Or the Ireland & Kilbane CM partnership against Cyprus.
I agree that some of his squad and starting 11 selections are a bit odd and point towards him not fully appreciating the talent he has available. However, to suggest already that he was the wrong choice is a bit OTT.
From what I can see he has come in and taken over a side that has been poorly organised on the pitch. His number one aim appears at first to get the team organised and cut out silly mistakes/sloppy goals. He's thought of a system for doing this and, based on talent alone; certain players that would normally walk into the team don't exactly fit this system. The same could also be said for Charlton, who has still to be considered our most successful manager to date. I can understand Traps approach to these first two away matches as a poor start will have us playing catch up for the rest of the campaign.
If he makes us hard to beat and eliminates our sloppy play, resulting in us getting 4 or 6 points from these two games, it would be a great start.
On the evidence from the last two games I would say he has already improved or organisation a lot.
If we get two good results (or not) the next big question will be if he will continue to be conservative with his selection for the next squad/team or will he feel he has organised us a well as he can and then work on other areas of our play. He did himself say that he will approach each game differently. So he might be more offensive for the home games and include players like A. Reid, who will then have a chance to play themselves into contention for games like Italy away.
As I said before, I will give him the benefit of the doubt for these his first competitive games in charge because when he took over there was lots wrong with this team and he can only fix it one step at a time. However, he only has two years with us and should quickly learn what is needed to get us playing to the best of our ability. It will be interesting to see if he will be stubborn and stick to one system or is willing to develop the system to match the players we have available and become a bit more adventurous as soon as we have some points on the board.
look, this is how i see it.
we have a manger who is omitting one of our most talented players from the squad in favour of a limited Glenn Whelan. Reid is also behind Miller. Neither of these players can break into the first team for their clubs. Reid has been employed effectively in a number of positions (in the hole, on the wing, centre mid, defensive mid) at club and international level yet is behind the Whelan and Miller in the central positions and behind the rash Hunt and ineffective McGeady for the wing berths (edit: and also behind Andy Keogh, who cant get his game for a championship team and cant play on the wing). Questions can and should be asked about this decision if this is how it transpires. Charlton was questioned for omitting Brady and later O'Leary, the 2 supremely gifted footballers of their generation. What im saying is no different.
What follows from this is how O'Brien is not ahead of Whelan, Miller etc to partner Steven Reid in the middle. O'Brien is playing first team football in that position for Bolton, its his natuiral position but he is such a good footballer he could make a career for himself at RB or CB. Yet this guy, who is just as mobile as Whelan and better in other aspects, is not in contention for the DM position. It baffles me.
I think Trap is a good manager, i just question his view of the players at his disposal. I will gladly take it all back if he gets us to the WC or leads us to 2nd in the group as i think, overall, we dont have a particularly gifted squad. I, of course, hope to be proved wrong, its just my opinion...
Last edited by SkStu; 03/09/2008 at 6:31 PM.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
it's easy to understand: whelan looks more like de rossi than o'brien! seriously though, i know only a very small amount about our apparently defensively-minded italian manager - is he the type to stick by one player no matter what his form/style etc? i hope trapatoni is flexible enough to realize a player's limitations and ruthless enough to drop him in favor of a better version. so i agree with you about whelan v. o'brien.
is this whelan mini-fixation a sign of the new man putting his stamp on the team? i fear so.
andy reid and j. o'brien are strong players in their own regard who should, by now, be up for a competitive int'l against georgia at a neutral venue... they are not individual world-beaters but could achieve a nice balance with the other reid supporting. in fact that central midfield triumverate is pretty choice, given our limitations:
--------a. reid----------
----o'brien-----s.reid----
amazing graphic, i know and undoubtedly others as yourself have suggested this combination.
also, as stated i can see trap's logic if he thinks andy reid too slow or vulnerable in certain areas. if given decent partners though, he can flourish and provide the right kind of service from open play and dead ball situations. if that type of partnership doesn't go well after 30-40 mins, then trap shouldn't be afraid to change it.
zombie/thread killer..
Maybe trapp is ticking the box's for all the attributes of a good manager..
Loyalty (Whelan, Keogh). This breeds commitment, not just from the two mentioned but issues at statement of intent to other arguably more talented players of how their commitment will be rewarded. People question Whelans etc involvement over certain players but they have hardly let anyone down. The test of whether it's loyalty to a fault will be when they stop performing (see McCarthy)
Tactical Awareness... I think his formation is spot on for the players at our disposal, even if i don't agree with the personnel. (See Stan)
His own man. Not dictated by the fans or media. (See Sven in charge of England. Owen Hargreaves aside i think The Sun picked his teams)..
I dunno.. I'm just trying to find sense in some of his decisions cos he clearly is a good manager..
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