Fearful for Irish team this weekend

darkman2

Im very concerned that we may be about to witness the worst 6 days in Irish international soccer for years probrably since the 0-0 to Lichtenstien. Even with a full squad we are questionable but now we have a littany of injuries, the most important being Shay Given. How will we cope without our best and most influential player? What about the manager - can he even manage? Our squad is weak and tbh Cyprus will give us a game, thats for sure and Ive a feeling we will lose in Cyprus and at home. Given the weakness of the squad it will be a miracle if we are still in the qaulification race come Wednesday. We have to resort to Clinton Morrison ffs. That means we have huge problems and I think Staunton knows we are up against it. Keane cant score goals for Ireland atm and Duff ends up running around like a headless chicken because he never recieves the ball:mad: Liam Miller - why is he in the squad and John O'Shea is wasting his time. He plays lazy football and makes stupid errors that have cost us before. Kilbane cant play football - end of story and the absence of the brilliant Kevin Doyle is gonna really hurt us. Over to Clinton then, to suprise us! I think qaulification hopes will end on Saturday. Were gonna be found out.

gustavo

We dont know how good we are yet thats the way i look at it, We will know a lot more this time next week, Sure Stan has made a few baffling decisions but lets give him the benefit of the doubt and see where we stand after this series of games.

eirebhoy

Team that beat Cyprus 3-0 at home:

Given, Carr, O'Brien, Cunningham, O'Shea, Kilbane, Kavanagh, Andy Reid, Duff, Keane, Morrison.

The difference for this game will be Kenny for Given, Finnan for Carr, Dunne for Cunningham, someone for Kavanagh, McGeady for A.Reid.

I don't think the team we field on Saturday will be any weaker than the above lineup and with Steven Reid, Andy Reid, Kevin Doyle, Shay Given, Lee Carsley (apparantly back for the next squad) and Ian Harte out, among others, I'm relatively happy with our squad tbh.

eirebhoy

Here is FM Genie's opinion on our best 11, excluding injuries:
Shay Given

Steve Finnan
Ian Harte
Richard Dunne
Andy O'Brien

Aiden McGeady
Damien Duff
Steven Reid
Andy Reid

Robbie Keane
Kevin Doyle

Vokes

Can't really argue with that 11, eirebhoy. It looks pretty decent. Except for maybe A. Reid - I can't remember seeing him perform at Premiership level in CentreMid.

tdv

Judging from the past couple of games I think we will be lucky to come away with a point against Cyprus & be lucky not to be totally out-played by the Czech's. Cant see how were going to score a goal, we have'nt created a clear cut chance in the past 3 games we've played & I know Morrison is one of the best strikers in the world & all that but we have problems pretty much in every posistion

Paul Tergat

I think the midfield lacks balance there, too many attack minded players....steven reid being the most likely to "hold" but he isnt really good at that role IMO...i dread to say it but id say O'Shea would get the nod there jus for the purpose of balance!

Other than that though it looks fairly decent, just wonder if Keane and Doyle could form a good understanding!?

wba88

I hope McShane gets to play. nice to see a wba player play for ireland. And his is actually good!

eirebhoy

SofaKing wrote:

Can't really argue with that 11, eirebhoy. It looks pretty decent. Except for maybe A. Reid - I can't remember seeing him perform at Premiership level in CentreMid.

I think it's only a matter of time before he's playing regularly in the centre. He's like a clone of Emre really, excellent passer and always willing to get stuck in.

I actually agree with p_larkin99. The lineup is too attacking. I suppose though it's no more attacking than a S.Reid-Kilbane partnership which would have probably started Saturday's game if Reid was available. I wouldn't really say O'Shea's great in the holding role either. It's worth a try.

tdv wrote:

Cant see how were going to score a goal, we have'nt created a clear cut chance in the past 3 games we've played

I think McGeady will make a difference on that front. He has 7 assists already this season, 3 of which were excellent through balls. I can also remember another defence splitting through ball to Naylor who then sent it across for Zurawski to tap in. It's a long time since we had a player that can do that. He may be untested against the better teams but Cyprus away should be the ideal start for him.

Paul Tergat

eirebhoy wrote:

I actually agree with p_larkin99. The lineup is too attacking. I suppose though it's no more attacking than a S.Reid-Kilbane partnership which would have probably started Saturday's game if Reid was available. I wouldn't really say O'Shea's great in the holding role either. It's worth a try.

he's a short term solution IMO, don't rate him in any role!

the other thing being that he usually doesnt try too hard, he'll coast thorugh a game and do bit here and bit there but to be honest he's just lazy!

eirebhoy wrote:

I think McGeady will make a difference on that front.

to be honest im not sure if there is room for a team with 2 strikers (Keane and Doyle) and McGeady... if McGeady is to play (which i hope he does!) i could see him playing off Keane up front, which sadly then leaves Doyle out of the team!

It's just a shame that they couldn't have brought McGeady into a friendly and see if he can play in a team with both Keane and Doyle but i guess the injuries arent helping the team either!

eirebhoy

I'm sure he can. Celtic play with 2 strikers in every game with McGeady on the left and Nakamura on the right. He does as much work off the ball as you could ask for a winger. He doesn't seem to have a preferred foot but I presume he's naturally right footed as Strachan plays wrong footed players on either wing so they'll drift inside often. A bit like Barca.

gosplan

I think we'll take the points against cyprus and then mess up against the czech republic. We do however need six points given that we'll probably drop points to wales.

Despite all the predictions and permutations that will surface down the road, for me, Irealand are out if they don't win these games. This means that my stress levels can take a break for the larger part of a qualifying campaign.

The Kerr thing with all the draws and possibilities had me in pieces.