Irish National Team

gosplan

There's only so much football news you can get out of weeks without actual football. I'm really bored with all this rubbish transfer talk so decided to start a thread on a different topic:

The Irish national side.

Simple enough, AFAIK McGeedy has looked very good in training/preseason. Also Kevin Nolan has made a small noise about perhaps coming on board.

So the first part of this thread will be your opinion of the future of the front half of the irish team. Thats the six pleyers in midflied and attack plus subs.

As Far as I see it's possibly(i.e. best case scinairo):

Keane;Doyle;Duff;McGeedy;Nolan;O'Shea(erk, dunno about that one).

Anyone else have people they'd see in there sooner? what about subs?

Seaneh

I'd like to see a midfeild/attack of...

Duff S.Reid S.Ireland McGeady


Keane Doyle


With subs being, Morisson, Elliot, A.Reid, Kilbane, Whelan (if his form picks up) Hunt, Gibson (if he gets games at Manyoo) Porter(depending on his involvement at shampton) and a few others starting to develop ofer the qualifying period for the world cup.

gustavo

A Reid / Kavanagh / S Reid / Duff
with a back up of
Kilbane if not left back / McGeady / Miller / Ireland

up front

Keane / Morrison
with back up of Doyle Elliott and Byrne

loyatemu

gosplan wrote:

...also Kevin Nolan has made a small noise about perhaps coming on board.

hasn't it been confirmed that he is ineligible?

johnos

gosplan wrote:

weeks without actual football

:eek:
Get them blinkers off.

gosplan

johnos wrote:

:eek:
Get them blinkers off.

jesus, obviously. Can't believe I even said that

gosplan

Seaneh: Was S.Ireland playing consistantly for Man City during the latter half of last year?? I remember seeing some great stuff from him early on in the season but it seemed to fade(although so did city in general:D )

and gistavo, not sure if I'd agree with the Andy Reid thing. IMO match fitness is bloody vital.....apart from Mcateer vrs Holland which everyone will nowprobably point out

Magic Pips

what about McAteer vs holland eh eh eh???

lol

:rolleyes:

Didn't Nolan not want to play for us, and its only now that he can't get into the england squad...? f*ck him...

What we need to do is sort out the Irish football scene, i wonder how much money is spent per annum on the FA Premier League (shirts, tickets, club memberships, plane tickets, accomodation)

imagine that was pumped into the Irish league?

Limerick Dude

Keane Doyle

Duff S.Reid Kavanagh ??????

i have no idea who to put on the right any suggestions?

a.reid is not getting any games with spurs and is unfit......

or you could play s.reid on the right and then ireland in the middle......

event

kevin nolan cannot play for ireland

end of story

Big Ears

Magic Pips wrote:

imagine that was pumped into the Irish league?

Or better yet the League of Ireland .

Pigman II

I don't think I've ever been so disenchanted going into a qualification campaign. Don't get me wrong, I think we could do ok but at this stage I really don't care anymore.

eirebhoy

I can't see Morrison troubling Germany's central defence too much so I'd prefer 2 pacy players up front. Keane is obvious but I'd partner him with Elliott or Doyle depending on form. There really is little point in playing Morrison against them as I couldn't see him winning much in the air with the height difference.

Limerick Dude wrote:

i have no idea who to put on the right any suggestions?

For the first time in his career I now feel McGeady is the best option we have for the right wing. He looks a different player this season and has improved in every area in which he was weak (strength, decision making, final ball). /edit - his work off the ball is also top class for a winger. He doesn't just close down the opposing player like Duff but his tackling is excellent.

Seaneh

Yeah I feel with his pace, ability to go past players like they aren't there and his ever improving distribution McGeady is our best option for the right hand side.

He is constantly putting in games like he had against milan a few seasons ago now and he looks like he is getting better every few weeks.

The second I saw Alesandro Nesta stand up and clap after Mcgeady had left him on his arse I knew the young lad was going to be special.

[Jackass]

........Keane.........Doyle.........
Duff.........................McGeady
........Kavanagh.......S.Reid.......

Limerick Dude

DubGuy wrote:

........Keane.........Doyle.........
Duff.........................McGeady
........Kavanagh.......S.Reid.......

Looks good.

back 4 anyone?

carr dunne o'brien o'shea

Seaneh

Carr Dunne O'Briend Harte for me, he just offers a lot more to the team than O'Shea if you ask me.

gosplan

Seaneh wrote:

Carr Dunne O'Briend Harte for me, he just offers a lot more to the team than O'Shea if you ask me.

I'm totally with Senaeh on this. Harte has been vilified for his lack of decent defending but at least he offers something else as opposed to O'Shea who just offers the bad defending.

IMHO, it could be better to just put a big fencepost in there instead of either of them although Harte can cross the ball better.:D

The priority for Ireland must be attack , we are not going to win games against good opposition 1-0, however if Keane is in the same form as the end of last season, Duff and McGeady are playing well and Doyle builds on his excellent championship season then we can score a good few goals. Harte will add to this.

Any opinions on Steve Kelly?

Oh and pigman, I wouldn't be too down. This Irish team has goals in it, they just have to get confidence and play a ballsy game, Stan could be the man to do that.

gosplan

Sorry, do you lot mean Finna instead of Carr, didn't Carr the quitter quit???

Seaneh

**** finnan in right full for sure!
Never rated carr much.

[Jackass]

Back four has to be:

Harte....Dunne....O'Brien...Finnan

Our two better attacking full backs and we don't have any more solid options. Carr is good and defenatly worthy of mention, but is only as good as finnan in defence, but not as good goin forward.

Centre backs pretty much pick themselves through lack of competition, but not a bad pair all the same, Dunne has really developed into a great centre back...if he keeps developing he'll be top class.

As for O'Shea...wouldn't even make my squad.

gosplan

DubGuy wrote:

Dunne has really developed into a great centre back...if he keeps developing he'll be top class.

I personally love Dunne, the way he plays reminds me of McGrath, obviously not quite at the same level yet but same style and look about him.

Thanx 4 The Fish

He can certainly read the game quite well, he does not have the innate ability that McGrath did, he is sometimes clumsy in the challenge and is often shown up for pace though.

Andrew 83

Although Carr did retire after we failed to qualify for the WC Stan then got him to come out of retirement although he was injured for the friendlies in the spring I think.

This is the first time in ages I don't really have a solid idea what I would consider to be our strongest midfield. While I think McGeady can try to do too much sometimes I've come around to the idea that it would be good to have two out and out wingers with him and Duff (who will hopefully pick up his act now he's left Chelsea) on the wings. In the centre I would probably put S. Reid and Kilbane though I'm not certain. Perhaps Kavanagh for one of them as they're both unpredictable while Kav is solid if unspectacular.

I think Harte offers a good bit to the team except for the obvious lack of positional awareness at times. Levante got promoted too so if he stays there he'll be back in La Liga. Although I'm not mad on Andy O'Brien I'd agree we're short of alternatives so:

Finnan---Dunne---O'Brien----Harte

McGeady----S. Reid---Kilbane----Duff

Doyle---Keane

Limerick Dude

I think s.reid is a definite start, he is a very good player and is good going forward and can get stuck in good too!

Attractive Nun

I think O'Shea deserves a place somewhere tbh, he's not that bad - particularly as a left back.

I'd have

Finnan--O'Brien--Dunne--O'Shea

McGeady--Reid--????--Duff

Keane--Doyle

Undecided on the ???? either Kavanagh or Kilbane, obviously, but I'm not partial to either. Hopefully Ireland can come good, or even Miller if desperation hits. It's a painfully average team we have if we're honest lads.

PHB

I think we should play a 4-3-3, with


a midfield of

O'Shea

---

Gibson

---

S. Reid

---

a front three of

Doyle/Kilbane/McGeady - Keane - Duff


In midfield we are shockingly weak, just as we are up front. I think the best way to maximise our two scoring players of Duff and Keane is to play in a 4-3-3.

As for midfield, Reid is the obvious choice. The other two players just need to be able to pass the ball around and defend well. O'Shea and Gibson are shockingly our best players at doing this. That's a sad day, that's a central defender and a 18 year old kid are the best we have, but from what I've seen, it's all we've got.

That said, without O'Shea in defense, Harte and O'Brien probably have to play, in which case, god help us.

