Republic of Ireland Team Talk/News/Rumours 2019/2020

weadick

So what happens if we do end up finishing third? Are we out or is there hope of a play off?

TheCitizen

weldoninhio wrote: »

Change the record. This ones been skipping for years.

Your record you mean:pac:

Ferris_Bueller

weadick wrote: »

So what happens if we do end up finishing third? Are we out or is there hope of a play off?

We are more than likely going to have a playoff to fall back on through the Nations League. Once the majority of top/expected teams qualify through the qualifiers.

Dots1982 wrote: »

Do Dundalk and shamrock rovers come up against mass defenses?

Hendrick and hourihane can show the occasional flash of vision. Whelan & McClean forget about it.

Hogan, Robinson & Mcgoldrick: not sure.

Brady: on the field for his crossing, not much intricate passing with him.

O’Dowda- good dribbler, cuts inside, can finish. Passing; average.

None of the above in Wes’ league and Wes was really only magic once or twice a game. He wasn’t a Christian eriksen.

Judge had vision. Daryl Horgan? Maybe. Mick is picking runners and crossers. Physical players. So did MON. Doherty is a physical player but McCarthy not able to find a spot for him.

Yeah Rovers and Dundalk do come up against very defensive teams every now and again. I know our players might not be the most 'technical' but I don't even think they need to be. You don't need an Eriksen to be creative (although it obviously helps). There didn't seem to be any passing moves practiced, dragging players out of position, playing in triangles or quick give and go's. Technical ability is not an excuse against Gibraltar.

I have no issues if we are lacking creativity against the Danes, Swiss or even Georgia, but to not be able to break down a team of amateur players and just repeatedly hit crosses into the box and hope for the best seems like an easy cop out and shirking responsibility to me.

pjohnson

weldoninhio wrote: »

If you believe your first sentence then you know very little about football. You pick your best team, not your best players.

It'll be interesting when a dual nationality Right Winger gets 2 minutes in the PL next year. Mick would want to get Doherty, Coleman AND the dual lad all in the team (RB, RWB & RW) + win + play pretty.

Or more likely Doherty is replaced by Egan as the player who MUST play or else Mick is a failure.

RoryMac

Dots1982 wrote: »

Coleman hitting the byeline is our most potent attacking weapon along with Shane Duffy’s head so he dictates a good amount of our play.

We also lost him before and our good start to a campaign fell apart.

I find him a fairly quiet but inspirational figure. He’s a proper pro who doesn’t drink, made the best of his talent, gave generously to the Sean Cox charity, has time for those less fortunate than himself and is one of our best players every game he plays.

Yeah I agree he is our best player but the comment "If we were to lose him again for a prolonged period due to injury we should all just give up and stay at home" is nonsense.

weadick wrote: »

So what happens if we do end up finishing third? Are we out or is there hope of a play off?

We'd need a lot of the big nations to mess up to miss out on a playoff, it's confusing asf, Georgia are already guaranteed a playoff spot for example. We need 3 or 4 of the teams that won their Nations League groups(England, Portugal, Holland, Switzerland) to miss out on the top 2 spots in qualification for us to miss out on a playoff spot. I think...:pac:

Dots1982

RoryMac wrote: »

Yeah I agree he is our best player but the comment "If we were to lose him again for a prolonged period due to injury we should all just give up and stay at home" is nonsense.





We'd need a lot of the big nations to mess up to miss out on a playoff, it's confusing asf, Georgia are already guaranteed a playoff spot for example. We need 3 or 4 of the teams that won their Nations League groups(England, Portugal, Holland, Switzerland) to miss out on the top 2 spots in qualification for us to miss out on a playoff spot. I think...:pac:

Putting a full sentence in quotation marks that I never said is an interesting approach

TheCitizen

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

Andy Reid then Stephen Ireland then Wes Hoolahan then Matt Doherty.

So because there’s been debate over the selection or non selection of players in the past we’re not supposed to talk about Matt Doherty? Doesn’t work like that. It’s down to results at the end of the day, Mick will get away with it if results remain good but with harder games coming up if they don’t then he’ll be hammered on the Doherty issue. The pundits on the panel last night were already raising the issue.

