no one is saying he was excellent on sunday but rather defending him for being singled for criticism out by some.Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
Whelan was still one of our better players sunday but he didn't have to be excellent to be so
Exactly. He wasn't outstanding, but neither did he do wanting to deserve some of the criticism he received after the game
Fixer did say that. Presume that's what Shakermaker was referring to.
I thought Whelan did his job excellently. He's not Hoolahan so let's stop comparing them (not you guys, RTÉ panel)
I thought Whelan was very good by any measure. Not 10/10 good but 7/10, which was better than anyone else in green.
Lads used to say whelan did all this amazing work off the ball blocking off space so lads don't run at our back four. On Sunday Austria got to run through the middle of midfield at least three or four times right onto our back four. So why do lads think whelan had a good game? He completely neglected his sitting role to end up in the attacking third where he added minimal creativity. He is so slow then he can't get back to cover ground when the ball is list. McCarthy been fit next season to play that defensive role and cover ground to allow us to push our midfield high to press without leaving us open like on Sunday is vital. Please god he leaves everton I'd even accept Celtic at this stage!
I counted a number of times Whelan broke up attacks in the middle with Arter and Hendrick AWOL. I suppose anytime something goes wrong in midfield it's Whelan's fault though.
I'm with the Whelan wasn't the problem crowd. I was less thrilled by Arter and Hendrick, although accept that perhaps Hendrick wasn't used in a position that plays to his strengths.
Except it wasn't Hendrick's job to break up attacks in the middle?
It was his job to be in midfield, and if people were running straight through then he's not exactly blameless. Arter would take more blame, obviously.
So looking ahead to Georgia on September 2 - this is where the wanton squandering of 2 points will matter most.
The lads will face a 7 hour trip to Tblisi on the morning of the 1st most likely. They'll be slightly jet lagged having crossed two time zones (3 hours time difference if I'm not mistaken).
They'll then train the following morning briefly and set up to play a game at 8pm the following night (local time) in what is likely to be heat of 27 degrees.
Safe to say that they'll be pretty drained by the time they head back to the hotel (hopefully with 3 points in the bag).
Then the following morning it will be a return flight to Dublin which will further fatigue the players (remember in years past Irish managers have always complained about tiredness of their players at this time of year).
September 3rd will be another lost day, and it will be up early the next morning for training.
Then it will be game time the following day.
Serbia on the other hand have a home game to mighty Moldova, which will translate into a confident team making the 3 hour trip to Dublin for game on Sept 5.
Georgia are a strange outfit, they played ourselves and Wales off the park away from home and can't even conjure up a win in two games against Moldova.
They are a difficult opponent alright. They'll threaten us in Tblisi. We need to open our account early and hopefully hit them on the break as they come looking for an equaliser.
Team selection in that game will be crucial once again, but somehow I have lost all faith in MON's ability to see what't in front of his eyes.
Best manager in Europe when he was at Celtic, because he achieved so much with so little, but last Sunday's performance from him will stick in the craw for many years to come.
Way early to be picking teams for Georgia game, but with nothing else to look forward to for three months, why not?
My 'keep the ball on the deck' team would be as follows:
Randolph in goal,
a back three of Christie, Duffy, Clark or Ward;
wing backs of Brady and McGeady (doing all the fetching and carrying from back three to distribute to midfielders and forwards)
midfield partners of McCarthy and Arter with Hoolahan sitting behind front two,
and Walters and McClean up front (Shane Long impact sub)
It was a frustrating result, sure, but it wasn't a total f***-up, nor has it dashed our hopes of qualifying. We did manage a point and still have an excellent chance of qualifying. Last Sunday's result just makes that a bit more difficult than a win would have made it. If we do manage to qualify, nobody will be worrying about drawing with Austria at home in years to come. It will be seen as one of the valuable points that contributed to the overall tally that enabled us to qualify. It might stick in the craw if we miss out on qualification by a point or two - it would rightly be viewed as two points lost under such circumstances - but let's not assume disaster just yet.
Funny, I still feel confident that we will achieve qualification based just on my gut! Easy to criticise the midfield, but this is what happens when you pick three central midfielders who aren't the most creative. The game highlighted the need for a younger Wes to emerge (Judge?) and a younger Robbie to emerge, who that might be remains a mystery.
I'd avoid a back three after the last time.
There is merit to a three with the player pool skill set we have, but the three has to contain one, ideally two, guys quick over the ground who will operate in FB areas comfortably, as the one above would to be fair (more than the one picked in the friendly would anyway). The midfield picked in that game was a waste of everyone's time also after trekking out there. Between that and the midfield he picked Sunday and how badly that misfired it's easy to see why people are so disheartened after the summers performances and how we were improving up to that in this group.
I think we looked a lot better when we had two strikers on against Austria alright. I suspect our players are a bit put out by O'Neill changing formations all the time and they operate best within a defined system like the one that largely worked against Italy and France. We badly need Long too up front as we don't have anyone else who can stretch a team when we play long ball.
I thought he was definitely a 5/7.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks