New Irish manager

[NeilMcD]

Maybe it was the only day that they could all meet. Logistics play a big part in all of this.

[eirebhoy]

Cyprus 5-2, need I say anymore.

Kilbane and Ireland in central midfield. Need I say more. I think I'm gonna have to repeat that line again, and again, and again. We had no midfield against Cyprus. They won the ball in their half, they were 30 yards from our goal in a few seconds.

[TheBoss]

As eireboy says, its the midfield that is the problem, that would be sorted if we had S Reid and S Ireland in there.

[kingdomkerry]

I would play 5 in midfield to balance out our weakness in midfield.

Something like this

Given
Kelly Dunne O'Shea Kilbane(for home games only)
S Reid Carsley
McGeady Ireland
Duff
Keane



Hunt and Doyle are two good impact subs to have. I believe that the above team if well managed and organised can get us to the World Cup.

As eireboy says, its the midfield that is the problem, that would be sorted if we had S Reid and S Ireland in there.

[geysir]

Giles on Newstalk throws his hat firmly on Trapattoni.
Who said Giles doesn´t know about football outside the EPL

He thinks Venables is still ready to take the job if it was offered.
Also he thinks Brady´s application was more or less 'if you can´t get anyone better then you can consider me' and if Giles was Trapattoni he would get Brady in on the backroom staff.

[Bottle of Tonic]

Thats the kind of line-up/formation i'd be looking at too KK.

4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1 or whatever you want to call it. Our strength and weakness both lie in midfield. We have plenty of small skillful types who don't fit in anywhere in a traditional 4-4-2 and an imaginative set up could accomodate the likes of Ireland, McGeady, Duff, Keane(who doesn't play as a normal striker in a 4-4-2 anyway) etc etc. If we could find the right balance midfield is our best area and I could see it getting goals too as I don't think we're good enough up front to play 2 players out of Keane plus one of the underachieving Doyle, Long, Stokes, Murphy.
In a 4-4-2 our midfield is weak and so are our forwards.

What sort of formations does Trappers like to play? Is he adaptable considering what is at his disposal anyone know?

[kingdomkerry]

That team and formation i picked. That might be something that Trapatoni would go for. Some one posted some of the teams and he always plays one striker supported by two wide men (keane, duff and mcgeady)

[Stuttgart88]

Our strength and weakness both lie in midfield. We have plenty of small skillful types who don't fit in anywhere in a traditional 4-4-2 and an imaginative set up could accomodate the likes of Ireland, McGeady, Duff, Keane (who doesn't play as a normal striker in a 4-4-2 anyway) etc etc. If we could find the right balance midfield is our best area and I could see it getting goals too as I don't think we're good enough up front to play 2 players out of Keane plus one of the underachieving Doyle, Long, Stokes, Murphy.
In a 4-4-2 our midfield is weak and so are our forwards.

I agree entirely. A proper football thinker can take stock of what we've got, see where we're strong and where we're weak and attempt a solution.

Anytime we've gone with a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 type formation it's been using players like Stephen Elliott out on the right. They key is to have good fast wide players (Duff & McGeady are ideal) flanking a genuine no. 9 preferably. Keane is more of a classic no. 10 so in my opinion getting goals from midfield will be important (isn't it always I suppose?). If our traditional 2 in midfield with two nippy wingers ain't solid or creative enough then maybe 3 would be.

The U21 game was really interesting. England and ourselves both played a 4-3-3 style. In my opinion our midfield was as functional and cohesive an Irish midfield as I've seen at any level since Keane was at his peak. However, what made the difference was that our wide men were Stokes and Clarke, each of whom prefers to play centrally, whereas England had Walcott and Lennon, both pace merchants, and Milner I think played further forward too.

[NeilMcD]

Thoughts return to job at hand

Ireland's Richard Dunne in action against Brazil's Luis Fabiano during Wednesday evening's match in Croke Park. The central defender has led the calls for a decision to be made on the new Republic of Ireland manager soon.
Ireland's Richard Dunne in action against Brazil's Luis Fabiano during Wednesday evening's match in Croke Park. The central defender has led the calls for a decision to be made on the new Republic of Ireland manager soon.
Photograph: The Irish Times

International news - Search for a manager: Emmet Malone assesses the merits of the two most likely candidates for the Ireland job.

