Ireland, Scotland, Wales - Compare the squads

gosplan

Like it says, rank 1-3 please and reasons why if you're bothered.

Pj!

1. Ireland (ranked 27)
2. Wales (ranked 45)
3. Scotland (ranked 47)

*FIFA rankings

Banjaxed82

Pj! wrote: »

1. Ireland (ranked 27)
2. Wales (ranked 45)
3. Scotland (ranked 47)

*FIFA rankings

Rankings don't lie (in this case).

Ireland has BY FAR the best squad of players.

Fight_Night

Going to go ahead and be biased, I think we have the best and most effective squad. Before the passing of Gary Speed, Wales had a handy enough team that were easy on the eye(their play that is :P) but they've regressed a bit now. Scotland are Scotland, their national setup is a disgrace imo, should be doing so much better.

And squads and individual players aside, we qualified for the playoffs for the World Cup in 2010 and qualified for the Euros in 2012. Wales and Scotland's current squads haven't achieved anything as of yet so hard to say they're better than us.

BOHtox

I'm disappointed Northern Ireland didn't make the cut!

gosplan

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

Rankings don't lie (in this case).

Ireland has BY FAR the best squad of players.

Do you not feel that amid field of Allen, Ramsey and Bale would tear us apart?

Banjaxed82

gosplan wrote: »

Do you not feel that amid field of Allen, Ramsey and Bale would tear us apart?

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/international/2012/0911/337263-serbia-v-wales/

noodler

gosplan wrote: »

Do you not feel that amid field of Allen, Ramsey and Bale would tear us apart?

In theory.

But on the other hand our wingers and strikers would be much too strong for their defence imo.

The poster did say squad in fairness. We have so much more strength in depth.

Sparks43

The Good The Bad and The Ugly:D

wonderfullife

In theory at least Wales are stronger especially going forwards: Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey, Gareth Bale, Bellamy v what McGeady, Whelan, Keane, Andrews....can't see any of our 4 getting in ahead of their 4!!! Morison and Church aint bad either! I think our squad is around the same as the Scots quality wise....

we're by far the better team than both of them though. Like it or not we're well drilled , organised and get results.

Fight_Night

wonderfullife wrote: »

In theory at least Wales are stronger especially going forwards: Joe Allen, Aaron Ramsey, Gareth Bale, Bellamy v what McGeady, Whelan, Keane, Andrews....can't see any of our 4 getting in ahead of their 4!!! Morison and Church aint bad either! I think our squad is around the same as the Scots quality wise....

we're by far the better team than both of them though. Like it or not we're well drilled , organised and get results.

Scotland have more people than us and don't have GAA to compete with. Just don't understand how they aren't producing good national sides. Serious questions to be asked about their youth and senior system. Although been like that for quite a while...

Banjaxed82

noodler wrote: »

In theory.

But on the other hand our wingers and strikers would be much too strong for their defence imo.

The poster did say squad in fairness. We have so much more strength in depth.

Yeah, my theory was based mostly on the squad of players who are not in the current starting 11. We have pretty good strength in depth across the board. Wales lose a couple of players and I think the whole thing crumbles.

IvySlayer

Err hello Nations Cup Champions here

wonderfullife

Fight_Night wrote: »

Scotland have more people than us and don't have GAA to compete with. Just don't understand how they aren't producing good national sides. Serious questions to be asked about their youth and senior system. Although been like that for quite a while...

aye they had a golden generation about the same time as our golden generation but didn't capitalise as much as we did. If you go back say 25 years that scots squad had Dalglish, Souness, McClair, McCoist, Strachan, Hansen, Stevie Nicol, choc-a-bloc with title winners and class footballers......fast forward to nowadays and you have a team containing Dixon (huddersfield town), Mackie (QPR squad player) and Berra (Wolves). enough said. Had to google Dixon and all.

Banjaxed82

Fight_Night wrote: »

Scotland have more people than us and don't have GAA to compete with. Just don't understand how they aren't producing good national sides. Serious questions to be asked about their youth and senior system. Although been like that for quite a while...

Roger Sterling

The difference between us and them is the one thing people bitch about incessantly over here. Trap.

We have a panel thats arguably weaker than them on paper but the manager has them well drilled and organised and working for each other.

When hes gone and we've the ex Irish international equivalents of Coleman and Levein in charge you will all realise what we have now.

TheBuilder

Take out Craig Levein and put in a manager who will go out to win rather than not to lose and Scotlsnd would be a different side, the difference was visible tonight even when he put two up front.

Levein is more interested in himself than the team, he won't resolve differences with Steven Fletcher, Lee Wallace is the best left back in the country but won't pick him, he should've been sacked immediately after plsying 4-6-0 against the Czechs.

Say what you like about trap, but he has a team of hard working, battling players playing for him, it was visible tonight Scotland don't have belief in themselves or Levein.

Coillte_Bhoy

wonderfullife wrote: »

aye they had a golden generation about the same time as our golden generation but didn't capitalise as much as we did. If you go back say 25 years that scots squad had Dalglish, Souness, McClair, McCoist, Strachan, Hansen, Stevie Nicol, choc-a-bloc with title winners and class footballers......fast forward to nowadays and you have a team containing Dixon (huddersfield town), Mackie (QPR squad player) and Berra (Wolves). enough said. Had to google Dixon and all.

Rekop dog

Think we've the best squad but Bale and Allen would easily be the first two names on the teamsheet if you were picking a combined 11 and possibly Ramsey after that...

Mr.Nice Guy

The Welsh defence is hopeless. Collins is their best defender and I don't really rate him. They have three or four players that would make our first XI but I doubt the rest would.

wonderfullife

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Honestly didn't recognise the name!! I don't watch a lot of Scottish football so he wouldn't have come under my radar at Dundee

Rekop dog

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

The Welsh defence is hopeless. Collins is their best defender and I don't really rate him. They have three or four players that would make our first XI but I doubt the rest would.

Dunno is there much between Myhill and Westwood? Myhill might get in on experience, Ashley Williams is decent, the three obvious Midfielders from Wales would get in, and Keane and Bellers is pretty much a coinflip. Wales have the individuals but we've more depth of good but not outstanding footballers.

Hannibal

Rekop dog wrote: »

Think we've the best squad but Bale and Allen would easily be the first two names on the teamsheet if you were picking a combined 11 and possibly Ramsey after that...

Got me thinking about what a combined XI would look like:

---

Allan McGregor

---

John O'Shea--Ashley Williams--Richard Dunne--Gareth Bale

Aiden McGeady--Darren Fletcher--Joe Allen--Craig Bellamy

---

Steven Fletcher--Robbie Keane

---

Four Irish
Four Welsh
Three Scottish -- although Fletcher is in exile (McGeady is practicaly Scottish aswell)

Apart from Dunne severe lack of quality iin every defence and neither team has a decent left back so Bale gets dropped back. In terms of squad depth the four four Welsh players picked is Wales' only good players and Scotland are not far behind, we have much more squad depth than both those teams put together

wonderfullife

Dotsey wrote: »

Got me thinking about what a combined XI would look like:

---

Allan McGregor

---

John O'Shea--Ashley Williams--Richard Dunne--Gareth Bale

Aiden McGeady--Darren Fletcher--Joe Allen--Craig Bellamy

---

Steven Fletcher--Robbie Keane

---

Four Irish
Four Welsh
Three Scottish -- although Fletcher is in exile (McGeady is practicaly Scottish aswell)

Apart from Dunne severe lack of quality iin every defence and neither team has a decent left back so Bale gets dropped back. In terms of squad depth the four four Welsh players picked is Wales' only good players and Scotland are not far behind, we have much more squad depth than both those teams put together

You'd have to have Aaron Ramsey ahead of Darren Fletcher given his lay-off and uncertain future. I'd agree with most of that side, possibly going 4-5-1 with Fletcher up top Bale wide left, Ramsey-Allen in the middle of the park , McGeady out wide and Bellamy just off Fletcher. Massive Robbie Keane fan but he's coming towards the end now and has been pretty poor recently for us.

Corholio

Roger Sterling wrote: »

The difference between us and them is the one thing people bitch about incessantly over here. Trap.