Nalz

PHB wrote:

a midfield of

O'Shea

---

Gibson

---

S. Reid

---

.

We love United.. we do;
We love United.. we do;
We love United.. we do;
Oh...United We Love You!

My Team (Hate to say it but it looks like 4 wingers/wide players in middle of the park!)

---

Given

---

Finnan---Dunne----O'Brien----Harte----

McGeady----S. Reid---Kilbane----Duff-

---

Doyle

---

Keane

---

Sub bench: O Shea

In The Stand: Kavanagh

Big Ears

Given
Finnan--Dunne--O'Brien--Harte

---

Kavanagh

---

McGeady

---

S.Reid

---

Duff

---

Doyle

---

Keane

---

Subs:Kenny ,McCarthy , O'Shea , Kilbane , Morrison

The only reason O'Shea is there ahead of Carr is because he capable of playing in several positions .

It would also be an option to play Finnan at left back and have Carr play in the right .

Darren Gibson is too inexperienced for international football , let him become a regular with his club first(or a regular with a side he is loaned to).

Overall it's an okay team , but past our first 11 we certainly don't have strenght in depth .

Other players that make up my squad: Colgan , A.Reid(if fit) , Stephen Elliot , Alan Maybury , Gary Breen , Alan Quinn , Joey O'Brien , Stephen Ireland , Stephen Kelly , Liam Lawrence .

3 goalkeepers
10 defender
9 midfielders
4 strikers

in a 26 man squad , O'Shea is counted as a defender .
I would also like to see Owen Heary given a chance at International level and Jason Byrne given some proper time to see what he can do at the standard(if only he had more pace ) .
Wes Houlihan , Liam Kearney(see what he's like when he's back from injury) , George O'Callaghan and Joe Gamble are all players I would also like to see given a chance .

PHB

Oh ****e I forgot about Kavanagh[who while people probably didn't notice, was absolutely fantastic for Wigan last year],
change that to

O'Shea

---

Kavanagh

---

S. Reid

---

eirebhoy

Hopefully Owen Garvan continues on from last season's form as he seems the most likely to make it atm.

RE*AC*TOR

I still have major concerns over JO'S. In all the time I've seen him playing in an Ireland shirt, I've found him unconvincing. He's had better performance in a red shirt, but then he is surrounded by more quality.

Time will tell I guess.

BaZmO*

Seaneh wrote:

The second I saw Alesandro Nesta stand up and clap after Mcgeady had left him on his arse I knew the young lad was going to be special.

Does anybody happen to have a clip of that by any chance?

Seaneh

PHB wrote:

I think we should play a 4-3-3, with


a midfield of

O'Shea

---

Gibson

---

S. Reid

---

a front three of

Doyle/Kilbane/McGeady - Keane - Duff


In midfield we are shockingly weak, just as we are up front. I think the best way to maximise our two scoring players of Duff and Keane is to play in a 4-3-3.

As for midfield, Reid is the obvious choice. The other two players just need to be able to pass the ball around and defend well. O'Shea and Gibson are shockingly our best players at doing this. That's a sad day, that's a central defender and a 18 year old kid are the best we have, but from what I've seen, it's all we've got.

That said, without O'Shea in defense, Harte and O'Brien probably have to play, in which case, god help us.

pull head out of your man u shirt for a second fub, you know full well that John O'Shea just isnt good enough to play sentre midfeild at international level!
Gbison hasnt started a premierleague game yet and is a tad slight for the level and in all honest your the most club biased poster ever!

PHB

pull head out of your man u shirt for a second fub, you know full well that John O'Shea just isnt good enough to play sentre midfeild at international level!
Gbison hasnt started a premierleague game yet and is a tad slight for the level and in all honest your the most club biased poster ever!

I already pointed out I forgot about Kavanagh, but after Kavanagh, there isn't another midfielder who can play in a 4-3-3 as the defensive one availible, we just don't have the players.

John O'Shea isn't good enough to play international football in midfield, but then again, nobody is for Ireland, it's just what we have.

John O'Shea is our,
best left back,
2nd best CB(after Dunne),
2nd best DMC(after Kavanagh, although O'Shea and Giggs dominated Kavanagh so...),
3rd best right back(after Finnan and Carr)

It's a sad state of affairs, but it's the state of affairs.


