QuoteItalyOriginally Posted by OwlsFan
Naturally.
Together with all our hearts.
Italy
Thanks, I even forgot to put in Italyand yet we should be in the Top 10.
It's a joke the expectations some people have for a bunch of mostly average Irish players. Top 10 in Europe
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Outside of Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, England, Portugal and maybe Czech Republic, can you name a squad with as many players playing at such a high level?
The argumnet here is a sensible one. Stan should not be able to ride the 'our players arent good enough' line. He has a squad whcih is as good as any of the 2nd division European nations and that should mean qualification.
Turkey, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway off the top of my head. I'm sure there's a good few more if I thought about it
It's not a sensible argument at all. It is rather an argument put forward by the deluded souls gorging at the Sky Sports trough who think the Premiership is the be all and end all
I know this really bugs people but there is no doubt the Premiership is at the moment the strongest league in the world. UEFA cup and CL success shows this. It's strange that when Irish clubs get trhough a few qualifying rounds we say this shows how good the EL is but when English clubs have almost half the quarter finalists (and I suspect the winners) we ignore this.Turkey, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway off the top of my head. I'm sure there's a good few more if I thought about it
It's not a sensible argument at all. It is rather an argument put forward by the deluded souls gorging at the Sky Sports trough who think the Premiership is the be all and end all
Doesn't bug me in the slightest
It's all about standards of football
Outside of the top four it's much, no emphasis on technique.
Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Uniteds successes are completely irrelevant to the Republic of Ireland with the possible exception of Steve Finnan
OK, let's take one of your example teams at random. I've chosen Serbia. They have 2/3 players from top European teams, (Vidic at Man U, Stankovic at Inter and Dragutinovic at Sevilla). After that its teams like Red Star, CSKA, Basel, Lens, Trabsonzpor. I do not believe these are better teams than Spurs, Newcastle, Reading etc. UEFA cup results would suggest that the English clubs are as good.
To repeat at the moment Ireland are nowhere near Serbia's level. They are on a level with N Ireland etc. But their squad should be competing with the likes of Serbia, this is the managers fault and that's why he should be sacked.
Congratulations you've just proved my point about standards of football and the different technique levels
Congratulations you've just proved my point about standards of football and the different technique levels
Sorry, I know I'm being dense but I dont understand this post
Your average continental player is far superior technically to one playing in England
For example a centre half with a lower league Italian side would breeze into most English Premiership teams
Firstly, you seem to be suggesting a player can be be 'better' but less succesful, that you can do well in the Champions League without being good at football. I'd be happy to have a succesful team that is not technically good!
Secondly, if your point about lower league Italian defenders was true then Premiership teams would be buying them.
At the last European Championships Finals there were more players from the Premiership than from any other European league. For me that is a fairly good measure of how strong any league is overall (ie not just how good its best teams are!) I don't know the stats for the last World Cup but I'd say it would have been up there in that regard too. I'd say in the last two to three years it has become the strongest league in Europe certainly.
better than the Spanish league, which currently hold the competition?
The notion that the Premiership isn't one of the strongest leagues in the world is nonsense, presumably brought on by a sort of anti-Sky hype attitude. Of course Sky hype it to bits, of course it isn't the be all and end all; however, it is still a good league. It's ranked second in Europe on a consistent basis on the back of results. The notion that it's only the top three or four who do well is knocked by Boro reaching the UEFA Cup Final last year, and three English sides winning their UEFA Cup groups (two are in a strong position to reach the quarter-finals). To have a first team almost entirely from Premiership sides (for example off the top of my head, a side of Given, Finnan, Harte, Dunne, McShane, O'Shea, Duff, A Reid, S Reid, Keane, Doyle) is a good team and should be ranked much higher in Europe than we are.
Technique doesn't equate to ability; we've shown that ourselves on numerous occasions through the years. So LTID's point about Lens or Basel players being better than Spurs or Newcastle players by definition is invalid. Cavan_fan's point about comparing the national squads is far more useful. And OwlsFan's point that other teams are better than us because they're better than us just smacks of minnowism. Has Roy Keane taught you nothing?
The Serbs do have some good players who would walk into our squad (assuming we were not managed by a complete clown). Danko Lazovic playing at Vitesse is one of the best strikers in the Dutch League (4th top scorer overall). He would get in our squad and probably even starting XI ahead of Doyle or Keane.
Pantelic (of Hertha Berlin) is also a great striker, his assists have been very good this season, and he's 4th= in Bundesliga top scorers chart, again he would easily make the squad.
Zigic is at Santander and has got 7 goals, his sheer size would see him in our squad. Mirko Vucnic (of Roma) would also be a strong striker - he is still deciding if he wants to play for Serbia or Montenegro.
Kezman at Fenerbache now, would also be in contention, and there are the likes of Milosevic and Darko Kovacevic who might also be in the reckoning for our squad (tho age becomes a factor).
Bosko Jankovic at Mallorca would get in our squad too, he's had a great season and scored 8 goals - very good return for a midfielder.
One position where we are def. stronger is in goal, Given is better than Drago Jevric (the world cup goalie, who is infact from Montenegro), Vad Stoijkovic (youth goalie at Nantes), and Avramov (youth at Fiorentina) are both good back ups.
The Serbs also took a risk and got a foreign coach Djavier Clemente of Spain. This was not a popular decision in Belgrade, but results have been very good and Serbia is in a very strong position to get to the Euros (in a harder group than ours with competition from Poland, Belgium and Portugal).
Manager is the key I think
The Czechs wouldn't even be too far ahead of us in terms of players available. They've called up Sionko, Jarosik and Bednar from the SPL in the last few months and with the exception of 2 or 3 players are nothing special.
Continental clubs place more emphasis on technique and tactical astuteness. Hence when players from continental clubs are brought together for international competition they generally perform better.
For further evidence when's the last time England performed at an international tournament
Rather confirmed all my thoughts on Cork peopleHas Roy Keane taught you nothing
You do realise that is written by an Irish person pretending to be Polish right?
In the context of the thread does that really matter a $hit??
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks