Ireland v France + scores

Guy:Incognito

Big Ears wrote:

I would have wanted Finnan to start ahead of Carr and I would have brought on Stephen Elliot not Doherty and Harte . I have shown fate in Kerr but im starting to find him very predictable and I mean that in a bad way . If we qualify he should keep his job if we don't......................

Qualification might not mean he did particularly well though, it could be said we qualified in spite of him.

nlgbbbblth

Stekelly wrote:

I was going to criticise him a bit for it, but reckoned I'd get slated. I reckon he was a bit far out. If you look at it too he seems to come forward as the ball gets closer and gets caught under the arc of the ball, whereas if he stayed where he was and just moved sideways or even back-tracked slightly he might have got a touch.

I agree, he was out slighty too far, another few inches back and he would have had a chance

Aren't the 2010 and 2014 World Cups out of Europe?
Germany, like France, would be ideal to go to. Especially with the SSIA maturing that month etc.

Big Ears

Stekelly wrote:

Qualification might not mean he did particularly well though, it could be said we qualified in spite of him.

Maybe , TBH I don't know what the **** to think right now .

Rollo Tamasi

Bitterly disapointed about the result tonight, the match its self was a complete joke, it looked like a right ametuers game. The worst irish display i can remember. I couldn't believe how CRAP Robbie Keane was tongiht, the game totally passed him by, it was clear to me after 20minutes that he wasn't fit and he wasn't getting any better during the game thats for sure. I dont have a clue why Kerr didn't bring on Elliott. Its nuts, NUTS!

ntlbell

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

Bitterly disapointed about the result tonight, the match its self was a complete joke, it looked like a right ametuers game. The worst irish display i can remember. I couldn't believe how CRAP Robbie Keane was tongiht, the game totally passed him by, it was clear to me after 20minutes that he wasn't fit and he wasn't getting any better during the game thats for sure. I dont have a clue why Kerr didn't bring on Elliott. Its nuts, NUTS!

It has nothing to do with how robbie keane played.

when you play that deep in your own half the gap between strikers and support was far too big, there was little or nothing robbie or clinton could do about it, but your right the whole match was a complete joke but no single player can take responsibility for that bar keane/reid they were all bad but i think kerr has to take the blame for most of it tacticly it was a mess.

i've done my best not to criticse kerr in previous games but i think it's time for him to go, he had a chance to prove himself and he has, and all he's proved is he's not up to it at this level.

MisterAnarchy

What are the criteria for deciding which team finishes above the other if they finish level on points ?
Is it the results of the matches between the 2 teams ?
Ireland,France and Switzerland could all finish on 19 points .
If the Swiss beat the French and we beat the Swiss ,how is that decided ?
If we cant beat Cyprus away then we dont deserve to be partaking in the World Cup.

cournioni

I hope that is the last time I ever see Doherty in an Ireland jersey. The guy is an embarrassment. Lumping high balls into him only for him to foul someone. And the low balls into his feet are even more embarrassing. Kerr should have just went for it properly and brought on Elliott for Kilbane and then went 4-3-3. Kilbane was a disaster too, I hope to god that O'Shea takes his place in midfield the next day.

Roy Keane was immense, he proved all of his doubters wrong there last night. Unbelievable game from him. Andy Reid had a great game too. The rest of them only played in the first half. Duff and Robbie Keane both done a Holland.

CiaranC

Doherty was far superior than Robbie Keane. Take from that what you will.

masterK

It's got to be said that Kerr is tactically inept, he just doesn't know what to do. The fact he waited so long to make a change after France scored showed this and when he did the changes he made were staggering. Even in the last few minutes what had he to lose by throwing Elliot on?

Surely he should have tried switching Duff and Reid at some point as it was obvious to anybody that it wasn't working out. Reid is all left foot and with Duff not getting much joy on the left it made perfact sense to me to switch them.

I think we should start a petition to have Gary Doherty banned from the Irish squad, it's embarrassing just looking at him. I don't think he's even capable of kicking the ball in a straight line, never mind doing anything useful with it.

CiaranC

We had our best side out already, what was Kerr to do?

Bring on an inexperienced kid like Elliot? Switch Duff to do his ghost routine on the right instead? If he had done that we still would have lost and everyone would be saying he should have brought on a target man to play long balls into.

lili

i read hard comments here.
we haven't seen the same match :eek:

first, i don't think the irish manager has to be fired. your guys played perfectly tacticaly and gave hard time to the french. your 2 lines very closed was very hard to pass, the proof is that we got maybe only 2 corners, few far kicks to the net and 2 free kicks.

your guy failt in attack but give some credit to the french defense. look at the history of french matchs and you will see that when we lose matchs it was always with 1 goal or maybe 2 (wc2002 against danemark, but it has been a special match).

your guys tryed harder than the french. our chance is to have guys like makelele and zidane which are experimented enough for handle with difficult matchs.
you have to think also that the french bench is better than yours. that makes the difference IMO.

~Rebel~

~Rebel~ wrote:

Im kinda worried about Kilbane being out of his depth in midfield though. I know he did ok in the first france game, but that was against kids. I guess we're really lacking options in the middle if we dont play him though. Being a workhorse is all well and good but could see Vieira and ZiZou making a fool of him leaving him chasing shadows. Im happy with everything else, and i guess if he is having trouble we could push O'Shea up to mid and bring in Harte

Sigh..wish i was wrong. Kilbane was lost in midfield, just seemed to give it away every time he got it. Still a ray of light though, just have to win the last 2 games and hope france beat the swiss..

jubbly

In fairness its not all Kerrs fault. Blaming him is just stupid. Its just the players we have arent either good enough or dont have enough first team football.

As the panel said last night , Robbie Keane , Morrision , Kilbane, Duff all hardly kicked a ball. Only Roy Keane was world class. Andy Reid is still not physically fit to play 90 minutes of international football. He has some serious work to in that area. Given was caught out off his line and was a very bad mistake IMO. Dunne is not the best of defenders by any stretch of the imagination. When you have all those players not 100% fit then you cant really expect to beat a technically better team than you.

The worst thing was the way Ireland played last night. We were going for a draw and shouldnt have been. We were never going to score, we wouldnt have got a goal if we had played on for another 4 hours.

We can still do it though, I expect France to beat Switzerland away. They are on a roll now. So if we win our two remaining games were laughing. They will be two really tough games though. We are very feable without Roy in the team and Im not sure if we can beat Cyprus away.

Who fancies having to beat Switzerland though at home ?? Im not sure if that will be a win for us.

jimbling

I think people are been very harsh here as well... and extremely pessimistic.

We played very well in the first half, and did have chances to score. Duff was quite,but to be fair he was heavily marked throughout. Obviously robbie was pretty much useless throughout, but we kinda new that was going to be the case anyway, at least It was no surprise to me. Morrison played fantasticly well (as well as he can play) but was knackared by the second half, and should have been brought off earlier.

I think everyone else put in their fair share of work. It did get a bit scrappy alright though.


I think the main problem here is kerr. That has nothing to do with this match, but overall. I don't understand why anyone has a problem with kerr after this match alone, as he did nothing out of the ordinary. Even when the switch came, in fact 5 minutes before It happened, I turned to my bud and said... "If kerr brings on Gary Doherty, im going home, fcuk this crap".
Naturaly i didn't keep my promise, but you get my drift.

In my opinion, he is one of the most unskillfull players I have ever seen play professional soccer. Target man.... screw it... its just not worth having him on the pitch.

And Ian harte?? what the hell was that about??

anyway.. back to the point. I agree that Kerr has to go... but I have thought that for about a year.

I still wouldn't be that pessimistic about getting to the qualifiers though. And sjones... seriously... how do you get through life been that pessimistic... it must be tough (and ur a gambler right?)

I think we will beat cyprus.. and if we can't then we, without any doubt... don't deserve to be in the finals.. and Kerr should get the sack.. end of story.

Swiss is another story,but hopefully keane and morrison might be a bit fitter and put up a good fight. I have no reason to think we can't beat the swiss.. it will be hard.. but lightning is def not necessary :rolleyes:

also... just to add... is there anyone else here that reckons kerr has made a mistake in not giving mceady more of a run in the friendlys... I haven't seen anything of him in a while, but seems like a player that will at least run at them.... cause some trouble, and thats what we needed late in the second half.... not GD.

sorry for the rant....

jimbling

sorry jubbly but had to comment on this... how in hell can you say

jubbly wrote:

In fairness its not all Kerrs fault. Blaming him is just stupid. Its just the players we have arent either good enough or dont have enough first team football.

and follow that with....

jubbly wrote:

The worst thing was the way Ireland played last night. We were going for a draw and shouldnt have been. We were never going to score, we wouldnt have got a goal if we had played on for another 4 hours.

Kerr decides the tactics... u reckon all the players got together and decided to play for a draw??

StickyMcGinty

from all this i've learned a couple of things though - robbie keane has peaked he will always be a nearly world class player, and kerr doesnt have a tactic in his head. great starting line-up, but if we go a goal up or a goal down he hasnt a clue.

now we're under extreme pressure to win against the swiss next month, i REALLY hate the swiss so i hope we do it. i think we have to beat them by 2 goals or more anyway..

Culchie

VinnyL wrote:

from all this i've learned a couple of things though - robbie keane has peaked he will always be a nearly world class player, and kerr doesnt have a tactic in his head. great starting line-up, but if we go a goal up or a goal down he hasnt a clue.

now we're under extreme pressure to win against the swiss next month, i REALLY hate the swiss so i hope we do it. i think we have to beat them by 2 goals or more anyway..

With Doherty, a fellah who can't get a game with Norwich, Morrison who couldn't get a game with Birmingham, and Robbie Keane who it seems for the 5th club in a row can't get a regular game in his club, Kerr's options are pretty limited.

We don't have to beat Swiss by two goals as far as I know, as the Team V Team rule applies as first criteria, so if we won, we have a win and a draw against them.

TBH, if we can't beat the Swiss at home, we've no right to be going to the finals anyway.
and.... if we can't get strikers plying in the Premiership starting line ups, we're frigged as well.

I wonder why the likes of Keane and Morrison don't go and play in another league like Spain/France/Germany and play for a top division club, improve their technical skills and try and improve themselves. It's not like the coaching at Norwich or Crystal Palace is hardly going to improve them as players.

RustySpoon

I felt that second half we aimed too many long balls toward clint/doc and didn't play enough on the ground. shay keep pumping balls up in the hope that the french wouldn't mop them up on an occassion.

Kilbane, O'Shea &Robbie were terrible
Duff, Clint, Carr were quiet
The rest were ok.

The crowd were great except for the people behind me who thought the song went.... sit down and shut up for the boys in green, we can't see the game if your standing up etc...ffs get up like the rest of us and then you will be able to see.

I am sure this has been commented on many times before but why does Roy keane, by default get man of the match at any game he plays in?
I thought Andy Reid had a busier game and Cunningham and Dunne had fine games giving very few chances away.

Sore throat today.

The Insider

I think it is very unfair to have a go at Kerr. You look at the bench last night after we went a goal down, that’s when you see how limited Kerr is. He brought Harte on so he could push O'Shea into midfield as Kilbane was boll**ed and for Hartes set-pieces, if there had been a free kick in and around the box there would have been no better man then Harte.

Morrison was knackered and had to come off, he could have brought on Elliot but we would have had two small players up front, Morrison’s strength was causing Boumsong problems all night so he most likely thought Doherty could cause him problems.

To sum it up France brought on Cisse, Kerr had a choice between Doherty and Elliot. That the difference between the teams.

All those people asking for Kerr to be sacked who do you think we could bring in to do a better job with those players??? It took Mick McCarthy 3 attempts to get into a Tournament. This is Kerr’s first full go, give the man a break, if we win the next two matches we are in the play offs, it will be tough but are destiny is still in are own hands. The Irish fans are getting as bad as the English, get a life!!!
:mad: :mad:

jubbly

jimbling wrote:

sorry jubbly but had to comment on this... how in hell can you say



and follow that with....




Kerr decides the tactics... u reckon all the players got together and decided to play for a draw??

Its about the players mentality.. i blame the robbie keanes, clinton morrisions, damien duffs for the poor performance. THey werent fit.

Kerr has to be given a stay of execution. If we draw or lose the next two remaining games, or the qualifiers Im sure we will all be looking for someones head. It shouldnt be Kerr though. The fact that we rely on England for everything is the main culpurt IMO. The fact that we havent developed our own league is another major failure.

jimbling

The Insider wrote:

All those people asking for Kerr to be sacked who do you think we could bring in to do a better job with those players??? It took Mick McCarthy 3 attempts to get into a Tournament. This is Kerr’s first full go, give the man a break, if we win the next two matches we are in the play offs, it will be tough but are destiny is still in are own hands. The Irish fans are getting as bad as the English, get a life!!!
:mad: :mad:

ya.. ur right there... I don't know who we could bring in. I was worried when we first gave Kerr the job... just the inexperience at top level, but I thought his knowledge of the players would stand to him. Mick McCarthy was a far worse manager (and don't anyone come back with the world cup performances... in my opinion that was in spite of MM not because of him), but that does not mean we should be happy with what we've got. The point is... just because every other team (swiss and french) made a balls of this qualifier doesnt mean its okay that we did. We should have had this sewn up months ago....

But you are probably right.. if we did try and replace him.. who do we get. Knowing the FAI it would be another cheap option... and god bless us all if frank ever gets the job.

What do people reckon about O'Leary getting the job?

and as for your subs...GD shouldn't be in the squad... never mind the bench. we would have been better off sticking A o'b on in deffense and moving RD up front if you want a big man...

we have known about this problem for aa long time... and kerr hasn't once given Mceady (is he playing first team this year??) a chance... barring 2-5 minutes here and there.... because of this eliot was the only option we had.


and I take the point of Ian Harte alright... there was three reasons to bring him on... as said kilbane was wrecked..... his free kicks...and lastly to aim for GD every time he got the ball.....

Necronomicon

Man I've tried to mentally repress as much of last night as I can, who's missing for the Cyprus game again?
I thought we were terribly unlucky last night. We really took it to the French in the first half, matched them in every way I thought, and had at least 3 or 4 good chances to go ahead. Second half, too many players went missing. Keane and Morrison weren't as lively as they were in the first half, and Duff seemed to disappear. The French weren't fantastic, but it only took one piece of terrific skill to undo us. Henry was a spectator for a lot of the match, but that's what he can do.
All that's left to do now is try to forget it and get behind the team again, and try our damndest to get 6 points out of 6 in October.

jimbling

jubbly wrote:

Its about the players mentality.. i blame the robbie keanes, clinton morrisions, damien duffs for the poor performance. THey werent fit.

Kerr has to be given a stay of execution. If we draw or lose the next two remaining games, or the qualifiers Im sure we will all be looking for someones head. It shouldnt be Kerr though. The fact that we rely on England for everything is the main culpurt IMO. The fact that we havent developed our own league is another major failure.

okay.. but your basing this on this match.. there were plenty other matches were they were all fit... and still the same result... look at the overall picture.

And players mentality is instilled by the manager.

and ffs.. ur blaming morrison.. he worked his socks of for as long as he could. In my opinion, only one of the few that did. He was excellent in the first half.. and his fitness is not exactly his fault either. I mean look he is after droping back to the first division in order to get first team.

Keane should have done the same and joined everton.

jimbling

VinnyL wrote:

and kerr doesnt have a tactic in his head. great starting line-up, but if we go a goal up or a goal down he hasnt a clue.

you've hit the nail on the head there vinnyL......

jubbly

start another thread on kerr then and you can discuss all the matches that he has made a cóck of. Im just discucssing the Ireland Farce game.

Im not blamining anyone. Im just pointing out that morrision is playing at too low a level and isnt 100% fit. He's a good lad morrision, he tries hard but if he isnt up to the standard, he isnt up to the standard. Maybe next season for him.

Robbie Keane is turning into a disapointment for me. He settles for mediocrity and his attitude is all wrong. He only has to answer to his supporters in Dublin and in their eyes he can do no wrong if he is seen to run about a lot. He used to have the world at his feet but doesnt anymore. Robbie is a good player but never addressed the major shortcomings in his game and is going backwards IMO. He is our best striker but cant produce the goods against quality defences. He is supposed to be in his peak now but I think we will never see anything better of him.

Kerr is a manager, he just manages the team. He may have got the tatics wrong last night but it was the poor performance that really pissed me off and that comes from the players themselves. Its up to the individuals to perform. Not one of them (bar Roy Keane) looked fully fit and rearing to go. There is no hunger in this irish team.

Necronomicon

jubbly wrote:

Kerr is a manager, he just manages the team. He may have got the tatics wrong last night but it was the poor performance that really pissed me off and that comes from the players themselves. Its up to the individuals to perform. Not one of them (bar Roy Keane) looked fully fit and rearing to go. There is no hunger in this irish team.

