Republic of Ireland v Gibraltar

keeponhurling

jacool wrote: »

Ka-ching!!
albeit chiefly down to the man I thought would be rested

Why would Gibraltar rest their goalkeeper in a qualifier game ?

Lord Trollington

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

I'd pick Cillian Sheridan over either of them.

He's playing in the Champions League and playing regularly at his club at a good level.

As would I. I would also have Anthony Stokes in there.

Doctor Jimbob

Lord Trollington wrote: »

As would I. I would also have Anthony Stokes in there.

As someone who watches Celtic on a regular basis I have to say, be careful what you wish for.

Rikand

Aodhagan wrote: »

Subbing the keeper was the best thing they've done. He is at least more confident that the other fella and seems to have a better effect on his defence.

Hooly and keano would have torn the arse clean out of him

Lord Trollington

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

As someone who watches Celtic on a regular basis I have to say, be careful what you wish for.

I watch them regular myself. Stokes isn't the cause of their dire slump at the moment. Manager is out of his depth.

Stokes is a better option to Murphy and Doyle in my opinion.

Doctor Jimbob

Lord Trollington wrote: »

I watch them regular myself. Stokes isn't the cause of their dire slump at the moment. Manager is out of his depth.

Stokes is a better option to Murphy and Doyle in my opinion.

Agreed, but that's not the reason I think stokes isn't good enough. He's been poor through his Celtic career. He's capable of moments of brilliance but doesn't do it anywhere near regularly enough to deserve a place in the Ireland squad IMO.

If he can get back the form he had in the past I'd have him in the team right away, but sadly that's looking less and less likely as time goes on.

Edit: That's not to take away from the fact that Doyle is past it and Murphy is lucky to be a professional footballer. I just don't think Stokes is the answer either.

Dempsey

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Agreed, but that's not the reason I think stokes isn't good enough. He's been poor through his Celtic career. He's capable of moments of brilliance but doesn't do it anywhere near regularly enough to deserve a place in the Ireland squad IMO.

If he can get back the form he had in the past I'd have him in the team right away, but sadly that's looking less and less likely as time goes on.

Edit: That's not to take away from the fact that Doyle is past it and Murphy is lucky to be a professional footballer. I just don't think Stokes is the answer either.

Poor? Daryl Murphy's Celtic career was poor and somehow he's picking up caps despite him not being good enough.

Stokes has been average for Celtic overall. His game has changed from being just a poacher, he offers more in the build up to the determinant of his goalscoring. I've plenty of criticisms of Stokes like he cant play the lone striker role, his passing can be lax and he offers no aerial threat but he still offers more to the Irish setup than Doyle or Murphy.

Doctor Jimbob

Dempsey wrote: »

Poor? Daryl Murphy's Celtic career was poor and somehow he's picking up caps despite him not being good enough.

Stokes has been average for Celtic overall. His game has changed from being just a poacher, he offers more in the build up to the determinant of his goalscoring. I've plenty of criticisms of Stokes like he cant play the lone striker role, his passing can be lax and he offers no aerial threat but he still offers more to the Irish setup than Doyle or Murphy.

I'n fairness, that doesn't say a whole lot :pac:

Fair points though, I suppose he is a better option than those 2. I just find him so incredibly frustrating to watch since I know he's capable of better.

Edit: Not sure how I managed to screw up typing 'In'. Keeping it in there for the laugh.

eyescreamcone

Well done Ireland for beating the worst team in world football.
In my opinion they should not be allowed into international competition - (they're not a real country)

Now for the big step up from the worst to the best team 

TheCitizen

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Agreed, but that's not the reason I think stokes isn't good enough. He's been poor through his Celtic career. He's capable of moments of brilliance but doesn't do it anywhere near regularly enough to deserve a place in the Ireland squad IMO.

If he can get back the form he had in the past I'd have him in the team right away, but sadly that's looking less and less likely as time goes on.

Edit: That's not to take away from the fact that Doyle is past it and Murphy is lucky to be a professional footballer. I just don't think Stokes is the answer either.

I think that court case hanging over his head and dragging out so long, as well as other off field stuff has affected him. All his own doing, I think he could be a better player if he concentrated more on his career.

