Ireland v Pharoahs 07-06-13 ko 19:45

Corholio

simongurnick wrote: »

So doing better would mean what? Qualifying as winners of groups? Beating Croatia, Spain and Italy??
No manager in the world will get us to that point.

Not be humiliated by Germany and not drop back inside on our box with inevitable consequences against Austria? Sure Georgia and the Faroes were our most recent games, they're the ones that count I suppose.

simongurnick

Corholio wrote: »

Not be humiliated by Germany and not drop back inside on our box with inevitable consequences against Austria? Sure Georgia and the Faroes were our most recent games, they're the ones that count I suppose.

We're not the only team to be humiliated by Germany.
Considering the resources at hand, Trap has done very well. It's not pretty but if it gets us to Brasil then I couldn't give a ****e.

andyman

tolosenc wrote: »

Except the Faroese lad to be dropped to accommodate the new formation didn't have 59 goals for his country.

Oh I'm sorry, I forgot our team revolved around Robbie Keane.

Optimalprimerib

One thing is I dont think mccarthy and houlahan would be a very good idea, it may leave gaps in midfield, but houlahan should be first choice sub instead of sammon if keane has to start. I would love to see keane and wes in the same side though, keane has always been clever with his runs and wes has an eye to find him.

gandalf

simongurnick wrote: »

We're not the only team to be humiliated by Germany.
Considering the resources at hand, Trap has done very well. It's not pretty but if it gets us to Brasil then I couldn't give a ****e.

And when we get to Brazil what. Another performance like the Euros where we got destroyed a and had the honour of returning with the worst record ever at a European Championship. I'll be glad when we are rid of this throwback to a darker age of footballing tactics.

Alpha Dog 1

gandalf wrote: »

And when we get to Brazil what. Another performance like the Euros where we got destroyed a and had the honour of returning with the worst record ever at a European Championship. I'll be glad when we are rid of this throwback to a darker age of footballing tactics.

When have we ever played attractive football?

Remember that open attacking style that Stan used?
God we were superb at the Euros in 2008.....oh no wait...

.jacksparrow.

gandalf wrote: »

And when we get to Brazil what. Another performance like the Euros where we got destroyed a and had the honour of returning with the worst record ever at a European Championship. I'll be glad when we are rid of this throwback to a darker age of footballing tactics.

It's hard to criticize him if he does get us to Brazil let's be honest.

Iused2likebusts

Alpha Dog 1 wrote: »

When have we ever played attractive football?

Remember that open attacking style that Stan used?
God we were superb at the Euros in 2008.....oh no wait...

We were good to watch under mccarthy for a number of years

LuckyLloyd

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

We were good to watch under mccarthy for a number of years

Stick Roy Keane in his prime in the middle of what we have now and you'd have a platform to play whatever ball you wanted off

Iused2likebusts

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Stick Roy Keane in his prime in the middle of what we have now and you'd have a platform to play whatever ball you wanted off

that helped of course but the 02 world cup without him we still played good stuff. Everyone would have had pride at how the team approached the games.

aindriu80

No matter what the score line yesterday it comes down to beating Austria away and Sweden at home in order to make second spot. I for one cannot see how we can win two competitive games back to back as we have never changed or invented anything new.

LuckyLloyd

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

that helped of course but the 02 world cup without him we still played good stuff. Everyone would have had pride at how the team approached the games.

Roy Keane

Then Matt Holland and Mark Kinsella

None of our current midfielders compare to any of those three. McCarthy isn't there yet; Whelan and Hoolahan never were or will be.

The performances of Holland and Kinsella during the 02 matches will live on in my memory for many, many years. They seemed to take the whole thing as a personal ****ing insult to their professional pride.

Ferris_Bueller

Sorry lads haven't had the time to read back through the thread, but with Austria beating the Swedes what do people think of our chances? Happy enough myself, certainly better than Sweden getting the win. Assuming Sweden win their game in hand we will all be level on 11 points, with 5 games played, however our goal difference is the weakest.

