Republic of Ireland v. Wales - Friday, 24th March 2017 - World Cup 2018 Qualifier

[backstothewall]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Whelan has no mobility. In fairness to him he does hit a nice pass, but he is as slow as molasses at times. I can see from the original poster's point of view that he is possibly seeing that Whelan's passes mostly found their targets, but it's what he doesn't give you which hurts. Had McGeady or Conor Hourihane been in his shoes I think we may just have seen a different outcome.

I was losing the rag with Whelan at times. He does offer a lot but there were a number of times last night McClean was in acres of space on the left and for whatever reason, presumably Whelan either being unwilling or unable to make the pass, the ball never went to him.

I would like a look at Hourihane in the Whelan role from the start against Iceland. Possibly with Brady and Hendrick in a 3 man midfield

[CraftyToePoke]

Player ratings
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/socc...ings-1.3024032

No mention of Christie in the ratings ? Undermines the credibility of the other verdicts a touch.

[liamoo11]

I wonder what our first eleven is now for Austria if no injuries?

Randolph
Christie Duffy. Clark. Ward

McCarthy. Hendrick

Brady

Mcgeady. Long. Mcclean


Leaves Walters, Murphy, wes, arter as potential impact subs. Arter was very poor in Austria don't seehim starting just now if we have full pick. Hopefully hourihane given his set piece ability plays well against Iceland to be in contention in june

[mark12345]

When they went down to 10 men, he should have switched meyler to right full and brought on Mc Geady at that stage and really went for the jugular. I fear we may live to regret that. Anyway let's hope Seamus gets back on his feet as soon as possible

Exactly what I said at the time, recalling Meyler's performance on the right in Austria.

[mark12345]

I wonder what our first eleven is now for Austria if no injuries?

Randolph
Christie Duffy. Clark. Ward

McCarthy. Hendrick

Brady

Mcgeady. Long. Mcclean


Leaves Walters, Murphy, wes, arter as potential impact subs. Arter was very poor in Austria don't seehim starting just now if we have full pick. Hopefully hourihane given his set piece ability plays well against Iceland to be in contention in june

I would not start Christie. Has had very little game time at Derby and he looked like a bag of nerves last night. Can't see his club situation getting any better before the end of the season. So we need a right back for the Austria game - Matt Doherty is the obvious choice although maybe Meyler should get the start there.
As far as the rest of the team goes I would definitely include Wes. Based on the evidence of last night, Hendrick would be the one to give way.

[liamoo11]

I would not start Christie. Has had very little game time at Derby and he looked like a bag of nerves last night. Can't see his club situation getting any better before the end of the season. So we need a right back for the Austria game - Matt Doherty is the obvious choice although maybe Meyler should get the start there.
As far as the rest of the team goes I would definitely include Wes. Based on the evidence of last night, Hendrick would be the one to give way.

Fair enough but no way wes Brady and McCarthy play in a three. Maybe Brady goes left back back let's wes come into midfield and it's a toss up between arter and Hendrick to partner McCarthy. Can't see Doherty coming in from nowhere in terms of been involved with O'Neill sides to start.

[liamoo11]

Off topic watching Belgium losing to Greece who are down to ten men. Makes what we did last night seem super creative. No invention from Belgians with far better ballers than us

[seanfhear]

Christie was average last night....He does have a long throw in which is handy . I suppose its a bit unfair to judge him on those 20 minutes . Surely Doherty will get into a squad to have a look at .

[elroy]

Really poor game last night but I think that came from both teams been very anxious not to lose. Wales were marginally the better team up to the Coleman injury but I felt we were starting to get on top. We were full of endeavour for last 20 mins and possibly lacked a Murphy like presence up top.

Also felt the way we were set up and our personnel neutralised Wales but also ourselves. We struggled to break through their formation. Only once did we almost create a good opportunity, in the first a one two which nearly saw long through. Otherwise it was mainly hussle and bussle.

Quite affected by Coleman injury. Such a top bloke and player. Hope he gets back on the pitch this year and back to his best.

On we go, in great shape. Austria need to beat us in next game. That may suit our style of play.

[Stuttgart88]

In real time I thought Bale's tackle was the worse of the two and only his name / fame saved him from a red earlier. The Bale tackle was a carbon copy of the one that dislocated my ankle in 2001. I was admiring my own clearance when a guy slid in and took my standing leg from under me.

I actually thought Christie looked ok. Seamus wasn't having a great game.

Midfield 3 disappointed going forward, Whelan took too much out of the ball too often. I expected more forward drive from Hendrick.

Keogh awful on the ball, bag of nerves.

Good team performance defensively, awful in possession until the last 20.

Boarding plane now...

[geysir]

Same here, I thought Bale's tackle was worse, just had less impact, though I haven't seen a replay of it. It was a muck of a game for the most part (mainly down to us). Brady was missed for set pieces/passing ability, and a player like Hoolahan to hold onto the ball for 5 seconds.

When it's straight red tackle that takes a player right out of the game, I think there's case that he could be subbed outside of the 3 sub quota.