It's also a manager's job to keep the squad fit and motivated.

jubbly

not internationally its not. ITs up to the players themselves to keep themselves fit and get regular first team football.

Necronomicon

You're speaking as if the only thing an international manager has to do is show up and pick the best 11, and that the rest is up to the players.

jimbling

jubbly wrote:

start another thread on kerr then and you can discuss all the matches that he has made a cóck of. Im just discucssing the Ireland Farce game. [/QUOTEE]

I won't bother doing this.. but I am sure someone else will. And as for you just discussing the Ireland france game....

Your point was that kerr head should not roll (if we don't qualify), but what are YOU basing this on. Just the Ireland v France game?? thats a bit odd. if not then your allowed take other games into your argument.. but I'm not.

jubbly wrote:

Im not blamining anyone. Im just pointing out that morrision is playing at too low a level and isnt 100% fit. He's a good lad morrision, he tries hard but if he isnt up to the standard, he isnt up to the standard. Maybe next season for him.

what is the guy supposed to do. He has been very unlucky at birmingham, and was doing well last year until bruce brought in Pandiani.... He HAS moved on now in order to get more football.. not much more he can do.

jubbly wrote:

Robbie Keane is turning into a disapointment for me. He settles for mediocrity and his attitude is all wrong. He only has to answer to his supporters in Dublin and in their eyes he can do no wrong if he is seen to run about a lot. He used to have the world at his feet but doesnt anymore. Robbie is a good player but never addressed the major shortcomings in his game and is going backwards IMO. He is our best striker but cant produce the goods against quality defences. He is supposed to be in his peak now but I think we will never see anything better of him.

okay... I agree that keane has not reached the potential he should... and I agree that this is because he has never adressed his shortcomings... but last night was not a 'typical' robbie game. He is much better than that, just unfit. And again there is not much he could have done about it except move (which I think he should have done)
do you know what age robbie is by the way??

jubbly wrote:

Kerr is a manager, he just manages the team.

Do you actually understand the importance of a manager??????
As VinnyL said above, Kerr just doesn't seem to have the ability to alter tactics successfully (just a point I think he did start with the right tactics last night - only maybe finnan in for carr). The players no this... so when something goes wrong... or when the original tactics aren't working they lose confidence.



just want to make the point as well.... I may have been a bit rash on the whole 'sack kerr' thing... i've been thinking about it and I doubt Ireland will get a better manager for the money the FAI would be willing to pay... so its prob...stuck with what we have... and lets all hope he will learn from all this and improve....

jimbling

Necromomicon wrote:

You're speaking as if the only thing an international manager has to do is show up and pick the best 11, and that the rest is up to the players.

well to be fair... its worked well for Erickson

jubbly

listen lads, i know what you are saying. Im not blaming clinton or anyone. Its just the country we live in. Soccer is a minority sport. maybe if we did away with gaa and hurling we would have a chance. but thats another point.

Clinton is a good lad, its not his fault that he never got a proper chance at birmingham. But he is playing at a lower level and isnt in the same league as the likes of henry. We cant rely on clinton to produce a goal like that.

Robbie with all his ability isnt doing it at club level. He hasnt improved on his game in years and isnt improving. Im sure he can get a move to everton and get regular first team football there but unless he changes his game (1 example : stop going so deep for the ball) he will not only not improve, he will go backwards.


Kerr is responsible for the tatics but i dont think thats why we lost last night. we never played football like we can. If kerr told them not to then fine , its his fault. A team should be motivated themselves. The senior players should be trying to do it. Roy keane used to do it for mac carthy. Jackie Charlton got them motivated through fear. We need a new Roy keane to get ireland to perform on the pitch. It was always about roy.

Necronomicon

jubbly wrote:

Robbie with all his ability isnt doing it at club level. He hasnt improved on his game in years and isnt improving. Im sure he can get a move to everton and get regular first team football there but unless he changes his game (1 example : stop going so deep for the ball) he will not only not improve, he will go backwards.

I think Robbie's been unlucky. He's drifted around between clubs, but I think he did really well at Spurs. Wasn't he top scorer in the Peace Cup during pre-season? Martin Jol just doesn't seem to rate him. It's unfortunate.

jubbly wrote:

A team should be motivated themselves. The senior players should be trying to do it. Roy keane used to do it for mac carthy. Jackie Charlton got them motivated through fear. We need a new Roy keane to get ireland to perform on the pitch. It was always about roy.