We have a panel thats arguably weaker than them on paper but the manager has them well drilled and organised and working for each other.

When hes gone and we've the ex Irish international equivalents of Coleman and Levein in charge you will all realise what we have now.

I can imagine, when Trap eventually goes, all the people waiting for Ireland's first loss under the next manager to wheel this out.

If you think Trap is doing all he can with the players at his disposal, fair enough, personally I think it's utter rubbish. Because another manager couldn't have them work for each other and well drilled right? No, apparently just Trap.

Pro. F

Corholio wrote: »

I can imagine, when Trap eventually goes, all the people waiting for Ireland's first loss under the next manager to wheel this out.

If you think Trap is doing all he can with the players at his disposal, fair enough, personally I think it's utter rubbish. Because another manager couldn't have them work for each other and well drilled right? No, apparently just Trap.

Trap doesn't even have them well drilled. This Irish team is terribly disorganised. People just assume that the team is well drilled and organised because we are boring to watch. But the truth is we are boring to watch and disorganised.

Eirebear

Scotland are ****e, and will always underperform.
Ireland will always live off of of the "diaspora" attitude that is inbred engrained in irish cultutre.
Wales are Wales.

Squads compared.

Pineapple stu

http://faw.org.uk/SquadDisplay.ink?Language=ENG

The Welsh Squad.

TerryTibbs!

gosplan wrote: »

Do you not feel that amid field of Allen, Ramsey and Bale would tear us apart?

lol, no.

Do you understand football?

Pinturicchio

1. Ireland
2. Scotland
3. Wales

secman

McGeady would NOT get into a " combined" team ,he's fkucing useless at best.
Can't cross, can't shoot, constantly runs over the end of pitch, yonks ago when we were kids, those type of players were shouted at " Get me an icepop", might as well being running to the shop !

Secman

leonidas83

Roger Sterling wrote: »

The difference between us and them is the one thing people bitch about incessantly over here. Trap.

We have a panel thats arguably weaker than them on paper but the manager has them well drilled and organised and working for each other.

When hes gone and we've the ex Irish international equivalents of Coleman and Levein in charge you will all realise what we have now.

Dont agree with this, if we were giving our young talented players more of a chance, we would have a fine team on paper.

Coleman, McClean, Clark, Long, McCarthy, Holohan, Wilson would strengthen any team and if they were given more a chance we wouldnt even be debating the OPs question.

About the only thing Trappatoni has done is well drill the players but after last Fridays performace even that is debatable.

And its your type of argument above that will have us in doldrems for years to come, just because Trappattoni has a somewhat decent record in qualifying so far. (Bearing in mind we were unbelievably lucky in qualifying for the euros & considering the quality of our qualifying group)Its scant consolation for our abysmal showing at the euros (humiliated), his arrogance in dealing with the majority of our young players, his lack of effort in even attempting to go see our players play in the PL, his stubborness in refusing to change tactics when they blatantly are not working & his cowardice in putting all the blame on the euros debacle on the players shoulders.( Part of the reason why Duff & Given have retired imo).

Backstreet Moyes

Roger Sterling wrote: »

The difference between us and them is the one thing people bitch about incessantly over here. Trap.

We have a panel thats arguably weaker than them on paper but the manager has them well drilled and organised and working for each other.

When hes gone and we've the ex Irish international equivalents of Coleman and Levein in charge you will all realise what we have now.

Are you serious organised. Nobody knew what their role was last Friday. All game McCarthy was dropping deep for the ball and the cb's were strolling past him and hoofing it up the pitch. When they won a header we were short in midfield as McCarthy was deeper than one of the cb's and leaving us exposed. Thats not organised the sad thing is McCarthy will probably be dropped when Andrews is back.

Also a panel weaker than Wales and Scotland are you serious. Who have Wales got Ramsey who has been average since coming back from injury. McCarthy is just as good if not better. Allen who has looked good i dont see much difference with Gibson who has been very good for a similar level if not better team than Allen. Bale who is massively overrated. After that who else have they got. Scotland dont get me started. We have a far superior squad than both of these teams. Just because Trap doesnt seem to want to use our better players doesnt mean we dont have a better squad. The players Trap picks from his squad for matches wouldnt put us much better than those teams.

