Ireland vs Georgia, World Cup Qualifier, KO 7.45, RTE 2 & Sky Sports 2

Mr.Nice Guy

Team News:

Ireland: Randolph, Coleman, Clark, Duffy, Stephen Ward, Walters, McCarthy, Hendrick, Brady, Long, McClean.

The inclusion of Duffy concerns me. He was awful for Blackburn at the start of the season prior to his move. No Whelan surprises me but I'm not bothered by that.

You'd imagine this is a game we will need 3 points from if we want to get out of this group. I think Georgia could be tricky enough opponents though. They were decent in the last campaign and seem to be a nation on the up.

I don't expect us to be particularly creative; I think we may rely upon set pieces to get us off the mark. In fact I think that could be why Duffy is in.

I expect an ugly win but tbh I'd probably take that right now. Other matches in the group see Austria at home to Wales and Moldova at home to Serbia.

What are you thoughts on the evening ahead?

Mahony0509

Very young team but I expect a win nonetheless. 2-0.

GLaDOS

Ropey 1-0 win

Kankan14

Mahony0509 wrote: »

Very young team but I expect a win nonetheless. 2-0.

Not that young apart from a minimally experienced centre half pairing which was always gonna happen.

3-0

Hendrick,Long and Hendrick again.

noodler

5 in the middle?

Or is McClean up front?

DJIMI TRARORE

No oshea or whelan,another ugly 90mins ahead,we"ll struggle to get the ball of them and might scrape a 1-0

Kankan14

noodler wrote: »

5 in the middle?

Or is McClean up front?

Walters off long maybe?

eh i dunno

Duffy nominated for player of the month in the championship. Must be doing something right.

GLaDOS

Ireland Subs: Lawlor (GK), Rogers (GK), O'Shea, Keogh, Whelan, O'Kane, Hoolahan, Christie, Meyler, McShane, Hayes, Pearce

Lack of striker on the bench could be a problem if we're struggling to break them down

Mr.Nice Guy

I'm guessing the mindset is to get at them aerially. Both goals Georgia conceded against Austria were free headers by Hinteregger and Janko.

I worry about Duffy but he's very dangerous offensively at set-pieces. I think Clark is decent as well? So I think the plan is to get as many crosses in as we can and hope that the defenders or Long or Walters can get on the end of something.

It's probably not going to be a pretty watch and we may wind up giving away a lot of the ball.

Degag

Somebody in RTE is a fan of "The Night Of" anyway!

artanevilla

Dunphy nice and positive.

JustTheOne

Brady should be on the left not centre.

Mr.Nice Guy

I agree with Dunphy on McCarthy. If Whelan was injured I'd understand throwing McCarthy in there but with Whelan available, I'm not sure we need to gamble on McCarthy's fitness.

Billy86

*Turns on RTE*

Dunphy: "...dominate the game... without... Wes Hoolahan. And I don't know that..."

*Changes channel*

See you at 7.45, so!

:rolleyes:

Kerrydude1981

Dunphy is on form tonight

DDC1990

Shane Duffy is number 7?

What is that about!

super_furry

Dunphy talks some ****e, but on Hoolahan he has a point.

Kerrydude1981

Is Wes man of the match for Norwich week after week?

briany

Talking about Ireland's inability to retain the ball like it's a new issue. :pac:

It's something ingrained in the Irish mentality. You see the odd bright spot where they put together some nice moves, France gave me some reason for optimism for example, but hoofball is the norm and will be for the foreseeable future.

Debil

Kerrydude1981 wrote: »

Is Wes man of the match for Norwich week after week?

He isn't even in the team at the moment I think.

Kerrydude1981

Dunphy is going to mention something about street footballers before the night is out

Billy86

How anyone still watches him is f***ing mystifying. Nothing but a shock jock who doesn't even know half the players more often than not, or really have any interest in the match he's covering - just being being 'shocking' and 'controversial' and contrarian just for the sake of it. He's worse, far worse even, than George Hook was in the rugby.

It got boring over a decade ago.

TheCitizen

I would prefer to play Hoolahan, but Dunphy's gone into hyperbole about him not being picked. I think MON is picking a young team what he sees as a team that will play the full campaign.

GLaDOS

Debil wrote: »

He isn't even in the team at the moment I think.

He's started 10/11 Championship games this season, got an assist at the weekend.

tayto lover

We need to start in a very positive fashion and get an early goal. That will force them out.

Mr.Nice Guy

Just looking at Coleman's body language and he looks quite anxious. I wonder is he best suited to having the armband as he seems to be pretty wound up (and I'm not sure in a good way). Maybe Long or Walters might take it in their stride. Hope I eat my words by the end of the night and he has a great game.

alchemist33

tayto lover wrote: »

We need to start in a very positive fashion and get an early goal. That will force them out.

Us typically staying in our own penalty area after scoring early will force them out!

The Talking Bread

Is it me or does Hamilton sound extremely different tonight!!

Debil

GLaDOS wrote: »

He's started 10/11 Championship games this season, got an assist at the weekend.

I only heard it 2nd hand from some professional journalists in my defence. I won't listen again

GLaDOS

How is that possibly a free kick?

Osmosis Jones

Long taken out after the cross?

JustTheOne

Is that 2 penalties we should have had already?

Mr.Nice Guy

This has been a poor opening ten minutes. Ireland devoid of quality and imagination.

kingshankly

Has there ever been a worse 20 minutes of football

Debil

Pity we can't come up with our own songs instead of copying Celtic.

tayto lover

Too much long ball stuff already.

LordAwesome

This is truly pathetic. If I wasn't Irish I would have turned off after ten minutes.

Mr.Nice Guy

Getting passed off the park by Georgia. This is embarrassing.

CurryFlavoured

Christ we're dull, lump long balls to McClean...

tayto lover

Very lucky there.
Awful defending.

JustTheOne

Dumphy was spot on.

Aidric

Complete let off, should have buried that.

TimRiggins

Why are we standing off Georgia like they're Brazil? Press the ball and lets try and string 5 passes together before we go long to McClean.

If long balls to Walters and McClean are our gameplan tonight I don't want to watch

derm0j073

Blessed there, we need to try and not play hoof ball.

Utopia Parkway

Giving Georgia far too much time to pass the ball about. They're growing in confidence.

Billy86

Very underwhelming so far, anyway.

clsmooth

Haven't seen anything of Hendrick, had to check he was actually in the 11.

Duff

Christ, this is painful to watch. No confidence to to pass the ball or run with it.

JustTheOne

Our best games were Wes in the centre during euros.

He scored and set up our goals.

Unbelievable he isn't playing.

tayto lover

Haven't seen Hendrick touch the ball as yet.