TheCitizen

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Well done Ireland for beating the worst team in world football.
In my opinion they should not be allowed into international competition - (they're not a real country)

Now for the big step up from the worst to the best team 

Poland beating them 1- 0 right now

thelad95

Seriously bad news for us if Poland hang on. Pretty much puts us in a bullfight with Scotland for 3rd.

thelad95

thelad95 wrote: »

Seriously bad news for us if Poland hang on. Pretty much puts us in a bullfight with Scotland for 3rd.

I think it's too early to say that

Doctor Jimbob

thelad95 wrote: »

Seriously bad news for us if Poland hang on. Pretty much puts us in a bullfight with Scotland for 3rd.

Pfft, we equalled Poland's result against Gibraltar, we can do the same against Germany :pac:

TheCitizen

thelad95 wrote: »

Seriously bad news for us if Poland hang on. Pretty much puts us in a bullfight with Scotland for 3rd.

No it doesn't. The Group is wide open. Poland 2 up now. Poland got a great result tonight, doesn't mean Ireland can't beat them head to head.

Dempsey

TheCitizen wrote: »

Poland beating them 1- 0 right now

2-0 now

thelad95

Judging by our defending today against literally the worst international team in the world, we're not even close to being capable of drawing with Germany never mind beating them.

Soups123

thelad95 wrote: »

Judging by our defending today against literally the worst international team in the world, we're not even close to being capable of drawing with Germany never mind beating them.

You can take nothing about our defence from today's game at all

TheCitizen

Dempsey wrote: »

2-0 now

Cat among the pigeons.

Bring it on I say.

Doctor Jimbob

Soups123 wrote: »

You can take nothing about our defence from today's game at all

Exactly, they had nothing to do for long periods, it's not easy to keep your focus in situations like that. Totally different situation against the bigger teams.

Another thing to remember about the game today is we utterly dominated for the first 15-20 minutes of each half, then switched off when we were in no danger whatsoever. I wouldn't call that a cause for concern.

Adamocovic

TheCitizen wrote: »

No it doesn't. The Group is wide open. Poland 2 up now. Poland got a great result tonight, doesn't mean Ireland can't beat them head to head.

Ah sure we will have Germany in our pockets :P they won't know what to do when Murphy comes on and starts running at them!

TheCitizen

Adamocovic wrote: »

Ah sure we will have Germany in our pockets :P they won't know what to do when Murphy comes on and starts running at them!

Murphy's Law.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

O'Neill prides himself in getting the basics organised well, so have a sneaking suspicion a big lad like Murphy/Walters will start wide left against Germany because we were so shocking at defending corners against a mostly amateur side.

Only other negative I saw was something that I have been forming an opinion about for a while - Brady isn't developing as well as I hoped. A bit agricultural for a winger, I can see why Man Utd were trying him out as a left back. By agricultural I mean clumsy, a bit flat footed with no tricks up his sleeve. I can see why he isn't a regular starter for Hull, put it like that.
Contrast him with McGeady who is twinkle toed and pacy, which makes life a lot more difficulty for defenders

chicorytip

Keane,despite all his goals,has never been more than a journeyman striker,prolific only against the most ordinary of opponents. The fact that he has so many clubs says a lot.In mitigation,I think he has been badly served by the managers and coaches he's played under who have failed to recognize what his best position really is,
that being a right sided attacking midfielder.

Dempsey

Wasnt Brady just back from a serious injury. Harsh to write him off yet

Adamocovic

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

Only other negative I saw was something that I have been forming an opinion about for a while - Brady isn't developing as well as I hoped. A bit agricultural for a winger, I can see why Man Utd were trying him out as a left back. By agricultural I mean clumsy, a bit flat footed with no tricks up his sleeve. I can see why he isn't a regular starter for Hull, put it like that.
Contrast him with McGeady who is twinkle toed and pacy, which makes life a lot more difficulty for defenders

I disagree with that tbh. Brady was a vital part of Hull up until his injury last season. He missed most of last season after his surgery. He's been getting cup games recently and playing well and scoring goals. Obviously it will be tougher for him to get back into the Hull team now after being out for so long and others cementing their place but in time when he is given the chance I see him getting back into the starting 11.

His ball skills and set pieces have been his biggest attribute. I don't see how you can form a bad opinion about him considering he hasn't had a real run without injury for a while now.

