Steve Finnan

[endabob1]

I wouldn't descride Reid as leightweight Sorry it had to be said!!

Seriously I think unless we had a fully fit Steve Reid in there beside Carsley that's the best midfield in terms of balance we can put out.
Carsely will sit deep & kick people, Mcgeady should run at people and Fatboy & Ireland are able to put their fut in when it matters and pick out passes when it atters.

[paul_oshea]

reid in centre is better than ireland, no question, his left foot can be devastating, playing him out on the wing, limits what he can do with this. himself and keanes "partership" needs to blosom and this can only happen in midfield. I have always thought that keane made good runs, but there was no player on the same wavelength as himself( just like when i played football ), there now appears to be.

Drop Ireland and put reid in, if things aren't going well for creating chances then you could always bring on ireland then.

[bellavistaman]

Dear Stan,

Can you please play the best right full in the Premier League in his correct position for Ireland. Page One of the Successful Managers Manual - Play your best players in their best positions. You dont play Robbie on the wing to accomodate Doyle and Long.

Failure to do so may cost qualification and result in a Paul Scholes situation, Finnan is gonna have a busy year with Liverpool (hopefully) and Rafa never seems to rest/rotate him.

Stephen Carr is fourth choice, at best, behind Mr. Finnan, Stephen Kelly and Joey O'Brien (when fit)

Your starting XI in Bratislava should read ;

Given

Finnan
Dunne
McShane
Kilbane

McGeady or Ireland
Carsley
Fatty Reid
Hunt

Doyle
Keane

When we are 2-0 up after an hour replace Reid, McGeady and Doyle with O'Shea, Potter and Gibson, pack midfield and kick fcuk out of the Slovaks.

Job done.

Regards,

Stojkovic.

Dont like that team at all personally, Dont know what the problem is with O'Shea, hes a great player, definitly Ireland international standard anyway.

My Team would be

Given
RB- Finnan
Dunne
McShane
LB O'Shea

RM Andy Reid
Ireland
Carsley
LM Hunt

Keane
Doyle

[QUOTE=tetsujin1979;753828]This all goes back to the question - do we want a fantastic right full and a square peg in a round hole at left full, or a decent right full, and an effective (if not outstanding) left full.
Stephen Carr is hardly fourth choice. O'Brien has yet to prove himself at right full - he himself admits central midfield is his best position - and has a year out of the game. We still don't know how this will affect him and he is hardly ready for the biggest 2 games in Staunton's career. Stephen Kelly hasn't the experience at senior level yet to challenge for Carr's place in the team, and hasn't impressed me from what I've seen of him in the Premier League this season to date.
Carr has being playing well so far under Allardyce, who has a reputation for getting the best out of players, so let's not take him out of the equation just yet.
If we do manage to unearth a solid left full back, or Harte recovers his form, then Finnan will become the 1st choice right full, until then I believe it's going to be a mix and match with the full back slots.
QUOTE]

Agree totally with ya there.

[reder]

Given

Finnan
Dunne
McShane
O'Shea (Harte, if he plays for Sunderland and impresses)

McGeady
A. Reid
Carsley
Hunt

Doyle
Keane

That bulks up our midfield as much as possible. Carsley is a dog of a player as we all know. Hunt is a hard worker and not afraid to stick his foot in.

Reid is by far the most creative player available to us at the mo and will be well able for a physical game. I would worry about McGeady against a physical side but we really dont have any other natural options wide on the right.

[shakermaker1982]

Given

Finnan
Dunne
McShane
O'Shea (Harte, if he plays for Sunderland and impresses)

McGeady
A. Reid
Carsley
Hunt

Doyle
Keane

That bulks up our midfield as much as possible. Carsley is a dog of a player as we all know. Hunt is a hard worker and not afraid to stick his foot in.

Reid is by far the most creative player available to us at the mo and will be well able for a physical game. I would worry about McGeady against a physical side but we really dont have any other natural options wide on the right.

that is how I'd line up as well.

[Armando]

Given

Finnan
Dunne
McShane
O'Shea (Harte, if he plays for Sunderland and impresses)

McGeady
A. Reid
Carsley
Hunt

Doyle
Keane

That bulks up our midfield as much as possible. Carsley is a dog of a player as we all know. Hunt is a hard worker and not afraid to stick his foot in.

Reid is by far the most creative player available to us at the mo and will be well able for a physical game. I would worry about McGeady against a physical side but we really dont have any other natural options wide on the right.

Hold on a minute! I can't believe anyone would actually consider Harte for these upcoming games? They're in 2 weeks and Harte hasn't played at all this season....so, he might play a game for Sunderland, does well and all of a sudden he's back in the Irish team for our 2 most important games in years. Give me a break!

[carloz]

Although id definly prefer Finnan at right back he has been quite compitent at left and the team as a whole hasnt suffered. If he had just done it against Wales i would have classed it as great management. I like the way Stan had Finnan marking Bellamy and O'Shea maring Giggs, all team-mates at the time.

[paul_oshea]

This all goes back to the question - do we want a fantastic right full and a square peg in a round hole at left full, or a decent right full, and an effective (if not outstanding) left full.
Stephen Carr is hardly fourth choice. O'Brien has yet to prove himself at right full - he himself admits central midfield is his best position - and has a year out of the game. We still don't know how this will affect him and he is hardly ready for the biggest 2 games in Staunton's career. Stephen Kelly hasn't the experience at senior level yet to challenge for Carr's place in the team, and hasn't impressed me from what I've seen of him in the Premier League this season to date.
Carr has being playing well so far under Allardyce, who has a reputation for getting the best out of players, so let's not take him out of the equation just yet.
If we do manage to unearth a solid left full back, or Harte recovers his form, then Finnan will become the 1st choice right full, until then I believe it's going to be a mix and match with the full back slots.
QUOTE]

Agree totally with ya there.

how can ye agree totally with him there when ye put finnan right back and oshea left back?

reder i like your line up bar harte getting anywhere near the team.

