Republic of Ireland V Denmark - Tue, 14 November 2017 World Cup 2018 Play Off 2nd Leg

[backstothewall]

He also has no coaching experience. If he wants to get into that side of things, let him do it at club level somewhere,and see how he gets on, let's not give him a job in the national team on the basis of his playing career: a mistake we've made before.

If he wants to be involved with management for his country I'd be delighted for the FAI to facilitate him to start with an underage side

[Olé Olé]

Don't know where my opinion is going to fall with Ward. He was extremely culpable for two of the Danish goals the other night. However, he's been quite good the rest of the campaign. Some on this thread are absolutely castigating him now.

Personally, I appreciate how good he has been in this campaign, aside from the Denmark match. But maybe there's no harm in looking at Matt Doherty and Greg Cunningham as younger alternatives to 32 year-old Ward. Enda Stevens too maybe, but he needs to show over a more prolonged period than 4 months.

I also think that that trio could do with demonstrating their comfortable at a level above. I think it's a race to the PL between them and that will see them staking the claim for Ireland. Otherwise, it's hard to differentiate.

One not to be ruled out is Derrick Williams. He was Blackburn's player of the year and is supposed to be in flying form in L1. Might have the the tools to climb the ladder. As might Kevin O'Connor.

As I said, I think the race to the PL is on. Doherty (primarily a RB this season, plenty experience at LB) and Enda Stevens are sitting pretty at the top of the Championship so they are in pole position.

[bennocelt]

You have a crystal ball into the future?
Monosyllable and dull?
Robbie Keane is one of the most diplomatic speakers I have ever seen. Never gets himself in trouble with the words he speaks.
And the man knows a bit about football wouldn't you say.

You think Keane is insightful, i dont. i think he is like a lot of footballers, a bit dim. If he turns out to be the new Alex Ferguson I dont mind holding my hands up. But I highly doubt it.

By the way: Here is a good article on a new manager who is doing great things in Sweden.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41902664

[bennocelt]

But give credit to Denmark, they are a decent side and they can play football when they want to, I think they will do
well in the Russia, the are on a good run, 19th on Fifa rankings, up 7. Unbeaten in their last 10 game, I think their
100-1 for the the world cup is generous, I expect they will get out of their group, and then who knows?

Dont know Tricky, with Peru getting through tonight, Denmark are third seeds so it will be hard for them.

[brine3]

If he wants to be involved with management for his country I'd be delighted for the FAI to facilitate him to start with an underage side

Why? Let him prove himself somewhere else first. We need our underage sides coached by qualified people.

[backstothewall]

Why? Let him prove himself somewhere else first. We need our underage sides coached by qualified people.

Several reasons

1. Because every kid in Ireland knows who he is. That inspiration factor has a short short life while he is still in the mind of kids who weren't even born at the start of his career
2. Because he is qualified https://m.independent.ie/sport/socce...-34346860.html
3. Because he knows more about scoring goals than anyone else available to us. If a kid picked up just some of that magic from him. If we produced someone who went on the score half as many goals as he did it would be incredible for us.

[jbyrne]

3. Because he knows more about scoring goals than anyone else available to us. If a kid picked up just some of that magic from him. If we produced someone who went on the score half as many goals as he did it would be incredible for us.

agree with this. the rugby lads have a coach for every skill in the game so why not give Robbie the role of purely working with the strikers?

[Stuttgart88]

I think we have a lot to feel confident about. We have problems for sure but we also have the opportunity of a full year without an important fixture to bring in new players and try to plug the gaps in the squad

We have options in goal, but realistically it will come down to who is playing at a decent level by the time we play a qualifier for the Euros. I'd like the back 4 of Coleman, Duffy, Clark, Brady to be carved in stone by then.

I think we can expect the following from those in or around the current squad to be available until the next Euros

Randolph
Elliott

Christie
Coleman
Doherty
Clark
Duffy
Long
Egan
Brady

Horgan
Hendrick
Hourihane
Meyler
Arter
O'Kane
McClean
O'Dowda

Long
Hogan
Maguire
O'Brien

Will Keane is also possibly going to be added to that list.

The holes we need to plug are, in my opinion, left-back, and some real creativity in midfield.

With that being the case i'd be hoping to find opportunities for Greg Cunningham, Enda Stevens, Connor Ronan & Liam Kelly to come into the squad. As someone said above we will probably have to give a lot of players a chance to sink or swim. I think I'd rather invest time is guys who are under 25. I don't know about giving up on the Euros as someone suggested above, but the new players we bring in I would prefer to give the chances to people who will stilll be around for the 2022 World Cup.

and added this and Ole Ole's suggestions I'd say Rice, Cullen, Lenihan and Browne would be in the mix.

I know he's no superstar but I like O'Kane. He does what few others do - seeks to actually get on the ball and do something with it.

[MeathDrog]

agree with this. the rugby lads have a coach for every skill in the game so why not give Robbie the role of purely working with the strikers?

Must not have many coaches then.

[Kingdom]

Are you referring to McClean? He's physical, tenacious and impassioned, but a "genuine scumbag"? No way. I can't agree with that at all.

