Republic of Ireland Team Talk/News/Rumours 2017

Banjaxed82

noodler wrote: »

Meh, Arter was terrible last night.

Delighted to have a midfield option like Mccarthy in the squad. Just a shame he never seems to be match fit.

Dunno. McCarthy has flattered to deceive as much as Arter has.

McCarthy is far too passive (far too often) for a centre mid.

Cheese Wagstaff

Arter was poor, but he has only played 6 times for Ireland.

It's a bit premature to be judging his Irish career as a disaster.

noodler

Cheese Wagstaff wrote: »

Arter was poor, but he has only played 6 times for Ireland.

It's a bit premature to be judging his Irish career as a disaster.

Absolutely.

The Talking Bread

Cheese Wagstaff wrote: »

Arter was poor, but he has only played 6 times for Ireland.

It's a bit premature to be judging his Irish career as a disaster.

Who done that?

Cheese Wagstaff

There were earlier posts saying that he offers us nothing and that they'd be content if he wasn't picked again.

For what it's worth, I'm appalled at the performance at the weekend, and would defy anyone who thinks that this is as good as we are. We can definitely perform better than that and we should not have to resort to hoofball tactics. Especially against a team ranked 112th in the world.

Saying that, France drew with Luxembourg tonight...

irishman86

Dempsey wrote: »

He's a player happy to watch a game pass him by, causes the whole team performance to drop.

Ya you arent helping yourself here buddy
I'll put it simply all this is wrong

Dempsey

irishman86 wrote: »

Ya you arent helping yourself here buddy
I'll put it simply all this is wrong

You'll have to explain yourself better than that.

Brock Turnpike

noodler wrote: »

We've been very fortunate tbh.

Austria away he got it spot on with the midfield mix. We didn't just hold on, we played our way out of trouble from the back in the last 20.

I would counter that statement with saying he started Whelan in Austria, and it was only when he was forced off through injury that we took control.

noodler

Brock Turnpike wrote: »

I would counter that statement with saying he started Whelan in Austria, and it was only when he was forced off through injury that we took control.

Whelan is not the be all and end all welhen it comes to Ireland woes.

Ive seen him scores of times at Stoke over the years and he does things Irish fans say he never does, in the main making himself available for the ball and offloading it as well as the defensive stuff.

I'm convinced some of what we see at national team level is due to management.

I could counter with the two Bosnia games where he played every minutes and played very well.

The_Kew_Tour

Rekop dog wrote: »

We probably would have never have been in that position in the first place were it not for MON. Can you not comprehend that? Or do you think with a more forward thinking manager we'd be ripping this group up with our bunch of talentless lads. You're probably one of those that was giving Mcgregor a good chance last week too, someone who can't leave emotion out of things and see them for how they are.

We're ahead of a side with a former premier league player of the year, who gives absolutely everything for his country. They also have players starting for Spurs and Arsenal and Everton regularly. They brought on a kid who absolutely tore it up in the last 20 mins. I genuinely can't remember the last time a young player came through for us that got me excited, probably Duff which was nearly 20 years ago.

Look you have a point I agree. We dont have much talent coming through, I agree. I dont expect us to be ripping up any group even one where the teams are evenly matched. We got out plsyed and I mean well put played by team in 129th position in the world. We were torn to shred at times. Just look at the passing stats. Northern Ireland are playing lovely football with a fair less squad then ours.

Dont forget O Neill is on €1m per year for this.

Brock Turnpike

noodler wrote: »

Whelan is not the be all and end all welhen it comes to Ireland woes.

Ive seen him scores of times at Stoke over the years and he does things Irish fans say he never does, in the main making himself available for the ball and offloading it as well as the defensive stuff.

I'm convinced some of what we see at national team level is due to management.

I could counter with the two Bosnia games where he played every minutes and played very well.

I never said he was. I was pointing out that MON hadn't gotten the balance right in Austria. He stumbled upon it due to the injury to Whelan.

However, I will say I think our midfield performs much better when someone more mobile plays in Whelan's role.

Drumpot

Suppose could be worse, we could of drawn 0-0 at home to Luxembourg

The_Kew_Tour

Its not just last nights performance. We could easily have lost last night, at home to Georgia, away to Serbia and Home to Wales.

Last night was coming sadly. I was hoping I be proved wrong, but even as pessimistic as I was I never thought we be as bad as we were last night.

You drop stupid points from time to time, it happens. What is happening to Ireland is a free fall and it will be some turnaround if we put in a shift Tuesday. I he delighted and will be behind the team.