Dots1982

TheCitizen wrote: »

So because there’s been debate over the selection or non selection of players in the past we’re not supposed to talk about Matt Doherty? Doesn’t work like that. It’s down to results at the end of the day, Mick will get away with it if results remain good but with harder games coming up if they don’t then he’ll be hammered on the Doherty issue. The pundits on the panel last night were already raising the issue.

He won’t “get away with it”. He’ll be proven to be correct in his selections if the results stay good.

Far more likely is the results detoriate against the better teams to the point we finish third in the group and the sky falls in on McCarthy in a wave of criticism from people who can’t cope with our players being uninspired triers.

RoryMac

Dots1982 wrote: »

Putting a full sentence in quotation marks that I never said is an interesting approach

That was the quotation(not from you) that I initially responded to

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

He won’t “get away with it”. He’ll be proven to be correct in his selections if the results stay good.

Whatever way you want to put it yourself I'm not going to bother arguing over semantics. The point stands; If the results are good then it won't be an issue. It was the same with O'Neill. In the first campaign he didn't always start Hoolahan and there were questions raised but when the results were fairly good and Ireland got to France and did well it didn't become a big problem.
When results deteriorated then everything including team selection came under severe scrutiny.

It'll be the same with Mick. If we lose to Switzerland in the Autumn one of the first questions put to him post match will be about Doherty if he didn't play.

Dots1982

TheCitizen wrote: »

Whatever way you want to put it yourself I'm not going to bother arguing over semantics. The point stands; If the results are good then it won't be an issue. It was the same with O'Neill. In the first campaign he didn't always start Hoolahan and there were questions raised but when the results were fairly good and Ireland got to France and did well it didn't become a big problem.
When results deteriorated then everything including team selection came under severe scrutiny.

It'll be the same with Mick. If we lose to Switzerland in the Autumn one of the first questions put to him post match will be about Doherty if he didn't play.

If he doesn’t play. Seems he should. At left back.

Christy Browne

Dots1982 wrote: »

If he doesn’t play. Seems he should. At left back.

I want to see Doherty play as much as the next man but shoehorning him in at left back when we have an in-form Enda Stevens there isn't the answer.

It's either play him on the right wing in front of Coleman or play 5 ATB and put Coleman RCB I reckon.

Dots1982

Christy Browne wrote: »

I want to see Doherty play as much as the next man but shoehorning him in at left back when we have an in-form Enda Stevens there isn't the answer.

It's either play him on the right wing in front of Coleman or play 5 ATB and put Coleman RCB I reckon.

Stevens is suspended right?

Dots1982

Dots1982 wrote: »

Stevens is suspended right?

Or maybe it’s 3 yellows now...

Dots1982

Christy Browne wrote: »

I want to see Doherty play as much as the next man but shoehorning him in at left back when we have an in-form Enda Stevens there isn't the answer.

It's either play him on the right wing in front of Coleman or play 5 ATB and put Coleman RCB I reckon.

Playing Coleman at RCB would be madness.

Christy Browne

Dots1982 wrote: »

Playing Coleman at RCB would be madness.

You would think, but England did it to great success with Kyle Walker in the World Cup. Would suit Doherty and Stevens as well who are both natural wing backs.

I'd like to see something like this tried at least. Although we can't really take any chances with any of our remaining games. Is there a friendly scheduled for our gap after the Switzerland game?

Randolph
Coleman - Duffy - Keogh
Doherty - Hourihane - Hendrick - Stevens
Browne
McGoldrick - Long

Dots1982

Christy Browne wrote: »

You would think, but England did it to great success with Kyle Walker in the World Cup. Would suit Doherty and Stevens as well who are both natural wing backs.

I'd like to see something like this tried at least. Although we can't really take any chances with any of our remaining games. Is there a friendly scheduled for our gap after the Switzerland game?

Randolph
Coleman - Duffy - Keogh
Doherty - Hourihane - Hendrick - Stevens
Browne
McGoldrick - Long

Coleman is far more key to what Ireland do in the opposing half than Kyle walker with England.