If all of us lose our remaining fixtures to Germany, and win v Faroes/Kazakhstan then it just boils down to results between ourselves. Would I be correct in saying if we beat Austria and drew with Sweden we would finish second? What would happen if it were the other way around and we drew with Austria and bet Sweden? Really frustrating now looking back on the Austria game, a win there would have put us in such a good position.

Rekop dog

wonderfullife wrote: »

Oh great you're talking nonsense again.

Fiorentina under Trap had Batistuta, Predrag Mijatovic, Rui Costa to name but 3 "ball players" and they played great stuff. On the deck.

.

And Edmundo, they were probably the most exciting team in the league at that time.

Shouldn't waste your time trying to talk sense to idiots.

aindriu80

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Would I be correct in saying if we beat Austria and drew with Sweden we would finish second? What would happen if it were the other way around and we drew with Austria and bet Sweden? Really frustrating now looking back on the Austria game, a win there would have put us in such a good position.

We can beat one of them but beating two is required as we can't go all evens and rely on goal difference. 4 points might be achievable but 6 is quite tough. We could beat Sweden but I'm not sure about Austria.

The team is ok but we don't have the ability to take 6 points. Most teams in our shoes would struggle.

Ferris_Bueller

aindriu80 wrote: »

We can beat one of them but beating two is required as we can't go all evens and rely on goal difference. 4 points might be achievable but 6 is quite tough. We could beat Sweden but I'm not sure about Austria.

The team is ok but we don't have the ability to take 6 points. Most teams in our shoes would struggle.

Done out predicted (optimistic) results there quickly, we wouldn't necessarily need to beat both teams would we? Say if we bet Austria & Kazakhstan, drew with Sweden and lost to Germany - we would finish on 18 points. Sweden beat the Faroes & Kazakhstan, draw with us and lose to Germany - once they don't beat Austria as well I think we would finish 2nd?

yohan the great

gandalf wrote: »

And when we get to Brazil what. Another performance like the Euros where we got destroyed a and had the honour of returning with the worst record ever at a European Championship. I'll be glad when we are rid of this throwback to a darker age of footballing tactics.

Quick question here. Who did you expect us to beat at the euros. We played against two finalists and Croatia who would probably have got to a semi final

aindriu80

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Done out predicted (optimistic) results there quickly, we wouldn't necessarily need to beat both teams would we? Say if we bet Austria & Kazakhstan, drew with Sweden and lost to Germany - we would finish on 18 points. Sweden beat the Faroes & Kazakhstan, draw with us and lose to Germany - once they don't beat Austria as well I think we would finish 2nd?

We still have to do better than Austria. Another draw against Austria would not be good enough since we lost to Germany and Austria got a draw. Unless we go to Germany and get a draw to even things up again? After that we still have to get something over Austria.

briany

Hard to see Ireland getting anything over Sweden and Austria. Sweden and Austria are indeed beatable but Ireland have not been able to beat a decent team outright in competition since about 2007 when they toppled the mighty Slovakia in a 1-0 win at the old Landsdowne Road. That was at home, too, not even away, and Ireland's ability to pick up wins away against decent sides in competition is basically non existent. It literally has not happened in all the time many posters on this board have been alive. Their last competitive win against decent opposition away was against the Scots in 1987, about 26 years or so ago.

That is a bit of a freakish record when I think about it and tells us something about a general Irish reticence to go for the jugular, spanning throughout time, and that's something which, sadly, cannot be fixed by change of manager alone but by a fundamental change in the players' attitude to the game.

That reticence will not be helped by the erosion of morale the squad has faced since their spectacular implosion at the Euros and the Trap-player relationship becoming uncomfortably strained since as he has refused to make any significant change and has instead blamed his players and only his players for the team's shortcomings at every convenient opportunity.

Ironically, Ireland now have to go dig themselves out of a deficit by attacking. A deficit they might not be in if they had attacked in the first place. Not to sound pessimistic but if they're successful in this, I'll eat my shoe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KjMc8HlUn4

homerjay2005

group nicely set up now, with all 3 teams going for second place tied on 11, with 4 games left each, its all to play for, 8 or 9 points should get us 2nd i believe.