Ireland V Cyprus

A Dub in Glasgo

SR does have an obsession with McGeady - a dislike obsession that borders on irrationality

Raskolnikov

CiaranC wrote: »

Whats your obsession with McGeady here.

He's the type of player that embodies everything that Eircom League fanboys hate. He plays for Celtic and he's Scottish born.

leggo

His final ball was VERY lacking. I thought his heart was great, he wanted the ball, but when push came to shove he didn't provide. Duff's set plays weren't the best either (though he MORE than compensated elsewhere). Neither of them had great material to work with: Keane seemed to settle for hiding behind 2-3 defenders, as if he was working with Beckham, when a cross came in and Doyle was too busy trying to rescue the midfield.

That said, the results ARE there in black and white. Bulgaria aren't matching us in that department. If we can take Montenegro and Georgia at home, Cyprus away we could almost settle for 2 points off Bulgaria and a point against the Italians. That's 19 points (unless I've miscalculated) and doable...

SantryRed

Raskolnikov wrote: »

He's the type of player that embodies everything that Eircom League fanboys hate. He plays for Celtic and he's Scottish born.

It has nothing to do with that:rolleyes:

I've an obsession with him but it's in a good way. I think he's a fantastic footballer but it's the final ball and maybe his footballing brain that needs teaching.

However, he could become an absolute star for Ireland. He's got bags of potential.

kenco

Not the performance we were looking for but we were two first choice players down and were vunerable there. The Reid debate has been held so often it no longer warrents debate.

We signed up to Trap and this is the deal. It was his style with Italy, ugly victories but points on the board. If Reid had played and we got a draw we would be moaning right now but as we are still moaning we should reflect on the table and view this in the context that Ireland never perform against teasm like Cyprus.

Raskolnikov

leggo wrote: »

Duff's set plays weren't the best either (though he MORE than compensated elsewhere).

Shame we don't have a play who can take free ki - Oh wait . . .

eirebhoy

leggo wrote: »

His final ball was VERY lacking.

But yet again he played the pass to Duff for the 1st goal, played the pass to Duff for his chance and played the pass to Doyle for an excellent chance. He set up most of the chances in the first 2 games too. Of course he put the ball into the box at least 10 times tonight for a Cypriot player to clear (which would be classed as poor final ball) but he still played a part in a good few of our chances.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

I think we saw some of Kilbane's weaknesses tonight. At times he didn't get close enough and he gets turned a bit easily, not as much as McShane who was very poor BUT not certainly not our worse performer compared to the planks in the middle of the park.

Dolph Starbeam

Horrible performances out there today, some very good ones though, Doyle and Dunne especially. McGeadys crosses were poor today which is unusual, i still think he has to be in the team, name me someone else wo will do what he does, flip sake Hunt is our next best wide man and he's nothing in comparrison to McGeady. Gibson and Whealan did nothing, i can't undrstand ow anyone would pick them in midfield.

Who i feel really sorry for are the 55,000 who paid to sit in the cold and watch that muck. I couldn't stand watching it and i was sitting at home in front of the fire.

Watch out Italy here we come:rolleyes:

CiaranC

Raskolnikov wrote: »

He's the type of player that embodies everything that Eircom League fanboys hate. He plays for Celtic and he's Scottish born.

Youve quite the chip on your shoulder about real football fans dont you.

newballsplease

CiaranC wrote: »

This "Eamonn Dunphy" character is hilarious. Think ill watch all my football on "television" like the rest of yous from now on, its BRILLIANT

do you know how/when inverted commas should be used?!

Pigman II

If we take anything positive from tonight it is that Duff seems to be back to his best and Gypo Hunt can now stay on the bench.

eirebhoy

I might as well give my ratings.

Given - 7

McShane - 5
Kilbane - 5.5
O'Shea - 6
Dunne - 8.5

Whelan - 5
Gibson - 5
Duff - 8
McGeady - 7

Keane - 7
Doyle - 8.5

Really varied. Trap would given Whelan and Gibson a higher rating and say they did their job but they have to get out of the comfort zone and look at how much Steven Reid isn't afraid to risk disturbing the "system" by moving about constantly.

Pigman II wrote: »

If we take anything positive from tonight it is that Duff seems to be back to his best and Gypo Hunt can now stay on the bench.

We say that all the time. He'll still be mediocre for club level while performing well for Ireland as usual.

Hank Scorpio

shocking performance overall imo
Duff did great and Doyle is really turning into a top top attacker.

The RTE panel were on the ball about our midfield centre partnership. they were totally non existent.
I switched over to sky sports news during the add and heard tony cascarino talk about our strenght was our middle two players, what a load of b0llocks.