Tying Coleman to RCB would be madness in my opinion. It won’t happen anyway so it’s a moot point.

Christy Browne

Dots1982 wrote: »

Coleman is far more key to what Ireland do in the opposing half than Kyle walker with England.

Tying Coleman to RCB would be madness in my opinion. It won’t happen anyway so it’s a moot point.

More than likely won't, you're correct. But I love a good fantasy line-up

pjohnson

Surely the 3rd CB would have to be Egan anyway? He'd be the only CB used to playing in a 3?

Coleman would still be first choice RWB.

Nalz

Stevens is muck

Zeek12

TheCitizen wrote: »

So because there’s been debate over the selection or non selection of players in the past we’re not supposed to talk about Matt Doherty? Doesn’t work like that. It’s down to results at the end of the day, Mick will get away with it if results remain good but with harder games coming up if they don’t then he’ll be hammered on the Doherty issue. The pundits on the panel last night were already raising the issue.

I don't see him being hammered for that.

I think most fans and pundits are savvy enough to know Doherty in this Irish team won't be the Doherty of Wolves - he won't be a game changer.
He doesn't have the same supporting cast of quality ball players as at Wolves. We don't pass it particularly well and we don't play the formation to suit his preferred style of constantly breaking forward from deep.

With 50% of our group games already played can you really see Mick radically changing the formation to suit just one player? I don't think we even have the personnel at the back to do it anyway (I just can't see Coleman as a CB).

As for playing him at RW, to be honest I'm struggling to remember the games at Wolves where he excelled in this position, in front of a traditional back 4.

Sure, we could take another punt on him on the right wing.
But I can't see it being the defining moment of the team in this group.

Ferris_Bueller

Yeah I'm really not hung up on the Doherty thing. He wouldn't massively change how we play. I wouldn't be against him getting a run out at left back or right midfield against one of the better teams in the group, but Robinson and Coleman linked up pretty well last night and I would like to see them play together more often.

noodler

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Yeah I'm really not hung up on the Doherty thing. He wouldn't massively change how we play. I wouldn't be against him getting a run out at left back or right midfield against one of the better teams in the group, but Robinson and Coleman linked up pretty well last night and I would like to see them play together more often.

Just think our best EPL player this season and second highest goalscorer would have been worth ten minutes against Gibraltar when we were struggling.

tayto lover

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Yeah I'm really not hung up on the Doherty thing. He wouldn't massively change how we play. I wouldn't be against him getting a run out at left back or right midfield against one of the better teams in the group, but Robinson and Coleman linked up pretty well last night and I would like to see them play together more often.

Neither were able to put in a telling cross for the entire match despite having loads of chances. Their end product was very poor.

yabadabado

noodler wrote: »

Just think our best EPL player this season and second highest goalscorer would have been worth ten minutes against Gibraltar when we were struggling.

I expected him to get 20/30 minutes last night ,he offers something different and no harm to see him against the group minnows when all the other players were struggling to do much offensively.

We are severely lacking in the final third.

Dots1982

Lads if you’re thinking fans will be savvy and understanding of Doherty’s absence if results go south ye’ve another thing coming to you. Liam Brady, Dunphy and Giles are already saying Doherty should have played the Glenn Whelan role versus Gibraltar. Many will just lap that bizarre idea up.

We’ve being here before, it’s all deja vu.

1- new manager comes in and is proclaimed “a breath of fresh air” after a win over a minnow or second bottom seeds.
2- concern is expressed that the manager isn’t picking a player who “anyone could see is better than what’s on the pitch for ireland” and also worry is expressed that the manager “doesn’t encourage the players to play”
3- the manager loses his cool with tony o donoghue in an interview post game after a negative result and/or the manager expresses a line that is basically we do the best with what we have. This is seized upon by the media and RTÉ panel who question do we need a manager who believes in the quality of our players.
4- results get us to secure a playoff place. By now a lot of fans, journos (gob****es like dion fanning especially) and former players in the media whose involvement in any level of coaching is minor or nonexistent (Gary Breen or Keith Andrews) are piling in on the manager. That we don’t play with possession enough (these people talk like goals are awarded for teams per number of consecutive passes) and you can’t determine the style of play by watching ireland, that there’s better players on the bench not being used and there is no plan.
5- either we win the playoff and qualify and everyone is happy enough until the next qualification or we lose the playoff and it’s time to payoff the manager and get someone else in who will be a “breath of fresh air and energise the setup”. The new manager will be of no major difference in background or footballing outlook to the previous incumbent and will quickly realize that our squad possesses no goal scorers and no goal creators and the whole cycle will begin again.