Westwood

Coleman O Shea Dunne Clark


Wilson

Gibson McCarthy


McGeady McClean

Long

Henderson Ward Doyle Keane Brady St Ledger Kelly Whelan Andrews Meyler.

We could put out a team consisting of all premiership players and most of them are first choice at their clubs. But instead we choose players who will play his system even though some of the players dont even know what their meant to be doing. If he put out a team like i suggested i think we would finish second in the group. Trap has been so lucky how many times have we scored a later winner. Armenia imploding in the group and only for drawing Estonia we wouldnt have qualified. In a dead rubber game against Italy we choose the same old players and bring Green on instead of Gibson. I wouldnt blame Gibson for pulling out of the squad. Playing a championship striker on the left wing instead of a Premiership winger is nothing short of a joke. If Trap bothered using the best players at his disposal we would hammer Wales or Scotland. Anybody that cant see this is the best squad we have since 2002 is blind. I would love to see that team under someone like McCarthy and play proper football. Instead we choose a poor team who gets outplayed by minnows.

the realpigiron

Eirebear wrote: »

Scotland are ****e, and will always underperform.
Ireland will always live off of of the "diaspora" attitude that is inbred engrained in irish cultutre.
Wales are Wales.

Squads compared.

Can you explain the bold bit there and what has it got to do with comparing 3 international football sides?

At the moment it's 1-Ireland, 2-Scotland and 3-Wales. Scotland have the makings of a good team, but Levein appears to be feckin useless.

Rekop dog

Nuts102 wrote: »

Are you serious organised. Nobody knew what their role was last Friday. All game McCarthy was dropping deep for the ball and the cb's were strolling past him and hoofing it up the pitch. When they won a header we were short in midfield as McCarthy was deeper than one of the cb's and leaving us exposed. Thats not organised the sad thing is McCarthy will probably be dropped when Andrews is back.

Also a panel weaker than Wales and Scotland are you serious. Who have Wales got Ramsey who has been average since coming back from injury. McCarthy is just as good if not better. Allen who has looked good i dont see much difference with Gibson who has been very good for a similar level if not better team than Allen. Bale who is massively overrated. After that who else have they got. Scotland dont get me started. We have a far superior squad than both of these teams. Just because Trap doesnt seem to want to use our better players doesnt mean we dont have a better squad. The players Trap picks from his squad for matches wouldnt put us much better than those teams.

Westwood

Coleman O Shea Dunne Clark


Wilson

Gibson McCarthy


McGeady McClean

Long

Henderson Ward Doyle Keane Brady St Ledger Kelly Whelan Andrews Meyler.

We could put out a team consisting of all premiership players and most of them are first choice at their clubs. But instead we choose players who will play his system even though some of the players dont even know what their meant to be doing. If he put out a team like i suggested i think we would finish second in the group. Trap has been so lucky how many times have we scored a later winner. Armenia imploding in the group and only for drawing Estonia we wouldnt have qualified. In a dead rubber game against Italy we choose the same old players and bring Green on instead of Gibson. I wouldnt blame Gibson for pulling out of the squad. Playing a championship striker on the left wing instead of a Premiership winger is nothing short of a joke. If Trap bothered using the best players at his disposal we would hammer Wales or Scotland. Anybody that cant see this is the best squad we have since 2002 is blind. I would love to see that team under someone like McCarthy and play proper football. Instead we choose a poor team who gets outplayed by minnows.

Allen is far superior to Gibson, I'm a fan of Gibson but it's rare that a British/Irish player posseses the qualities that Allen has, his intelligence sets him apart from any CM player from the 3 countries. Bale while over-rated I agree is still easily better than any of the other options in his position. As I said in an earlier post they'd be the first two names on the teamsheet in a combined squad.

the realpigiron

secman wrote: »

McGeady would NOT get into a " combined" team ,he's fkucing useless at best.
Can't cross, can't shoot, constantly runs over the end of pitch, yonks ago when we were kids, those type of players were shouted at " Get me an icepop", might as well being running to the shop !

