Moldova vs Ireland, World Cup Qualifier, RTE 2 & Sky Sports 1, KO 7.45

Billy86

TheCitizen wrote: »

Dunphy can be entertaining and he has journalistic experience. I think Sadlier wants to be a Dunphy type pundit because he has no clout whatsoever from his football career to fall back on, he just doesn't have much of a personality however.

I like Hamann, Dunphy, Brady, even though I wouldn't always agree with them. Duff is good. Pat Bonner. Ritchie has his arse on the seat though, he'll be hard to shift.

What is "journalistic experience" beyond having been rabbiting the same nonsense for years on end? If RTE keep saddler around and a rig of two let him write an article for them here and there, would you then like him?

You said in a previous post that you want your pundits to be accurate. By default then, you do not like dunphy.

Ferris_Bueller

Jayop wrote: »

The sad fact is now though that we don't have a single top player in the Ireland set up. As long as I can remember we had players playing at the very top level, European Cup winners, premier league winners, FA Cup winners.

Who in the current side has won anything of note apart from JoS who is way past his best?

Coleman - Play off winner Blackpool
Ward - Football league winner - Wolves
Whelan - FA Cup Runner up - Stoke
McClean - League of Ireland - 1st Div - Derry
McCarthy - FA Cup - Wigan
Hoolahan - 3 LoI Shels - League 1 Norwich
Meyler - Championship runner up - Hull
Long - Football League winner - Reading
Walters - FA Cup runner up - Stoke

That's the top honours that the pick of our players have won. Only Coleman and Long are starting players that are at clubs that would expect to be in the top half of the premier league.

It's a far cry from even recent years where we had players at the biggest clubs all over the pitch, and back a few years before that when we had genuine world class talent in the team regularly.

This really did dawn on me last night, when we were level for the first 20 mins of the second half it felt like we were watching a bunch of journeymen who lacked any real spark. Coleman, Long & Hoolahan are consistently good players for us but apart from that the rest of the team on the pitch last night seemed like they didn't have the balls or ability to turn the game around.

McClean in fairness to him did produce the goods last night and looked like one of our more threatening players on Thursday night too, but whenever I see him play I feel like he does not have the brain required to unlock a defence. I'm glad we have him in the squad and he can certainly be effective at times but in an ideal world he would be an impact sub for Ireland. McCarthy is another player who gets under my skin, he was my MOTM on Thursday night but last night he went back to being anonymous and he has rarely had any eye catching performances in a green jersey. Has he not fulfilled his potential from earlier in his career or does he just not play well for us?

Clarke and Duffy do not fill me with confidence at the back either, Duffy has shown he has mistakes in him and I don't think we should have him as our first choice centre half going into the next three games (Austria, Wales, Austria). Walters has not looked the same player for us since his injury either, great shame as he was the main man this time last year but he has been disappointing in the qualifiers so far and the euros themselves.

On the brightside, Ward has looked like he has improved recently. I thought his career for us was over after EURO2012 but he has come back and deserves to be starting left back for us. We were missing Brady & Hendrick last night who have been two key players for us this year, Arter has to make his competitive debut for us soon too and he should be a great addition to the midfield.

7 points from 9 is a good return and we all would have taken it 2 months ago. As others have said this is where a lot of other teams will drop points, we seem better suited to playing bigger teams and I have confidence that we'll avoid defeat in Vienna, if we do we are in a good position going into 2017.

Jayop

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

This really did dawn on me last night, when we were level for the first 20 mins of the second half it felt like we were watching a bunch of journeymen who lacked any real spark. Coleman, Long & Hoolahan are consistently good players for us but apart from that the rest of the team on the pitch last night seemed like they didn't have the balls or ability to turn the game around.

McClean in fairness to him did produce the goods last night and looked like one of our more threatening players on Thursday night too, but whenever I see him play I feel like he does not have the brain required to unlock a defence. I'm glad we have him in the squad and he can certainly be effective at times but in an ideal world he would be an impact sub for Ireland. McCarthy is another player who gets under my skin, he was my MOTM on Thursday night but last night he went back to being anonymous and he has rarely had any eye catching performances in a green jersey. Has he not fulfilled his potential from earlier in his career or does he just not play well for us?