Moral of the story- irish fans are happy if we qualify. That’s all that matters. Style of football is a completely negligible issue in comparison to that good vibes we get from qualifiying.

TheCitizen

Zeek12 wrote: »

I don't see him being hammered for that.

I think most fans and pundits are savvy enough to know Doherty in this Irish team won't be the Doherty of Wolves - he won't be a game changer.
He doesn't have the same supporting cast of quality ball players as at Wolves. We don't pass it particularly well and we don't play the formation to suit his preferred style of constantly breaking forward from deep.

With 50% of our group games already played can you really see Mick radically changing the formation to suit just one player? I don't think we even have the personnel at the back to do it anyway (I just can't see Coleman as a CB).

As for playing him at RW, to be honest I'm struggling to remember the games at Wolves where he excelled in this position, in front of a traditional back 4.

Sure, we could take another punt on him on the right wing.
But I can't see it being the defining moment of the team in this group.

Do you think? Well that's not what Liam Brady was saying last night nor Gary Breen on Newstalk this evening.

Breen was saying Doherty could easily play right midfield but didn't know why Mick didn't see it that way and that Mick back in the day played rb Gary Kelly at right midfield when he had Steve Finnan and Stephen Carr also available to play as rb's. So Mick has asked players to improvise before when he had players who played similar positions at club level, and Doherty can play that position on the right flank further forward, but he and Coleman will need to work together with it. That's what should have been happening last night.

It will be a bone of contention for Mick and it will be a problem for him if he loses games but keeps leaving one of our better players out all the time.

Dots1982

TheCitizen wrote: »

Do you think? Well that's not what Liam Brady was saying last night nor Gary Breen on Newstalk this evening.

Breen was saying Doherty could easily play right midfield but didn't know why Mick didn't see it that way and that Mick back in the day played rb Gary Kelly at right midfield when he had Steve Finnan and Stephen Carr also available to play as rb's. So Mick has asked players to improvise before when he had players who played similar positions at club level, and Doherty can play that position on the right flank further forward, but he and Coleman will need to work together with it. That's what should have been happening last night.

It will be a bone of contention for Mick and it will be a problem for him if he loses games but keeps leaving one of our better players out all the time.

Don’t remember Gary Kelly playing right mid for ireland all that much. mcateer normally, certainly on mick’s qualification team.

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

Lads if you’re thinking fans will be savvy and understanding of Doherty’s absence if results go south ye’ve another thing coming to you. Liam Brady, Dunphy and Giles are already saying Doherty should have played the Glenn Whelan role versus Gibraltar. Many will just lap that bizarre idea up.

We’ve being here before, it’s all deja vu.

1- new manager comes in and is proclaimed “a breath of fresh air” after a win over a minnow or second bottom seeds.
2- concern is expressed that the manager isn’t picking a player who “anyone could see is better than what’s on the pitch for ireland” and also worry is expressed that the manager “doesn’t encourage the players to play”
3- the manager loses his cool with tony o donoghue in an interview post game after a negative result and/or the manager expresses a line that is basically we do the best with what we have. This is seized upon by the media and RTÉ panel who question do we need a manager who believes in the quality of our players.
4- results get us to secure a playoff place. By now a lot of fans, journos (gob****es like dion fanning especially) and former players in the media whose involvement in any level of coaching is minor or nonexistent (Gary Breen or Keith Andrews) are piling in on the manager. That we don’t play with possession enough (these people talk like goals are awarded for teams per number of consecutive passes) and you can’t determine the style of play by watching ireland, that there’s better players on the bench not being used and there is no plan.
5- either we win the playoff and qualify and everyone is happy enough until the next qualification or we lose the playoff and it’s time to payoff the manager and get someone else in who will be a “breath of fresh air and energise the setup”. The new manager will be of no major difference in background or footballing outlook to the previous incumbent and will quickly realize that our squad possesses no goal scorers and no goal creators and the whole cycle will begin again.

