Staunton's first Ireland squad?

Big Nelly

eirebhoy wrote:

I feel Big Nelly has formed his on one match. A match he couldn't seem to pass the ball to a teammate. He was terrible.

Not over one game. Havent been impressed with alot of his peformance. Mentioned in another post I hadn't watched much of Wigan this season so I didn't know his form was. First match I watched him was the Leeds game and to be honest I wasn't too impressed. I wanted Kav in the PL because like most fans I would like a full squad of playing in the PL and playing regular footie!

I included him in a team because there wasn't much other options in the squad if I remember correctly. Ask Lemlin on here and before a ball was even kicked in the Cyprus game I said Kav was sh*t and would be useless. Not that fickle to base an opinion on one game when everyone was sh*t. Even Duff didn't have a good game.

~Rebel~

Couple of opinions on stuff people have been saying here. First off; Kavanagh. I think he should be in the squad. and possibly the first few starting teams as we dont really have another good holding midfielder/any other holding midfielder, but does anyone really think its a good idea to be sticking with a guy who will be 35 (born 1973) when the next tournament comes around? Surely if this new team is going to be successful we need to blood someone new in the meantime into that holding role, and in my opinion, the sooner the better.

Next Elliot; He hasn't been mentioned much, just put in as starting striker, which has astonished me. Personally at the moment, i'd rate both doyle and Morrison ahead of him. Ok, last season he scored some goals in the second half of the season, but Clint already has 8 league goals in the 1st half of this season. Not to mention that Elliot is hardly doing anything to show his worth at sunderland. Still one for the future undoubtedly, just not for the now IMO.

As for people turning their noses up at players like Trundle and Ronnie O Brien getting any sort of shot, i think just give em a chance. Bring them into the squad, not even necessarily an international game but a few practice matches, see how they do in training, if they impress there, then maybe give em a shot in a friendly. Maybe they wont get that far, maybe they will, but at least we'll know instead of wasting a potential talent. Im of the opinion that at the moment, the best thing to do is check out everybody, then cut them lose if they cant cut it with the rest in training.

eirebhoy

~Rebel~ wrote:

Next Elliot; He hasn't been mentioned much, just put in as starting striker, which has astonished me. Personally at the moment, i'd rate both doyle and Morrison ahead of him. Ok, last season he scored some goals in the second half of the season, but Clint already has 8 league goals in the 1st half of this season. Not to mention that Elliot is hardly doing anything to show his worth at sunderland. Still one for the future undoubtedly, just not for the now IMO.

Elliott's out injured a couple of months now which is why he's not really being mentioned. He scored 16 goals last season btw.

~Rebel~

Im not saying anything particularly bad against Elliot or anything, i do think he is a player for the future, but i still think that, at the moment, Morrison is the logical choice. He's more experienced, has scored more in each of the divisions and has had a good period in the championship this season, having already proved he makes a good foil at Premiership level. How many goals would forsell had gotten in that amazing season if it hadn't been for clint? Totally agree elliot should be in the squad, but still think has a bit to prove to oust Morrison. Just mentioned Doyle cause he's on a fantastic run of form at the mo.

eirebhoy

I agree, Morrison should be ahead of him but not Doyle yet. Atm Elliott is still ahead of Doyle for me. He's the only outfield player that came out with against Cyprus.

BillyBoy

Well I juts hope Stan gives as many of the players mentioned here a chance in friendlies. Kerr always seem to treat friendlies like they were competitive games. I remember Kerr brought McGeady on (when he was plaing well for Celtic last season) for 3 minutes at the end of a friendly game. How is any player meant to prove himself in 3 minutes? Hopefully Stan will give Doyle, Trudle etc at least about 60 mins of a friendly so he/we can assess if they are any good at international level (I know it takes more than a game to adapt to international level but at least we can see how they cope with the situation)

Chucky the tree

Picking midfielders is by far the toughest area. We have some very useful ones.

Miller, whelan and Mcgeady would be deserving of a place in the squad i feel. But who to drop? very difficult.

DOnt see how people can say kavanagh shouldnt be in the team, hes the only holding midfielder with any experience. He might of had some poor games for Ireland before but i dont think that should be counted. He be given another chance under a new manager who will have different tactics and plans for him.

If he does poorly, then i will accept people not wanting him in, but until i think he is a guarenteed starter.

Draupnir

~Rebel~ wrote:

Next Elliot; He hasn't been mentioned much, just put in as starting striker, which has astonished me. Personally at the moment, i'd rate both doyle and Morrison ahead of him. Ok, last season he scored some goals in the second half of the season, but Clint already has 8 league goals in the 1st half of this season. Not to mention that Elliot is hardly doing anything to show his worth at sunderland. Still one for the future undoubtedly, just not for the now IMO.

Thats not a very informed point, since Stephen hasnt played in 2 and a half months due to injury. Was Sunderland's man of the match in half their games before that, when being played out of position.

