Video of Murphy's goal for Forest against Aston Villa: https://streamable.com/13lo0
Good finish.
Another goal tonight at home vs Fulham. Arguably earnt a starting spot, especially with Walters out?
McGoldrick with a goal too...
Probably not a massive surprise, Daryl Murphy has called time on his international career: https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-36536470.html - With Doyle already gone and Walters likely to follow, I guess we should be really thankful that Maguire seems to have made the grade, that Hogan has come on board and has rediscovered his form and that O'Brien is starting to score more at Championship level
Actually Hogan is 5'11", according to his Wikipedia page, an inch shorter than Walters. And if our tactics over the last few years were predicated on the abilities and limitations of our players, shouldn't our tactics change if there is a change in these abilities and limitations - to fit a forward line that is less physical but more mobile? Six or seven months ago we were fearing that Cillian Sheridan would have to be one of our short-term options and hoping against hope that he would tear up the Polish First Division (he hasn't). So now three definite options have emerged (with two other potentials) at Premier League and Championship level and we're going to ignore them or have room for only one? Hopefully not.
My point was that's an issue for MON- not me. He seemed to default to the physical option. And I think Walters has a leap and style that makes him a physical handful for the bigger defenders even.
You can still play direct without a target man if your forwards have pace -- instead of balls lobbed up toward your target men to hold up the ball or flick it on, you send balls down the channels for forwards to latch on to it and cut it back toward the middle.
A guy like Long is ideally suited to that role of chasing balls into corners.
Requires playing 4-4-2 though which is out of style and may leave us vulnerable in midfield.
Murphy's career is interesting. Pretty much from a scoring point of view three great years at Ipswich where everything he hit found the back of the net. For the rest his strike is from poor to average. His first few appearances in an Irish shirt under MON were embarrassing where his control and first touch were terrible and the game passed him by. However, to be fair to him I thought his confidence grew and the goal against Serbia was special and he was a deserving member of the squad. I have heard some people say he was not "international class" but international football is by and large weaker than club football from the top tiers. If you look at the mid-ranking countries most of their players are drawn from the average club sides and many from lower divisions. I didn't rate Murphy AT ALL when he first turned out for us but latterly he did a job for us and will be missed.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
You're selling him a bit short. Celtic did not turn out to be a good club for him, he matured late, took 2 seasons at Ipswich to find his real worth in his last 3 seasons there. Since Ipswich, with Newcastle and Nottm Forest he has maintained that very good goal to game ratio.
He was 27 when he joined Celtic and was often played on the wing for Sunderland prior to that. He probably was a late developer.
I just realised he will turn 35 in March. It actually is the best time possible for him (and probably the others which we know are imminent) to retire. He would be just shy of 36 for the kick off of the next qualifying campaign.
It's a pretty loose term alright but I would consider every team in our group from the last campaign (bar Moldova) to be well ahead of any team you'd find in the Championship, where Murphy played his most productive football. So in that sense, it was definitely a step up for him.
I like Murphy but I don't think he'll be a loss really. One less battering ram option could be a good thing in fact, maybe force a change of approach. He was never really a handful in the same way that Walters was at his best. I'm happy for him that he scored a couple of important goals for us before signing off though.
Last edited by DeLorean; 31/01/2018 at 1:36 PM.
I hate to break it to you DeLo but one less battering ram isn't going to change our approach. It will merely change the urgency of our approach to unearthing another battering ram.
O'Brien has bulked up a lot over the past two years I think. I think he'd be more in the Long mould overall but probably would be expected to stand in one place like Murphy and Walters for Ireland.
Yeah that was in the back of my mind as I was typing, but I'm not sure we have another battering ram that could be justified by O'Neill as being anywhere near the required standard. Walters might stay on though. Not having one probably won't stop us pumping it up to Long or Maguire or whoever though!
O'Neill's first preference was to have a type of football where Murphy was deemed more suited to and selected ahead of Long for both play-off games.
It's a sure sign of the current levels of desperation that a hope for O'Neill to change his (evil) ways would depend upon him (his back to the wall) being forced through retirements to look elsewhere for options, which might (just might) be talented enough to such a degree that it would effect a revolution in the way the game is played under O'Neill.
And even if one does hold that hope, it only lasts for a mere moment or two as the light fades rapidly away from it.
Funny thing is, despite his shape and size Murphy was utterly brutal as a lone forward / hold up man / target man. The ball never stuck even on those occasions he got to it.
The side angle TV replay of McClean failing to see an unmarked Murphy six yards out when 2-1 down in Lyon will haunt me forever!
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