Republic of Ireland Team Talk/News/Rumours 2017

Dots1982

tayto lover wrote: »

I know i'm hard to please.

I base my judgement on the games that I felt were vital during the campaign.
Yes we had great results against a good German team.
Yes we had poor results against a poor Scottish team. Poor mindset of manager in how we approached the Scottish games I felt,.
The others I felt were on our level or below.

Great to get to the finals but i'm still not convinced about the management skills of MON. Just my opinion.

Hopefully I will be convinced during the Finals.

We're just a very consisent team in that we will score only 1 goal against good to average teams either home or away.

We don't have a proven goal scorer or anything approaching a proven goalscorer. We also have midfielders and defenders who largely aren't good at scoring goals.

Martin O'neill sets us up to minimise the amount of goals conceded. In any game we will usually concede one but rarely 2 goals.

Hence our results are normally binary; 1-0 or 1-1.

O'neill is doing a good job of making us competitive when there is very little goalscoring power in the team.

dubmick

lads two questions for you, who is the fitness coach for the team? Keeps himself busy always out with the subs warming up and secondly is Cudicini only involved with the u21s?

Fr Tod Umptious

TheCitizen wrote: »

Wow is right, that thread linked there makes for interesting reading doesn't it Ted? Your username stuck in my mind because it's an inaccuracy as well:pac:. And sure enough when I thought of that thread pre O'Neill's appointment you were there among those carping about his potential appointment.

Fact is Scotland lost to Georgia but we beat them. Fact is we qualified. Fact is we are now playing with a level of composure and professionalism that is leading to confidence among the players whilst not losing the run of ourselves either.

We are well placed to take advantage of opportunities that may come our way in France. We will be punching our weight, or perhaps will punch above our weight, can the same be said for our opponents? That there is where we may be able to get places in the upcoming tournament.

Don't worry Ted we won't lose all 3 games, I'm delighted that you seem to think that we might though:).

This is the time that I use the line, “you must be mixing me up with someone who gives a f**k”

When O’Neill was appointed I was sceptical, I was not sold on the theory that “he can do good things with little resources”, some of his spending at Leicester City suggested otherwise.

But we are into the Euros and we are the 4th seed in a group that contains the current No 1 ranked team in the world and seasoned tournament veterans Italy, and also a Swedish team that is ranked lower than us but still a team that can beat us.

So again I’ll say that the possibility of us losing all three games is not a crazy prediction, I sure PP and others have odds on theses sort of things.

If that offends you then that’s your problem, but don’t worry, because if we do lose all three you will not find me here shouting from the rooftops that “I told you so”.

Pro. F

TheCitizen wrote: »

We are well placed to take advantage of opportunities that may come our way in France. We will be punching our weight, or perhaps will punch above our weight, can the same be said for our opponents?

Can a vacuous, impossible to disprove statement be said about our opponents? Yes, probably. The question is, why would anyone bother?

TheCitizen

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

This is the time that I use the line, “you must be mixing me up with someone who gives a f**k”

When O’Neill was appointed I was sceptical, I was not sold on the theory that “he can do good things with little resources”, some of his spending at Leicester City suggested otherwise.

But we are into the Euros and we are the 4th seed in a group that contains the current No 1 ranked team in the world and seasoned tournament veterans Italy, and also a Swedish team that is ranked lower than us but still a team that can beat us.

So again I’ll say that the possibility of us losing all three games is not a crazy prediction, I sure PP and others have odds on theses sort of things.

If that offends you then that’s your problem, but don’t worry, because if we do lose all three you will not find me here shouting from the rooftops that “I told you so”.

No, you won't be here shouting "i told you so", there'll be no fear of that:pac:

Strumms

Folks.. apologies if this is slightly off topic here.. ive managed to get the evening off at the very last minute and fancy heading over to the Aviva for the game.. havent got a ticket. Will there be a ticket office open with tix on general sale this evening ? I know it shouldnt be hard to blag a couple outside but rather maybe pick seats if possible.. anytime ive gone previously always had tix already... thanks in advance..

TheCitizen

Pro. F wrote: »

Can a vacuous, impossible to disprove statement be said about our opponents? Yes, probably. The question is, why would anyone bother?

Another one who featured in those carping about O'Neill's potential appointment in that pre-O'Neill appointment thread linked above.

How is it a vacuous statement to say that the least of what is expected of a manager is that he gets the most out of the players available to him, and that O'Neill has crucially succeeded in this regard. Under Trap in 2012 we didn't perform to the best of our ability, this time around we will, that's the point, and that gives us a good chance of getting much better results this time around.

TheCitizen

Tyson Fury wrote: »

You say Scotland are a poor team but at the time they were ahead of us in the rankings, we're not exactly Brazil.

For me O'Neill has done a good job so far. Great results against Germany both home and away. Played well against Bosnia in the qualifier.

Excellent team spirit and generally players playing at or above their limit.

We're not blessed with great players, don't have anyone regularly playing with a top 6 premier league team so he's done well with what he's got.