Dempsey

Drumpot wrote: »

Suppose could be worse, we could of drawn 0-0 at home to Luxembourg

The failure of another country doesnt excuse one bit what Ireland did last night.

France are coasting at the top of their group, Ireland are not in a position to drop points to anyone

Banjaxed82

Drumpot wrote: »

Suppose could be worse, we could of drawn 0-0 at home to Luxembourg

France dominated possession and beat the fcukin the door down with chances. It was just one of those days where it wasn't going to happen.

We, on the hand, launched missiles from our 18 yard line for 90 minutes. Nothing will be worse than having to sit through that again.

noodler

Brock Turnpike wrote: »

I never said he was. I was pointing out that MON hadn't gotten the balance right in Austria. He stumbled upon it due to the injury to Whelan.

However, I will say I think our midfield performs much better when someone more mobile plays in Whelan's role.

Pretty sure Whelan wasn't playing vs Germany either.

Not that I'd be overly sure that result was down to tactics in fairness.

Banjaxed82

noodler wrote: »

Pretty sure Whelan wasn't playing vs Germany either.

Not that I'd be overly sure that result was down to tactics in fairness.

I'll go out on a limb and say I don't think any result (good or bad) has been down to managerial tactics.

O'Neill's somewhat spoofery post match interview has further fueled my suspicions about Martin and how much genuine tactical nous he possesses.

Drumpot

I was listening to Richie sadlier on second captains talk about Arsenal. He was asked what his first thought would be after the Liverpool thumping if he was an arsenal fan. His reaction was something on the lines of "I would ask myself why should I expect anything different to what I have seen for years". He also stated when the top brass don't do anything to change things, fans can't really expect anything different.

I feel the same thing applies here with Ireland . Pretty much as far back as I can remember Ireland have not played football but relied on spirit and graft to over achieve. Even our most talented teams phrase was "put em under pressure " not "retain possession". It happened under trap and it's happening again under MON. I think the players underperformed last night. The tactics didn't make them play bad, they've played like that before and won against better teams.

Banjaxed82

Drumpot wrote: »

I was listening to Richie sadlier on second captains talk about Arsenal. He was asked what his first thought would be after the Liverpool thumping if he was an arsenal fan. His reaction was something on the lines of "I would ask myself why should I expect anything different to what I have seen for years". He also stated when the top brass don't do anything to change things, fans can't really expect anything different.

I feel the same thing applies here with Ireland . Pretty much as far back as I can remember Ireland have not played football but relied on spirit and graft to over achieve. Even our most talented teams phrase was "put em under pressure " not "retain possession". It happened under trap and it's happening again under MON. I think the players underperformed last night. The tactics didn't make them play bad, they've played like that before and won against better teams.

When was this?

Been watching Ireland since 1990 and I can't remember many performances as bad that, never mind winning a game playing like that.

We've had some terrible results over the years, but there aren't many team performances to top last night's shambles.

Dempsey

We've seen these performances under several managers tbh, particularly Trap and MON. The critical thing is that these managers have not done anything to prevent it happening again. They just go for the onemanupship with Tony in the post match and think they have pulled the wool over everyones eyes.

alta stare

This whole Whelan debate is boring. He wasnt the only player who was poor nor will he be the last. Pretty much everyone of them was disgraceful and if they dont crack on after this then its all over for this campaign.

Brady, Long,Ward,Arter,Christie,Walters were all rubbish so where is the lynch mob these????

MON has never been know to be a tactical genius so i dont understand why people are focusing on that either. When he got us to the Euros playing the same way it wasnt an issue for most but now we draw one game and its the end of the world.

We were poor we can play better but will we on tuesday night???? Lord knows but lets hope we do and we win and things wont seem as bad by the time Moldova come knocking.

Drumpot

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

When was this?

Been watching Ireland since 1990 and I can't remember many performances as bad that, never mind winning a game playing like that.

We've had some terrible results over the years, but there aren't many team performances to top last night's shambles.

A RB is our best player and hes injured and may never be the same. Half our EPL players are subs for their teams.

Have we had a squad of players as poor as this in the last 30 years ? Tell me an era when we had a lower quality pool of players available.

TheCitizen

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

When was this?

Been watching Ireland since 1990 and I can't remember many performances as bad that, never mind winning a game playing like that.

We've had some terrible results over the years, but there aren't many team performances to top last night's shambles.