As a team, we are very very weak, and the only chance to have to win, is to play a 4-5-1/4-3-3, relying on Duff + Keane + x to score us goals, and the rest of the team to defend and no **** up.

Seaneh

Every single post you make makes me believe more and more that you know absolutly nothing about football.


Did you ever even play, even at school boy level?
I could name many many better irish centre midfeilders better than O'shea, as for Kavanagh, I'd rate him behind Reid as a centre midfeilder by a mile.

PHB

I could name many many better irish centre midfeilders better than O'shea, as for Kavanagh, I'd rate him behind Reid as a centre midfeilder by a mile.

Please do. I'm sure there are many many many irish center midfielder who have proven themselves at any sort of top level.

As for A. Reid, he played what, 2 minutes of football last year? Also, he is an attacking midfielder, not a defensive one.

Rikand

Limerick Dude wrote:

or you could play s.reid on the right and then ireland in the middle......

you cant have steven reid anywhere else but the centre of the park, it'd be a crime against football and a disaster for ireland. hes badly needed there

---

Given

---

Finnan---Dunne----O'Brien----Harte----

McGeady----S. Reid---Kilbane----Duff-

---

Doyle

---

Keane

---

nice one trilla, thats probably bang on the best team we could possibly field

Seaneh

Stephen Reid is who I was talking and if you couldn't even figure that out then I don't know what to say to you.

Joey O'Brien is a better midfeilder than O'Shea, Holland is a better midfeilder than O'Shea, Alan Quinn is a better Midfeilder than O'Shea, Kilbane is a better centre midfeilder than O'Shea, and a better holding midfeilder than o'shea, Glenn Whelan (even with last years form) is a better midfeilder than O'Shea, O'Callaghan is a better midfeilder than O'shea, Gamble is a better Midfeilder than O'shea, Kearney is a better midfeilder than O'shea, Liam Lawrence is a better centre midfeilder than O'shea, Sean thorton (despite the league he plays in) is a better midfeilder than O'Shea.

as for andy reid being an attacking midfeilder, yes you are right, but seeing as you seem obsessed with using opta index stats for judgeing how good a player is, check his tackle per game, secussfull tackle per game rates and other defence related rated and I'd almost bet he comes out higher than O'shea!

I'd rather play Damien rushe from athlone centre midfeild than John O'shea, the lad is both footed, but only the the sense that he can't pass the ball more than 5 yards with either foot!

and he is irelands 3 best left full (finnan is better there than oshea, harte is also better than oshea as a full back)

as a centre back and centre midfeiler he laks the vital components to be a good player in the posistions, a footballing brain and ability to read the game, he has almost everything else.

I'd rate the following as better centre backs than JOS.

richard Dunne, Andy O'Brien, Paul McShane, Patrick McCarty, feckit i'd put Breen in there too because he atleast can read the game a bit!

john o'shea is a vicitim of mis-coaching, he could have been a very good full back, or an average centre back if only he'd been told "this is your posistion, this is where you play, no more mving you about, your sorted" instead of being flung about by SAF whenever someone was a bit tired and didnt feel like playing and poor john gets stuck in his thrid differaing posistion in 5 games, hasnt a clue whats going on any more and calls his mammy complainging that maybe he should have just joined the guards and stayed playing as a half back for his local GGA clubs, because sure **** it atleast he'd know what was expected of him.

Seaneh

actually, you can add Rowlands from QPR and Hunt from Reading to my list of centre midfeild players I'd rate ahead of John O'Shea.


May aswell throw Neill, my mate from an astro turf game i play at the weekends in there too, atleast he can see a siple pass!

PHB

Stephen Reid is who I was talking and if you couldn't even figure that out then I don't know what to say to you.

Not sure how you can get Reid into the same team twice, but if you can, could you do it with Duff and Keane?

As for the rest of your post, well, he's currently got 3 medals, a league winners medal, a FA Cup winners medal, and a a league cup winners medal, playing a lot of games in all of those years.

Just looking at your list, you listed 10 other midfielders who were better than him.
None of them have played in Europes top flight ever.
Many of them havn't even a cap at international level.
One of them is a right-winger (Lawrence)
One plays in League Two(Thornton)
And most importantly of all, none of them have won a medal at any level.