Secman

Idiotic comment, he was the best player we had last Friday

AgileMyth

Dotsey wrote: »

Got me thinking about what a combined XI would look like:

---

Allan McGregor

---

John O'Shea--Ashley Williams--Richard Dunne--Gareth Bale

Aiden McGeady--Darren Fletcher--Joe Allen--Craig Bellamy

---

Steven Fletcher--Robbie Keane

---

Steven Fletcher doesn't play for Scotland. If you're including him you can throw in Stephen Ireland too. Maybe even Given as well..

secman

the realpigiron wrote: »

Idiotic comment, he was the best player we had last Friday

:eek:

And on that basis- what ? The best of an abysmal lot, he should be in the team ! the guy cannot cross a ball, cannot shoot, runs in circles witout an end result, or runs out of play with the ball, did it numerous times again last night against a poor side. Just do not get him at all ! See you speak the same lingo as Trapp, when you don't like what you hear its "idiotic" !

Robbie Brady is a more purposefull player as is McClean.

Secman

Backstreet Moyes

Rekop dog wrote: »

Allen is far superior to Gibson, I'm a fan of Gibson but it's rare that a British/Irish player posseses the qualities that Allen has, his intelligence sets him apart from any CM player from the 3 countries. Bale while over-rated I agree is still easily better than any of the other options in his position. As I said in an earlier post they'd be the first two names on the teamsheet in a combined squad.

I disagree he is far superior if Allen was as good as made out bigger teams would have been in for him. He had a good season last year and has started well this year. Gibson has been very good for Everton. I like Allen as a player but i wouldnt call him far superior maybe he is a slightly better player. I think McCarthy will be a better player than Allen he is better than Wigan. But he has been very wise with his development turning down bigger moves where he would play less and develop slower. On Bale i agree he is better than what we have.

Backstreet Moyes

secman wrote: »

:eek:

And on that basis- what ? The best of an abysmal lot, he should be in the team ! the guy cannot cross a ball, cannot shoot, runs in circles witout an end result, or runs out of play with the ball, did it numerous times again last night against a poor side. Just do not get him at all ! See you speak the same lingo as Trapp, when you don't like what you hear its "idiotic" !

Robbie Brady is a more purposefull player as is McClean.

Secman

Dont talk nonsense the fact you even mention Brady in your argument is ridicolous. He has potential but my god he played one game against a pub league team. McGeady is our best winger. He was our best player last Friday because he tried to make something happen. Its tough when your full back is incompetent and you have very little to aim at in the box. He can cross a ball but it looks bad when you have very little to aim for.

Eirebear

the realpigiron wrote: »

Can you explain the bold bit there and what has it got to do with comparing 3 international football sides?

At the moment it's 1-Ireland, 2-Scotland and 3-Wales. Scotland have the makings of a good team, but Levein appears to be feckin useless.

Of course.
Ireland has always been more accepting of the "Granny Rule" - at least since the Charlton era - than Scotland, and it is much to the detriment of the Scottish national side.
The Scots press are far more likely to turn on a player if he isn't Scottish born, and the "Tartan Army" are often the same.
Obviously this has an impact on the squad.

It's not a dig at the Irish in any way, it's simple fact - As a nation ireland is much more willing to recognise 2nd and 3rd generation Ex-Pats as their own in comparison to Scotland.

the realpigiron

secman wrote: »

:eek:

And on that basis- what ? The best of an abysmal lot, he should be in the team ! the guy cannot cross a ball, cannot shoot, runs in circles witout an end result, or runs out of play with the ball, did it numerous times again last night against a poor side. Just do not get him at all ! See you speak the same lingo as Trapp, when you don't like what you hear its "idiotic" !

Robbie Brady is a more purposefull player as is McClean.

Secman

:eek::rolleyes:Give it a rest will ya.

He's the most experienced winger we have at the minute, he can be erratic at times, but he's worth his place in the team as first pick.

Rekop dog

secman wrote: »

:eek:

And on that basis- what ? The best of an abysmal lot, he should be in the team ! the guy cannot cross a ball, cannot shoot, runs in circles witout an end result, or runs out of play with the ball, did it numerous times again last night against a poor side. Just do not get him at all ! See you speak the same lingo as Trapp, when you don't like what you hear its "idiotic" !