Unfortunately there's been a good few as bad as Saturday night over the years, do you really want to go there? Do you remember Leichtenstein 1995?

Banjaxed82

Drumpot wrote: »

A RB is our best player and hes injured and may never be the same. Half our EPL players are subs for their teams.

Have we had a squad of players as poor as this in the last 30 years ? Tell me an era when we had a lower quality pool of players available.

Definitely one of the weakest crop of players we've had since I've been following them, but doesn't justify Saturday's performance. We've enough decent players not produce that horror show.

Sin City

Lets hope saturdays act of treason is replaced by attacking football

Next three games should be treated as a cup final

Drumpot

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

Definitely one of the weakest crop of players we've had since I've been following them, but doesn't justify Saturday's performance. We've enough decent players not produce that horror show.

People are complaining about our style of football, yet agree we have one of the poorest squads available in some time. Better Ireland teams over the last 30 years played better football and didn't even make the playoffs. This squad has been in or on the cusp of 4 tournaments (including this), better Ireland squads cant say that in the past.

Do people not understand that you cant have everything the way you want it. Ireland deciding to play more controlled expansive football does not equate to better results. Granted against the likes of Georgia, Ireland should be playing better and more adventurous but the group is so close I think the pressure got to the players.

Nobody has explained why the players played so poorly individually and collectively. It wasn't because they didn't know the system or because Georgia were just excellent at exploiting it in ways better teams couldnt.

TheCitizen

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

Definitely one of the weakest crop of players we've had since I've been following them, but doesn't justify Saturday's performance. We've enough decent players not produce that horror show.

I don't think anyone can justifying Saturday's performance, the question is can they redeem themselves on Tuesday?

Banjaxed82

Drumpot wrote: »

People are complaining about our style of football, yet agree we have one of the poorest squads available in some time. Better teams over the last 30 years played better football and didn't even make the playoffs. This squad has been in or on the cusp of 4 tournaments (including this), better Ireland squads cant say that in the past.

Do people not understand that you cant have everything the way you want it. Ireland deciding to play more controlled expansive football does not equate to better results. Granted against the likes of Georgia, Ireland should be playing better and more adventurous but the group is so close I think the pressure got to the players.

Nobody has explained why the players played so poorly individually and collectively. It wasn't because they didn't know the system.

:D What system?

I have to agree with Pat Fenlon here: https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football/1482715/it-must-be-hard-for-irish-players-to-know-what-martin-oneill-wants/

It's clearer to me the longer O'Neill's reign goes on, the more I'm convinced there are no tactics, and all our results are purely personnel dependent.

fyfe79

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

Been watching Ireland since 1990 and I can't remember many performances as bad that, never mind winning a game playing like that.

We've had some terrible results over the years, but there aren't many team performances to top last night's shambles.

Yes, there has been worst results (2-5 vs Cyprus, anyone?) but the Georgian game displayed a level of fear in the Irish team which I've not seen before. Obviously Irish teams have played very defensively in the past to get results (the 0-0 in Moscow for example), but to do that against a fairly poor team who tend to crumble once they concede first, was really shocking to see.

We all know the Irish players aren't great, but they don't play like that at their clubs. In all honestly, which clubs play hoofball as poorly as we do? I'm not talking about just being defensive, I'm talking aimless and soul-less punting up-field. It's a "tactic" more befitting of a lower level club, certainly below Championship standard. I'm not familiar with League 1 standard in England but I'd say you'd struggle to see it in there either.

Banjaxed82

TheCitizen wrote: »

Unfortunately there's been a good few as bad as Saturday night over the years, do you really want to go there? Do you remember Leichtenstein 1995?

I don't remember the Ireland team retreating to their own 18 yard line and hacking balls up to no one. Leichtenstein was "one of those days". Saturday's performance was a disgrace on many levels.

EDIT: Lads, I'm not talking about results. I'm taking about performance and approach to a game. Of course we've had worse results.

fyfe79

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

I don't remember the Ireland team retreating to their own 18 yard line and hacking balls up to no one. Leichtenstein was "one of those days". Saturday's performance was a disgrace on many levels.

EDIT: Lads, I'm not talking about results. I'm taking about performance and approach to a game. Of course we've had worse results.

I'm agreeing totally.

Some people seem to think "our players aren't great, so terrible bogball it is, then!" There is a fairly vast difference between Barcelona and what we saw the other night from Ireland, with lots of middle ground.

Nobody has explained either how countries with lesser players than us, namely NI and Iceland, play better football then us, and usually get better results too.