Moral of the story- irish fans are happy if we qualify. That’s all that matters. Style of football is a completely negligible issue in comparison to that good vibes we get from qualifiying.

Yep. If Mick gets us qualified it's job done and that's it no matter who he picks or how we play, it was the same with MON. If he doesn't though and we start losing games then leaving out one of our few regular performers at the top level in the EPL will be used as a stick to beat him with.

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

Don’t remember Gary Kelly playing right mid for ireland all that much. mcateer normally, certainly on mick’s qualification team.

I think Gary Breen was on the same team so not trying to be funny I'd imagine he'd remember better than you would.

Dots1982

TheCitizen wrote: »

Yep. If Mick gets us qualified it's job done and that's it no matter who he picks or how we play, it was the same with MON. If he doesn't though and we start losing games then leaving out one of our few regular performers at the top level in the EPL will be used as a stick to beat him with.

That’s the main takeaway but my point is a little bit more nuanced about how the lifetime of every irish manager kind of follows the same life cycle.

Dots1982

TheCitizen wrote: »

I think Gary Breen was on the same team so not trying to be funny I'd imagine he'd remember better than you would.

Well that’s right but I can say for certain it wasn’t used all that much. The home game in Portugal I think it was used. Anyway when mick played Gary as a right mid it was certainly nothing to do with Gary’s attributes as a creator in the opposition area so it’s a fairly meaningless point by Breen as the Doherty situation is to provide an outlet for a promising attacking player who doesn’t easily fit in our side. The Gary Kelly situation is just completely different and hence means eff all.

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

That’s the main takeaway but my point is a little bit more nuanced about how the lifetime of every irish manager kind of follows the same life cycle.

Mick's not too bothered about nuances right now. He's here for a 2 year stint and he either qualifies (succeeds) or he doesn't (fails). It'll take a bit of imagination and work to get Doherty and Coleman to work together for the good of the team, so far Mick doesn't appear to be much bothered about it.

Dots1982

TheCitizen wrote: »

Mick's not too bothered about nuances right now. He's here for a 2 year stint and he either qualifies (succeeds) or he doesn't (fails). It'll take a bit of imagination and work to get Doherty and Coleman to work together for the good of the team, so far Mick doesn't appear to be much bothered about it.

And he may be right not to be and you may be wrong. But regardless of whether it’s a right call or not Mick will get hammered for it if we lose in the playoff that everyone should already be able to see around the corner.

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

Well that’s right but I can say for certain it wasn’t used all that much. The home game in Portugal I think it was used. Anyway when mick played Gary as a right mid it was certainly nothing to do with Gary’s attributes as a creator in the opposition area so it’s a fairly meaningless point by Breen as the Doherty situation is to provide an outlet for a promising attacking player who doesn’t easily fit in our side. The Gary Kelly situation is just completely different and hence means eff all.

His point was he had 3 good rb's around at the same time, and Mick was willing to ask one to play in a different position than usual when he needed it. He went on to say Doherty playing right wing would be no problem cos he usually plays very much on the front foot at club level. Mick's the manager, it's his job to make this work.

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

And he may be right not to be and you may be wrong. But regardless of whether it’s a right call or not Mick will get hammered for it if we lose in the playoff that everyone should already be able to see around the corner.

If he loses and leaves out one of our best players continuously he will be hammered for that, and rightly so.

Dots1982

TheCitizen wrote: »

If he loses and leaves out one of our best players continuously he will be hammered for that, and rightly so.

That’s your opinion. Matt Doherty is 27 and has 5 caps. He is yet to play well or do anything noticeable in those five appearances. If that makes him one of our best players then I don’t know what bar you are measuring by.

He has good stats in a specific position with players like Neves and Jimenez to play off but from seeing him play for wolves and his physical appearance as a whole he does not look like a right winger and he doesn’t look to have that much skill or trickery, he’s just good within the system wolves play, he isn’t “special”. He also has a blocky build that he could probably shave a kg or 2 off.