I would like to add my own view points:

1. McGeady has to be in the squad and playing down the right regularly. I think we need to build a team for the next generation and get them playing together now.

2. Ronnie O'Brien was absolutely terrible at Dundee United, Im a United fan and he is still joked about amongst United fans. The hype at Tannadice when we bought a player from Juve was huge, then Ronnie arrived and ran into the corner and gave the ball away for a handful of games. Will take a lot for me to consider him for Ireland. Maybe the squad plane will crash on landing and we will be desperate.

3. Wayne Henderson, played with Wayne in my youth for Bohs, excellent keeper, great shot stopper and a big guy. Been doing very well at Brighton this year after being overlooked at Villa a bit. Has made a few errors when playing first team football but get him in the squad and give him the experience needed and let him train with Shay. Can only help him improve.

4. I wouldnt put Stephen Kelly in the stand at an Ireland game to be honest, any time I've seen him play he gets turned inside out for Spurs and makes huge amounts of errors. I think he is a long long way from the finished article. That and he lives not far from me and I know his missus, who is a little beaut, so I dont like him. But he is very dodgy and wouldnt inspire confidence in me at all.

eirebhoy

Draupnir wrote:

2. Ronnie O'Brien was absolutely terrible at Dundee United, Im a United fan and he is still joked about amongst United fans. The hype at Tannadice when we bought a player from Juve was huge, then Ronnie arrived and ran into the corner and gave the ball away for a handful of games. Will take a lot for me to consider him for Ireland. Maybe the squad plane will crash on landing and we will be desperate.
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4. I wouldnt put Stephen Kelly in the stand at an Ireland game to be honest, any time I've seen him play he gets turned inside out for Spurs and makes huge amounts of errors. I think he is a long long way from the finished article. That and he lives not far from me and I know his missus, who is a little beaut, so I dont like him. But he is very dodgy and wouldnt inspire confidence in me at all.

I don't know the standard of the MLS but I'm going to watch Dallas v Metros in the next few days to see what its like. It must be really poor though if O'Brien is that bad and is still a "superstar" (as the commentator called him) in America.

On Kelly, he's usually good when I've seen him. He was woeful against Leicester but he's not a left back. I think how Joey O'Brien is playing at right back this season is what Kelly was doing last season. Kelly is a natural right back though so I want to get him in. I think he's a certain improvement on Carr and Finnan is an improvement on O'Shea at left back.

eirebhoy

As promised, I watched the Leeds game and here's my verdict. Wherever the ball is he's always close by. If the opposition have it he's torchering them to get it back. If his teammates have it he's there to lend a hand. One minute he's in the oppositions box, 15 seconds later and he's in his own box defending. He really does put in some work rate. None of his passes were misplaced. Plenty of crosses or hopeful balls would have failed to find a player but no passes you'd be roaring at the telly if you had a large bet on Wigan.

It's only after looking at him tonight that I realised how different his roles were for club and country. I've seen him play for Wigan a few times this season but never really studied Kavanagh's game. He was literally an anchorman for Ireland. With Wigan he is up and down that pitch all day. At Cardiff/Stoke he was more an attacking midfielder than anything. I just don't feel partnering Kilbane does him any favours. If he was to partner Reid he'd be able to get forward and Reid has the ability to cover for him.

I was looking at the match trying to pick out a clip of Kavanagh in one end attacking and rushing back to defend. I couldn't find anything great. These pics sum him up though:

He sends a cross into the box from the right which gets headed out at the back post
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/5443/kav118po.jpg

5 seconds later and he's over tackling someone to win the ball back.

and 3 seconds later he actually has the ball back because of that pressure.

He set up Wigan's 2nd and 3rd goal. I've uploaded the 2nd assists because 1) its a decent cross and 2) He's not even the captain but look at him ordering everyone about. I'm not sure who the first person he's talking to is but he's listening to him anyway. I don't know why he isn't Wigan captain but he should be. When he's on form like Tuesday he completely sticks out in the Wigan team. Imo he's the main reason they're 6th in the premiership.

http://media.putfile.com/kav-cross

He's a decent passer, tackler, a work horse and a leader. Exactly what we need with Cunningham and Keane retired.

Lemlin

Wigan won't be 6th much longer in the Premiership. Just look at how their form has started to slip. Teams aren't underestimating them anymore.

They're going to have a tough time for the rest of this season and next season. Then we'll really see how good Kavanagh is.

Jivin Turkey

Lemlin wrote:

Wigan won't be 6th much longer in the Premiership. Just look at how their form has started to slip. Teams aren't underestimating them anymore.

They're going to have a tough time for the rest of this season and next season. Then we'll really see how good Kavanagh is.

I would imagine that this would be the time for Kavanagh to stand out, while the other more creative and flash players begin to fall by the wayside.