Republic of Ireland V Serbia - Saturday, 24th May 2008 - Friendly

[dublinmick]

I was very impressed by Delaney. I thoughht Whelan had a fine game.
I was extremely unimpressed by McShane.
Dunphy was right about him.

[shakermaker1982]

so glad Ryanair whacked the prices up on the flights for the weekend (20 quid to 180 in the space of a couple of days) which meant I had to send the tickets back to my cousins.

Duff and Delaney (at last someone who is over 5 ft 5") were the only positives from the starting 11. Lovely volley by Keogh. Hopefully he starts with Long on Thursday.

Miller and McShane are always going to be accidents waiting to happen. I was disappointed we didn't use our bench earlier - an injection of pace was needed.

Hitting long balls aimlessly in the air to Keane is just a waste of time. Dunne must have surely realised that it wasn't working after the 14th time he tried it? I don't know if we have the creative players in the centre of MF to utilise Robbie Keane's true potential. I was crying out for Garvan to come on to see if he got his foot on the ball something might happen but we left Miller on. I was impressed with some of the Serbian's slick football, a good young team with lots of potential.

[Paddy Garcia]

Overall a very poor performance.

Drop Hunt to the bench
Drop McShane out the squad
See more from Delaney
Encourage Duff to fully recover
Get McGeady back
Get Andy O'Brien back
Get St Ledger in
Central midfield needs serious beefing up.
Try Garvan
Try Scannel
Don't whinge about Keane - one of our few gems.

[FarBeag]

Overall a very poor performance.

Drop Hunt to the bench
Drop McShane out the squad
See more from Delaney
Encourage Duff to fully recover
Get McGeady back
Get Andy O'Brien back
Get St Ledger in
Central midfield needs serious beefing up.
Try Garvan
Try Scannel
Don't whinge about Keane - one of our few gems.

Nail on head!!

[shakermaker1982]

Thinking about it the only certs for places in the team at the moment are:

GK - Given if fit
CB - Dunne
LW/RW - Duff
FW - Keane

The other 7 positions are all up for grabs. Finding a decent centre back to partner Dunne is a top priority.

[theworm2345]

so glad Ryanair whacked the prices up on the flights for the weekend (20 quid to 180 in the space of a couple of days) which meant I had to send the tickets back to my cousins.

Duff and Delaney (at last someone who is over 5 ft 5") were the only positives from the starting 11. Lovely volley by Keogh. Hopefully he starts with Long on Thursday.

Of all people why Long?

[dublinmick]

Thinking about it the only certs for places in the team at the moment are:

GK - Given if fit
CB - Dunne
LW/RW - Duff
FW - Keane

The other 7 positions are all up for grabs. Finding a decent centre back to partner Dunne is a top priority.

Surely it has to be John O'Shea?

[shakermaker1982]

Of all people why Long?

Keane and Doyle have had long seasons and we know what they can do. Long is fast and brings something different to the table. I think they'd make a good combination for Thursday's game, they are unlikely to force their way into the starting 11 for the two big away games in September but if something happened to Keane and Doyle I think it's important Long gets real game time instead of 10 minutes.

[FarBeag]

Thinking about it the only certs for places in the team at the moment are:

GK - Given if fit
CB - Dunne
LW/RW - Duff
FW - Keane

The other 7 positions are all up for grabs. Finding a decent centre back to partner Dunne is a top priority.

Andy Reid is a definate...Keogh instead of Doyle...Keep Kelly...Delaney was not at fault for the goal as someone suggested and deserves his place. Anyone instead of McShane .Get rid of Miller for good.McGeady has to start and Hunt to remain an impact sub.Lawrence needs to be in the squad and lets hope we can get Steven Reid fit.

[theworm2345]

Keane and Doyle have had long seasons and we know what they can do. Long is fast and brings something different to the table. I think they'd make a good combination for Thursday's game, they are unlikely to force their way into the starting 11 for the two big away games in September but if something happened to Keane and Doyle I think it's important Long gets real game time instead of 10 minutes.

I'd prefer Keogh and Murphy or even Keogh and Scannell. Best case would Keogh and Keane in the second half. Morrison, Folan, and yes, Connolly (if he recovers in time) will be available next fall to take Long's place anyway

[shakermaker1982]

FarBeag yep your right I'd include Andy Reid as one of the CM.

