Republic of Ireland Team Talk/News/Rumours 2017

Deise_2012

PTH2009 wrote: »

France 2016 is beginning to become farther away for us being unseeded and the 2nd leg away.

Mon and Co will be on there holidays in Spain when it's on next summer

Gway you fool, It's bad enough listening to ya on the gaa thread.

eire4

PTH2009 wrote: »

France 2016 is beginning to become farther away for us being unseeded and the 2nd leg away.

Mon and Co will be on there holidays in Spain when it's on next summer

To be fair while the final list of teams for the playoffs won't be know until tonight unless Cyprus beat Bosnia the list of likely seeded and unseeded teams looks all fairly even really.

Dots1982

Pro. F wrote: »

With regards to what I would have done differently in this particular game, I would have started Hendrick in midfield over Whelan and I would have played Wilson at LB if fit to push Brady into midfield (can't say for definite either way whether or not Wilson was fit to start).

Ok to an extent I think you are being slightly nit-pickee. I think you have to give your manager trust to be able to pick his team and if it works as it did on Thursday then he gets credit for that and we remember it when he next has a lost. If he loses too much then he pays the consequences but I think he is getting so much flack for losing in Poland and so little credit for winning vs Germany that it makes me wonder are people's expectation realistic?

In my view if what you asked for in terms of team selection had actually happened (which is the view of the RTE panel and a lot of supporters) then people would just be complaining about something else if we didn't qualify. I think there is a culture of moaning about team selection and style of play for a long time now.

The manager has got us 9 points from 12, within a goal of qualifying, let's remember that before we nitpick.

dr.kenneth noisewater

My main annoyance is that I felt we didn't go for a win. With 3rd place guaranteed I hoped we go out and just go for it. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Didn't matter if we lost 1-0, 2-1 or 6-0 as we were gonna always have 3rd. Why not start 2 strikers or a more attacking midfield and try score a few goals and put pressure on the Poles to match it?

I would have preferred to try get a few goals in the first half and have the poles try equalize in the 2nd where we could counter attack. Felt like we were gonna try hold it at a draw or 2-1 till late then try nick an equalizer which we never looked like doing with the Poles sitting back

Deedsie

PTH2009 wrote: »

France 2016 is beginning to become farther away for us being unseeded and the 2nd leg away.

Mon and Co will be on there holidays in Spain when it's on next summer

You don't know what you are talking about. Home and away draw is down to first team drawn out nothing to do with seeding.

eire4

dr.kenneth noisewater wrote: »

My main annoyance is that I felt we didn't go for a win. With 3rd place guaranteed I hoped we go out and just go for it. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Didn't matter if we lost 1-0, 2-1 or 6-0 as we were gonna always have 3rd. Why not start 2 strikers or a more attacking midfield and try score a few goals and put pressure on the Poles to match it?

I would have preferred to try get a few goals in the first half and have the poles try equalize in the 2nd where we could counter attack. Felt like we were gonna try hold it at a draw or 2-1 till late then try nick an equalizer which we never looked like doing with the Poles sitting back

To be fair McGeady did create one gilt edged chance for us late on when Keogh was wide open but couldn't do much more then head staright at a very grateful Fabianski. Beyond agreed we didn't create much in tha final 15 minutes. For me I felt we didn't get McGeady enough of the ball in those final 15 minutes. He looked dangerous and caused them problems but just didn't get much of the ball.

Dots1982

dr.kenneth noisewater wrote: »

Didn't matter if we lost 1-0, 2-1 or 6-0

Football managers don't think like that, football fans do, football managers are right IMO. If you think a 6 nil wouldn't matter going into a playoff then I really can't agree.

dr.kenneth noisewater

Dots1982 wrote: »

Football managers don't think like that, football fans do, football managers are right IMO. If you think a 6 nil wouldn't matter going into a playoff then I really can't agree.

Yeah 6-0 might be wrong score to use there but I'd prefer if we had gone for the game and tried to win rather than hoping to nick a 2-2 draw at the end. 3

A good attacking performance and a loss rather than the poor performance and loss we had the other night would have had us all more hopeful going into the play-offs

Figsy32

dr.kenneth noisewater wrote: »

Yeah 6-0 might be wrong score to use there but I'd prefer if we had gone for the game and tried to win rather than hoping to nick a 2-2 draw at the end. 3

A good attacking performance and a loss rather than the poor performance and loss we had the other night would have had us all more hopeful going into the play-offs

It's strange because in MO'N's head I think he thought he picked an attacking team, but the players he chose weren't comfortable with the positions they were placed. Brady and McCarthy are the two key examples.

