Although I agree with your criteria, MON did look at O'Dowda before he was Championship level and to good effect. I would look at Forrester and Cullen from L1 ahead of Forde definitely and Hammill / Gleeson also probably.
Ronan for me too, and if there was to be any silly excuses, give him solitude thereafter.
Whelan, McCarthy, Hendrick and Hoolahan are our four main options. Behind them you have Arter and Meyler. Behind them you have O'Kane, Hourihane and Browne. Forrester if he plays in the Championship next season and Judge if he recovers from injury are players who could easily break into the starting 11.
It's going to take something special for Ronan, Kelly or Manning to get anywhere near the Irish squad anytime soon.
To say we have a plethora of options in central midfield is an understatement.
Last edited by TheOneWhoKnocks; 20/02/2017 at 7:39 PM.
Would reclassify that as Arter, Hendrick and Hoolahan as the preferred trio in midfield. McCarthy just behind in fourth place with Hendrick the most likely to give way for the Everton man
Fair enough.
I don't think Arter did enough against Austria to displace Hendrick or McCarthy.
Thought Meyler outshone him TBH.
Yeah it remains to be seen how much Arter impressed O'Neill but I thought he did okay, started slowly but improved as it went on. I'd seriously doubt that he's jumped ahead of McCarthy as well but maybe Whelan could be the fall guy, as his indispensable status has been on the wane since France.
Ooh that's some all-out, B international level experimentation going on there, particularly at the back.
I don't know...remember this is likely Hoolahan's and possibly Whelan's last campaign. The trio you name are already playing at the same level as O'Kane, Hourihane, Browne and Judge and a level above Forrester so while we do have a nice plethora of options, as you say, there will be a couple of squad places up for grabs next year and continuing progress by Ronan, Kelly and/or Manning could well put them in the frame
Last edited by samhaydenjr; 21/02/2017 at 1:28 AM.
Doherty, Egan and Hoban are no rookies; they have good experience at Championship level. Horgan impressed in the Europa League and has adapted quickly to life in the Championship. Madden could be playing in the Championship next season and deserves another audition for the forward role after his display against Wales.Ooh that's some all-out, B international level experimentation going on there, particularly at the back.
The rest all have solid Intl experience.
And you have wise heads in there with Westwood, McGeady and Murphy.
As for Meyler and Arter they would get another chance to play together after Austria, seeing as they are unlikely to feature against Wales.
There's no reason to play a full-strength team as there is a lack of friendlies and you don't want anyone really important picking up niggles.
Last edited by TheOneWhoKnocks; 21/02/2017 at 1:43 AM.
If we're talking about midfielders, aren't we forgetting about the likes of Stephen Quinn and Darron Gibson? If Gibson, who is now 29, can remain injury-free over the next few years, I think he still has plenty to offer.
Ryan Giggs discussing Bale and the big game in Dublin. BBC Football
Giggs said Bale's return to action is a "massive lift" for Wales for the World Cup qualifier against Group D leaders Republic of Ireland in Dublin on 24 March.
"You want to be going into that game with Gareth fully fit, scoring and playing well for Real Madrid," Giggs said.
"He's such a big player for Wales and the Republic of Ireland wouldn't want him turning up in Dublin that night.
"He's always the one that can make the difference. He's done it time and time again and when the pressure's on him to produce, he produces."
Giggs played alongside Bale when Wales lost 1-0 to the Irish in a Euro 2008 qualifier at Dublin's Croke Park in March 2007.
The Republic, managed by Martin O'Neill and assisted by Giggs' former United team-mate Roy Keane, are four points clear of third-placed Wales.
"The Republic, time and time again, come up with big results," Giggs said.
"There's a lot at stake and whoever wins that game will then have the confidence to push and try and qualify."
Just to bring you up to date, we're debating which Championship players (plus the Aberdeen duo) with five or fewer caps should be blooded into the team against Iceland, where we have a particular opportunity to look at new options, as it follows a qualifier rather than leads up to it - Gibson and Quinn have enough caps (27 and 18 respectively) that we pretty much know what they bring to the team. This is the list of players who fit my criteria
GOALKEEPERS
Robert Elliott, Mark Bunn
DEFENDERS
Aidan White, Corey O’Keefe, Tommie Hoban, Derrick Williams, John Egan, Tom Field, Damien McCrory, Greg Cunningham, Matt Doherty
MIDFIELDERS
Harry Arter, Adam Hammill, Stephen Gleeson, Darragh Lenihan, Alan Judge, Callum O’Dowda, Sean Scannell, Eunan O’Kane, Daryl Horgan, Alan Browne, Ryan Manning, Liam Kelly, Anthony Forde, Connor Ronan, Jonny Hayes, Conor Hourihane
FORWARDS
Scott Hogan, Lukas Jutkiewicz, David McGoldrick, Joe Mason, Adam Rooney
I've been following your proposition no problem.
I was suggesting - in response to what you were discussing in post #29 - that Gibson/Quinn would probably be higher up the midfield pecking order than the likes of O'Kane/Hourihane/Browne/Judge/Forrester and closer to where Arter/Meyler are at present, behind Whelan/McCarthy/Hendrick/Hoolahan. It seemed that the existence of Gibson/Quinn had been completely forgotten about in the ranking of our options above, so Ronan/Kelly/Manning are still a bit further off than proposed, even if this is indeed to be the last campaign of Whelan/Hoolahan, as you suggest.
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 22/02/2017 at 2:00 AM.
Ah...I see - as you hadn't commented on the last page, I honestly thought you had just missed the start of the discussion. Still though, as these lads are still young and have just broken through, by the time the next qualifiers roll around one or more of them may have jumped right up the pecking order so the question is: which friendlies do we use to try out players based on future potential and which do we use to give fringe players a run-out and use for fine-tuning? I would say the game against Iceland does give us some opportunity to look at new options as it takes place after the Wales qualifier, whereas the Uruguay friendly before the Austria is more likely to be used to give more time to players like Gibson and Quinn. And we can blood in a whole bunch of players in our inevitable summer friendly against our arch-nemesis, Oman. We do have a lot of young players coming through right now and it is important to evaluate them and to get them ready for competitive games by giving them some game-time in friendlies.
Last edited by samhaydenjr; 22/02/2017 at 11:57 PM.
I completely agree with you. The Iceland game should be used for experimentation and to test less-experienced players. I didn't mention Gibson/Quinn because I thought they should feature in that game; the only reason I mentioned them is because they had been completely omitted from the overall midfield hierarchy for some reason. I assume they were simply forgotten about, but it's no big deal otherwise.
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 23/02/2017 at 12:34 AM.
i think hogan is unlikely to be involved even if selected/interested due to injury. i don't really expect any new faces in the squad... unless egan has not been called up before?
We lost to Wales 7-1 in 1882 according to this. Anyone know who was in the squad that day?
http://www.11v11.com/teams/wales/tab...ition/Ireland/
1882 match played in atrocious weather in Wrexham with Wales running out 7-1 winners.
The newspaper print is a bit dodgy in a couple of cases but the Irish team looks like -
McAlevy (Cliftonville) (captain)
Cone (Distillery)
Hastings (Knock)
Martin (Cliftonville)
McWhy (?) (Knock)
Davison (Cliftonville)
Condy (?) (Distillery)
Dill (Knock)
Sinclair (Knock)
Johnstone (Distillery)
Hamilton (Knock) (goalkeeper)
Apparently Hamilton kept the score down in goals for the Irish.
Knock Rovers, Knock United, Knock Rangers, Knock Celtic, Knock Town, Knock Wednesday, Knock Off? Any more details? Never heard of them never mind having 4 internationals ?
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
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