Clarke and Duffy do not fill me with confidence at the back either, Duffy has shown he has mistakes in him and I don't think we should have him as our first choice centre half going into the next three games (Austria, Wales, Austria). Walters has not looked the same player for us since his injury either, great shame as he was the main man this time last year but he has been disappointing in the qualifiers so far and the euros themselves.

On the brightside, Ward has looked like he has improved recently. I thought his career for us was over after EURO2012 but he has come back and deserves to be starting left back for us. We were missing Brady & Hendrick last night who have been two key players for us this year, Arter has to make his competitive debut for us soon too and he should be a great addition to the midfield.

7 points from 9 is a good return and we all would have taken it 2 months ago. As others have said this is where a lot of other teams will drop points, we seem better suited to playing bigger teams and I have confidence that we'll avoid defeat in Vienna, if we do we are in a good position going into 2017.

Yep, were clearly trying to blood a new CB partnership and leaving O'Shea out is the right decision at this stage. He'll be what, 36/37 at the World Cup and he's pretty much done for.

Like you said, Hendrick, Brady and Arter still have to come in, but they're hardly Keane, Duff and McGrath either. That said the three of them are 2 of our 4 best players and Arter who looks to be a proper talent too.

imo, people need to get over crap performances against smaller teams. It was always such and it will always be such. We're not a team that goes out and beats sides by 5 or 6 goals. If we keep getting 3 points against the minnows and put in decent performances against the big boys then I'll be happy.

keeponhurling

Jayop wrote: »

The sad fact is now though that we don't have a single top player in the Ireland set up. As long as I can remember we had players playing at the very top level, European Cup winners, premier league winners, FA Cup winners.

Who in the current side has won anything of note apart from JoS who is way past his best?

Coleman - Play off winner Blackpool
Ward - Football league winner - Wolves
Whelan - FA Cup Runner up - Stoke
McClean - League of Ireland - 1st Div - Derry
McCarthy - FA Cup - Wigan
Hoolahan - 3 LoI Shels - League 1 Norwich
Meyler - Championship runner up - Hull
Long - Football League winner - Reading
Walters - FA Cup runner up - Stoke

That's the top honours that the pick of our players have won. Only Coleman and Long are starting players that are at clubs that would expect to be in the top half of the premier league.

It's a far cry from even recent years where we had players at the biggest clubs all over the pitch, and back a few years before that when we had genuine world class talent in the team regularly.

It is probably worth pointing out that previously we had a lot of players at top english clubs, but the English game has changed.
Previously it was only British and Irish players for the most part.
Now an English club can bring in a player from basically anywhere in the world, money no object.

For example Brady didn't make it at Man United, but if you remvoed all the non-British/Irish players, then he may well have.

TL:DR it's harder now to establish yourself at a top English club

Billy86

keeponhurling wrote: »

For example Brady didn't make it at Man United, but if you remvoed all the non-British/Irish players, then he may well have.

I'm not sure I read this correctly?

Jayop

keeponhurling wrote: »

It is probably worth pointing out that previously we had a lot of players at top english clubs, but the English game has changed.
Previously it was only British and Irish players for the most part.
Now an English club can bring in a player from basically anywhere in the world, money no object.

For example Brady didn't make it at Man United, but if you remvoed all the non-British/Irish players, then he may well have.

TL:DR it's harder now to establish yourself at a top English club

100% and that's something that our past players constantly forget when they harp back to their days of playing for the big English clubs.

Jayop

Billy86 wrote: »

I'm not sure I read this correctly?

He's saying that if the English game was the same as it was in the early 90's and before where Brady wouldn't have to compete with players from all around the world he may well have been able to have a career at Manchester United where he was an underage player.

Billy86

Jayop wrote: »

He's saying that if the English game was the same as it was in the early 90's and before where Brady wouldn't have to compete with players from all around the world he may well have been able to have a career at Manchester United where he was an underage player.

Yeah, big brain fart on my end - was thinking he was referring to Liam Brady, who was never even in our youth system. Only realised he meant Robbie when I read back over it!