More of a discussion for the Ireland thread though rather than this match thread mind you.

Doctor Jimbob

chicorytip wrote: »

Keane,despite all his goals,has never been more than a journeyman striker,prolific only against the most ordinary of opponents. The fact that he has so many clubs says a lot.In mitigation,I think he has been badly served by the managers and coaches he's played under who have failed to recognize what his best position really is,
that being a right sided attacking midfielder.

I think that's extremely harsh on Keane, he's been lacking at times at club level, but he's done it for Ireland against the best.

Kirby

So the greatest goal scorer Ireland has ever had should have played his whole career as a midfielder..............

Okay. Gotcha. Thanks for that.

thelad95

chicorytip wrote: »

Keane,despite all his goals,has never been more than a journeyman striker,prolific only against the most ordinary of opponents. The fact that he has so many clubs says a lot.In mitigation,I think he has been badly served by the managers and coaches he's played under who have failed to recognize what his best position really is,
that being a right sided attacking midfielder.

Get out.

Nib

chicorytip wrote: »

Keane,despite all his goals,has never been more than a journeyman striker,prolific only against the most ordinary of opponents. The fact that he has so many clubs says a lot.In mitigation,I think he has been badly served by the managers and coaches he's played under who have failed to recognize what his best position really is,
that being a right sided attacking midfielder.

stiffler123

chicorytip wrote: »

Keane,despite all his goals,has never been more than a journeyman striker,prolific only against the most ordinary of opponents. The fact that he has so many clubs says a lot.In mitigation,I think he has been badly served by the managers and coaches he's played under who have failed to recognize what his best position really is,
that being a right sided attacking midfielder.

Mediocre teams, are Germany and France mediocre? He tends to score the majority of our goals in every qualifying campaign. He has more goals than all his teammates tonight combined. He's not the best player to ever play for us, but he's probably the most important.

Dempsey

stiffler123 wrote: »

Mediocre teams, are Germany and France mediocre? He tends to score the majority of our goals in every qualifying campaign. He has more goals than all his teammates tonight combined. He's not the best player to ever play for us, but he's probably the most important.

Not the best? hmmm

stiffler123

Dempsey wrote: »

Not the best? hmmm

I mean in terms of technically gifted players, we have had better players. But in terms of us qualifying for tournaments, Robbie has been our most important player.

chicorytip

chicorytip wrote: »

Keane,despite all his goals,has never been more than a journeyman striker...

The best craic as an Irish fan is watching that group who just hate Robbie Keane. They line up some poorer player as the next great hope, they just refuse to accept the stats and prefer to moan about how he runs after refs or about his admittedly bad celebration, and now and again he misses and you see them almost light up.

I find laughing at them works best. That and taking a particular delight when he scores.

Billy86

Dempsey wrote: »

Not the best? hmmm

Think Keane. No, the other one...

That said, trying to talk down Robbie Keanes contribution down the years is ridiculous. Not only does he have a shot at being the all time European goalscorer now, and done it in worse teams than the likes of Eusebio, Gerd Muller and Klose had, but on average he has played stiffer competition than them due to Ireland rarely ever being a top seed. He also was part of arguably the best striker combo in Europe for a while with Berbatov at Spurs. Never quite at the level to star for a top team, but easily able to be a standout for a very good team like that Spurs side was.

homerjay2005

Soups123 wrote: »

You can take nothing about our defence from today's game at all

Can see where you are coming from but its an accident waiting to happen. Is it likely to change against Germany? Wilson should be LB and we need another option at CH. Obbviously Coleman is injured so we going to be weaker there due to this.




Excellent crowd there yesterday, very few countries with a populatiom like ours will have 35,000 for a game like that.

FutureGuy

When I was a kid, I was the greatest fan of the Irish national side. I remember listening to a game against fecking Turkey in the radio for some reason. Barely no reception. I'm pretty sure it was a friendly too.

I also remember thinking will anyone ever hit the 20 goal mark. It would be amazing for an Irish player to hit 20 international goals. Imagine someone scoring 25!

Then came Robbie Keane.

Should he retire? No. I'm not even wasting my finger energy typing any more.

FutureGuy

FutureGuy wrote: »

I also remember thinking will anyone ever hit the 20 goal mark. It would be amazing for an Irish player to hit 20 international goals. Imagine someone scoring 25!