[fergalr]

reder i like your line up bar harte getting anywhere near the team.

Agree with reder's team and the above comment.

But will Given be fit?

[reder]

I lost track of time. I didnt actually realise the games were so close for some reason.

Anyway, I have to re-evaluate and concur on the opinions regarding Harte. If he got a chance to play 4 or 5 full games for Sunderland and looked great then I would put him up for the position.

O' Shea gets the nod at left full. Kelly has potential but needs more time to learn the international ropes.

Given has a muscular injury. In truth he has not been right since that collision at West ham. I would be VERY pleasantly surprised if he starts.

[stojkovic]

What is with you and associating a different view to your own with the poster being under the influence of alcohol?

First time I've ever done it, to my knowledge.

[tetsujin1979]

First time I've ever done it, to my knowledge.

Someone accused my of being under the influence of blue wkd when I disagreed with them. Apologies if it wasn't you.

[DmanDmythDledge]

Given

Finnan
Dunne
McShane
O'Shea (Harte, if he plays for Sunderland and impresses)

McGeady
A. Reid
Carsley
Hunt

Doyle
Keane

That bulks up our midfield as much as possible. Carsley is a dog of a player as we all know. Hunt is a hard worker and not afraid to stick his foot in.

Reid is by far the most creative player available to us at the mo and will be well able for a physical game. I would worry about McGeady against a physical side but we really dont have any other natural options wide on the right.

Only change I'd make to that team is have Ireland on the right instead of McGeady and have Finnan overlapping to provide some sort of width on that side. Not having a natural winger isn't a problem if you have one on the other wing.

[OwlsFan]

I couldn't image 2 worse games to play a not match fit Harte in, where the defence will be under constant pressure.

With Carr apparently out for 6 weeks I expect to see O'Shea at left back and Finnan back at right. At least O'Shea adds a bit of height to a team of midgets but not much else mind.

[NeilMcD]

I am no fan of O Shea but he has played the last 3 games (not incl the American tour) and we have kept clean sheets. I thought he has played well in the last few games. I think a back four of Finnan Dunne Mc Shane and O Shea is solid and all of them are in decent or great form.

[shakermaker1982]

O'Shea at left back is fine with me. Like Neil I thought O'Shea has had a decent game in every match since the Welsh game.

Carsley was taken off against Blackburn. Is that serious?

[macdermesser]

Given

Finnan RB
Dunne
McShane
Harte

McGeady
A Reid
Carsley
Hunt

Keane
Long

I think Doyle is lacking in confidence, but Long looks like he has no fear of anything.

HARTE!!?????

.. what is it about Harte and this board. Until he starts playing and playing well for Sunderland, he should not be considered

[Stuttgart88]

This all goes back to the question - do we want a fantastic right full and a square peg in a round hole at left full, or a decent right full, and an effective (if not outstanding) left full.
Stephen Carr is hardly fourth choice. O'Brien has yet to prove himself at right full - he himself admits central midfield is his best position - and has a year out of the game. We still don't know how this will affect him and he is hardly ready for the biggest 2 games in Staunton's career. Stephen Kelly hasn't the experience at senior level yet to challenge for Carr's place in the team, and hasn't impressed me from what I've seen of him in the Premier League this season to date.

Exactly. Finnan's problem is that he is not only our best right back but he's also our best left back. We have decent cover at right back but nothing at left back so he has to fill that spot. It's as simple as that. It's not that Stan doesn't know where Finnan's best position is & it's not that Carr has been promised a place.

I think it's interesting that many are calling for O'Shea at left back now, yet his selection there by Kerr was the most consistently derided decision of Kerr's tenure. Personally I always felt he was decent enough defending there but his distribution with his left foot under pressure was poor. Finnan's is better. Just like Carr, people let their dislike of O'Shea get in the way of any objectivity. Case in point: the popular Finnan was the biggest underperformer in Cyprus (at RB too)yet got very little of the subsequent flak.

Neither O'Shea nor Finnan gets forward from left back effectively.

I've felt for a while that Kilbane might be the temporary fix. He has the physical attributes: strong, quick, left footed, good in the tackle, but I suspect his positioning sense could cause trouble.

I think people let their dislike of Carr's character dictate their opinion of him as a player. He's been a shadow of the player he was in 2001 but is still decent enough, especially getting forward. I thought he was superb in Stuttgart.


Suggesting Harte even though he hasn't played a club game in months is plain ridiculous.

I should add that my personal preference for September would be Finnan at RB and JOS at LB.

[paul_oshea]

Carsley was taken off against Blackburn. Is that serious?

Yes correct, groin problem, he could be OUT, 2 weeks to get fit though so hopefully he will be ok. Need him more for czech game than slovakia....

Has anyone still not forgiven him for costing us qualification against turkey?

I should add that my personal preference for September would be Finnan at RB and JOS at LB.

What about POS at left back? Heard he is a natural left footer

[co. down green]

Finnan came on for the last ten minutes for Liveroool against Toulouse tonight and played Left back