Nah I disagree, his link up play is good which is useful to us. I felt sorry for him when he came on, cause' like the whole team the field wasn't conjusive for his style.
McGeady showed he has great talent, but is just lacking something.
Sunderland fans would tell u he is actually total rubbish in the air and rarely makes an effort to even jump for a ball...Originally Posted by irishfan86
... a guy that might score 2-3 goals a season off his ass isnt any use for us i'm afraid.
"A silent mouth is sweet to hear"
Nah I disagree, his link up play is good which is useful to us. I felt sorry for him when he came on, cause' like the whole team the field wasn't conjusive for his style.
McGeady showed he has great talent, but is just lacking something.
He played most of the season on the wing for Sunderland last season, and scored some vital goals to help them stay up.
My main reason for wanting him to play up front has nothing to do with his goalscoring record, but rather Robbie's success with similar players in the past (Niall Quinn, Mido, Berbatov).
Obviously Murphy is not as good as Quinn or Berbatov, but he is a big strong forward who can flick balls down and add a little presence up top which can get the best out of Robbie.
That guy? Sheesh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael...on_(footballer)
But yes, he was great. "We were innocent in the 2nd half" - I liked that.
Together with all our hearts.
The first half started with Norway definitely in the ascendency, but for some close offside decisions, and a remarkable recovering save from Shay Given, we would have been behind. Reid and Whelan were struggling to gain, or keep possession, the front two saw little of the ball, and the two wingers were ineffectual.
Around the 15 minute mark, something happened to the team. Steven Reid started spraying passes with increasing accuracy, Whelan started anchoring the midfield effectively, and the 2 wingers started taking, and beating, their opposing players. One of the first chances for an Ireland goal came from Duff a free on the left. This marked the beginning of a long period of possession for the Irish team, with each player accurately making passes to available teammates. In previous regimes this time would have been shorted, and resulted in the loss of possession, but it seems Trapattoni has manged to organise the side better in three games than Staunton and Kerr did in their entire reigns.
The opening goal came after a Norwegian substitiution, Duff latching on to a throw, to release Robbie Keane into space. The Tallaght forward ran towards the Norwegian goal, turned the last defender, and shot through the goalkeeper's legs for a well deserved goal. Coming so close to the midway point, there was little left for the team in red to do before half time.
Having started with Shay Given for the first time, Trapattoni rewarded Dean Kiely for his display against Colombia with a run out in the second half.
As the downpour had intensified since the beginning of the game, the remaining 45 minutes really were played out in farcical conditions. The water was lodging all over the pitch, making any kind of attempt at intelligent passing redundant. Keane especially seemed to suffer from this, he had been playing deep, collecting the ball, playing one-two's, or balls into space. The weather completely ended this.
The equaliser came after a tackle from Steven Reid gave the Norwegians a free close to the bye-line, midway between the penalty area and the corner flag. Kiely came to claim the ball in the air, but misjudged its flight, and missed it. The ball rebounded off a surprised Kevin Kilbane into the path of the debuting Norwegian centre half to score a tap in.
As the game continued, a draw was seemingly accepted by both sides. The introduction of Stephen Hunt for McGeady added a spark to the Irish offence, but he did little to suggest he will become more than an impact player when McGeady and Duff are both fit.
I am genuinely encouraged by the first half performance, the positives being that the team seemed organised, confident and patient. There were very few misplaced passes, and those that did occur seemed to be because of the inclement weather, rather than any player at fault.
Reid omission was puzzling, but it's hard to argue with the result, and performance.
The Setanta boys were raving about how well we played in the first half but I thought we were poor at times. 2nd half was of no use to anybody because of the pitch. Terrible conditions meant players struggled to pass the ball more than 5-10 yards! It was like a game you'd see at school football.
Given - solid. Bailed O'Shea out after he made a howler.
Finnan - not match sharp at all. Needs to escape from the land of scouse asap.
Kilbane- average
Dunne - average. Didn't do anything wrong.
O'Shea - I'd strangle him if he was my partner at centre half. Every team will target him....please God let us unearth a new centre back. He is fine at full back because he is out of the way but he is a walking liability next to Dunne.
Whelan - Carsley with hair in the first half e.g. passed the ball backwards every time. Improved in the second half with some nice crunching tackles. The rain suits his game!
Duff - beautiful through ball for Keane. I thought he struggled on the right wing, we need to keep him on the left. Good that he got another 90 minutes.
McGeady - quiet game.
S Reid - best player on the pitch first half. Welcome back.
Doyle - didn't touch the ball.
Keane - worked hard, nice finish.
Im over the moon with the game tonight. I would pretty much write off the second half because the conditions were beyond ridiculous. In the first half our passing was excellent as was our ball retention. We really looked like a team that has been well coached.Some of the little triangles that we were passing in in midfield were brilliant. Robbie was outstanding in first half, his work rate, touch and goal were all excellent. Whelan impressed me through out the game, hes a very tidy player and made alot of tackles,I still think Andy Reid is a much better option but I can see Traps thinking to a certain extent when away from home.Steven Reid is top class, simple as that, its vital that he says fit.
Im seriously looking forward to the real stuff starting now.
Its really not that complicated!!!
Finnpark told us to watch how bad Robbie is tonight and that Murphy is a better player.... do you want to retract that comment bud
Its really not that complicated!!!