Amazing how people forget just how bad we were at producing a good goal scorer.

A player comes along, not only shatters our record but now has over 3 times more than the next highest scorer, breaks international scoring records...and people moan.

As I said above, I just laugh now and tell them they're dead right. Easier than arguing.

tigger123

FutureGuy wrote: »

When I was a kid, I was the greatest fan of the Irish national side. I remember listening to a game against fecking Turkey in the radio for some reason. Barely no reception. I'm pretty sure it was a friendly too.

I also remember thinking will anyone ever hit the 20 goal mark. It would be amazing for an Irish player to hit 20 international goals. Imagine someone scoring 25!

Then came Robbie Keane.

Should he retire? No. I'm not even wasting my finger energy typing any more.

Think that was an away play off for Euro 2000. RTE couldn't / didn't want to pay the extortionate rates being charged by the Turkish TV channel to show the game. We drew 0 - 0 I think and lost the tie on away goals

But yeah, 65 goals is an insane return. And he seems to be going strong too. Fair play to him for keeping himself in the condition he does. Hopefully we'll get the next campaign out of him too.

tigger123

In light of what happened last night (Poland v Ger), is anyone even a little optimistic about Tuesday? Could we scrap and scrape a 1-1?!

galwaylad14

Can't take anything at all from our result against Gibraltar, they were laughably bad. Poland beating Germany is a dreadful result for us

chicorytip

Becoming Irelands highest ever goal scorer is a pretty low target to have to achieve. At his peak he would have struggled to get a place in any of the top
European squads. His spell with Liverpool
exemplified that - a bit part player in a mediocre team.

Fr Tod Umptious

chicorytip wrote: »

Becoming Irelands highest ever goal scorer is a pretty low target to have to achieve. At his peak he would have struggled to get a place in any of the top
European squads. His spell with Liverpool
exemplified that - a bit part player in a mediocre team.

And yet when he left the field yesterday no more goals were scored against the lowest team in the game.

You would think "free scoring" Dyral Murphy would have liked to opp en his account with a few soft ones.

No doubt people will tell us it was more to do with Hoolihan coming off than Keane.

NIMAN

I like the way people won't accept Robbie goalscoring record, saying he got his goals against mediocre teams.

So Suker and Raul etc, they never played any poor teams or minnows then?

Duff

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

And yet when he left the field yesterday no more goals were scored against the lowest team in the game.

You would think "free scoring" Dyral Murphy would have liked to opp en his account with a few soft ones.

No doubt people will tell us it was more to do with Hoolihan coming off than Keane.

Let the troll go hungry.

yabadabado

chicorytip wrote: »

Becoming Irelands highest ever goal scorer is a pretty low target to have to achieve. At his peak he would have struggled to get a place in any of the top
European squads. His spell with Liverpool
exemplified that - a bit part player in a mediocre team.

I'll take my yellow

You my boy are an absolute **** ,no 2 ways about it.

I don't even like Robbie Keane but to disregard him like that is a joke.You obviously no nothing about football.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

As I said above, I just laugh now and tell them they're dead right. Easier than arguing.

chicorytip wrote: »

Becoming Irelands highest ever goal scorer is a pretty low target to have to achieve. At his peak he would have struggled to get a place in any of the top
European squads. His spell with Liverpool
exemplified that - a bit part player in a mediocre team.

Ha ha...you're dead right. Fair play.

Billy86

chicorytip wrote: »

Becoming Irelands highest ever goal scorer is a pretty low target to have to achieve. At his peak he would have struggled to get a place in any of the top
European squads. His spell with Liverpool
exemplified that - a bit part player in a mediocre team.

Forget Ireland's top goal scorer, only four players in the history of European football have scored more for their country than him, and he is almost certainly going to overtake at least one if then before he is done.

Try harder.

Umpalumpa

Lads what was Brady's comment on RTE about plastic paddy yesterday??

Rega

Umpalumpa wrote: »

Lads what was Brady's comment on RTE about plastic paddy yesterday??

He was giving out about Keane and how the irish players would take the book. He said something along the lines of "They're out there now thinking will I be in the next book? Maybe he'll call me a plastic paddy". He rowed back on it straight away, claiming to be joking.