Brady isn't a left back. It's obvious he isn't comfortable there and it seems to affect other areas of his game like his set pieces. Wilson or O'Shea could have played there. Both have played a good amount of premiership football there. You wouldn't get an attacking threat, but with Coleman bombing down from the other full back spot you don't really need one.

McCarthy and Whelan can't play together. McCarthy is a destroyer in midfield who plays simple passes. He isnt going to initiate attacks for us. He basically does what Whelan used to do for us but to a better level. Whelan's legs seem shot. I think he's given a lot to Irish football but he can't be a regular starter for us anymore.

My team for the next day would be:

Randolph/Given

Coleman
Keogh
Wilson
Ward/Clark

McCarthy
Hendrick

McGeady
Wes
Brady

Long

Think there's the right mix of legs in midfield and our best creative players further forward.

briany

If the team is to be unseeded, then expect another cautious display at the first leg in Dublin. Again the thinking will be hold the opponents to a nil-nil and a scoring draw is enough in the second. In a sense, it's sound logic, but playing for a draw always leaves you on the edge of defeat as well.

Deedsie

briany wrote: »

If the team is to be unseeded, then expect another cautious display at the first leg in Dublin. Again the thinking will be hold the opponents to a nil-nil and a scoring draw is enough in the second. In a sense, it's sound logic, but playing for a draw always leaves you on the edge of defeat as well.

What is the story with everyone thinking the first leg will be in Dublin if we are unseeded?

Dots1982

Deedsie wrote: »

What is the story with everyone thinking the first leg will be in Dublin if we are unseeded?

Someone thought it was the case and everyone else just believed it, kind of like what happens when Eamon Dunphy has an opinion.

Corholio

Figsy32 wrote: »

Brady isn't a left back. It's obvious he isn't comfortable there and it seems to affect other areas of his game like his set pieces.

Nothing to do with it, they were just shocking. He did lots of things poor that were nothing to do with him being uncomfortable at left back.

Deedsie

Corholio wrote: »

Nothing to do with it, they were just shocking. He did lots of things poor that were nothing to do with him being uncomfortable at left back.

Nonsense it obviously impacts on him when he is put in it at left back. And it definitely has an impact on his set piece. Did you watch the Poland game in Dublin, he played terrible. Same again the other night. Obvious correlation

briany

Deedsie wrote: »

What is the story with everyone thinking the first leg will be in Dublin if we are unseeded?

That's what happened in the last playoff, and the one before that. In seeded playoffs, it seems the seeded team gets the home leg second.

Deedsie

briany wrote: »

That's what happened in the last playoff, and the one before that. In seeded playoffs, it seems the seeded team gets the home leg second.

It's not what happened. Estonia just happened to be drew out first so we played the first leg in Estonia. Nothing to do with seeding.

Corholio

Deedsie wrote: »

Nonsense it obviously impacts on him when he is put in it at left back. And it definitely has an impact on his set piece. Did you watch the Poland game in Dublin, he played terrible. Same again the other night. Obvious correlation

I definitely disagree with that. I don't know how it can impact on him hitting poor set pieces, but it wasn't just that either. He made poor decisions with the ball and not even under pressure either, which didn't at all correlate the fact he was playing left back. He can be excused some things like marking or positioning but not things that don't have to do with it, and it's an excuse if made using that reason.

Pierce_1991

Cyprus have come from a goal behind to lead against Bosnia while Czech Republic are 2 up in Holland. Couple of score lines going our way heading into half time!


EDIT: Bosnia equalise right before half time

Nalz

Pierce_1991 wrote: »

Cyprus have come from a goal behind to lead against Bosnia while Czech Republic are 2 up in Holland. Couple of score lines going our way heading into half time!


EDIT: Bosnia equalise right before half time

Dreams over. We'll be unseeded

Pierce_1991

Nalz wrote: »

Dreams over. We'll be unseeded

At least Italy have scored an equaliser, I'd rather not have Croatia in that draw.

Alex Meier

Seeded Teams:
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Ukraine
Sweden
Hungary

Unseeded Teams:
Denmark
Ireland
Norway
Slovenia

Alex Meier

We'd have been a seeded team if we could have defended properly and prevented Lewandowski's goal.

ricero

I reckon we all want Hungary ?

keeponhurling

ricero wrote: »

I reckon we all want Hungary ?

I think so. 3rd place in Northern Ireland's group is no great shakes, plus they don't have any world class player who might make the difference.

Most like to avoid Sweden.

The other two would be 50/50 ties I'd say

TheCitizen

When do they make the draw for this?

keeponhurling

Sunday

Hercule Poirot

Hungary
Ukraine
Bosnia Herzegovina
Sweden

That would be my order of preference

stiffler123

Hungary does seem the softest but I think we have a decent chance against all of them.

Drummerboy2

Have a decent chance against most of them. Want to avoid Ukraine.

