Ireland U21 squad announced

**NeilMcD** · 27/03/2008, 11:37 AM

I must say any time I have seen them play I thought they both worked together well. I would describe it as a John Terry Rio Ferdinand type partnership. O Dea is the talker and he also goes and meets the ball and wins the aerial duals. O' Cearuill is faster and likes to drop deep and sweep up behind O Dea. Probably a bit more comfortable on the ball too but O' Dea is a reall nuts and bolts type defender. Great temperment too to do it in the San Siro and not look out of place one bit.

**NeilMcD** · 27/03/2008, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by eirebhoy

The Indo says that Given will recommend 3 or 4 players to Trap for the trip to the Algarve. It'll be interesting to see who those players are. Most likely O'Dea considering he's captain.

What does that little bit of paper mean at thye top of your post.

**ifk101** · 27/03/2008, 11:46 AM

I haven't been impressed by O'Dea anytime I've seen him play - he needs to start playing regularly as he just looks off the pace of the game for me. I think O' Cearuill is the better of the two.

I think Keogh, Stokes and Garvan will be the U21s brought to the training camp.

**Carrigaline** · 27/03/2008, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by eirebhoy

The Indo says that Given will recommend 3 or 4 players to Trap for the trip to the Algarve. It'll be interesting to see who those players are. Most likely O'Dea considering he's captain.

The only definite I can see would be Keogh.

Would say it's a tossup between Garvan, Stokes, O'Dea and Gibson for the rest of the spots.

**ifk101** · 27/03/2008, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by Carrigaline

The only definite I can see would be Keogh.

Would say it's a tossup between Garvan, Stokes, O'Dea and Gibson for the rest of the spots.

Not too sure about Gibson - O'Toole and McCann are regularly playing with their respective clubs so maybe they're ahead of him in the reckoning. But Givens probably won't choose McCann, given the history between the two.

**Dodge** · 27/03/2008, 2:51 PM

Originally Posted by NeilMcD

I must say any time I have seen them play I thought they both worked together well. I would describe it as a John Terry Rio Ferdinand type partnership. O Dea is the talker and he also goes and meets the ball and wins the aerial duals. O' Cearuill is faster and likes to drop deep and sweep up behind O Dea. Probably a bit more comfortable on the ball too but O' Dea is a reall nuts and bolts type defender

Good point.

**eekers** · 27/03/2008, 5:18 PM

Liam Brady was at the u21 game at terryland, and i'll say he'll have a lot more input into which of the u21 players to call up than Givens.
It'll be interesting what he thinks about Stokes considering their background together at Arsenal.