Cyprus deserved to at least draw tonight.

Without Stephen Reid glen whelan was really shown up tonight. Can anyone remember him touching the ball?

Dunne outstanding, absolutly brilliant. Without him tonight we wouldnt have won for sure, either him or doyle were MOTM.

Duff excellent, mcgeady played ok but thats now 2 games hes had really good chances and missed them.

Mcshane almost cost up the game , and was CONSTANTLY out of position. Kibane had a ok game.

Overall was a good result and were in a good position but we really need to fix our centre midfield. My preference is stephen ireland and reid but im guessing that will never happen.

Next game will be interesting

CiaranC

newballsplease wrote: »

do you know how/when inverted commas should be used?!

I was born with a rare disease which makes me unable to "determine" where or when inverted commas should "be" used. Also, I HAVE trouble with capital letters intejected randomly INTO sentences.

Why are none of you people at the match btw?

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Thought McGeady played well, yes he should have scored and his end product was lacking once or twice but is a damn sight better than Hunt who should only be used as a impact sub. At least he can go past his man or at least cut and run/pass inside unlike Hunt who has the touch of a rapist.

McShane was lucky that Cypriot left winger got injured in the warm-up, he was very poor tonight but may had two arseholes had it not been for luck.

newballsplease

Did anyone else hear Dunphy before the start of the game saying(i think trap)& A.Reid fell out 'over a sing song', i wonder what he meant by this??
Over nothing or was reid mouthing off stuff or what? ive no idea, but if anyone knows something it would probably be dunphy! he usually likes the people to know whats happening, clearly something is wrong between reid and trap.
Talk about injustice, Trap asking S.Ireland to come back and play, and A.Reid who desperatly wants to play for his country and deserves his place, will not be sniffed at by a manager clearly set in his old ways.

SantryRed

newballsplease wrote: »

, will not be sniffed at by a manager clearly set in his old ways.

OMG, I can't believe this. This is laughable. We KNEW Trap was going to come in and manage HIS way. We've 7 points from a possible 9.

Do you want him to go 4-3-3 next against Georgia to accomodate Reid just because he isn't playing the way people like?

GET OVER IT.

newballsplease

CiaranC wrote: »

Why are none of you people at the match btw?

e70/50 euro a ticket
travelling expenses: e25
food:e15
drink: god knows

SantryRed

newballsplease wrote: »

e70/50 euro a ticket
travelling expenses: e25
food:e15
drink: god knows

Wasn't going to get into a debate like this but what other matches are you going to be spending money on soon?

eirebhoy

newballsplease wrote: »

Did anyone else hear Dunphy before the start of the game saying(i think trap)& A.Reid fell out 'over a sing song', i wonder what he meant by this??

Reid plays guitar if that has anything to do with anything. Anyway, Trap said after the Montenegro game that Reid was written down as his first choice sub to bring on but he didn't feel the need to make changes. Reid wouldn't have played in this campaign yet whether there was a row or not.

Hank Scorpio

do u think if trap had a problem with reid he wud be in the squad in the first place? i doubt it

SectionF

A few very strong performances -- Doyle was great and it's good to see Duff back in form -- but as a team effort it was a shambles. No leadership, no vision, no plan.
If a Pat Fenlon team indulged in that much hoofing virtually non-stop for 94 minutes they'd be crucified. This was Cyprus. And not even all of Cyprus at that!

newballsplease

SantryRed wrote: »

OMG, I can't believe this. This is laughable. We KNEW Trap was going to come in and manage HIS way. We've 7 points from a possible 9.

Do you want him to go 4-3-3 next against Georgia to accomodate Reid just because he isn't playing the way people like?

GET OVER IT.

imo we are very very lucky to have 7 points, only for whelans jammy goal against georgia it could have been different. Montenegro should have battered us in the first half. we got out of jail tonight, it could have so easily been a draw.

can nobody else see, we STILL arnt a team playing well at all.

CiaranC

SantryRed wrote: »

OMG, I can't believe this. This is laughable. We KNEW Trap was going to come in and manage HIS way. We've 7 points from a possible 9.

Do you want him to go 4-3-3 next against Georgia to accomodate Reid just because he isn't playing the way people like?

GET OVER IT.

Why does he have to go 4-3-3? Do you know anything about football or are you just spoofing on here for a laugh?

