him time to make the transition and he was able to build a team around the two Keanes.
What is playing football "free from fear" ? The Irish team doesn't look scared to me. It's like when I am watching a poor game on TV and the commentator says "both teams are nervy". It's a euphemism for not very good. Did the Scottish team play free from fear ? I think we were better than them at Lansdowne but it wasn't to be. If so, how were they different from us with their 5 points out of 6? McGeady doesn't play with fear. Brady doesn't play with fear. Hoolahan doesn't play with fear and all three would have played if McGeady wasn't injured. The other players are not as skillful as these three but they are different types of players.
I honestly don't care who or how we play, provided that we get results but I certainly don't believe that playing inferior players to those in occupancy will do anything for the results short or long term. Trap showed that organisation and discipline and guts can get you the results away from home. More than that is needed at home, which unfortunately he never seemed to grasp, but MON realises that and hence the changed formation for the recent game against the Scots but once again we failed to win at home. Fear ? I don't think so. Lack of a quality striker ? Probably and I think that this will haunt us for many years as soon as the great man hangs up his boots unless another gem is uncovered.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
tiki take football, I love it
While your doing your messing we'll take the points.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
Ralf Rangnick ; Thomas Schaaf; Mirko Slomka; Christian Streich; Thomas Tuchel; Lucien Favre; Ron Jans; Gert Verbeek; Laszlo Boloni; Michel Preud'homme;
I'd jizz myself if any of those were Appointed (Tuchel can be discounted as he's the new Dortmund manager). They wouldn't cost what we've paid the last 2 sets of managers either.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Owlsfan we do play without confidence when in the unknown, its called lack of experience, maturity, and it can breed a lack of self confidence. When we went ahead, as we always do, we really seem to sit back and panic. What we need is someone in midfield to just pass the ball around a bit, get on it, command the ball off people and just hold onto it for a while, even if its 5 mins of passing back and forth, do it. We also need that player to make a good hard tackle when we don't have the ball, and that will drive others on. But certainly we dont have that, but we also certainly dont seem to know what to do when we are in the "unknown".
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
I think the players do play with fear. Fear of losing the ball cheaply. Both CBs and both McCarthy and Hendrick are capable of passing the ball, and all three of our CMs on Saturday are well capable showing for the ball. None of them really did. These are just basics of the game.
OF, go to that video clip contained in the the42.ie article I linked earlier about James mcCarthy. Giles and Whelan debunking the notion that teams need a holding midfielder, and comparing Schweinsteiger to Mascherano. It's brilliant and I agreed with every word. Please, watch it!
Not all our players are afraid of the ball. Hoolahan positively craves it. Our CMs don't do enough yet at club level they are happy on the ball, play positive passes, carry the ball, head up, drive forward with it. Our CBs don't carry the ball before releasing. They play a safe pass to Whelan who'll play a safe pass to someone else who'll play a safe pass. You can't get between an opponent's defensive lines this way.
I'm anticipating a response along the lines that if you give the ball away cheaply you risk conceding. But these players are good enough to play "accretive" passes and to show for the return ball. They don't do it. Because they lack the confidence / courage. This goes all the way back to the Jack-era accepted wisdom. "You can't pick Liam Brady because he might give the ball away" type nonsense. It's the very basic essence of football. Let your midfielders use the ball. They are the specialists at it. Steven Reid used to do it on the rare occasions we saw him. Andy Reid used to love the ball. Wes does. Others hide from it. I used to "snooker" myself to avoid receiving the ball. Some of our better players do too.
I distinctly remember Trap, early in his tenure, telling Dunne to carry the ball from defence 10 more metres before releasing. That didn't last long though, before long ball became more of our default style under Trap.
That's what I call playing with fear. A lack of willingness to do what a professional CB or professional CM ought to do as a very fundamental part of their position. We absolutely play with fear, no question.
So, where OF thinks we're simply short a goalscorer I'd argue (like I have for years) that we really lack a proper confident, assertive, accretive central midfielder. Everything else is good enough, more or less. A Giles, Keane or Souness would transform this team. Whelan too maybe. We need a main man in the middle. We don't have one.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 16/06/2015 at 9:57 PM.
You're just showing off. What about Paul Jewell?
I'm certain that was a p1ss take that you just fell for hook line and sinker.
Yes Stutts, we don't have one, that is the issue, you have argued yourself into a corner.
But we are also short of a goalscorer. Robbie Keane was a goalscorer supreme who made up for deficiencies elsewhere in the team.
It's probably too easy to draw these contrasts/comparisons with NI but how have they managed to make David Healy and Kyle Lafferty look like international predators whilst MON whinges about not having another Robbie?
I don't have the answer to that and I won't pretend I do either. Fair play to Murphy etc. but I thought we were crying out for McClean and Long's direct running to be combined with Hoolahan's guile. That's why I'm still baffled by MON's selection. I haven't overcome that yet to be able to consider the bigger picture in a clear frame of mind.
Ah jesus Danny will you stop
Philippe Troussier. that joke never gets old
Decent points OF - certainly having a manager under the gun doesn't encourage long-termism, and that comes right from the financial pressure the FAI are under to qualify. But a long-term attitude to building the right attitude into our international football team is crucial. If we qualify for Russia along the way great, but we have to set out sights higher and allow a manager to make that transition.
Mick had that transitional period, and I think he would've had it even if he didn't make a play-off (which he very nearly didn't, with Lithunia breathing down our necks).
I disagree - when players are scared to get on the ball in advanced areas, to go for one-twos, to really keep the pressure on a team when we're building momentum, then I think it shows fear. And our players are all guilty of failures in that regard.
McGeady, for instance, will happily stand put his foot on the ball, try and dance past a couple of players and swing a cross in. But sometimes he's equally guilty of slowing the ball up, instead of bursting into space when a possible counter is on - of really backing his pace and skill.
If we look at players like Coleman and McCarthy, they're not reaching the heights we need them to consistently. The point's been made in other posts (and Stutts made a good one about specifcally a centre mid) but the difference in international football is often just one quality player taking a game by the scruff. Bale, Ibrahimovic, Alaba, Lewandowski, even Shaun Maloney.
Granted, these are often attackers, but Coleman and McCarthy have that matchwinning, rally-the-troops potential and we're not getting it unlocked. I think that's down to pressure and fear.
When the quality's not there, it's not there. It's a fair cop.
But Scotland and Poland (even with Lewandowski) are doing more with their meagre resources than we are. If they can play with some measure of composure and expressiveness, why can't we?
I don't think it's a coincidence that these teams have faced far darker days recently than we have, and that their team's have been released of some measure of expecation. They rebuilt from the bottom and regained their confidence. They lost a measure of their fear.
This post is increasingly sounding like a pitch for a new Christopher Nolan Batman movie, and if that's the case the Trapattoni's The Riddler and Martin O'Neill is getting a bit Dr Hugo Strange on it...
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
Looks that way!
It's just a reflex reaction with me. My eyelid starts twitching and everything.
Is everyone saying we need that midfielder to complement Hoolahan, or replace him? Because Hoolahan is doing a decent job, and everyone is saying he should be included in our team, if we were replacing him, seeing as he is the only one who can "play ball" that's a strange one.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
Thank heavens! I wasn't sure, so that's why I put him at the end of an increasingly desperate list!And the Troussier comment was in jest
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
I think that's possibly something MON tried to address when he played McGeady behind the striker in Germany. Similar to how Mick tried Duff in a free role for a long time in his early tenure before eventually just sticking him up front. Problem was MON never told McGeady that was the role he had in mind for him.
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