The Future for this Irish Team

[livehead1]

To me his most bizarre decision was moving an out of form John O'Shea from full back to a pivotal roll in midfield in the last game despite the presence of Kavanagh on the bench.

yeh but he does play for man utd

[Stuttgart88]

Jay Tabb is another. Low profile but an outstanding performer for the U21s. Bags of talent though not very big.

[geysir]

One of the key parts of the future is the football nous of the manager and the effect on the team.
There are many good young players being named.
Still I can't conceive of an Ireland team doing anything but a headless chicken act unless you have a player like Kavanangh doing his thing.
It still annoys me that Kavanagh was dropped after his part in the poor performance in Cyprus. That was a time for Kerr to get behind him. There is a method to putting on pressure and a centre of gravity is essential.

Mc Geady is not yet out of the picture,(based on wed.game only) he looks a fit, fast and a confident player. With a bit more muscle and a run of 20 or so SPL games, he would get in the squad.

[eirebhoy]

I think that's a bit pessimistic (although I take the point on the likes of McPhail). As much as I quite liked Kerr I don't agree that he gave new players a chance. It needs more than 1 game here, or 10 minutes there. He seemed to prefer having a small squad and playing those players out of position rather than giving someone else a chance.

Every player got their chance under Kerr. Most of the young players mentioned in this thread are only coming through recently. He gave international debut's to 15 players and other than the players he kept on, the rest weren't good enough. No player that he didn't give a chance to is good enough imo.

Was just checking on eleven-a-side, McCarthy’s team against Switzerland 3 years ago:

Given, Kelly, Harte (Doherty, 87), Cunningham, Breen, Holland, Kinsella, Healy, Kilbane (Morrison, 61), Duff (Butler, 83), Keane.

There's a lot of changes there in 2 years. Only Given, Cunningham and Keane were playing in those postions in Kerr's team.

[Fergie's Son]

Mcgeady just looks like he lacks that extra bit of pace. There are some exciting prospects coming up but let's be realistic. It's incredibly difficult to suceed in professional football. I remember Jonathon Douglas and Sean Thornton!

[eirebhoy]

Mcgeady just looks like he lacks that extra bit of pace.

He has been flying by players in his last 2 games for Celtic. I was actually suprised at how quick he was last night as he's not renowned for having a lot of pace.

[Dillo]

Great stuff PM. I can see you getting a call up to the Jamaican squad if this form continues.

[Dillo]

To me his most bizarre decision was moving an out of form John O'Shea from full back to a pivotal roll in midfield in the last game despite the presence of Kavanagh on the bench.

It was a scandalous decision and could have arguably cost us a play off. For that alone I am glad to see the back of Kerr. To see Kavanagh and Reid benchwarming during such a crucial game was a disgrace!

[Superhoops]

To see Kavanagh and Reid benchwarming during such a crucial game was a disgrace!

It wasnt so much seeing them benchwarming, it was that they were benchwarming while JOS was considered a better option, particularly after his mare against Cyprus.

[Closed Account 2]

I dont even think Kav was that bad against Cyprus. He wasnt great, but didnt strike me as being much worse than the rest of the team. You have to bear in mind that he was lacking match fitness as, due to picking up a few knocks, he didnt play that much for some of Wigan's early matches.

I think it was foolish to drop him from the 11 for the Swiss match.

[Stuttgart88]

Whatever about playing JOS in midfield against the Swiss, pairing JOS & Holland made no sense whatsoever in agame we had to win. Steven Reid's impressive cameo made me think what a shame he hadn't featured at all for so long.

By the way, I just saw the Swiss vs Turkey highlights. They were pretty impressive though the Turks were apalling.

I also reckon the Swiss stadium was great & that we could build something similar, in addition to new Lansdowne, in next to no time and for a relatively small cost. It doesn't even have to be in Dublin. Are there no passionate football fans among the hordes of developer multi-millionaire Irish these days?

[dr_peepee]

A good read JPM... Tip of the hat!!!

[Reality Bites]

In response to Stuttgart 88 thread, I would agree with him in saying that the Swiss were very impressive against Turkey, They have a good manager and are well organised and play with passion, in reality they should have beaten us in lansdowne road last month, Shay Given being the difference..The Turks although poor we would still struggle against them, also the atmosphere in the stadium for 90 minutes was super, hard to see this being replicated in lansdowne road, lets face the west stand and east stand is full of corporate event junkies who don't really know the difference between the rugby ticket and soccer ticket they get their hands on..maybe thats part of the problem rugby fans attending soccer matches cause they are block booked in and sure they go for the craic...