With Wednesday night's game against Brazil out of the way, Don Givens returned yesterday to the task of finding the next Ireland manager. Though Billy Davies has apparently still to be interviewed, the three-man panel's remaining workload essentially consists of establishing whether Giovanni Trapattoni's interest is serious and, if it is, deciding whether to give the job to him ahead of Terry Venables.

What indications there have been suggest that the players' preference is for the Englishman, although the only real attempt to articulate their reasons, provided by Richard Dunne on Sunday evening, fell some way short of making a compelling case.

Having put behind him the years when he seemed hell bent on squandering his talent, Dunne has developed into one of the Premier League's best central defenders. Even he, however, would hardly argue that there isn't potential for further improvement. And so it was disappointing to note at the FAI awards his apparent lack of interest in working with Trapattoni, a centre back for more than a decade at Milan, where he won two leagues and two European Cups and was capped 17 times by Italy before going on to become one of the game's most accomplished club managers of all time, success built repeatedly on a highly effective defensive approach.

The Dubliner is entitled to his opinion and Venables, it seems certain, would bring the more enterprising brand of football, but the suggestion that because the new manager will have a limited number of opportunities to work with the players before the start of the World Cup campaign the Londoner should be appointed - as he could more easily communicate his ideas - is a still hard to take.

Steve Staunton, for one, might scratch his head at the idea that the players are desperate to spend as much time as possible with their international coach so as to maximise the team's potential.

In need of a strong showing during the latter part of the European Championship campaign, the Louthman managed to get just one established first-choice player - the ever-loyal Kevin Kilbane - on to the plane to the United States last summer.

A more productive end-of-season tour would hardly have gotten Ireland back on the road to qualification but had his team beaten Slovakia away and Cyprus at home, neither of which would have required a hugely improved performance, then the reality is that Staunton might have kept his job.

Dunne, like Damien Duff, Shay Given and just about every other player who has ever had a conversation about Venables with somebody who has played under him, says he has received positive reports about his coaching skills and man-management style.

Players, for the most part, like him while the media tend to be divided, his supporters consistently overstating his achievements down the years and his critics tending to dwell on his personality.

The reality is that if Venables is appointed by the FAI over the coming week it would be far from a calamity; but it would be a considerable disappointment now that Trapattoni appears to be a serious alternative.

Language barrier and management style aside, the critical difference between the pair is evident from a cursory glance at their CVs.

While the Italian has been successful in almost every club job he has held, winning nine league titles in four countries as well as a handful of major European trophies, his rival's reputation is based primarily upon a Spanish championship won 23 years ago with Barcelona, a solitary FA Cup victory while at Spurs, his larger-than-life persona and that rapport he enjoys with players.

His initial achievement at the Nou Camp should not be underestimated. Barcelona had not won the league in a decade when he arrived, and while he inherited a good side he changed personnel as well as tactics for the title-winning season.

Things then went steadily downhill thereafter, however, and having been totally outwitted by the Steaua Bucharest coach Emerich Jenei in the following year's European Cup, which the Romanians won on penalties, he struggled to achieve further success in Spain.

Eventually, he was sacked after his side lost home and away to Dundee United in the Uefa Cup almost a year later, few locals bemoaning his departure.

His tenure as England boss consisted mainly of home friendlies during the build-up to Euro 96. At the tournament, it is repeatedly pointed out by his backers, England were unlucky to lose their semi-final to Germany but then they tend to overlook the fact his side were desperately fortunate to get past Spain in the previous round.

Still, the team did play an admirable brand of football and the destruction of the Netherlands in the group stages was one of England's finer moments of recent times.

Since then there has been the fall-out from his disastrous business activities culminating in a seven-year ban from holding a company directorship after he admitted to a string of very serious charges brought by the British Department of Trade and Industry. There has also been one fairly successful spell at Middlesbrough and seriously ill-fated stints at Portsmouth, Crystal Palace and Leeds United.

There was also a brief return to international football with Australia, who looked set to qualify for the World Cup in 1998 before they surrendered a 2-0 lead at home to Iran in a manner that would be all too familiar to those who followed the Irish team's misfortunes over the past couple of years.

Appointing Trapattoni, on the other hand, carries with it none of those complications even if it would scarcely be a surefire thing. A glance at his famous Bayern Munich press conference on YouTube reminds one just how volatile he can be, and his four-year spell in charge of Italy was far from a triumph.

As with Venables, his best years might well be behind him too, but unlike the Englishman he has continued to stack up the trophies, winning the Portuguese title with Benfica and the Austrian one with his current club, Salzburg, in the last three seasons.