Deise_2012

Drummerboy2 wrote: »

Have a decent chance against most of them. Want to avoid Ukraine.

Who do Ukraine have?

corny

Could have been worse. Croatia or Turkey would have been bad news.

We've a chance against all 4 as is.

TheCitizen

Would prefer Hungary or Bosnia, think we would beat them. The other two would be tighter matches.

sheroman01

TheCitizen wrote: »

Would prefer Hungary or Bosnia, think we would beat them. The other two would be tighter matches.

Agree. I know ya can't judge a team based on one match but...Ukraine looked very good against Spain. Should have won by the 2 or 3 goals only for De Gea. Incidentally, and it is worth highlighting, Ukraine's goalkeeper is awful. Really awful. And this should be exploited if we get them.

ballsymchugh

Alex Meier wrote: »

We'd have been a seeded team if we could have defended properly and prevented Lewandowski's goal.

we needed to score 2, after they scored. a 1-1 draw and they would be through on better goal difference. a 2-2 draw, and we were better head to head on awy goals.

preventing lewandowski's goal meant nothing since we didn't score again.

Alex Meier

ballsymchugh wrote: »

we needed to score 2, after they scored. a 1-1 draw and they would be through on better goal difference. a 2-2 draw, and we were better head to head on awy goals.

preventing lewandowski's goal meant nothing since we didn't score again.

We would have been a seeded team for this draw as we would have received 10500 more ranking points.... Enough for us to have a coefficient greater than Hungary and Denmark

ballsymchugh

Alex Meier wrote: »

We would have been a seeded team for this draw as we would have received 10500 more ranking points.... Enough for us to have a coefficient greater than Hungary and Denmark

ah apologies. misread your post as we would have qualified!

LuckyLloyd

Deise_2012 wrote: »

Who do Ukraine have?

Winter

Pro. F

Dots1982 wrote: »

Ok to an extent I think you are being slightly nit-pickee. I think you have to give your manager trust to be able to pick his team and if it works as it did on Thursday then he gets credit for that and we remember it when he next has a lost.

I prefer to engage my brain and discuss opinions about performances, strategy, tactics and selections rather than to simply count up wins and losses.

If O'Neill showed more bottle or produced more effective football then I would give him more of the benefit of the doubt with the decisions that I don't agree with. I've actually done a fair bit of arguing in defence of his performance when I think it's been merited. But when a manager comes in with a painfully long record of playing physical, reactive football and then proceeds to pick poor teams; drop skilful players because "it's a difficult away game" (see Hoolahan away to Scotland, Georgia and Germany); select Whelan ahead of better but less defensive alternatives and produce poor football then I'm naturally not going to trust him very much.

And there is nothing nit-pickee about it. There is a world of difference between Hendrick playing in the centre alongside McCarthy and Whelan doing it.

Dots1982 wrote: »

If he loses too much then he pays the consequences but I think he is getting so much flack for losing in Poland and so little credit for winning vs Germany that it makes me wonder are people's expectation realistic?

If you looked at it purely in isolation as beating Germany and then losing to Poland then your theory could be sensible. But in reality you are ignoring how the critics' issues with O'Neill's approach to the Poland game are not coming purely from that game in isolation, but rather how it is symptomatic of his decisions throughout this campaign and his recent career. You're also ignoring how the selection of midfielders in the best performance of his reign (the Germany game) was one that he has shown no interest in using when everybody is available and we're away from home.

Dots1982 wrote: »

In my view if what you asked for in terms of team selection had actually happened (which is the view of the RTE panel and a lot of supporters) then people would just be complaining about something else if we didn't qualify. I think there is a culture of moaning about team selection and style of play for a long time now.

The manager has got us 9 points from 12, within a goal of qualifying, let's remember that before we nitpick.

I really could not care care less what you think other people might have said if we'd selected those players and still lost. You asked me what I would have done differently to MON and so I told you.

Arghus

Deise_2012 wrote: »

Who do Ukraine have?

Cramped leg space.

~Rebel~

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Winter

Thought he was Dutch?

keeponhurling

To summarise our management of the last few years....

MON & Roy Keane - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, only sometimes pick Wes, didn't pick Jack Grealish or Stephen Ireland
Noel King - tactically naive, not savvy enough
Trap - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Andy Reid or Stephen Ireland
Steve Staunton - poor manager, held us back, fell out with Stephen Ireland and his grannies
Brian Kerr - too negative, holding us back
Mick McCarthy - tactically poor (i.e. wing back system which was scrapped), fell out with Roy Keane, didn't realise Spain were down to 10 men etc.
Jack Charlton - had great players, but too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Liam Brady

I'm starting to wonder if we would be better off without a manager ?

newballsplease

keeponhurling wrote: »

To summarise our management of the last few years....

