QuoteI remember people saying Miller was our saviour years ago. It takes time for new players to come through. It's Reid and Whelan for this campaign.
Garvan? But I don't think he's what Trap likes either in a central midfielder to be honest.
I remember people saying Miller was our saviour years ago. It takes time for new players to come through. It's Reid and Whelan for this campaign.
There is no such thing as a miracle cure, a free lunch or a humble opinion.
I would say Reid x 2 or put Joey O'Brien in but he's injured. Kilbane to hold midfield?
What crisis?? Our midfield has been fairly sound this campaign. We missed Reid tonight, but when he returns next year normal service will be resumed.
We are solid but unspectacular in the middle. The midfield does a lot of hard work, makes a lot of simple passes, protests the defence, and our creative outlets are on the wings.
Thats the system, and it is working. Cyprus had a lot of it in front of the midfield tonight, but ask yourself how much got through it??
We had all the chances of note, bar one. Cyprus had a lot blocked or charged down, but only because it was all in front of us. The only balls that got in behind us came through McShane, and I doubt we will see him at right back again.
There is no crisis. We have looked good, very good in fact in 2 games, and kept a clean sheet while still creating chances in the game when we lost our best midfielder
Crisis ?? The first name we would probably all put down is Steven Reid but he is so damn injury prone that he has already missed the game today, played against Montenegro when not 100% after he picked up a knock agaisnt Georgia. I'm amazing Blackburn keep releasing him to us!!
I don't have a crystal ball but you have to give players time, you can't write off Gibson and Whelan on a few games. Most former internationals say it takes 10 games or more to get comfortable, I think McGeady is getting there now.
I think we can write off Miller though
There is no crisis.
This is the problem that plagues international managers when choosing teams for qualifying games; do you or do you not break in a rookie?
I personally want to see Delaney, Garvan, Andrews, Foley and Folan/Noel Hunt given a chance in the friendly we have against Poland next month, and then depending on form, and depending on whether we have another friendly before the Georgia game, more new faces.
The only other way is to take the chance and start the new guys, or break them in through substitutions.
End of story. Until then, we have to make do with the reliables and those that Trap has already shown confidence in; Whelan and Gibson tonight.
Crisis eh? For the best start to a World Cup campaign in years? That's a strange definition. Midfield ain't perfect, or even ideal, but we're getting through whilst blooding new players and that's something that no recent Ireland manager has successfully combined.
Am I the only Irish fan feeling quite chippy about tonight's result and the campaign in general? All I can see are points on the board...
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
I'm quite sure Bulgaria would trade 7 points and Giovanni Trapattoni for 3 and Plamen Markov right now.
If we beat Georgia then them, bth at home, we will have a 10 point lead over the team i think we can assume are our nearest rivals.
And if we draw the runners up from groups 2, 3, 5 or 9 in a play-off, i think we will go through
Last edited by backstothewall; 15/10/2008 at 11:24 PM.
Midfield was poor again tonight, not convinced by Whelan by any means and Gibson isn't up to it.
j'accuse!
Midfield was brutal tonight. Have to wonder about Trap for a minute when he didn't change it round when clearly the Cypriots were running rings around us in the middle of the park.
Don't agree. Most of the Cypriots' penetration came from the wings and Konstantou's good hold up play. McShane and Kilbane were often stretched too easily and were offered little protection by Duff/McGeady (the flip side of playing with ultra attacking wingers).Originally Posted by Inside Man
The problem with the midfield I thought was that they played too deep in front of the defence, which is almost certainly what Trap wanted them to do. And their positioning is only really a problem if you want them giving more attacking penetration.
They did their job well - that was to protect the back four. I can't remember Cyprus creating one clear opportunity through a break in the middle. And Gibson and Whelan wern't run over the way Miller/Whelan were against Colombia, for example.
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
Agreed, I thought the centre midfield was solid, without being creative. I didn't see the Cypriots break through the middle of the park at all, all of their play was coming from the wings. Any shots that came in from in front of goal were from bad clearances.
Considering how overrun we were with Kilbane and Ireland in centre midfield 2 years ago, I can't understand how anyone can complain about Whelan and Gibson's performance.
Dunphy was over the top and premature in his criticism of Gibson.He needs first team football and could develop into a fine footballer.
Would also like to see Foley and Garvan given an opportunity against Poland.
While the boys did the job today, you've got to say they did the bare minimum. They were essentially stoppers, as Trap wanted, but our campaign will rely on Stephen Reid being healthy in our biggest matches.
We survived (barely) against a team like Cyprus, but imagine sending the team we sent out today against the likes of Italy.
Stuff of nightmares.
NO! I agree 100%! So much will change before and now at South Africa these points mean the world. 7 points out of 10? Please. The start is great. As long as Trap is of the living and managing this team, he will be working things out. They beat Cyprus today, 1-0, maybe a laugh for the international community but you know what? They lost to them 5 freaking 2 and had the 1-1 debacle.
Seriously Lads you have to start somewhere. They punched us twice in the mouth and we punched back today. Maybe not in spectacular fashion but a KO none the less.
Yeah Italy was SO GOOD against Cyprus.
There was a local New Jersey kid suiting up for them today for F's sake. We are not exactly known as the great valley of Italian Soccer, the NY metro area.
Say what you will, but a team including Kilbane, McShane, Whelan, and Gibson would get absolutely hammered by a full strength Italian side, home or away.Yeah Italy was SO GOOD against Cyprus.
There was a local New Jersey kid suiting up for them today for F's sake. We are not exactly known as the great valley of Italian Soccer, the NY metro area.
I could not agree more. It would be four or five nil at least.
I agree that these are not the shining stars of international football, but great teams are not neccessarily made up of the very best players. While it must be great to have players like Ronaldo, Kaka, Gerrard, Torres etc.. at your disposal, every team needs to show character. Thats what this Irish team is showing, they are grinding out results. No Irish team has done that for years. 2nd in the group and with a game in hand over Italy and 4 points ahead of the team we all thought would be our closest rivals (who dropped 2 points against a team we took 3 off) I reckon we should be delighted, imagine how good we will be when we have a settled injury free midfield. Duff, Reid, Whelan, Mcgeady are not too bad.
Help something bit me!!!
I'm just as happy as you are about the result.
And I agree with you that every team (especially from a nation of our size) relies on a certain amount of workmanlike players.
My point is that you can only have so many of those players before you cannot maintain a top performance.
We can survive with Whelan in midfield alongside Reid, and Kilbane as a makeshift left-full, because we don't have much in the way of better alternatives.
But when a rookie comes in for S. Reid, and we lose one of Europe's premier right backs and have a centre-half come in to play in his place, we're just asking too much of everybody.
I agree with you that when we're fully healthy we can have quite a solid team out there, I'm just saying that we're lucky that we were playing the likes of Cyprus tonight and not Italy.
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