Despite his occasional tirades and the frustration of squad members who believe his teams are too defensive, he has generally been hugely popular with his players.

Clearly there are difficulties to be overcome if he is to succeed Staunton, but having waited this long to appoint someone and now found themselves in a position where getting somebody of his calibre is even a possibility, the FAI and their recruitment panel have been right to give the 68-year-old every chance to confirm his availability.

Even if he were obliged to see out the season at Salzburg he would, as things stand, be available for Ireland's next game, against Serbia in May, when he could quite easily ask the players to come in for longer than the standard few days.

Either way, the next manager looks set to be significantly better than the last one and his time at the helm promises to be interesting.

Perhaps, the most frustrating thing, though, with no suggestion that either man will be asked to groom his successor, is that we might well be put through the agony of yet another extended selection process once the team's World Cup campaign is out of the way in just a couple of years' time.
© 2008 The Irish Times

[jmurphyc]

Our new manager will really need to work on our set pieces. They're shocking at the moment. One thing that really started to concern me during the Brazil game is our lack of tall players, or even decent players in the air as we can be found out very easily in the air. At the moment the only two players we have who can be dangerous for us in the air are Doyle and Kilbane. This needs to be remedied in some way to give us a good chance in the qualifiers.

[Stuttgart88]

Good article by Malone. Basically summarises all the hundreds of opinions offered on foot.ie already!

I like the Giles comment that Neil posted up here yesterday, that if Trap was that defensive how did he win so many games?

[lionelhutz]

As eireboy says, its the midfield that is the problem, that would be sorted if we had S Reid and S Ireland in there.

I have to disagree with this in part. Kelly, O'Shea and Kilbane played at the back against Brazil and worryingly, that was probably our strongest defense at the moment. They're simply not good enough if a team has aspirations of qualification. You could maybe get away with one sub standard defender in a back four, eg Harte in 2002, but three out of four and we're in big trouble.

I agree our midfield also looks pretty poor unless the two Reids regain full fitness

[paul_oshea]

jmc, ya you know i was thinking hte exact same thing, if we only had a 12th player that played in front of keane who was tall, because keane comes out so far that when the wing men make breaks into the box, there is either a) no one there or b) too small as its someone coming in from our midget midfield.

[Stuttgart88]

http://www.chatsoccer.eu/news/index....r-Ireland.html

Lothar Matthäus is the latest in a long line to express an interest in the vacant Ireland managers job.

It may however be too late for the former German international who also managed Hungary as it is believed the selection panel have whittled it down to two candidates, Terry Venables or Giovanni Trapattoni.

Tonight he privately told a chatsoccer source “I would love the Ireland job, I am available now and believe I am the right man for the job”.

It is not known if he is ready to make contact with the FAI but he is known to be very confident of his ability to undertake the task of leading Ireland to the World Cup 2010 finals in South Africa.

[lionelhutz]

I would play 5 in midfield to balance out our weakness in midfield.

Something like this

Given
Kelly Dunne O'Shea Kilbane(for home games only)
S Reid Carsley
McGeady Ireland
Duff
Keane



Hunt and Doyle are two good impact subs to have. I believe that the above team if well managed and organised can get us to the World Cup.

No Andy Reid, the only midfielder who was creative and excelled in every game he played in the last campaign?? I'd agree with the rest of the team but I'd play Reid instead of Ireland

[Morbo]

I don't think its very likely we will have the option of playing S.Ireland anyway in the foreseeable future, not that I would play him ahead of Reid

[mackannovic]

[quote=Bottle of Tonic;872657]Thats the kind of line-up/formation i'd be looking at too KK.

I don't think we're good enough up front to play 2 players out of Keane plus one of the underachieving Doyle, Long, Stokes, Murphy.
[quote]

What about the underachieving Robbie Keane in an Ireland Shirt for the past two years.

[jmurphyc]

[QUOTE=mackannovic;872867]

What about the underachieving Robbie Keane in an Ireland Shirt for the past two years.

Our strikers need support if they are to stop underachieving. Something which in the last campaign our midfield was unable to do, and we won't be able to do if we have the central midfield that we had against Brazil. We need Andy Reid back for a Keane - Doyle partnership to fulfill it's potential.

[OwlsFan]

What about the underachieving Robbie Keane in an Ireland Shirt for the past two years.

Same old same old. A front man needs service.

[Noelys Guitar]

What happens if no manager is announced come wednesday?