Dots1982

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

Drumpot wrote: »

People are complaining about our style of football, yet agree we have one of the poorest squads available in some time. Better teams over the last 30 years played better football and didn't even make the playoffs. This squad has been in or on the cusp of 4 tournaments (including this), better Ireland squads cant say that in the past.

Do people not understand that you cant have everything the way you want it. Ireland deciding to play more controlled expansive football does not equate to better results. Granted against the likes of Georgia, Ireland should be playing better and more adventurous but the group is so close I think the pressure got to the players.

Nobody has explained why the players played so poorly individually and collectively. It wasn't because they didn't know the system.

:D What system?

I have to agree with Pat Fenlon here: https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football/1482715/it-must-be-hard-for-irish-players-to-know-what-martin-oneill-wants/

It's clearer to me the longer O'Neill's reign goes on, the more I'm convinced there are no tactics, and all our results are purely personnel dependent.

The tactics are reasonably clear, at least they were until Coleman got injured.

When Coleman was fit his job offensively was to hit the bye line as much as possible and lace in a couple of low crosses, Brady's job was to put in early crosses, weso's job was to do what no one else had the ability to do; produce one or two moments of defense spilting magic a game. The midfield was there to pass it to the wing and not be hurt by the other teams midfield. To create a dead zone basically and make tackles and press but never really play through the opposition. Just pass to the wing and pick up bits from the long punts upfield.

It was reasonably effective and basic and was our tactics. Since our best player is crocked it has got more difficult.

Banjaxed82

fyfe79 wrote: »

I'm agreeing totally.

Some people seem to think "our players aren't great, so terrible bogball it is, then!" There is a fairly vast difference between Barcelona and what we saw the other night from Ireland, with lots of middle ground.

Nobody has explained either how countries with lesser players than us, namely NI and Iceland, play better football then us, and usually get better results too.

Probably because they haven't had Trap/O'Neill back to back.

Banjaxed82

Dots1982 wrote: »

The tactics are reasonably clear, at least they were until Coleman got injured.

When Coleman was fit his job offensively was to hit the bye line as much as possible and lace in a couple of low crosses, Brady's job was to put in early crosses, weso's job was to do what no one else had the ability to do; produce one or two moments of defense spilting magic a game. The midfield was there to pass it to the wing and not be hurt by the other teams midfield. To create a dead zone basically and make tackles and press but never really play through the opposition. Just pass to the wing and pick up bits from the long punts upfield.

It was reasonably effective and basic and was our tactics. Since our best player is crocked it has got more difficult.

I wish I was watching the matches you were.

Salmon

Hi All,

Does anyone know if there are any players missing for the Serbia game tomorrow night? i though I saw McLean getting a second yellow, but im not too sure! Anyone missing for Serbia? Cant see Mitrovic staying on the pitch for the 90 mins, I reckon we can provoke a reaction from him handy enough!

pjohnson

Salmon wrote: »

Hi All,

Does anyone know if there are any players missing for the Serbia game tomorrow night? i though I saw McLean getting a second yellow, but im not too sure! Anyone missing for Serbia? Cant see Mitrovic staying on the pitch for the 90 mins, I reckon we can provoke a reaction from him handy enough!

That was apparently McCleans 1st booking of the campaign per RTE Radio.

brevity

Good article by Ken Early:

https://twitter.com/kenearlys/status/904633743889108992

fyfe79

pjohnson wrote: »

That was apparently McCleans 1st booking of the campaign per RTE Radio.

When he was booked I expected the caption "misses next match" to appear, but when it didn't I actually just assumed he'd been booked twice earlier in the campaign and had already served his one match ban :P

The_Kew_Tour

Tomorrow nights result could very well define O Neills time in charge of Ireland.

Im expecting a huge response from the Ireland team and anything less is failure. No more excuses Martin its time to deliver

Father Hernandez

Salmon wrote: »

Hi All,

Does anyone know if there are any players missing for the Serbia game tomorrow night? i though I saw McLean getting a second yellow, but im not too sure! Anyone missing for Serbia? Cant see Mitrovic staying on the pitch for the 90 mins, I reckon we can provoke a reaction from him handy enough!

With 6 of our players pre game on YC's, it's a blessing in disguise no one got another yellow so we've a full team to pick from in that regard.

It's been mentioned numerous times already but my god we were awful. Absolutely no leadership whatsoever, he's no messiah but that game was crying out for Hoolahan to come on, get the ball to feet and stop with this utter crap hoofing the ball clear. Easily the worst I've seen Ireland play in a long time, we're no world beaters (Germany springs to mind) but we are better than that.