Allen's head injury was caused either by clashing into the oncoming Meyler or by banging his head off the ground when he fell. McClean budged into Allen, but he did not directly cause that injury.

Poulsen clashed into the oncoming Ward after a fair shoulder from James. Are you saying James intentionally shoved Poulsen into Ward's elbow in the hope of injuring Poulsen? Things were moving quickly and I don't think you can accuse James of knowing that his attempt to budge Poulsen off the ball would result in Poulsen injuring himself off Ward. I'm pretty certain the ref stopped play because the player was down injured rather than to give a free-kick, because I'm not sure there was actually a foul there.

There wasn't a huge deal in the Bendtner tackle that gave away the penalty. It was in the 90th minute, James was physically tired (and obviously mentally drained too) after having chased back over half the pitch whilst we were already losing heavily. It was little more than a clumsy trip in an attempt to prevent a shot; it was hardly a "scumbag" attempt to injure the Dane.

I don't recall the Sisto incident. What happened there?

Yeah I am referring to him.

You're a super poster around here, probably the most in-depth and one I've oodles of respect for. I'm going to suggest that your personal knowledge of James and that he's a Derry boy is blinding you to the obvious.

Hand-on-heart, I'm not referring to him the person, as a scumbag, but him the footballer.

Everytime I see him make a tackle it looks to me that he's trying to do the opponent.

The Sisto incident, he lost the ball in the tackle and kicked out at sisto's standing leg, sisto. This was around 70 odd minutes.
I cannot agree with your argument for any of the above. He rakes his studs down the back of Bendtners lower-lower leg. He's trying to do him.

[paul_oshea]

Its all been said pretty much after people have read the papers, but here is something I prepared early yesterday morning before departing for America.

Watching ireland reminds me of watching roscommon. We flatter to deceive and only a mistake or two away from a hiding.
MON never had us playing football, so when we needed to we had no idea how to keep shape and what to do. Again ye wouldnt have seen thus on the tele, not having a go, but an individual mistake of a full back on the wings well away from the box shouldnt result in a goal, but how we lost shape and space opened up was just phenomenal, no one knew where to go or who to mark. There was so much space in behind and we all got drawn to one side of the pitch twice because of an individual players mistake. The ward one was iromic in that he trjed to play instead of hoofing, perhaps being beside mon he actually shouted instructions to do so, but even that mistake shouldnt result in a goal, if a team is used to losing possesion theyll know where to pick up and where to cover the space. We had absoloutely no idea, and denmark had one man who can pick the string in the net he wants to hit. Christie covering was said already by backstothewall I think had he come up the whole danger was averted but that's easy say in hindsight, so on reflection I am not sure he can be blamed too much. At the end of the day since trap came in we've unlearned how to play football and it comes baxk to bite us every so often with a wallop. We need to start playing football and getting used to making mistakes and recovering from them. Mon has shown he isnt the man to do that, forgetting about the terrible tactics and substitutions last night, and thats whats important.

To sum up, luck played a part in a few of our performances, but we were totally disorganised, the individual mistakes would be rectified if we played a more possession game as we would know what to do when pulled a part. We have no idea how to counteract the man losing possession because we never play with, we are used to just lying deep and always having another man in behind if the first line is broken - that's not how possession football works. Whilst Wards mistake was massive, and I disagree with a lot of people saying Christie was good and his positioning generally decent, had we trained and played with possession more often we wouldn't get pulled left, right and centre. Its exactly the same as happened 1.5 years ago against Belgium and O'Neill never thought we needed to change. Certain types of teams will always be able to do that to you if you don't or aren't used to playing with the ball.

Its really annoying because although yes we could have lost 1-2 or even drawn 2-2(I really felt we would get a second even if he made no halftime substitutions) bar a couple of individual mistakes we weren't that far off and Denmark certainly aren't that good.

Wales probably looking on thinking we could have taken Denmark, and I'd agree too.

[tricky_colour]

Dont know Tricky, with Peru getting through tonight, Denmark are third seeds so it will be hard for them.

We shall see.

Poland is in pot 1, they beat them 4-0 and 6-3 (combing home and away games).

We shall see though, I'd say they have as good a chance as anyone making it to the second round provided Eriksen is playing.

[DannyInvincible]

Yeah I am referring to him.

You're a super poster around here, probably the most in-depth and one I've oodles of respect for. I'm going to suggest that your personal knowledge of James and that he's a Derry boy is blinding you to the obvious.

Hand-on-heart, I'm not referring to him the person, as a scumbag, but him the footballer.

Everytime I see him make a tackle it looks to me that he's trying to do the opponent.

The Sisto incident, he lost the ball in the tackle and kicked out at sisto's standing leg, sisto. This was around 70 odd minutes.
I cannot agree with your argument for any of the above. He rakes his studs down the back of Bendtners lower-lower leg. He's trying to do him.

I appreciate the words and the respect is mutual, which is why I'm so surprised you've got this one so wrong.

In seriousness, I admittedly do have a soft spot for James. I think he has a great heart and what might come across as recklessness or an intent to do damage to others, I see as a raw passion, tenacity and desire to physically get stuck in and show opponents who's boss. He's not a finesse player and his footballing education didn't come through an academy where the more physical side of a player's game might be discouraged or suppressed. I think, at worst, he can be rash and hot-headed - he undoubtedly bullies opponents and can get frustrated or swept up in the heat of the moment - but I don't think that equates to premeditation or a malicious intent to cause injury to other players. I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

With the Allen and Poulsen incidents, there would have been no injury to either of those players had Meyler and Ward not been involved. James can't be responsible for their involvement/positioning which is ultimately what did the damage (unintentionally) in both cases. James' involvement was contributory, but indirect. If James is going to be accused of intending to cause injury in those incidents, you'd also have to accuse Meyler and Ward of the same.

[KrisLetang]

Its all been said pretty much after people have read the papers, but here is something I prepared early yesterday morning before departing for America.

Please tell me you're coming to interview for the US managers job.

[tricky_colour]

It was something that Eriksen’s predecessor Brian Laudrup also told the Independent after the game in Dublin, as he expressed disbelief that Martin O’Neill gave him “the freedom of the pitch” in the second half.

You just can’t allow that with someone his manager is already describing as “one of the 10 best players in the world”.

Notably, neither Eriksen himself nor Bendtner would quite go that far.

“For me, he is a fantastic player, but can you compare him to the greatest in the game?” the former Arsenal player said. “It is about making that special moment happen and he is doing that more and more. That is what takes you to the next level.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...-a8057286.html

I guess to be fair to Martin he did face the slight problem of needing 2 goals at that point and we were gonna lose whatever.

[tetsujin1979]

Stayed off forum for a few days to work through the Kubler-Ross stages of grief, survive a man cold and finally gather my thoughts

First of all some positives
Ireland were the lowest seeded team from the group stages to reach the play offs, and the only fourth seed to do so
We went through the qualifying campaign unbeaten away from home
The average age of the squad has dropped from 30.2 at the Euros last year to 28.5 for the play off squad - a minor change, and the retirement of Robbie Keane accounts for a lot of it, but still a positive
The squad is currently ranked 26th in the world
Beating Austria away from home was the first away win against higher ranked opposition in a qualifier since 1997 against Lithuania
Martin O'Neill is the first Irish manager to win two away qualifiers against higher ranked opposition since the ranking system was introduced in 1993
O'Neill now has five wins against higher ranked opponents (Germany, Bosnia, Italy, Austria and Wales). Every other Irish manager combined has six
In three away games against our main group rivals Wales, Austria and Serbia, we took seven points from a possible nine

And now, the inevitable negatives
We didn't score anywhere near enough goals across the campaign, especially at home. Only two players scored more than once in the qualifiers. Counting Duffy's goal in the play offs brings the list to three.
We were the lowest scoring team to qualify for the play offs. 12 goals in 10 games. Croatia are next on 15 goals. Slovakia missed out despite scoring 17 times
The effects of Coleman's injury, on the player himself, on the result of the Wales game, and on the rest of the qualifiers cannot be underestimated
In three consecutive home games against our main group rivals Wales, Austria and Serbia, we took two points from a possible nine
Taking off two central midfielders, to bring on two attacking/creative players, when facing one of the best attacking central midfielders in the Premier League, is a criminal change. Whatever about training or tactics, I really want to hear Martin O'Neill's explanation behind that change
While there has been no formal announcements yet, the end of a qualifying campaign brings with it player retirements. At the moment there's no obvious replacements for the expected retirees

And some observances
Whatever preparation the management team does, or doesn't do, it worked against Wales and didn't against Denmark
Journalists complaining about players not speaking to them after the game need to get over themselves. Players have Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts to issue statements after games
The group itself was poor. None of the top four sides overly impressed. Serbia topped the group with the lowest points total of the UEFA group winners
Despite the "tinkerman" style accusations, the starting XI is pretty settled IMO. Nine players started seven or more of the ten qualifiers

[Stuttgart88]

Is observance a word?

[Stuttgart88]

Any stattos out there with MON's results with and without the so called diamond?

[Treaty Gooner]

Lads, I don't know about the diamond, it just looked alike a wonky 4-3-3 with McClean doing two jobs

[paul_oshea]

Whatever preparation the management team does, or doesn't do, it worked against Wales and didn't against Denmark

It did work - against Denmark away. I think its been covered here numerous times in the past not just recently, that we only have one tactic and one game plan. It works away from home, because we always just sit back and never lose our shape because we always have a man in behind or ready to run behind another to cover the space. We are experts. Sadly we practiced nothing else, and played nothing else.

And why this? Because O'Neill has this stupid policy of draw away win at home, it backfired on several occasions throughout both campaigns, and then we pulled it out of the fire with strokes of luck, bad misses, oneills , die hard defending and crowding out. We should play the same at all times, but have a backup that we can revert to and experienced in when needs must.

You've mixed in opinion with facts but generally agree with everything you've said above tets.