CiaranC

newballsplease wrote: »

e70/50 euro a ticket
travelling expenses: e25
food:e15
drink: god knows

Ive missed one game now, food and drink buying being mandatory must be a new thing. Have the GAA brought it in?

juvenal

Watched the game on RTÉ, and just happened to have Setanta on now, and Pat Dolan is a f**king TOOL. I will personally volunteer to go to the Setanta studios for FREE, and engage in some debate with him. The problem in that studio is there's no dissenting voice, and Dempsey is just facilitating his idiotic ramblings. First it's Trap's English language skills, then it's the attendance, then it's Reid, CAN YOU ANALYSE THE F**KING MATCH AND SPORT YOU TW@T :mad::mad::mad:

Thank GOD RTÉ have the rights to the internationals.

I think it was a good result, but for a lot of the match it felt like we were playing with nine men, with no presence in the midfield. If the Cypriots had equalised towards the end, you could argue it was deserved, although we had enough opportunities to add to the lead. There was no urgency and it felt like some of the players were treating it as a training ground kick-about at times.

As the match wore on, the defence became more important, and I like the look of O'Shea and Dunne (who was outstanding) in centre-half. Given was usual himself. McShane did just enough, but is nowhere near good enough to be in the side unless it's as an absolutely last resort (and by that I mean that no other able-bodied man in Dublin 3 has his boots with him).

Duff had a good game, and showed glimpses of the form we expect from him. Although I did find it irritating that he was calling for the ball even when he was covered, only to pass it back to a midfielder/defender. He worked hard, tracked back and generally made a nuisance of himself with the ball going forward, topped with a lovely run and fantastic cross for the goal. McGeady played well in phases, although tends to give the ball away/lose it at times. Still worth his place, just needs to keep the head up and use his brain a bit more sometimes, and focus on the finished product.

Kevin Doyle was excellent, and Keane played well in parts, although at other times tended to go missing.

I haven't mentioned the two central midfielders, as while they didn't do a lot wrong, they contributed very little to the performance really. Their lack of focus and guile was abundantly clear at the end when the ball dropped to Whelan, his had a poor touch, and rather than put it in the net/on target from 12 yards, he laid it off to Duff at a tighter angle. Have a pop yourself ffs.

SantryRed

CiaranC wrote: »

Why does he have to go 4-3-3? Do you know anything about football or are you just spoofing on here for a laugh?

What?

I know a good bit about football, making a point if TRap wants to play Gibson and Whelan let him. Newballsplease wants Reid in too.

Hence 4-3-3 to accomodate three centre midfield players

Comprendé?

kenco

Dunne, Given and Doyle were supreme. The rest ordinary. The first two we are blessed that this is nothing less than we expect or what they deliver. God only knows what would happen without Dunne and Given but that said this is also the strength of the great teams so you never know...

conceited

Keane is ****e.

eirebhoy

newballsplease wrote: »

imo we are very very lucky to have 7 points, only for whelans jammy goal against georgia it could have been different. Montenegro should have battered us in the first half. we got out of jail tonight, it could have so easily been a draw.

can nobody else see, we STILL arnt a team playing well at all.

We played well for large periods against Montenegro and Georgia. A combination of physchology and defensive tactics led to the opposition having spells on the ball. We looked very good though with the ball. Tonight was a different story. Reid badly missed.

newballsplease

CiaranC wrote: »

Ive missed one game now, food and drink buying being mandatory must be a new thing. Have the GAA brought it in?

some of us have to take an early day to watch a match......
just because your from the capital doesnt mean we can all have our mammys dinner 15 minutes before the game and skip along into watch the match.
and drink..... because sometimes ya have to have a drink to calm the nerves watching Ireland play.

Mr.Nice Guy

Pat Dolan spouting some sh*te. Apparently Trap is arrogant and callous. :rolleyes:

CiaranC

SantryRed wrote: »

What?

I know a good bit about football, making a point if TRap wants to play Gibson and Whelan let him. Newballsplease wants Reid in too.

Hence 4-3-3 to accomodate three centre midfield players

Comprendé?

The point I was getting at was the lad could have easily played this evening ahead of those two headless reserve team chickens without upsetting the formation.

Fahy for Ireland anyways. (/has dreams of fahy dropping off, holding up the ball, picking a run, spraying a pass....)

Hank Scorpio

dolan is a absolute fat cnut.
he has no idea about football.
even his newspaper columns make me cringe.

if i seen him on a night out i seriously wud slap him.

CiaranC

newballsplease wrote: »

some of us have to take an early day to watch a match......
just because your from the capital doesnt mean we can all have our mammys dinner 15 minutes before the game and skip along into watch the match.
and drink..... because sometimes ya have to have a drink to calm the nerves watching Ireland play.

