Trapp. Please give these lads a chance.

[jmurphyc]

How are you supposed to give Lawerence a few games when Duff, McGeady, Hunt, Andy Reid, Steven Reid and Ireland can all play in the same position and are all better than him?

Seriously he's 7th choice right winger, let's drop it.

Why are you so dismissive of him? He's a player on form and should at least be tried. Most of those players you mention are better in other positions and none of them are natural right wingers. He should at least be given a chance. He could be a useful squad player for us. Anyway, I wouldn't have Andy Reid or Stephen Ireland near that position (for very different reasons). IMO we are at are best with Reid in the middle. Shunting him out onto the wing is a disservice to him and we need him to be in the middle to spread play and start play from deep by taking the ball off the defence. I think we would be a lot less threatening if Reid started on the right for us. As for Ireland, I just don't like the look of him at right midfield, even though he does play there for City a lot. He cuts inside too much and is relatively ineffective there. I'm only really judging him on his Ireland appearances but he was woeful there against Wales.

[Irish_Praha]

Why are you so dismissive of him? He's a player on form and should at least be tried. Most of those players you mention are better in other positions and none of them are natural right wingers. He should at least be given a chance. He could be a useful squad player for us. Anyway, I wouldn't have Andy Reid or Stephen Ireland near that position (for very different reasons). IMO we are at are best with Reid in the middle. Shunting him out onto the wing is a disservice to him and we need him to be in the middle to spread play and start play from deep by taking the ball off the defence. I think we would be a lot less threatening if Reid started on the right for us. As for Ireland, I just don't like the look of him at right midfield, even though he does play there for City a lot. He cuts inside too much and is relatively ineffective there. I'm only really judging him on his Ireland appearances but he was woeful there against Wales.

I agree. I wrote this a few weeks ago in another thread but for the right wing we have potentially Miller, Duff, McGeady, the two Reids, Ireland and Lawrence. You could argue that the two Reids, Ireland and Miller look much more comfortable in CMF and should only be played on the right when we have no other options. Also one of Duff and McGeady should be played at LMF with Hunt as back-up. That leaves us with Lawrence competing with Duff or McGeady for RMF. El Trap will probably employ a different system than 4-4-2 without out and out wingers and I'm not sure where that would leave Lawrence but he's in great form at the moment and IMO he deserves at least a place in the squad. I reckon he would inject some much-needed energy into the team, if he carries his club form onto the international scene. This can only be found out if he's given some time on the pitch for us.

[danonion]

How are you supposed to give Lawerence a few games when Duff, McGeady, Hunt, Andy Reid, Steven Reid and Ireland can all play in the same position and are all better than him?

Seriously he's 7th choice right winger, let's drop it.

"let's drop it" Do you have to be so dismissive in your posts? You're not speaking with any authority and it undermines your already poorly supported position further when you use flippant language like that.

I don't agree that Reid twins and Ireland are ahead of Lawrence for a berth on the right hand side. For starters there are major question marks over the future of Ireland's international career. Like Ireland, Andy Reid is neither pacy nor strong and athletic - a good wide player needs at least on of these attributes.

Steven Reid has been fairly ineffectual as a right midfielder for us in the past and I think his talents as a footballer lend themselves almost exclusively to a central role.

Damien Duff has been fairly diabolical for Newcastle - if he finds himself short on form for Ireland, we seriously need to explore as many other options as possible. Additionally, Duff showed in the match against Brazil that he is not strong on his right foot. Although in the past for Chelsea and Ireland (the Sweden goal stands out) Duff showed himself to be fairly competent with his right, his injury clearly has affected his two-footedness.

[FarBeag]

There is in point in trying to put a constructive arguement to you as to why championship players should not be ignored. You appear compleatly insightless and totally set against it.Well we are all entitled to our opinion and we will agree to disagree on this one. I want the best for Irish football and some very good players happen to play in the Championship including Liam Lawerance.As i have said to you, watch some of these lads play and if you still thing they are not international standard so be it.Also, what happens when half our team are playing in the Championship next season?

[kingdom hoop]

Well we are all entitled to our opinion....

Spot on.