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

That’s your opinion.

No it's not my opinion, that's exactly what will happen, you just alluded to it yourself.

Dots1982 wrote: »

Matt Doherty is 27 and has 5 caps. He is yet to play well or do anything noticeable in those five appearances. If that makes him one of our best players then I don’t know what bar you are measuring by.

He has good stats in a specific position with players like Neves and Jimenez to play off but from seeing him play for wolves and his physical appearance as a whole he does not look like a right winger and he doesn’t look to have that much skill or trickery, he’s just good within the system wolves play, he isn’t “special”. He also has a blocky build that he could probably shave a kg or 2 off.

Ah, so now you're attacking Matt Doherty, all is being revealed.

Like you said yourself if Mick wins he'll be fine, if he loses he'll be hammered with this Doherty omittance.

pjohnson

Dots1982 wrote: »

That’s your opinion. Matt Doherty is 27 and has 5 caps. He is yet to play well or do anything noticeable in those five appearances. If that makes him one of our best players then I don’t know what bar you are measuring by.

He has good stats in a specific position with players like Neves and Jimenez to play off but from seeing him play for wolves and his physical appearance as a whole he does not look like a right winger and he doesn’t look to have that much skill or trickery, he’s just good within the system wolves play, he isn’t “special”. He also has a blocky build that he could probably shave a kg or 2 off.

He simply isnt a right winger no matter how hard Citizen tries to make people think he is. He doesnt have the attributes or ability to play there. If Citizen watched Wolves he would actually learn about Doherty.

TheCitizen

pjohnson wrote: »

He simply isnt a right winger no matter how hard Citizen tries to make people think he is. He doesnt have the attributes or ability to play there.

Does he not? Well there's no need for further debate on this, pj has spoken on the matter:pac:

pjohnson

TheCitizen wrote: »

Does he not? Well there's no need for further debate on this, pj has spoken on the matter:pac:

Mick has also spoken on the matter by picking Robinson instead. Almost as if Mick tried putting Doherty RM and he failed there. So Mick decided to pick an actual midfielder/wide player to go there instead.

Dots1982

TheCitizen wrote: »

No it's not my opinion, that's exactly what will happen, you just alluded to it yourself.



Ah, so now you're attacking Matt Doherty, all is being revealed.

Like you said yourself if Mick wins he'll be fine, if he loses he'll be hammered with this Doherty omittance.

I don’t like having to explain a person’s posts to themselves.

You said McCarthy will be hammered and rightly so. That’s your opinion. My opinion is he’ll be hammered but I’m not saying rightly so.

I’m attacking Doherty? Whatever.. he’s doesn’t fit the bill as a right winger is appearance. No one can tell for sure but he really hasn’t seemed like a player when I’ve seen him who would add to our team on the right wing. I’d like to see him at left back but that’s also problematic because then we’d have two very attacking full backs which will leave us exposed.

Jamiekelly

A 38 year old Robbie Keane would have been more effective than Hogan last night. I'm not joking either.

TheCitizen

pjohnson wrote: »

Mick has also spoken on the matter by picking Robinson instead. Almost as if Mick tried putting Doherty RM and he failed there. So Mick decided to pick an actual midfielder/wide player to go there instead.

He did put Doherty rm away to Gibraltar. So is that it? That game on that pitch in windswept Gibraltar is going to determine whether we see Coleman and Doherty two of our best players on the same team again?

Nah, I like Mick, but he's dropping a clanger here if he allows himself to be pushed into a siege mentality on this. It happened with him before when he used to pick players and persist with it despite criticism, or in spite of criticism as the case was. He was picking Ian Harte as a cb in his first term and kept persisting with it almost to spite the critics. I'm hoping he has matured as a manager since then.

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

I don’t like having to explain a person’s posts to themselves.

You said McCarthy will be hammered and rightly so. That’s your opinion. My opinion is he’ll be hammered but I’m not saying rightly so.