Do you have to do an excuses course to support association football in Ireland or what?

newballsplease

CiaranC wrote: »

Do you have to do an excuses course to support association football in Ireland or what?

nah your just an ignorant typical dub

sdanseo

Just back from this - (and iirc haven't posted in here before so go easy :rolleyes: ) - Mo cúpla phingin:

Get RID oif McSahne. He's absolutely useless. Anyone notice the moment where he legged it up for the throw only to be shunned and Doyle (i think) took it instead? Just shows what even his teammates think of him. Sorry, but he has to go for now - let him have practice when it's not competitive and in a few years he'll be of an international standard. Hopefully.

Duff was excellent I thought. It was like watching ameteurs at some stages tbh, but whenever he got the ball all I could hear around me was 'look at the strength, look at the skill' - though he did very well. Keane - the goal says it but he should definately have taken that shot ~70mins instead of layting off to Doyle. Given gave a fantastic all-rounder as usual. The rest were average.

Andy Reid though should have been given a chance at least, I'm terrible dissapointed. He can;t prove himself to Trap otherwise. Oh, and about 60,000 people officially want to catsrate the referee - someone needs to post both he and the nearside linesman a copy of the rulebook. The number of atrocious decisions and that ruckuss at the end were unbelieveable.

juvenal

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Pat Dolan spouting some sh*te. Apparently Trap is arrogant and callous. :rolleyes:

Seriously, I haven't watched Setanta's analysis, despite having every Setanta channel available to me - I usually turn it off after the match is over.

I can't BELIEVE the S*ITE that comes out of his mouth. It's total bile, you'd swear he was passed over for the job himself and he had an axe to grind.:mad:

SectionF

CiaranC wrote: »

Fahy for Ireland anyways.

Seconded. Probability of that happening before he wears a British club shirt: 0.

CiaranC

newballsplease wrote: »

nah your just an ignorant typical dub

Good man

FrankGrimes

I didn't notice any ruckuss at the end - what was that about?

As a pragmatic supporter dying to see us qualify for the World Cup, I fully acknowledge there's days you'll be glad to say 'we didn't play to our ability tonight, but we got 3 points'. My problem with tonight though is we didn't try to play to our full ability. There were some excellent individual peformances, and some very poor ones, but my beef is with the system and instructions the manager sent his team out with.

I can just about tolerate conservative tactics away from home (though I fully believe in the 'if we got one goal why can't we get another' ethos), but I was expecting more ambition tonight in our first game at home and against understrength and average opponents.

I've been saying it for a good while, but tonight just served to emphasis how crucial a player Steven Reid is for us and hopefully will continue to be. You could take a short-sighted approach and say "well Gibson and Whelan didn't do anything shockingly bad" but that's being overly simplistic - a midfield should stamp their presence on a game much more than this pair did tonight. If the manager didn't see fit to bring on Reid tonight that says to me there's more than football involved - either Trap's ego refusing to budge or they've had a falling out (which I agree is confusing if Reid is in the squad at all) as Trap knows enough about football to understand that a continuity player like Reid was needed tonight.

I thought he'd abandon his ultra-conservative instructions to the fullbacks since we were at home (when was the last time we saw a fullback overlap?), so that was disappointing, and just like our Boards.ie team last night meant the defence was too deep and left too much space in the middle for our midfield to marshal (yes I did just make that comparison!). On the other hand, Killer is doing a solid job defensively and you can't expect much more from him and McShane is clearly not comfortable on the ball, so maybe with better attacking fullbacks we might have seen them pressing up, which really changes the shape of a game. What a big loss Finnan is.

So on the pragmatic side I'm delighted with the 3 points but the 'we have 7 out of 9 what more do you want' attitude is as short-sighted as a poker player who's made a terrible call but hits a runner runner gutshot straight thinking he's the man. Address a risk before it actualizes into an issue - don't turn around after it's happened and say you thought it'd happen.

Have to say though he has engendered a clear spirit in the team - players are willing to work that bit extra for him, which is a good sign.

So, 7 out of 9, lots of pros and lots of cons...the good thing is most of our problems are of our own making and if the manager has the courage, can be addressed fully.

zAbbo

Just back from the game, and I have to say I enjoyed it, good interesting game.

But the real downer for me was some of our disgraceful fans, swearing, impatient and downright moronic.

Why some people feel the need to constantly berate the players on more or less every decesion they made which was extremely disappointed.

Yes, someone should have passed quicker, or shot when they passed, or crossed in low/high - some of our fans can't get behind players and encourage the team.

I'm just contrasting this with any rugby game I've been with, where a mistake will get a collective groan, but followed by a 'Cmon', 'Hard Luck' or 'Next Time' and not 'For Fawk Saaake XXX ya useless cnut'

I'm sure we can all appreciate that with higher quality players, the easier the game is, and we certainly don't have a bunch of world beaters in our team, evident by two reserve players playing centre midfield.

