Both chances should have been buried. And those other times we played lax offsides with Lewandowski... Ibrahimovic won't time his forward runs that badly. If we give Sweden that much possession, they will beat us comfortably.Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Yeah, they will, but I'm talking about Poland. They had two chances, neither of which they created, because Forde passed the ball to their forwards. I'm struggling to see where Poland should have been scoring all these goals.
Don't kick your dog Supreme Feet! Its the winter, it always puts you in a bad mood.
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
We can't keep glossing over our deficiencies and mistakes by celebrating the fact that the other team was too rubbish/lackadaisical to finish their chances. Fact is, we will not get away with that kind of performance with a win against significant European opposition again. In the first half, we played like Andorra or San Marino would against us. We got into the game because of a badly defended set-piece, and Poland simply lost interest after half time. I'm not going to be lulled into a false sense of security because of that.
It could be worse though, if you rooted for the states you would have your head in the oven.
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
Not at my age Bonnie. My wrists can only handle so much...
I don't think anyone will, Charlie just pointing out that they probably couldn't have expected to score 3 goals when they had only 2 chances. Its fair enough logic, I'm certainly not going to argue the math... hehe, math.
Last edited by SkStu; 06/02/2013 at 11:41 PM.
I agree, we won't get away with that kind of performance against Sweden, but we'll also have better players against Sweden. We weren't good but that's no reason to pretend we were anything other than comfortable. Poland shouldn't have been 3-0 up by half time because Poland are crap and couldn't have scored three goals against my dead granny tonight, and to pretend otherwise is just as bad as pretending it was a great victory.
As of right now what is the starting lineup for Sweden? status quo?
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
and is that your second masterbation joke lmfao?
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
Forde
Coleman O'Shea Clark Cunningham
McGeady Whelan McCarthy Cox
Keane Long
Assuming Dunne, Sledge and Andrews are still injured.
Last edited by Charlie Darwin; 06/02/2013 at 11:59 PM.
Yes, that's fair enough. But 2-0 was flattering, IMO - we were certainly not comfortable for long periods of the first half, and we could well have conceded (maybe not three I admit - pints taken and all that).
Last edited by Supreme feet; 06/02/2013 at 11:50 PM.
A draw would probably have been a fair reflection of the play, but we won because we defended well and put their defence under more pressure. They looked like a very good team in the middle of the pitch where you can't score any goals. The fact is that as technically good as their players are, they didn't have anybody in their team who could have played the pass Hendrick did for Hoolahan, and barring Lewandowski they had nobody who could have finished the way Hoolahan did.
Charlie, any chance Given is in instead of Forde?
And no JOSH?
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
Sorry, I actually meant O'Shea because I think Sledge will still be injured! No I don't think there's any chance of Given coming back.
Just get Steven Reid to return, play him in a 3 man midfield with McCarthy & Hoolahan. If not Hoolahan then just get Stephen Ireland back. McGeady & Mcclean out wide, Walters up top on his own. Back four of dunne, o'shea, Clark and Coleman. Westwood in goal. Do I ask to much?
Probably asking a bit much of Reid alright considering he has a broken leg.
I think if Ireland was available, Trap would be more amenable to playing Hoolahan because we'd be able to rejig the system and have a backup in that No 10 position. Maybe that's just wishful thinking.
Reid is back fit and played 90 minutes against Spurs on Sunday. The fact that he has retired from International football (to prolong his club career as he said in the Indo yesterday) is probably still a bigger obstacle.
"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet" - Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
We made Poland look much better than they are, in the first half. We are good at doing that with average teams. It's the most frustrating aspect of our game.
Yet Poland didn't trouble our very shaky looking back 4, apart from Forde's brain fárts. Forde did look good with most aspects of the rest of his game.
As soon as McClean got going with one good passage of link up play, they were on the ropes, at 6's and 7's. Not even a back 4 of McShanes would have defended that set piece like that, to allow Clark the goal chance.
In the second half we grew in confidence and deserved to win. And we had grown in confidence before Wes came came on. Probably that was due to Green, who had mobility, plugged a lot of holes and tried to get the ball moving forward on the grass.
Long, Walters or Doyle will never give us anything close to what Robbie has given us over the years. Trap has to bite the bullet and go with one striker, just because we don't have the best striker in the world, is not a valid excuse. We look a much better team with Hoolahan roaming around in front of a 4 man midfield, linking up the play.
We were a total shambles in the first half. McClean was extremely disappointing (again?), Brady looks a good player but not a winger, the CM pair were anonymous and overrun. Our play was disjointed and we rarely kept the ball for more than a couple of seconds. Any time McShane got on the ball, he tried to dribble past people and lost the ball and put us back under pressure again. Sammon looks way off this level, Long didn't look fit.
Hoolahan looks our best footballer by some distance. He immediately started to link things up when he came on. Trap's argument that "we need 2 strikers" is nonsense because the 2 strikers he plays are always lost and cut off. The result is that Trap essentially insists on having us undermanned in midfield all the time - it's suicidal!
Hoolahan should be one of the first names on the team sheet. Yet again, Trap didn't start him, and even brought on Green ahead of him. Starting Keane up front as part of a two and leaving Hoolahan on the bench in Sweden would be criminal. Trap's scatterbrain intransigence has gone far beyond a joke, it's really hurting us big time. It's painful for any genuine Ireland fan, and please don't give me any "In Trap we trust". Trap looked disappointed when the 2nd goal went in. And Cox brought on on the wing again.... Roll on the day Trap finally goes!
It's hard to know if he was somewhat annoyed by the fact Hoolahan had scored and given him food for thought or if he just wasn't too bothered to get overjoyed, like Marco, over a goal in a friendly game: http://www.balls.ie/football/trap-sp...oolahans-goal/
He didn't show any sign of a positive reaction to Clark's goal either, for example.
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