World Ranking

**Charlie Darwin** · 10/09/2014, 1:31 PM

They have two great players, one decent midfielder, and a few lower Premier League players who would be in the mix for a spot in our team, but outside of that their squad is vastly inferior to ours.

**paul_oshea** · 10/09/2014, 1:39 PM

I'd be very happy with at least 5, even 6 of the starting lineup from the last day. And bale showed that he can single handledly win a game for Wales...cue the Aiden McGeady follow up/comparison to one of the best players in the world.

What would a draw with Scotland next month provide? I think they should factor in away results with higher signficance than home. It would also encourage home teams to go more for the wins when a draw would suffice.

**Charlie Darwin** · 10/09/2014, 1:52 PM

What players? Did you see them yesterday?

Davies at left back would be an obvious improvement. Ashley Williams would probably get ahead of Wilson. Joe Allen , maybe, but he's really a lesser, more limited version of McCarthy. Ramsey is a super player. So really Ramsey, Bale and Davies, with possibly Williams too, and a few others could be squad players.

**Stuttgart88** · 10/09/2014, 2:29 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Wales have some midfield, they have 6 or 7 players that would definitely be in our team. They are way underacheiving and this should be their golden era. Last night the pitch didnt help them at all but they should be looking at Coleman and asking questions.

I agree entirely. Of course all you're doing is repeating what I said in another thread last night

I think that half their team, plus or minus one, would get into ours, maybe one or two players more than Scotland. Speed had them playing with real belief.

**paul_oshea** · 10/09/2014, 2:46 PM

I'd say I'd have williams and King in there as well both premiership players so with allen thats yer 6. McCarthy is still in Ireland for as much as his club form. Always thought hennessy was ok, certainly better than forde but his club runs havent gone very well. I don't know enough about Chester really.

Most of their players, midfield especially are premierhip players. Like our players a lot of them need more gametime though.

Yes stutts I repeated you sorry, but unlike you and most I already had the opinion beforehand and therefore I acknoweldge that fact which I believe should be done more often on here, so I thanked your post all the same :P

**Charlie Darwin** · 10/09/2014, 3:03 PM

When I say our team I mean our first team, not our squad.

**Stuttgart88** · 10/09/2014, 3:43 PM

I don't rate Hennessy at all btw. I've no idea about Chester but he seems to do ok for Hull so he wouldn't be far off comparable to Wilson. I'd say Ledley could get into our midfield, as would Scotland's Scott Brown yet neither seems too highly rated here.

**Charlie Darwin** · 10/09/2014, 3:55 PM

Hennessey is a spoofer, I'd take any of our goalkeepers ahead of him. Chester seems like a good player but we have loads of defenders like him who are decent-enough Premier League defenders but never likely to be much better.

Ledley and Brown are the same, except substitute midfielder for defender. They're Glenn Whelan-level players, ie good but not great.

**DeLorean** · 10/09/2014, 4:06 PM

I wouldn't be that envious of Wales. Their midfield looks good in a fantasy football sense, but they seem to lack balance and have no decent striker. Joe Allen looks out of his depth at Liverpool, no great shame in that compared to what we've got, but sometimes I think the club status of a player can be misleading. He's useful but I don't think he'd add anything significant to us. They don't seem to have a midfield enforcer of any description, although I'd admit there's a couple of players from the team last night I'm not overly familiar with. Last time I took any notice of Neil Taylor I think he was playing left back... but obviously didn't start there with Davies playing? Obviously Bale is on another planet to anything we have and Ramsey's coming of age last season would indicate an upward curve, but many would have said the same about Stephen Ireland once upon a time

I think they could use some of what we've got even more than the other way around, although Bale's greatness kind of skews things.

**geysir** · 10/09/2014, 9:25 PM

I wonder how many Wales supporters were drooling over our players after our late win in San Marino (albeit in a much more difficult month)?
Yet here some are ready to swap half the team for a bunch who could easily have lost to Andorra, if it were not for the effort of super Bale.
Can you not hold counsel until wales actually do something?
Some of ye have no sense of timing, no wonder you are having relationship difficulties.

**Stuttgart88** · 10/09/2014, 9:33 PM

I think it's fascinating how Wales were improving so much under Speed yet both his predecessor and successor are struggling.

And I don't think results should be the arbiter. Even apart from Bale, we'd drool over a Ramsey or an Ashley Williams, plus a couple of others. I said something like 4, maybe even 6 at a stretch, Wales players might get into our team and I stand by that. My other point was that this puts things into perspective, perhaps we shouldn't be so downbeat on what we did.

**Charlie Darwin** · 10/09/2014, 9:58 PM

Would we drool over Ashley Williams? I mean, he's a good player but he's not the kind of player we'd drool over. We had John O'Shea, who was flat out more talented and achieved far more in the game, and it's only the last year or so that people have started to appreciate him. I've seen Ashley Williams play a number of games for Wales and I've never seen him stand out, but I've seen him look shaky many times.

**DannyInvincible** · 18/09/2014, 4:13 PM

Up four places to 62nd in the latest release: http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/irish...fifa-rankings/

**geysir** · 18/09/2014, 5:38 PM

These ranking are just ridiculously volatile.
Norway for example were in the first pot in the draw 3 years ago for WC 2014.
They finished 4th in their qual group. If the WC draw was being held today they would be in the 5th pot.

**Bungle** · 19/09/2014, 11:35 AM

If we beat Gibraltar, Scotland, USA, Poland in the next few months, then I would expect us to be comfortably 3rd seeds. If we draw/beat with Germany, beat England at the Aviva or beat Scotland home and away, then I think we could nick 2nd seeds.

I personally think we will be 3rd seeds - I think we will make good movement between now and the summer, but I don't see us taking points off Germany, beating England or taking 6 points off Scotland.

The more results like Slovenia losing to Estonia or Hungary losing to Northern Ireland the better for us. We could have done without the Czechs beating Holland as they will have taken loads of points from that.

**swinfordfc** · 19/09/2014, 1:16 PM

The Gibraltar game does not matter at all!

**swinfordfc** · 19/09/2014, 1:46 PM

Ireland women's team are 29th in the world rankings!

**geysir** · 19/09/2014, 2:28 PM

Is there any team sport (male or female), where Iceland is outranked by Ireland in world rankings?

**swinfordfc** · 19/09/2014, 2:35 PM

Originally Posted by geysir

Is there any team sport (male or female), where Iceland is outranked by Ireland in world rankings?

Cycling - Ireland as a nation are 18th (only 3 riders) - no sign of Iceland!

**pineapple stu** · 19/09/2014, 4:28 PM

Rugby obviously (both codes)

Ireland has won the golf world cup and been runner up in the snooker world cup (both team events). Iceland hasn't.

Baseball

Cricket

Fairly sure Iceland would be crap at the aul hurling and Gaelic

Equestrian (Ireland usually top division; Iceland...not)

Hockey

Aussie Rules (not really a sport in fairness; more of a fight)

So - lots