If Finnan comes back I'd have him as RB with Kelly in reserve.

Dublinmick - John O'Shea is a bench warmer at Man Utd and the times he does come on he plays at full back. If he moved on and made a name for himself as a central defender then yes but we need players who play there week in week out. Andy O'Brien if he can be tempted back is the best of an average bunch.

[beepbeep]

duff was our main threat i thought, hunt didnt play at all. miller is just average and a whinger. im always impressed with long, hes definitly hope for the future. delaney was good left back. mc shane is a bit of a lost cause at the mo

[zenokelly]

duff was our main threat i thought, hunt didnt play at all. miller is just average and a whinger. im always impressed with long, hes definitly hope for the future. delaney was good left back. mc shane is a bit of a lost cause at the mo

The only positive imo was Delaney, but I don't want to judge him on one game.

At least we didn't win 3-0! because you know where that leads us to!

[livehead1]

Positives
- We didn't lose
- Dean Kiely, assured as ever
- Kelly, improving and looks to be a reliable defender
- Miller & Whelan. Whelan in particular; outstanding for a debut infront of 65,000. Was very impressed, if only he could play with the left and right. He may be slightly predictable turning but all in all very good.
- Keane didn't look as impressive individually as he might for Spurs but he's playing further up the pitch so should have more chances
- Keogh; confidence will be sky high and we may have unearthed a David Healy
- It may sound perverse but I was actually as pleased as you can possibly be when your own side concedes a goal. It is something that can be worked on and I wouldn't imagine we'll see it too many times in the future. Its probably better that errors like that appear early on and in games with nothing riding on them.

Negatives
- Didn't create anywhere near as many chances as we need to; although we beat Sweden 3-0 in Staunton's first game and look what happened so maybe perspective is required
- Delaney didn't quite look up to it. Needs to pass the ball better and I actually place the blame with him for their goal. I would imagine the shout came to get out, or indeed he should have been level with kelly on the other side. (just saw others have said they were very impressed so i thought i would clarify...I thought he had a decent game, but i hold him partiallys to blame for the goal (it can be ironed out the more he plays) but more importantly i thought some of his distribution was questionable and against other sides who hold onto the ball better this will be more costly.
- McShane: Forget the goal, a poor backpass nearly cost us and he simply doesn't look quite up to it at the moment. Communication clearly wasn't the best at times.
- Duff: Diving. Final product was poor but this will surely improve given games.

[SkStu]

Paddy Garcia:

Drop Hunt to the bench - totally agree, have said this all along.

Drop McShane out the squad - needed as cover unfortunately, but agree in principle.

See more from Delaney - excited about his performance.

Encourage Duff to fully recover - fingers crossed he can. Have my doubts about him and his future...

Get McGeady back - yup

Get Andy O'Brien back - definitely yup!

Get St Ledger in - would like to see what he can do - his reviews here sound promising.

Central midfield needs serious beefing up.
Try Garvan - why not?

Try Scannel - seen him play a couple of times for palace, will be a very good player.

Don't whinge about Keane - one of our few gems. 100% agree

_________________________________

would also like to see him experiment with our formation.
4-2-3-1 could be magical when you consider who our strongest players are...

Whelan did very well - one to keep.

Kelly looked solid.

[NeilMcD]

Positives
- We didn't lose
- Dean Kiely, assured as ever
- Kelly, improving and looks to be a reliable defender
- Miller & Whelan. Whelan in particular; outstanding for a debut infront of 65,000. Was very impressed, if only he could play with the left and right. He may be slightly predictable turning but all in all very good.
- Keane didn't look as impressive individually as he might for Spurs but he's playing further up the pitch so should have more chances
- Keogh; confidence will be sky high and we may have unearthed a David Healy
- It may sound perverse but I was actually as pleased as you can possibly be when your own side concedes a goal. It is something that can be worked on and I wouldn't imagine we'll see it too many times in the future. Its probably better that errors like that appear early on and in games with nothing riding on them.