[DeLorean]

I would not start Christie. Has had very little game time at Derby and he looked like a bag of nerves last night. Can't see his club situation getting any better before the end of the season. So we need a right back for the Austria game - Matt Doherty is the obvious choice although maybe Meyler should get the start there.

He didn't start Rowlett's first game in charge which might be a slight concern but he played ninety minutes in their previous six games. Hardly that little game time considering he only returned from a couple of months out with injury at the end of January.

I'm all over giving Doherty a chance and he may well be a better option long term but I don't think Christie looked a bag of nerves at all. His worst game for us was against Belarus when the whole team were poor, but he has been very good otherwise when called upon.

[DeLorean]

When it's straight red tackle that takes a player right out of the game, I think there's case that he could be subbed outside of the 3 sub quota.

That's a great suggestion. Don't think I've heard it before but it's actually a no brainer.

[DannyInvincible]

Neil O'Riordan writes that Ronald Koeman had "snubbed" an opportunity to "end the feud" between himself and Martin O'Neill a few weeks ago: https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football...ans-leg-break/

RONALD KOEMAN snubbed Martin O’Neill’s attempts to bury the hatchet BEFORE Séamus Coleman suffered a horrific double leg-break in Dublin on Friday.

Ireland boss O’Neill had visited his captain to sympathise before he underwent surgery yesterday.

The managers have not spoken to each other, with O’Neill claiming that his attempts to end the feud with Koeman over James McCarthy had fallen on deaf ears.

O’Neill said: “Let me be clear. I asked to speak with Ronald a couple of weeks ago — and he refused to do so, which is fine, not a problem.”

O’Neill is not expecting a further deterioration in relations following on from Coleman’s injury.

He said: “Why would that be? This happens in the game, somebody’s made a bad tackle on a player, and the player’s lost. At club level, I’ve lost players in the past.”

Koeman has yet to contact Coleman but the club have been in touch with the FAI.

And the Toffees boss said: “I haven’t been able to speak to Séamus as yet but he will be aware that the thoughts of his team-mates, the coaching staff, everyone at the club and all Evertonians are with him at this time.

“The medical staff here at Everton are in contact with the medical staff of the Republic of Ireland and we will continue to liaise closely.

“Séamus will face a lengthy recovery period and we will support him throughout this.

“He is a really strong character and he has a great family around him — and we, his extended family at Everton, will be here for him to help him get through this over the coming days, weeks and months.”

I'd imagine Koeman is absolutely snapping now in light of what happened with both Coleman and McCarthy.

[DannyInvincible]

More on Neil Taylor: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/...eamus-coleman/

Chris Coleman has said that Neil Taylor was left “devastated” and unable to speak in the dressing room as the full realisation dawned at the damage his reckless challenge had inflicted on Seamus Coleman.

Taylor himself lost almost a season of his career after breaking an ankle in 2012 and, while there will be little sympathy just now for all the character references that are being provided by his Wales team-mates, he was said to be “in bits” and made an immediate attempt to apologise.

“He’s numb; he didn’t say a word,” said Chris Coleman, the Wales manager. “I was the first one into the dressing room after the game and he was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands. But, no matter how badly he feels, or we feel, it’s worse for Seamus. We’ve just got to hope and pray that it’s not too bad for Seamus.”

Pretty sure I also read somewhere that Taylor shook the hands of numerous Irish players as a gesture of apology whilst upon his visit to the Irish dressing room.

[DeLorean]

Sh!t happens. It was a poorly executed tackle but not a premeditated attempt at injuring or even hurting Coleman. It's just one of those things and Taylor has come out of it looking fairly okay in my book for the amount of remorse he's clearly demonstrated. It's an absolute balls for Coleman, Everton and Ireland but that's life, he's had a pretty good run up until now at least.

Ledley feeling the need to respond to the accusations (from the mentally insane) of him laughing at the outcome of incident leaves me shaking my head in despair at the power of social media these days.

[KrisLetang]

Some say Whelan should have been sent off.
http://www.the42.ie/ireland-wales-wo...07427-Mar2017/

[DannyInvincible]

Some say Whelan should have been sent off.

I'd have had no complaints had Whelan been shown a red card. He appeared to intentionally thrust his elbow towards Joe Allen and it definitely connected with Allen's chin. Video of the incident again here: https://vid.me/wGw9

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

"What is so funny about that?"

http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/wm...6378.bild.html

It doesn't look like a grimace IMO, but I'm not going to judge him. Your face doesn't always react the way you want it to when you receive shocking/bad news.

Unless we develop telepathy we might as well drop it.

I think there was malicious intent in Taylor's tackle but I do think he's genuinely sorry. He made an attempt to commiserate with Keane in particular, but Keane told him to F off.

It's shades of Shawcross/Ramsey. You can't tell me Shawcross didn't intend to "do" Ramsey, but I do think he was genuinely remorseful afterwards.

[DeLorean]

I could never understand the blame attributed to Shawcross to be honest.