MON & Roy Keane - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, only sometimes pick Wes, didn't pick Jack Grealish or Stephen Ireland
Noel King - tactically naive, not savvy enough
Trap - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Andy Reid or Stephen Ireland
Steve Staunton - poor manager, held us back, fell out with Stephen Ireland and his grannies
Brian Kerr - too negative, holding us back
Mick McCarthy - tactically poor (i.e. wing back system which was scrapped), fell out with Roy Keane, didn't realise Spain were down to 10 men etc.
Jack Charlton - had great players, but too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Liam Brady

I'm starting to wonder if we would be better off without a manager ?

This has to be a windup !!

Not worth a reply to be honest

Mezcita

keeponhurling wrote: »

didn't pick Jack Grealish or Stephen Ireland

Say what? Didn't pick two guys who don't want to play for Ireland?

Domo1982

keeponhurling wrote: »

To summarise our management of the last few years....

MON & Roy Keane - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, only sometimes pick Wes, didn't pick Jack Grealish or Stephen Ireland
Noel King - tactically naive, not savvy enough
Trap - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Andy Reid or Stephen Ireland
Steve Staunton - poor manager, held us back, fell out with Stephen Ireland and his grannies
Brian Kerr - too negative, holding us back
Mick McCarthy - tactically poor (i.e. wing back system which was scrapped), fell out with Roy Keane, didn't realise Spain were down to 10 men etc.
Jack Charlton - had great players, but too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Liam Brady

I'm starting to wonder if we would be better off without a manager ?

post too negative holding you back

TheCitizen

keeponhurling wrote: »

To summarise our management of the last few years....

MON & Roy Keane - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, only sometimes pick Wes, didn't pick Jack Grealish or Stephen Ireland
Noel King - tactically naive, not savvy enough
Trap - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Andy Reid or Stephen Ireland
Steve Staunton - poor manager, held us back, fell out with Stephen Ireland and his grannies
Brian Kerr - too negative, holding us back
Mick McCarthy - tactically poor (i.e. wing back system which was scrapped), fell out with Roy Keane, didn't realise Spain were down to 10 men etc.
Jack Charlton - had great players, but too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Liam Brady

I'm starting to wonder if we would be better off without a manager ?

Bring back the committee.

Dots1982

keeponhurling wrote: »

To summarise our management of the last few years....

MON & Roy Keane - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, only sometimes pick Wes, didn't pick Jack Grealish or Stephen Ireland
Noel King - tactically naive, not savvy enough
Trap - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Andy Reid or Stephen Ireland
Steve Staunton - poor manager, held us back, fell out with Stephen Ireland and his grannies
Brian Kerr - too negative, holding us back
Mick McCarthy - tactically poor (i.e. wing back system which was scrapped), fell out with Roy Keane, didn't realise Spain were down to 10 men etc.
Jack Charlton - had great players, but too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Liam Brady

I'm starting to wonder if we would be better off without a manager ?

Summarises it all beautifully.

We blame each and every manager we've had for something. We used to only blame them after results went south but this management team is getting it in the neck after 9 point in 12 with a win over the world champions thrown in.

As I said a couple of posts back think some of our fans have jumped the fence and expectations are overblown akin to the likes England used to have.

eire4

Alex Meier wrote: »

We'd have been a seeded team if we could have defended properly and prevented Lewandowski's goal.

Looking at the list of teams I really don't think seeding makes much difference in this case. I could easily see any of the unseeded teams beating the seeds as much as the other way around.


Personally I fancy our chances if we get Hungary.

Pro. F

keeponhurling wrote: »

To summarise our management of the last few years....

MON & Roy Keane - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, only sometimes pick Wes, didn't pick Jack Grealish or Stephen Ireland
Noel King - tactically naive, not savvy enough
Trap - too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Andy Reid or Stephen Ireland
Steve Staunton - poor manager, held us back, fell out with Stephen Ireland and his grannies
Brian Kerr - too negative, holding us back
Mick McCarthy - tactically poor (i.e. wing back system which was scrapped), fell out with Roy Keane, didn't realise Spain were down to 10 men etc.
Jack Charlton - had great players, but too negative, hoofball, holding us back, didn't pick Liam Brady

I'm starting to wonder if we would be better off without a manager ?

Strawmen, strawmen everywhere.

Pro. F

Dots1982 wrote: »

We used to only blame them after results went south but this management team is getting it in the neck after 9 point in 12 with a win over the world champions thrown in.

Why are you only looking at the last four games, rather than the whole campaign?

Kerrydude1981

TheCitizen wrote: »

Bring back the committee.

Would be interesting to see who would make up that committee,

Weren't they known as the big 5 ?