Heading into the Aviva tomorrow night, fully expect a response from the Irish players, O'Neills reaction to O'Donoghue was appalling but showed that he himself didn't like what he had seen and no excuses for it.

Crazy to think the week of training leading upto Saturdays game would have been about tactics against Georgia and then we go out and produce that, crazy.

Onwards & upwards, fingers crossed for tomorrow

Brock Turnpike

We've gone from being joint top of the group with our three main rivals to come to Dublin, to looking likely to be going to Wales on the final day needing to win to secure a play off spot. That's where the negative mindset we've seen in the past three games gets you.

We may somehow scrape a win tomorrow night, but it's going to be another defensive performance in the hope we can nick a goal. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect we'll witness a 1-1 draw tomorrow.

TheCitizen

Banjaxed82 wrote: »

I don't remember the Ireland team retreating to their own 18 yard line and hacking balls up to no one. Leichtenstein was "one of those days". Saturday's performance was a disgrace on many levels.

EDIT: Lads, I'm not talking about results. I'm taking about performance and approach to a game. Of course we've had worse results.

It's a long time ago. Have you got a photographic memory? From what I recall we were launching it forward and nothing was sticking. The team was off the pace they had been on a 48 hour drinking binge a couple of days before hand, they were probably still hungover.

At times during Jack's time that is exactly what we did; "I don't remember the Ireland team retreating to their own 18 yard line and hacking balls up to no one. " Except back then we hacked the balls up to Cas or Quinn who were up top with Aldridge. Ronnie Whelan mentioned it in commentary, if you're going to go long then put two up front and get your midfielders to support them and try to pick up second phase possession. If MON is going to play long ball v a team like Georgia which wouldn't be attractive but could be affective he's better to go the whole hog at it.

Against Leichtenstein I think the midfielders didn't have their normal energy levels to support the front two and pick up second phase ball.

TheCitizen

fyfe79 wrote: »

I'm agreeing totally.

Some people seem to think "our players aren't great, so terrible bogball it is, then!" There is a fairly vast difference between Barcelona and what we saw the other night from Ireland, with lots of middle ground.

Nobody has explained either how countries with lesser players than us, namely NI and Iceland, play better football then us, and usually get better results too.

I think Norn Iron and Iceland do play a lot of unattractive 'bogball' as you call it. The problem with 'bogball' is if you don't show a lot of energy and press up against the opposition or chase after the long ball in support it looks absolutely awful. That was the biggest problem the other night. Long was left isolated, our defenders were firing long balls not very accurately in his general direction. Bar the enterprise of McClean we were flat. I think we'll see a reaction on Tuesday.

brilou23

I wonder how much of an input keane has with walford also being o Neills assistant. Is he just a media face.

who_ru

brilou23 wrote: »

I wonder how much of an input keane has with walford also being o Neills assistant. Is he just a media face.

Hopefully.

The_Kew_Tour

brilou23 wrote: »

I wonder how much of an input keane has with walford also being o Neills assistant. Is he just a media face.

I'm shocked that we have seen Roy just sit back and let this happen. Now buck stops with O Neill but Keane has be questioned too.

TheCitizen

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

I'm shocked that we have seen Roy just sit back and let this happen. Now buck stops with O Neill but Keane has be questioned too.

Not sure what you expect him to do about it? He's hardly going to open a public argument with MON. MON decides the tactics. If he gets the job himself, that's the only time he can be judged.

brilou23

TheCitizen wrote: »

Not sure what you expect him to do about it? He's hardly going to open a public argument with MON. MON decides the tactics. If he gets the job himself, that's the only time he can be judged.

Cause everybody knows how subtle Roy likes to be.

PhilipsR

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

I'm shocked that we have seen Roy just sit back and let this happen. Now buck stops with O Neill but Keane has be questioned too.

He's biding his time. He's pretty much a cert for the job once MON goes in my eyes.

The_Kew_Tour

brilou23 wrote: »

Cause everybody knows how subtle Roy likes to be.

Like say buck stop with O Neill, but what I will say is I love to know what Keane is thinking inside.

I always expect us to drop silly points here and there, but this mindset and amount of draws I thought had changed somewhat after Euro 2016. I then thought we turned a little corner after Austria away, but the last 3 performances have been very poor. 10 points after 4 games and 13 points after 7 tells it's own story.