Negatives
- Didn't create anywhere near as many chances as we need to; although we beat Sweden 3-0 in Staunton's first game and look what happened so maybe perspective is required
- Delaney didn't quite look up to it. Needs to pass the ball better and I actually place the blame with him for their goal. I would imagine the shout came to get out, or indeed he should have been level with kelly on the other side. (just saw others have said they were very impressed so i thought i would clarify...I thought he had a decent game, but i hold him partiallys to blame for the goal (it can be ironed out the more he plays) but more importantly i thought some of his distribution was questionable and against other sides who hold onto the ball better this will be more costly.
- McShane: Forget the goal, a poor backpass nearly cost us and he simply doesn't look quite up to it at the moment. Communication clearly wasn't the best at times.
- Duff: Diving. Final product was poor but this will surely improve given games.

Would not agree wit that I thought that Delaney and Duff were our best players. Mc Shane was totally at fault for the goal. He pushed right up on his own and Dunne and Delaney did not push up at all. I am not sure McShane is up to it at all. Delaney was very good on the cover and looks to have decent pace and good height. With confidence we will see him more as an attacking player also.

[TheBoss]

I thought that Ireland were OK, they were not really bad or spectacularly good, It is an improvement as the team look to be knowing what they were doing much more.


My Ratings:
Kiely (7) - Did what he had to do, did well.

Kelly (7) - Looked really solid, has had a decent season and continued it.
Dunne (6) - Did OK, could have been a little better
McShane (4) - Not only as he poor for the goal, he was a little out of his depth
Delaney (8) - He was really good, defended well when needed to to.

Duff (7) - He was near his best, but his delivery was not great.
Miller (5) - Was poor, never in the game, his passing was poor mostly.
Whelan (7) - He was OK in the 1st Half, but the 2nd half, he was a lot better.
Hunt (6) - Never in the game, he is better used as a sub rather than a starter.

Keane (6) - Still not performing in the green shirt, needs a spark to get him going
Doyle (6) - Again, was not his best and could do better

Keogh (7) - Did well, brought an injection to the team and scored the goal
Long (7) - Was a bright spark and gave the team an attacking edge
Murphy (7) - Did well, set up the goal with his header.

[livehead1]

Would not agree wit that I thought that Delaney and Duff were our best players. Mc Shane was totally at fault for the goal. He pushed right up on his own and Dunne and Delaney did not push up at all. I am not sure McShane is up to it at all. Delaney was very good on the cover and looks to have decent pace and good height. With confidence we will see him more as an attacking player also.

I agree that Duff was one of our best players, my point was that his end product wasn't very good.

You say Delaney had good height and decent pace..But you could give a list of 50 players with those particular attributes. For a debut i thought he was reasonable, but felt there were a number of aimless balls; he wasn't the only culprit though. I just think there is a long way for him to go.

[jmurphyc]

I thought there were a lot of positives to be taken from the game. I was relatively happy with the performance. The two newcomers were both very solid. It's the first time I've seen both play and Whelan seems to be able to defend well and has a good range of passing. He seems to spread play to the wingers a lot, which I always like in a player. I didn't think Miller was as bad as people are making out; he had a poor second half but in the first half I thought him and Whelan were both quite good. Judging be his solid display, Delaney also looks like he could potentially be a good starting left back for the qualifiers.

A few things which worry me are our attacking set pieces, mainly due to a lack of height which is another problem and also our central midfielders not attacking the box enough. In terms of set pieces, our movement was quite poor for them and needs to be improved. Too many players are static in the box when the cross comes in. Another thing I found weird was that McShane always seemed to be the player who was attacking the front post on them. He seems like an odd choice to do this, surely Doyle would be the best as he's good at attacking in the air and could either score or get a flick on. One thing which we're still doing which we did under Staunton is targeting Doyle when we play a long ball. We need to have more variety instead of playing it to him every time.

As for the central midfield, one thing which we've lacked a lot in recent times, and was again evident today, was players attacking the box from deep. Whenever the Serbians headed the ball clear it was always one of their players who picked it up because our players were never near the box. Hopefully Steven Reid coming back will help us in this regard.

Overall though I'm quite happy. Our passing seems to be much improved from the Kerr and Staunton eras. We seem to play the ball a lot more intelligently - Whelan was good in this regard - and seemed better at exploiting gaps in the opposition defence. With Andy Reid back we should be even better in this regard. Plus, Duffer had an excellent first half IMO and if he can keep fit he will obviously be a massive asset to us in qualifying.

[Razors left peg]

I think the most positive thing to come out of this game is that Damien Duff proved that he is far from finished as top footballer as some people on this forum have been saying recently. Im confident that after getting a good full preseason behind him he will back to his best at the start of next season