That first half was very encouraging. Some of the passages of play were superb.
Steven Reid was class. I've been raving about him since he came back from injury. He looks to have everything a central midfielder needs. His positioning when the team have the ball is superb. He didn't seem entirely confined to the role Trap gave him and he got forward a bit. Even when Norway had the ball at one point he tracked a central midfielder almost to the Norway box. When Miller and Whelan played together they seemed afraid to upset the formation and certainly wouldn't be running towards the Norway box when Norway had the ball (or even when Ireland had the ball).
I don't know where Reid has got this confidence because I didn't think he had it 2 or 3 years ago but he demands the ball off teammates now. He encourages them by clapping their efforts and does his share of talking. His passing was excellent. Quick decision making and ball to feet. He linked the whole team together pretty much and brought so much of what we were lacking against Colombia.
Keane and Duff were excellent too I thought. Keane's touch was superb. Duff kept possession really well and was tracking back in last minute injury time. Good pass for Keane's goal and Keane's run was excellent.
Whelan did his job really well. Norway had most of the ball in the 2nd half and Whelan was winning a load of tackles. That's definitely the best I've seen him in defensive capacity.
Dunne was just what we've come to expect really. Superb player. Nice block to stop a certain goal in the first half and Givens save before that was also excellent.
O'Shea is just an average centre half. A safer option than McShane because you know what you're going to get but McShane's a lot more likely to dominate an opponent. I definitely favour the McShane-Dunne partnership after tonight. Maybe I'm just been paranoid towards a player I desperately want to succeed but if it was that ginger guy with the dodgy run struggling with the balls over the top tonight I think he'd be getting plenty of stick.
Anyway, we played like a really good football team in the first half tonight. I think I'll go with Robbie Keane and ignore the 2nd half.
Not disagreeing that he had a fairly quiet game, though it was tidy. But this point annoys me when fans make it. McGeady doesnt have real pace and never has. He improved this part of his game last season with intense dedicated work with the Celtic backgroom staff, but still he doesnt have electrifiying pace where he just skins a fullback to the byeline. I would say 90% of the time when he skins someone, its from a standing position with the ball at his feet, quick feet and trickery his how he generally beats his man not with pace.
I thought you were off the drink Ronnie?
"No, I drink to help me mind my own business....can I get you one? (c) Ronnie Drew
I watch almost all of Celtic's matches, and McGeady does have pace. Maybe the defenders in international football are faster than in the SPL, but for whatever reason he can't break away from players with Ireland like he can for Celtic.
That's why I'm considering it a fitness problem, in that he has lacked that acceleration in the first couple of games for Celtic as well this season.
But you watch him play AC Milan last season and tell me that he doesn't have pace. He was running past half their team at times.
And no mention of McGeady eirebhoy? must have been quiet!!
I liked the Whelan / Reid Partnership in the middle thought both played well, not quite sure how we try and fitt Andy in their somewhere now???
I thought you were off the drink Ronnie?
"No, I drink to help me mind my own business....can I get you one? (c) Ronnie Drew
As do I (season ticket holder), Im not saying he is slow but pace is not his key attribute, never has been and never will be. He's improved it but generally you either have it or you dont.
I dont dispute after only 2 games of the competitive season that he obviously wont be at full strength.
I thought you were off the drink Ronnie?
"No, I drink to help me mind my own business....can I get you one? (c) Ronnie Drew
I'd agree with irishfan86 in that he's not performing to his best but I doubt it's to do with fitness with Strachan as his coach. He carried his Celtic form into this game in that he's having difficulty beating players. Thankfully he didn't try to beat players much and as you said he kept it simple mostly. His link up with Keane was encouraging.
I think we're on the same page. I agree that trickery is his main weapon, but his acceleration really improved last season.
But as you say, it seems to be something he needs to work at as opposed to something that comes naturally for him.
yes please and thanks if you get to it
zombie/thread killer..
I was very happy with the 1st Half performance, we outplayed Norway on their pitch remember, that is a real positive. 2nd Half played itself really, either team struggled with the pitch and it ruined the game in the end. I saw enough in the 1st Half to give me some confidence ahead of the Euro's.
I was surprised to see Georgia beat Wales, they had many of their better players not playing in this game, most of that team that played will not be playing against us, Wales were good enough to beat them though.
A disappointing 2-2 draw for Italy, gives us a little hope, we far better than Austria and they managed 2 goals in Italy, more of the same in next April.
Cyprus getting hammered 4-1 by the Swiss, still shows that they play open football and do not have the defence to cope with it.
2-1 win for Bulgaria in Bosnia, is a decent result, not an easy place to go, but Berbatov is main threat as we know, without him, they are not as good as us.
I recorded the match, although it missed a minute or two in the middle of the first half. It's pure uncompressed video though, so it's well over 3 GB of data.
Can anyone recommend a decent DivX or XviD encoder? If I can get it down under a gigabyte in total, I should be able to upload it somewhere
I recorded the comments from Dolan and Robinson at the end of the highlights package as well, I should be able to add them to youtube
I use autoGK. You can compress the file size to whatever you want, and it will reduce quality accordingly. 450mb a half is very good quality, but even 300mb per half is good. Up to you, I don't know your upload speed etc. Here's the link:
http://www.autogk.me.uk/
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