I’m attacking Doherty? Whatever.. he’s doesn’t fit the bill as a right winger is appearance. No one can tell for sure but he really hasn’t seemed like a player when I’ve seen him who would add to our team on the right wing. I’d like to see him at left back but that’s also problematic because then we’d have two very attacking full backs which will leave us exposed.

You're making excuses, that's fine, carry on.

Dots1982

this is a discussion forum and we’re free to discuss whatever ideas we have but I hope at the same time you realize we pay Mick six figures and for that it’s on him. He can’t just go with the crowd and pick whatever the mob want. He has to use his own acumen gathered over his career and hope he backs a winner. If he just listened to whatever the mob were saying he wouldn’t have made it anywhere in management.

That goes for any poster here that calls selections a disgrace or other emotive language. Time will tell what Doherty achieves in green but currently it stands at very little. It’s a bit like we are talking about a Joshua Kimmich or something the way he’s being spoken of.

Zeek12

Dots1982 wrote: »

Don’t remember Gary Kelly playing right mid for ireland all that much. mcateer normally, certainly on mick’s qualification team.

Correct. McAteer was always first choice on the right wing.
Kelly very rarely played there.

If I recall Kelly was only introduced there against Germany at WC 2002 as McAteer had a knock coming into the tournament and went off injured in the previous game against Cameroon.

TheCitizen

Dots1982 wrote: »

this is a discussion forum and we’re free to discuss whatever ideas we have but I hope at the same time you realize we pay Mick six figures and for that it’s on him. He can’t just go with the crowd and pick whatever the mob want. He has to use his own acumen gathered over his career and hope he backs a winner. If he just listened to whatever the mob were saying he wouldn’t have made it anywhere in management.

That goes for any poster here that calls selections a disgrace or other emotive language. Time will tell what Doherty achieves in green but currently it stands at very little. It’s a bit like we are talking about a Joshua Kimmich or something the way he’s being spoken of.

Yep and hopefully Mick will get it right, we'll see what the Autumn brings.

rebelomar

Here's how I see it.

It's been 4 good results giving us 10 points.

In reference to the performances both Gibraltar games were dire. There's no dressing that up imo. We were awful in both games.

The Georgia game is where I really differ from most. We were absolutely hanging on near the end. We certainly played on the front foot and got on the ball more than we have against them previously but I still didn't think it was great. Denmark stuck 5 past them last night. That's Georgia's level these days. They have regressed.

The Denmark result was superb. I felt we were wide open in midfield. Whelan's day is done and has been for the last 2 years at least. Denmark targeted him in the second half with their wide players tucking in and we were overrun. Hourihane covered as best he could but that's not his game. We need James McCarthy back fit and playing regularly.

I felt we were lucky not to lose by two or three goals but the team showed good spirit and desire to get a result.

I don't think we've looked particularly well organised or well set up in these games. We've been more positive absolutely and the spirit has improved but I'm not anywhere near convinced long term.

Hamann really laid into us in his analysis pregame and to be honest I felt he was 100% right. Certain players aren't working hard enough. Hendrick and Brady have been coasting for far too long now imo.

As for Mick. It was obvious last night and from the Georgia game we will struggle to make chances. The team plays too far apart. Once last night down the left three players got close enough to pop 3 or 4 little first touch passes together to open them up but for most of the game it was get it wide, get it in the box to two strikers who are quite weak in the air. It wasn't very hard to defend against.

There's lots of ways to play football, and four games in I haven't seen any kind of evolution bar us being a bit more positive.

What was damning last night was I felt our attacking set pieces were really badly organised. Nobody was making runs near or far post to pull defenders away from Duffy. It was put it in the mixer and let's contest it. The delivery was poor at times but we made it easy for them to defend also.

We badly need a creative spark. Dan Crowley or young Ronan are the most obvious who spring to mind. Both would be good options off the bench to change things up. It's 2019. Mick saying he hasnt seen them play doesn't cut it. Request some footage from their clubs. Send scouts.

We're in a strong position but the games now are much harder in the run in. We need to improve hugely to compete for qualification.

Laois_Man

Speaking of Robbie Keane - I see he has been offered the assistant managers job (to Jonathan Woodgate) at Middlesbrough

He'd be mad not to take it