This debate isn't gonna go anywhere, think we'll just have to agree to differ.

jimbling

Necromomicon wrote:

I think Robbie's been unlucky. He's drifted around between clubs, but I think he did really well at Spurs. Wasn't he top scorer in the Peace Cup during pre-season? Martin Jol just doesn't seem to rate him. It's unfortunate.

agreed

Necromomicon wrote:

This debate isn't gonna go anywhere, think we'll just have to agree to differ.

agreed

horseflesh

jubbly wrote:

Clinton is a good lad, its not his fault that he never got a proper chance at birmingham.

Of course it's his fault, he's just not good enough, simple as that!!
The Championship is about the right level for him.

jubbly

Necromomicon wrote:

I think Robbie's been unlucky. He's drifted around between clubs, but I think he did really well at Spurs. Wasn't he top scorer in the Peace Cup during pre-season? Martin Jol just doesn't seem to rate him. It's unfortunate.



This debate isn't gonna go anywhere, think we'll just have to agree to differ.

Lets be honest, who ever heard of the fúcking peace cup before Robbie scored out there in a meaningless pre season warm up. Robbie was meant to be super fit according to him. Lacked that match fitness and its something he wont have if he stays at spurs.

Agreeing to also

CrowdedHouse

Last nights match should have been academic.we should have had 6 points from the Israeli games.

jimbling

CrowdedHouse wrote:

Last nights match should have been academic.we should have had 6 points from the Israeli games.

and this is exactly my point... but everytime I say this so someone, the reply is always... 'well france and swiss drew against them as well'... but who the hell cares if the others fcuked up as well... does not excuse both those giveaways (although the ref had a lot to do with the second one as well).

anyhow.. im moving over to the other thread now...

Jivin Turkey

We played well in the first half, where we could have scored a hatful, and were unlucky to lose to a French side that only had a single decent chance from open play. They contained us far better in the second half. This team has only conceeded a single goal in eight games so its not surprising.

I was never really supportive of Kerr getting the job in the first place, and he does look tactically moronic at times, but Ive given him my full support, and will continue to do so until we have actually failed to qualify.

All we need to do now is win our last two games to reach the play-offs (regardless of what anyone else does). Which if you had said to me at the beginning of the campaign I probably would have taken, and thats even before guaging how good Israel would end up performing.

Its still in our hands.

MrJoeSoap

jubbly wrote:

I'm not sure if we can beat Cyprus away.

Who fancies having to beat Switzerland though at home ?? Im not sure if that will be a win for us.

jubbly wrote:

at the end of the day we are going to qualify and they havent a chance

Consistency in the space of an hour.

Kingp35

Lads there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding on this thread when it comes to what we need to qualify for the playoffs so I want to clear it up for everyone.

We are on 13 points and switzerland and France are on 16 points. We will qualify for the playoffs if we win our last two games irrespective of the Switzerland V France result. This is because even if Switzerland beat france and we beat Cyprus they will still only be 3 points ahead of us. If we then beat Switzerland we will be level on points and then the heah to head thing comes into play where Ireland will finish ahead of Switzerland because we would have beaten them.
So basically we don’t need Switzerland and France to draw their game or France to win in order for us to make the plaoffs. We simply have to win our remaining 2 fixtures.

Now to last nights match. We were good in the first half in that we had far more chances than the French they were very poor going forward. Clint was very good in first half and caused the French real problems. Robbie Keane may as well not have been on the pitch as he did nothing, the same goes for Duffer.

The second half was much the same as the first except that we didn’t create any real chances. I took a moment of magic to win the game for France as they offered absoulutley nothing else going forward. I have to agree with everyone that Kerr really doesn’t have a clue what to do once we go ahead or behind. Its well known I despise the guy and I think he is a woeful tactician. Elliott should have been on that pitch as soon as they went ahead. Doherty should never have set foot on the pitch. I understand the Ian Harte decision and in fact I think that was the only good call Kerr made all day.

To sum up we didn’t deserve to lose the game as France were very poor going forward but then again we werent great going forward either so I don’t think we should have won. But then again it doesn’t matter who deserved what, we lost the game and that’s that. Too many players didn’t perform on the night and it cost us dear. Things are going to be very difficult from now on even if we do reach the playyoffs its going to very hard to beat whoever we get drawn against. I hope to god the FAI realise that Kerr isnt up to the job and start looking now for a potential replacement.

colster

Kingp35 wrote:

Lads there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding on this thread when it comes to what we need to qualify for the playoffs so I want to clear it up for everyone.