Robbie Brady is a more purposefull player as is McClean.

Secman

I mean it looks like he'll always be a frustrating type of player but he's still without doubt our best option in his position. He has 40+ European appearances mainly in the CL, played a big part in Spartaks qualification this year with a couple of assists in the playoffs. This sort of experience is fairly thin in our squad, especially with Duffer and Given retiring. Saying he can't cross a ball is a glaring inaccuracy, inconsistant yes but can't is overly hyperbolic

secman

Admitting "erratic" & "inconsistent" , well its a start .................


Secman

Backstreet Moyes

secman wrote: »

Admitting "erratic" & "inconsistent" , well its a start .................


Secman

Name what wingers in the world that are not erratic and incosistent and its a start. Then narrow it down to the Irish squad and start from their.

the realpigiron

Eirebear wrote: »

Of course.
Ireland has always been more accepting of the "Granny Rule" - at least since the Charlton era - than Scotland, and it is much to the detriment of the Scottish national side.
The Scots press are far more likely to turn on a player if he isn't Scottish born, and the "Tartan Army" are often the same.
Obviously this has an impact on the squad.

It's not a dig at the Irish in any way, it's simple fact - As a nation ireland is much more willing to recognise 2nd and 3rd generation Ex-Pats as their own in comparison to Scotland.

I think that used to be the case, but less the case now where more Irish players are native born. Scotland haven't qualified for anything in so long that I doubt they'd be choosy about who turns out for them or where they were born, so long as they are any good. Jordan Rhodes is English born I think, they are clamouring for him to start right now. Right now their biggest problem seems to be Levein.

The_Kew_Tour

Eirebear wrote: »

Of course.
Ireland has always been more accepting of the "Granny Rule" - at least since the Charlton era - than Scotland, and it is much to the detriment of the Scottish national side.
The Scots press are far more likely to turn on a player if he isn't Scottish born, and the "Tartan Army" are often the same.
Obviously this has an impact on the squad.

It's not a dig at the Irish in any way, it's simple fact - As a nation ireland is much more willing to recognise 2nd and 3rd generation Ex-Pats as their own in comparison to Scotland.

Thats not been the case for some time now being honest.

G.K.

Being Welsh, I'd like to think we have the best squad. But, we don't. No BS'sing around that. After the starting XI and a few more there is a cataclysmic drop in quality.

I do however think we have the best starting XI of the three.

Hennessey
Gunter/Matthews - Blake - Williams - Taylor
Ledley - Ramsey - Vaughan - Allen - Bale
Church/Vokes

If we had a better CF and GK, say, Westwood and Long, we'd have a lovely team imo.

Ireland's squad depth is much superior, except at RB and CM.

Trap, although I'm quite vocal on his shortcomings, is still better than Coleman. I wish so much that Speed hadn't died...

weldoninhio

Nuts102 wrote: »

Dont talk nonsense the fact you even mention Brady in your argument is ridicolous. He has potential but my god he played one game against a pub league team. McGeady is our best winger. He was our best player last Friday because he tried to make something happen. Its tough when your full back is incompetent and you have very little to aim at in the box. He can cross a ball but it looks bad when you have very little to aim for.

So Brady is written off because he had one good game against a pub team, but McGeady is our best winger because he was our best player against a team ranked about 30 places below the pub team??

McGeady is awful, all fart and no poo, flatters to deceive in almost every game. Having watched him throughout his Celtic and Ireland career i can say he is the most frustrating player i have ever seen, poor decision making, poor crossing. Out of 40+ appearances i could count maybe 3 games he was above average!

ColeTrain

weldoninhio wrote: »

So Brady is written off because he had one good game against a pub team, but McGeady is our best winger because he was our best player against a team ranked about 30 places below the pub team??

McGeady is awful, all fart and no poo, flatters to deceive in almost every game. Having watched him throughout his Celtic and Ireland career i can say he is the most frustrating player i have ever seen, poor decision making, poor crossing. Out of 40+ appearances i could count maybe 3 games he was above average!

You reckon he has only played average in 3 games and then you go on to say you watched him with Celtic and hold the same opinion? If you actually believe what you wrote then you haven't a clue.