I am of the opinion that Ciaran is on a perverse expedition of making himself appear clueless (not to mention a tit) so that one day he can dramatically unveil an amazing, sharp, incisive persona so that in dumbfounded awe we'll genuflect in his honour.

[jmurphyc]

The idea deserves dismissal because it's absurd

Do you care to enlighten us at to why the idea is absurd, other than that Lawrence and other talented players who shouldn't even be considered play in the championship?

We've spent the last few years pushing talented players around and giving the benefit to young championship players who are performing well at their level. Tell me, when was the last time a championship player played for Ireland and played well? Keogh was found to be out of his depth, Potter has been found wanting, Douglas...ugh don't get me started on that guy.

You are only going on the Staunton regime. With the - hopefully - excellent scouting network that Trapattoni has put in place we might be able to unearth a few gems from the championship. Staunton seemed to barely have a scouting network. We cannot judge anything on his era because his tenure has been shown up to have been a total disaster, in almost every sense. I'm not going to bother to explain why we can't judge championship and other league players selected by Staunton as it should be self-evident.

Though like I mentioned already our biggest problem right now is getting a functional midfield. Over the last few years we've had no continuity and I think we've had an entirely different midfield every single game. We started it with Elliot, O Shea, S.Reid and Duff. Ended it with McGeady, Carsley, Andy Reid and Miller. With Hunt, Ireland, Keogh, Kilbane and god knows who else in squads in between.

I agree with this, although in fairness to Staunton, this wasn't helped by injuries.

We need to stop messing around and throwing people into squads for the craic. Lawerance is a championship player for a reason, that reason being that he's probably not good enough for the top level. We have several right sided midfielders who are good enough for that level and unless there's a huge amount of injuries there's no reason to use Liam.

As I said in an earlier post, all of the players you have mentioned aren't natural right wingers, it isn't their best position, and they will be needed elsewhere in the team. IMO the only two who you mentioned who I feel should be competing with Lawrence for the berth on the right of midfield are Duff and McGeady, but one of them will also probably play on the left.

We don't have a massive player pool like England. We may sometimes have to dig a little deeper for players. Just because one player plays for a Premiership team it doesn't automatically make him better than a Championship player. Sometimes there can even be extenuating circumstances as to why a player plays in a lower division.

Anyway, Andy Reid is one of our best performing midfielders at the moment IMO and will probably be essential to our gameplan in the upcoming qualifiers. He began playing for us in the Championship, and even had he not moved to Tottenham later on he would have continued playing for us. He was still a crucial player for us in this campaign - when he was fit - again, even though he was playing for a Championship side for part of the campaign. There are numerous other examples of Championship players being good enough to play for us. I for one would have been interested to see what Hunt could have provided before he started playing in the Premiership.

Perhaps Lawrence isn't good enough or won't even get a look in. I just don't think you can write him off so easily merely because he plays for a lower division side.

[jmurphyc]

I like Lawerence, he's a good player and I think he could be a great player for us. But right now he's not the best option. Why? Because

A) He has no international experience
B) He has no top level experience
C) There are several players I've mentioned who have both of these things ahead of him.

I'm not saying Liam is trash, I'm saying he hasn't proven himself at the required level and shouldn't be considered until he has.

He has played in the top level and was one of Sunderland's best performing players, though they did finish with a dismal points total. In regards to international experience, how is a player supposed to get it without being called up?

[shakermaker1982]

If Stoke go up I bet you'll all be clamouring for him because he's in a 'big division' then. He's worthy of a squad place IMO at this moment in time and there is no harm in inviting him to the training camps in May.

[eirebhoy]

I am of the opinion that Ciaran is on a perverse expedition of making himself appear clueless (not to mention a tit) so that one day he can dramatically unveil an amazing, sharp, incisive persona so that in dumbfounded awe we'll genuflect in his honour.

I wish I could put my thoughts into words as well as you.

[dr_peepee]

Like Hunt, Lawrence a viable option for a plan B, i think anyway... Don't think they'd suit anything other than a wide position in a standard midfield 4, and by what I've read about Trapp I don't think we'll see much of that for Ireland.

[tetsujin1979]

Ireland Assistant Manager Marco Tardelli (seriously, how cool does that sound??) was at the Blackburn - West Ham game today running the rule over Steven Reid