You also left out Liam Miller, who I assume you think is better than O'Shea aswell.

O'Shea is all we have, whether we like it or not. And whether you like it or not, Kerr seems to agree with me.

Seaneh

O'Callagahan, Kearney, Gamble, Lawrence, Thornton never won medels?

eircom league and the championship redundant now?

Nalz

Jaysus John O Shea isnt that bad...I hate the way people start naming people thats better than him and they probably never watched them play, or not a tenth of the time the watch John O Shea. He's an average player, but Ireland is an average team...plus he had a great first season at United, and did well enough last year. Whos to say that form might come back (we can all pray). Listing every Irish player or every player than can play for Republic sayin theyre better than him is just a load of bollíx and a waste of time.

Alot of those players PHB won medals in Championship

EDIT: as Seaneh pointed out (bout medals)

Seaneh

Trilla wrote:

Jaysus John O Shea isnt that bad...I hate the way people start naming people thats better than him and they probably never watched them play, or not a tenth of the time the watch John O Shea. He's an average player, but Ireland is an average team...plus he had a great first season at United, and did well enough last year. Whos to say that form might come back (we can all pray). Listing every Irish player or every player than can play for Republic sayin theyre better than him is just a load of bollíx and a waste of time.

Alot of those players PHB won medals in Championship

I honestly feel that John O'Shea is one of the worst centre midfeilders Ireland have.

As a full back he is fine, average but if his form returned id play him ahead of harte, as a centre back, if he could ever learn to just NOT PANIC he'd be a great squad player, but as a centre midfeilder he is kack!

Seaneh

haha, just noticed I forgot Stephen Ireland from my list, so throw him in there aswell.

And Daren Potter... jesus there are a lot!

PHB

Fair enough, I forgot about championship medals, the EL, I couldn't care less about.

Anyway, enjoy watching O'Shea in an Irish shirt for a long time, probably for a good while in central midfield until new kids emerge.

Of course he is a ****e defensive midfielder, the problem is that, the rest are all ****e too, and he is the best we have at it.

Seaneh

You're wrong, you just are, if anything you could argue that he should be playing ahead of harte or O'Brien, but as a midfeild player he lacks so so so much it scares me to think of him playing there, I'd rather pull kinsella out of the cupboard and play him there, and that in itself is a scary thought!

John O'Shea as a centre midfeilder is as weeks as robbie keane as a left full, it's just a bad idea, LEAVE IT OUT!

PHB

I don't need to argue that he is better than O'Brien and Harte, he will automatically be picked ahead of them, and people will learn to accept it.

As for midfield, he can sit in front of the defense and kick the ball back up the pitch pretty well. He can protect the defense, and pass the ball over a short distance to somebody who can do something else with it.
When playing as the most defensive midfielder in a 4-3-3, that's what you need to be able to do, and he can do it.

Seaneh

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no


YOU'RE WRONG!

herbieflowers

I think Kilbane and Reid in the centre would do a better job than O'Shea, after all O'Shea is not a cental midfielder plus his promising career seems to have stalled in recent times...

[Jackass]

This argument reminds me of the game in landsdowne where it was do or die!! beat switzerland and we're in the world cup, or at least a play off!! The biggest game for in most of the players international careers and one of those massie once off games that only comes along in a blue moon for the rest!!

It was a game were players had motivation, passion and desire by default as was the occasion (which unfortunatly didn't show in a few of them)...and I turned around to my mate and said "Jesus O'Shea is playing absolutely sh*t!!" and he (who knows enough about football) said with sincere honesty "Is he playing???"

That's what O'Shea offerd as a "holding midfielder"....nothing.

I watched the game again at home and he was anonamase (sp??) ... Didn't impose himself at all in the game, rarely went for crunching tackles or win the ball back, instead standing off players in possesion and trying to be "in the way" of passing options.

When on the ball (which was passed to him by an Irish player, you can be fu*king sure he didn't win it!!) he was either waistfull, negative or just plain stupid.

He has no pressence, no impact and has been exposed over the last few seasons as a waist of space...and I wouldn't read into him getting his game in one of uniteds weakest defencive and midfield squads in a long time. He has a season left there if even, then off to the championship.