QuoteYou've pretty much summed up Martin O'Neill.Originally Posted by carnstien
Jesus I know, I thought I was the only one to notice, Kerr reminds me so much of Houllier its scary, just in the way he makes bizzare tactical decistions, often plays players out of position and his conservitive attitude twoards the game.
You've pretty much summed up Martin O'Neill.
The farcical striker situation shows maybe, just maybe Kerr should not have taken such a píss taking attitude towards Jason Byrne
EB, Duff is not a striker. He has said it himself. He's proved it time and time again. I can't think of a single game Duff played up front where he's been an effective striker. Therefor I couldn't care less if Mourinho put him up there a few times, it was the wrong decision. And taking off a striker and bringing on a mid fielder no matter how you reshuffle the pack is going backwards. You're taking off an attacking player for a not so attacking player.
Last edited by Slash/ED; 08/06/2005 at 12:23 PM.
Mick McCarthy's worst legacy - worse than Saipan - is that people think that Duff is some sort of winger-cum-striker who can do a job upfront. He f*cking can't. He's an amazing player but does absolutely nothing as a striker and I have never, ever seen any evidence where he's been effective up front. This would be bad enough in itself, that we're playing a bad striker upfront. Couple this with the fact that he's one of the world's greatest left-wingers and it becomes a joke. I wish people would stop discussing it, it's that ridiculous.
Time and time again, it's been proved that Duff in form on the wing is of much greater effectiveness no matter who's upfront than when he's upfront and Kilbane is on the left-wing.
I can't believe this argument has resurfaced.
Absolutley, how many inept performances must he put in while up front? Duff and Keane was, goals wise, probably one of the worst partnerships in the Irish teams history iirc.
Kerr brought it up on Saturday.
Of course I agree that Duff isn't very good up front. Mourinho does it and he's the best manager in the world, Kerr does it and he deserves the sack. Thats the reason I brought Mourinho into it. I have pointed on another out a few reasons incidents with Chelsea that Kerr would have been slated for if he had done while Mourinho gets away with it.
Mourinho is quite conversative too though, the difference is, his defence is good enough to withstand the pressure that brings, so it's playing to his strenghts, same with Porto (In fact espically so). Ours is not, so it doesn't work, and we consistently throw away leads in important games as a result. You can't compare them.
Though when Mourinho uses Duff as a striker, he is equally wrong. It goes to show how inept Kezman must be.
I think O'Shea is the only weak link in our defense. Our defense is good enough and has an excellent record. The Swiss goal was down to Kilbane giving the ball away (Carr didn't play well there but Finnan has overtaken him now). The Israel home goal was a shot from outside the box that every defence concedes once in a while. The Israel home goal was a crazy header from a free kick. We are usually very good at defending set pieces. They are the only goals we conceded with the exception of the peno.
I know, that's what I meant.
If anyone does think this of Mourinho, it's not because he played Duff up front. I agree with the lads above about playing as striker. It's just not his position and while he is trying to be diplomatic about it in press conferences, etc. I would imagine Duff is probably pleading with Kerr not to do this to him again. He has far more to offer than he gets the chance to when played in this position.
"I don’t want to tempt fate, but Thierry Henry is not having one of his best nights." - RTE co-commentator Jim Beglin, minutes before TH struck the stunning winner.
Sorry i thought you meant our debate.
There is a big difference, Robbie played the friendly against Argentina, electrifying at times, crowd booed when he was not awarded MOM. Elliot just has not shown anything near that yet. I certainly hope he does in future.
Yes he did. Why? To give him experience, it was only his second cap i think. Ortega ran the show and we lost 2-0.
If Elliot came on last Saturday and we drew 2-2 no-one would have blamed him or Kerr for that as he's a striker.
I agree that Elliot may not prove to be as good as Robbie but he has to be given a chance when a striker gets injured. Expecially when we are 2-0 up at home against a poor side who were rattled.
In all fairness, O'Brien is in and out of the Newcastle team, Harte is poor and Cunningham is getting older. We don't just have one weak link there. Their record is good but they are not capable of sitting back and soaking pressure, that has been proven many many times under Kerr. Look at the Swiss match, kept from being an embarassment by Shay Given alone.
We are not Chelsea, we have not got a defense capable of sitting back, soaking up pressure and killing a game off. We've given away leads in nearly every big match Kerr has played as proof of this.
Whatever about individual attributes, the Cunningham-O'Brien partnership has been world class under Kerr. Harte isn't a first teamer so O'Shea is the only weak link.
For the most part yes, but they have also proved they are no good at sitting back and defending leads. We've conceded nearly every time we've done that. They aren't on the level of the Chelsea/Porto defense, which are capable of doing that. It's more than just the defense that's at fault there though, when we sit back the whole team should defend as a unit better, but we aren't capable of it therefor shouldn't be doing it. That's been proven.
Its more a team thing though as the centre defence has been fine all throughout the campaign. I watched Cunningham when we were 2-0 up and he was pushing the line up to the half way line. If only we could replace O'Shea at LB.
Yeah it's the whole teams problem, they have to defend as a unit if that's how we're going to play, but they aren't able to do it and we keep concedeing goals when we try it so playing more negatively is simply not playing to our strenghts. When Mourinho does it with Chelsea and did it with Porto it was playing to his strenghts, espically at Porto, and they won many a game by doing it. Our whole team defending as a unit is simply not on that level.
Finnan & Carr ought to be our full backs from this point on, despite Carr not putting in the performances he used to.
Despite what people said after the Jackie McNamara game, I though S. Reid was poor even in a low-key match at RB.
Kilbane, Kennedy & Clarke should have been looked at more as LB options, though I accept Kerr has probably looked at Kennedy playing there for Wolves and wasn't impressed.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks