Stan wanted to try someone with less experience and ability.
Andy Reid was nothing short of brilliant tonight. Controlled the entire field of play, everything we had went through him. Why didn't he play against Slovakia again?
Stan wanted to try someone with less experience and ability.
Stans a tool and should be booted out - I hope Keogh goes on to be a great player but as me ould fella would say - "he could pass water or beat eggs".
When McGeady came on he was great - should have been on from the start!
SligoBhoy67 - McGeady is 10 times the player Keogh will ever be HOWEVER I know for a fact Aiden himself was disgusted the way the last two internationals went and knew himself he didn't really deserve a start. To be honest Aiden was probably best used from the bench tonight anyway but was used too late. Should have had your cloggers like Kilbane and Keogh on for an hour and then got McGeady and Long on sharpish on the hour mark for those two.
"Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something
-- Bobby Sands
"Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something
-- Bobby Sands
Maybe bringing him on was the best course of action but 10 minutes was a joke! McGeady tore them a new whole going down the right.
P.S. not a mention about it from that tosser Whelan either altough he was quick to critises him for every other mistake in the other two games
Exactly my thoughts - McGeady should have been one much much earlier. Keogh played well but he was knacked for the last twenty minutes he was on the pitch. Andy Reid kept sending him down the right hand side of the pitch and he just couldn't beat the German left back for pace. In fairness he's a striker not a winger but McGeady played crap the last few games for Ireland so he didn't deserve to start. Had Carr been fit maybe Finnan could have played right wing.
"Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something
-- Bobby Sands
Given 6 - didn't have too much work on the night though he made one good reaction save in the first half
Kelly 4 - looked completely lost. It was a good thing the Germans didn't have a decent right winger out there
O'Brien 5 - I squirmed every time he came near the ball. He was solid enough but not really tested at all
Dunne 7 - saved our bacon a few times, looked good with strong convincing challenges all night
Finnan 7 - looked brilliant all night. great header off the line to save the game early on
Kilbane 6 - didn't do much but didn't mess up either. a couple of good crosses, maybe he's worth keeping around for the world cup campaign after all
Reid 10 - absolutely unreal. he looked knackered by the end but he played the best game of any player i've seen for ireland since one Roy Keane left town.
Carsley 6 - a couple of good tackles, kept things in check and allowed Reid to be creative. he should never, ever try to pass the ball farther than five yards though
Keogh 5 - started well but didn't have the fitness needed. not much of anything creative down the wing, which is something we really needed. what i woud have given to have duff fit for the match
keane 4 - i love robbie but he wouldn't have scored in a brothel tonight. how many times did he have an easy chance but found some way to mess it up?
doyle 6 - ran hard all night and used his head to set up loads of chances.
long 6 - did well and caused the germans problems at the back
mcgeady 6 - wasn't on that long but managed one good cross into the box
murphy - not on long enough to rate but he looked big and tall, maybe we could have used him earlier as most of our chances in the end came off the long ball
Mostly agree.
Although Reid was good I think the only reason he seemed so earth shattering is that we have had a lack of a good midfielder for so long. IF he can keep fit for the next 18 months he could be vital alongside his namesake.
I'd swap Robbie and Doyle's scores. Doyle did nothing and what he did was trash. Robbie tried all night as always.
One thought about this campaign, has there been a single game when we got a better result than we deserved?
reids passing was great tonite but it always is. thought o brien had a good game. thought the match wasnt that great to watch. but that was maybe cause there was nothin really at stake.we have some good players but is staunton the man to get the best out of them?
Sweet jesus, the more rubbish like this I hear the more I want to start supporting Stan. If he had started with McGeady everyone would have said 'You see he doesnt know what he's doing.....' McGeady is at best an OK player but has never played well for Ireland. When he came on he was entusiastic but with little end result.
It's a bit like the people chanting 'you dont know what you'r doing when Long came on for Doyle.' Of course Long was far more dangerous than Doyle
I watched the game on German TV and the commentator kept quite most of the time when an Irish player had the ball, presumably because he didn't know them well enough to recognise them from the upper echelons of Croker Anyway, there were 3 or 4 passes in a row from Reid out to the right wing that were simply amazing. The game was OK and we had a few close attempts but for me Reid's passing was the standout feature of the game. I'd really love to see him and the other Reid get a run of games together in CMF for Ireland and hope that Duff can regain his old form.
I thought Kelly improved immensly on his last two games. When I saw that J. O'Brien was starting at CB alarm bells rang but he did fine. However he wasn't really tested to a great extent and Dunne mopped up a lot of dangerous balls into the box. All in all I would say Ireland did a decent job of containing a good German side missing a few key players but didn't turn the screw enough to be clear winners, which should have been expected from the home team desperate for 3 points. A draw was probaly a fair result, which is not bad against one of the best teams in Europe/The World. I get the feeling this is the type of game where S. Ireland might have made a difference, even from the bench.
Job done for the Germans. They went through the motions in the second half knowing that a draw was all they needed.
We didn't have the urgency required to win the game - Robbie Keane had a great chance to score but other than that we didn't have that many scoring chances. Considering Joey O'Brien was making his competitive debut tonight out of position I thought he did very well. Reid gave a good account of himself tonight whilst the rest of the team did the minimal that was expected of them.
Staunton's in a no win situation. If he went with McGeady from the start he would have been attacked for not trying something new. He didn't have much other option on the right side - Liam Miller maybe, but I think he had a knock heading into the match. O'Shea and McShane were both out so Finnan had to stay at the back.
Bookmarks