We are on 13 points and switzerland and France are on 16 points. We will qualify for the playoffs if we win our last two games irrespective of the Switzerland V France result. This is because even if Switzerland beat france and we beat Cyprus they will still only be 3 points ahead of us. If we then beat Switzerland we will be level on points and then the heah to head thing comes into play where Ireland will finish ahead of Switzerland because we would have beaten them.
So basically we don’t need Switzerland and France to draw their game or France to win in order for us to make the plaoffs. We simply have to win our remaining 2 fixtures.

Now to last nights match. We were good in the first half in that we had far more chances than the French they were very poor going forward. Clint was very good in first half and caused the French real problems. Robbie Keane may as well not have been on the pitch as he did nothing, the same goes for Duffer.

The second half was much the same as the first except that we didn’t create any real chances. I took a moment of magic to win the game for France as they offered absoulutley nothing else going forward. I have to agree with everyone that Kerr really doesn’t have a clue what to do once we go ahead or behind. Its well known I despise the guy and I think he is a woeful tactician. Elliott should have been on that pitch as soon as they went ahead. Doherty should never have set foot on the pitch. I understand the Ian Harte decision and in fact I think that was the only good call Kerr made all day.

To sum up we didn’t deserve to lose the game as France were very poor going forward but then again we werent great going forward either so I don’t think we should have won. But then again it doesn’t matter who deserved what, we lost the game and that’s that. Too many players didn’t perform on the night and it cost us dear. Things are going to be very difficult from now on even if we do reach the playyoffs its going to very hard to beat whoever we get drawn against. I hope to god the FAI realise that Kerr isnt up to the job and start looking now for a potential replacement.

Where is Kerr doing so badly. He's not playing weird formations or players in wrong positions. AFAIK Kerr has played our strongest team and formation in most of the games.

Necronomicon

colster wrote:

Where is Kerr doing so badly. He's not playing weird formations or players in wrong positions. AFAIK Kerr has played our strongest team and formation in most of the games.

It's not enough to just put out the best 11. Hell, we could probably agree on Ireland's best 11. Kerr just seems to be tactically inept. Prime example would be the game in Israel.
We're seriously lacking cover on the bench too.

jimbling

as said already... its not his starting tactics.. he obv had that right last night... its when something changes or the original tactics aren't working... he just seems to have no idea what to do.

jubbly

I have a bit of doubt but I think we will do it.

Kingp35

jimbling wrote:

as said already... its not his starting tactics.. he obv had that right last night... its when something changes or the original tactics aren't working... he just seems to have no idea what to do.

jimbling has it exactly right here. Kerr does usually pick the right starting 11 but its the tactics he plays and the changes he makes once we go a goal ahead or behind thats so bad. Basically he is tactically inept

Bungalow Bill

How is the playoff situation done?? ie, all the names just thrown in a hat??

Who are we likely to end up against???

What kind of hat?

jubbly

Kingp35 wrote:

jimbling has it exactly right here. Kerr does usually pick the right starting 11 but its the tactics he plays and the changes he makes once we go a goal ahead or behind thats so bad. Basically he is tactically inept

Do you think its kerrs fault or do you think its the irish mentality that is the problem ?

eirebhoy

Kerr wouldn't have won 2 European titles if he was tactically inept. What level he won it at doesn't matter. He still has to change tactics mid-game to get the best out of the team.

Jivin Turkey

Kerr's substitution policy is questionable. Even in friendlies!

While I'm delighted he doesn't employ a SGE approach and make eight at HT, when he was blooding the likes of McGeady, he was giving him five minutes at the end of a game. What use is that?

While it's easy to say in hindsight that his subs in the competitive games have been poor (I mean Doherty did save us in Georgia and Albania didn't he?), I think he definitely could have chosen better options at times.

MrJoeSoap

Jivin Turkey wrote:

when he was blooding the likes of McGeady, he was giving him five minutes at the end of a game.

Remember Jason Byrne in Poland? What did he get? 60 seconds or so?

Not exactly "blooding" I realise but insulting nonetheless.