On the performances, I thought Doyle was superb, closed down and chased everything, while winning more than his share in the air.

Duff looked back to his best, easily our best threat on the ball, looked jaded near the end - but it's good to just see Duff looking hungry and taking on full backs.

McGeady is a real talent, looks much more focused under Trap, obviously needs to improve his decision making and final ball, but was a threat all game.

Dunne was superb, without him at CB - we certainly would have conceded tonight, put his body on the line and commanded the defence really well. Just watching him makes you appreciate how good of a defender he is.

McShane, for someone who's the butt of most jokes, he's not that bad a player, some lapses in judgement - but he done the job tonight. Sure he's not Paulo Maldini. What he might lack in full back skills, he made up in effort. Out of position - but done alright.

Overall, things are looking positive, just because we punched above our weight before, doesn't mean we're not humble enough to take a 1-0 win over Cyprus and move onto the next game. The team obviously have much more focus under Trap, 6 defensive players, and 4 attacking players - again nothing was run through our CM, with Duff and McGeady the main attacking channels.

I'd be happy with that, hold our own at the back and CM - and hit them with the qualities we have out wide and up front, might not be pretty but at least it's not losing 5-2.

Just a quick scan through some of the posts here, and it's easy to mock players (fun too), but please give alternatives - and consider how they'll fit in with Trappers game plan.

Job done, 3 points, next.

dsmythy

Raskolnikov wrote: »

Like I said, as long as we're getting the results, I will accept his selection.

7 points from 9 is a decent haul. If we can make it 10 from 12 with a home win at Georgia, we're going to put some pressure on Bulgaria.

And then reality hits and we realise we can't beat Cyprus in Cyprus, we can't get the draws away to the two main rivals like we used to and we can only draw at home against said sides rather than grab wins like we used to.

Whelan and Gibson should never play side by side again.

Boggles

Was very worried before the game with Traps team selection.

Whelan will never be a premiership footballer let alone an international midfielder, Gibson hasn't played a full competitive football match in 6 months. For any manager to pair that midfield in a world cup qualifier is reckless in the extreme.

We were so lucky tonight that Cyprus were missing 4 or 5 key individuals, without heroics from Doyle, Dunne and Given Traps selection would have surpassed the over 70s medical card for outrage of the week.

I have mixed emotions of depression and relief after watching that shambles.

MisterAnarchy

nuxxx wrote: »

dolan is a absolute fat cnut.
he has no idea about football.
even his newspaper columns make me cringe.

if i seen him on a night out i seriously wud slap him.

I agree ,he is an absolute buffoon.
The tripe he comes out with is astounding.
Only last week he was saying that 'Gerard and Lampard dont play well together because of the English fans' and then he said Benitez was as good a manager as Paisley and Shankley .:D

estebancambias

Delighted with the result, but thats where the elation stops.

The midfield selection was plain wrong.

newballsplease

Ok so can anyone tell me, since we havent seen 1 minute of A.Reid in this qualification group.....
Is he ever going to feature? is he traps secret weapon for the bulgarians and italians?? i doubt it.

so if we are to say, whelan and s.reid are our first choice central midfield pairing.....does this mean gibson and whelan play when reid is injured or suspended. Does gibson come in for whelan if he is??

If A.reid is selected in the squad for the poland friendly and doesnt play, i surely think he would explode and walk...........If he is selected, plays a blinder..proves his worth, what does trap do then? i suppose its all in the future, but one thing for sure is..... If S.Reid is injured come feb/march/april......and gibson and Whelan line up again, something tells me we wont be getting much out of them games.

_blank_

Given - Excellent 8

McShane - Shíte, 4
O'Shea - Good 6
Dunne - Captain's performance 8
Kilbane - Weak at times 5

McGeady - Brutal end product 6
Duff - Looked sharp, a LOT of tracking back too, 8
Whelan - better of a bad pairing, 5
Gibson - anonymous throughout, 4

Keane - scored, not much else, 6
Doyle - bleedin' fantastic night for him, 10

When Finnan is back, McShane won't get a look in.

We need a midfield general, badly, because S. Reid isn't going to be fit for 60% of games.

A. Reid should have appeared for Gibson.

super_furry

SantryRed wrote: »

Wasn't going to get into a debate like this but what other matches are you going to be spending money on soon?

Shamrock Rovers v St Pat's for me.

€75 for an Ireland v Cyprus ticket is a rip-off. No way I'd pay it.