Good point re Scotland. It's wrong to class them as a "poor team". There will be teams at the Euros this summer that this Scotland team would beat. Under Strachan, Scotland have had a resurgence in form and are playing better now than they have been for a good few years. We had a very difficult Group, possibly the most difficult qualifying group of the lot with a resurgent Scotland, the World Champions, a very strong Poland side lead by Lewandowski and a Georgian team difficult to beat at home. O'Neill has done a very good job so far, but some people around here just can't help themselves.

Pro. F

TheCitizen wrote: »

Another one who featured in those carping about O'Neill's potential appointment in that pre-O'Neill appointment thread linked above.

Indeed I was. I'm quite happy with how my predictions worked out. Do you think you can link to something I said on MON that has been proven incorrect?

TheCitizen wrote: »

How is it a vacuous statement to say that the least of what is expected of a manager is that he gets the most out of the players available to him, and that O'Neill has crucially succeeded in this regard.

That is not what you said. What you said was: "We are well placed to take advantage of opportunities that may come our way in France. We will be punching our weight, or perhaps will punch above our weight"

Whether or not somebody thinks we are punching our weight, or above, entirely comes down to how they rate the players. So, since there are generally many differences of opinions on players, the whole claim of punching-above-our-weight is just unprovable. And the claim that we are well placed to take advantage of opportunities that come our way is vacuous, because there isn't a single team at any tournament you couldn't say that about, it all comes down to what opportunities you ar talking about.

TheCitizen wrote: »

Under Trap in 2012 we didn't perform to the best of our ability, this time around we will, that's the point, and that gives us a good chance of getting much better results this time around.

Under Trap we didn't perform to the best of our abilities. MON is better in many ways (just like I said he would be; I was saying this long before Trap's job was in danger), but we are still not performing to the best of our abilities. Despite what many people like to pretend, we do have plenty of players who are capable of passing the ball about a bit, but MON's style has been inhibiting us in that regard, particularly in away games. Hopefully MON will treat the tournament as a bunch of home games.

Pro. F

TheCitizen wrote: »

Good point re Scotland. It's wrong to class them as a "poor team". There will be teams at the Euros this summer that this Scotland team would beat. Under Strachan, Scotland have had a resurgence in form and are playing better now than they have been for a good few years. We had a very difficult Group, possibly the most difficult qualifying group of the lot with a resurgent Scotland, the World Champions, a very strong Poland side lead by Lewandowski and a Georgian team difficult to beat at home. O'Neill has done a very good job so far, but some people around here just can't help themselves.

The group was middling tough, not the worst, but no cake walk either. When the draw was made you were saying that despite their recent revival we should still be taking at least 4 points off Scotland (link). Now you are talking them up, to make the group look tougher than it was.

TheCitizen

Pro. F wrote: »

Indeed I was. I'm quite happy with how my predictions worked out. Do you think you can link to something I said on MON that has been proven incorrect?

:pac: You were making some silly argument that you wanted a manager who would provide sensible, effective football but that O'Neill was not the man to provide this - in your head. I was making the point that in actuality you were making the case for appointing O'Neill, in that he was the man to provide this effective, sensible football and lo and behold that has proven to be the case. This conversation was around the 340 mark in the linked thread.

Pro. F wrote: »

That is not what you said. What you said was: "We are well placed to take advantage of opportunities that may come our way in France. We will be punching our weight, or perhaps will punch above our weight"

Whether or not somebody thinks we are punching our weight, or above, entirely comes down to how they rate the players. So, since there are generally many differences of opinions on players, the whole claim of punching-above-our-weight is just unprovable. And the claim that we are well placed to take advantage of opportunities that come our way is vacuous, because there isn't a single team at any tournament you couldn't say that about, it all comes down to what opportunities you ar talking about.

It is possible to discern if a team is punching it's weight, not a difficult thing to do at all actually. I'm saying under O'Neill we will punch our weight at the Euros, under Trap who did well to get us qualified - we didn't punch our weight when we got there.

Pro. F wrote: »

Under Trap we didn't perform to the best of our abilities. MON is better in many ways (just like I said he would be; I was saying this long before Trap's job was in danger), but we are still not performing to the best of our abilities. Despite what many people like to pretend, we do have plenty of players who are capable of passing the ball about a bit, but MON's style has been inhibiting us in that regard, particularly in away games. Hopefully MON will treat the tournament as a bunch of home games.

No I can't agree with this at all, we did start the Group slowly but now we are most definitely performing to the best of our abilities in the latter stages of the qualifying campaign and in the play offs.

Also MON's style will not inhibit our players from playing if they are capable of playing a more expansive passing game. On the contrary as the team and players grow in confidence they are more likely to produce some better passing football under O'Neill and because of O'Neill's ability to instill confidence in the players and get the best out of them. Players like Hoolahan and Brady especially for example have done well under O'Neill since he took over, they have not been inhibited by him or his style whatsoever. It'll probably still be largely a direct style of football at times, more so than a possession style game, but that's by enlarge because of the sort of players that we mostly have.

TheCitizen

Pro. F wrote: »

The group was middling tough, not the worst, but no cake walk either. When the draw was made you were saying that despite their recent revival we should still be taking at least 4 points off Scotland (link). Now you are talking them up, to make the group look tougher than it was.

Prior to the Group kicking off, we'd have targeted 4 points from Scotland, yes. But they performed better than expected in the Group - especially in the first 6 games in the campaign - and we had to make up the shortfall elsewhere.

Liam O

The best thing was how much better the team looked as the group progressed. Nobody bar Poland and Lewandowski caused us real problems towards the end. Obviously Germany should have spanked us with the chances they had but a lot of their chances were closed down well and none really clear cut bar that Muller one.

tayto lover

TheCitizen wrote: »

Prior to the Group kicking off, we'd have targeted 4 points from Scotland, yes. But they performed better than expected in the Group - especially in the first 6 games in the campaign - and we had to make up the shortfall elsewhere.

So you agree with him then?

TheCitizen

tayto lover wrote: »

So you agree with him then?

Nope. He's saying I'm talking up Scotland post the Group to make the Group look harder, I'm saying Scotland in the early stages of the Group played better than expected perhaps and the that made the Group all the harder. Also he is wrong to say it was a 'middling" tough group it was one of the very most difficult groups of the lot of them.

kfallon

Where's this game on the box? Setanta just started showing the Turin Derby from 2 weeks ago

JustTheOne

Jesus everywhere I look it's Michael D.

Chap has a great life.

GreNoLi

This will be dour.

Kerrydude1981

National Anthem should be played with the bag pipes

Cant beat the bag pipes

GreNoLi

Will there be much warm weather preparation I wonder?

TheCitizen

kfallon wrote: »

Where's this game on the box? Setanta just started showing the Turin Derby from 2 weeks ago

Setanta Ireland

Andersonisgod

Slovakia clinical in punishing a poor McShane mistake. Probably against the run of play too to be fair.

derm0j073

Well that was a soft one to give away.

GreNoLi

Great start...

Mars Bar

That's Elliot out for a while anyway I'd say. Newcastle are in a bit of bother!

Utopia Parkway

Poor goal to concede. Elliot in bits as well after.

weadick

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Slovakia clinical in punishing a poor McShane mistake. Probably against the run of play too to be fair.

Que for Duffy to go up the pecking order ahead of McShane?

Andersonisgod

weadick wrote: »

Que for Duffy to go up the pecking order ahead of McShane?

Probably should be, he's looked solid whenever he's played for the national team. McShane has been tried and has been proven to be out of his depth at this level.

derm0j073

weadick wrote: »

Que for Duffy to go up the pecking order ahead of McShane?

He went ahead of McShane in the queue last week.

mada999

weak decision there.... why is the ref wearing a priest collar...

mada999

Thanks Father...

derm0j073

Never a peno but nicely taken by Long.

astonaidan

Yay all the penalties

Duff

Long is great when he's in form.

~Rebel~

Cheers Skrtel!

Duff

Christie has been impressive so far.

TheCitizen

Fairly competitive for a friendly, a few tasty challenges going in. Slovakia sickened by Ireland's two quick penalties. McLean playing well.

Utopia Parkway

Skrtel and McShane. What a double act!

astonaidan

McShane really shouldnt be any where near the Ireland team, hes just terrible

edgecutter

This should spell the end of McShane in the green shirt. Always a liability at the back.

Lemmy Scott

Gives away ogs ,penos ,frees and gets sent off nice one mcshane will ya ever feck off.
.Brilliant

Nalz

McCarthy wasn't exactly great for that goal either. Him Ward and McShane v frustrating

tayto lover

Nalz wrote: »

McCarthy wasn't exactly great for that goal either. Him Ward and McShane v frustrating

Our left side is causing us problems.

astonaidan

Really dont see the appeal of McClean. He is a really limited footballer, seems to be more interested in mouthing off at every opportunity

Mantis Toboggan

astonaidan wrote: »

Really dont see the appeal of McClean. He is a really limited footballer, seems to be more interested in mouthing off at every opportunity

Has played pretty well imo

TheCitizen

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Has played pretty well imo

Yes he's played well. He does get himself into trouble unnecessarily at times, but he's got pace, his attitude is good and he's a very useful player for Ireland

astonaidan

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Has played pretty well imo

I honestly dont see it, he has no product at all with the ball. Grand he chasing everything down and obviously loves playing for Ireland but really he never impresses me

tayto lover

astonaidan wrote: »

I honestly dont see it, he has no product at all with the ball. Grand he chasing everything down and obviously loves playing for Ireland but really he never impresses me

Me either.
Mc Clean and Mc Geady are two sides of the same coin for me. Make a brilliant turn and create space then over-hit the ball or give it away.

Kerrydude1981

Lively first half

Thought O Kane looked good,very tidy on the ball

astonaidan

tayto lover wrote: »

Me either.
Mc Clean and Mc Geady are two sides of the same coin for me. Make a brilliant turn and create space then over-hit the ball or give it away.

Only thing Id give McGeady is that he at least has the ability to use both feet, McClean its the same one trick every time