Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2024 [use match threads for games]

a midfield 2 is suicide. Thats why there was talk a few years ago of maybe pushing Collins into midfield. Maloney even briefly theorised O'Brien coming into midfield (for some reason).

We seem to be stuck playing a back 5 because we know we can't control a midfield with our options so have to soak up pressure. But at this stage its just a self-fulfilling prophecy as whatever 2 feckers end up in the middle are just constantly outnumbered. Since Whelan left we just haven't had a proper midfield set up. Halgrimsson needs to try an actual 3 man midfield to see if that provides any stability. Whether its throwing an extra CB to act as a DM in or just starting a trio of Molumby/Knight/Browne to chase people.

Halgrimsson has no choice but to rely on O'Shea. He got the gig after all the friendlies. He had no experimentation time himself.

I'm not too disappointed (though I felt we should have nicked a goal) because this game was not our competition and it's ridiculous to try judge the manager on that game. Greece will be a much better barometer.

A win on Tuesday would really lift everyone.

He’s been in the job a month. I’m not expecting miracles, I am expecting authority. I don’t see it.

And today’s performance was muddled. They sort of went for it, and they sort of defended. I didn’t expect a result but it was too easy for England.

Our forwards are maybe worse - none of them can hit target , never mind score.

Love Coleman - but at 35 , a bit crazy him starting against that English line up

Have we anyone who would get in front of him. Or should ?

O'Sheas involvememnt in the backroom team should be disposed of after this round of games he keeps calling up nonsense nowhere up to top level.

A sign of the scarcity of options, when England were bring on Eze and Gibbs-White, we were deploying Alan Browne.

We are royally f*cked for wing back options (both sides) with a combination of Coleman (age and injury), Doherty (laziness) and Brady (never a WB to start with) nowhere near standard.

On the plus side, I decided that Molumby would take over my absolutely nailed on Anytime Yellow Card wager (used to be nailed on McClean) so that paid out.

Is there any truth to this squad being O'Shea's doing? Or are people jumping to conclusions?

In what way mad? I thought he called things honestly.

I think he was probably about 8th choice.

It would have been strange seeing Rice proudly roaring "God Save The King" if he was in green.

Probably from him having led an even smaller team to top their qualification group for a world cup? Something that far outshines anything any of our managers have done in decades?

I'd love to see who the alternatives are. They are still the best natural full backs available. Sure we can shove O'Shea and Scales into the full back spots but that will have its own set of problems. But would also allow us to really focus on offensive set pieces with at least 4 CB's on the pitch we should overwhelm opposition.

This reads like you ignored the post you quoted… the issue people have is that despite being born and raised in England, he made a commitment to the Irish team, reaffirmed that commitment repeatedly, played for the senior team several times, kissed the badge, and then after all that decided to go back on his commitment.

He clearly always wanted to play for England, and he should be playing for England - and given that that's how he feels he never should have come into our senior team in the first place. It was a bad faith move on his part. I'm not a fan of boo'ing players, but it's super obvious why people have a legitimate issue with his decision making.

I'd say England have had tougher training sessions than that.

Love to see Corrie Ndaba come into the squad at Left Back at some stage… was an alright centre back earlier on, but has come on in leaps and bounds since switching to left back full time. Been playing really well for Kilmarnock over the past year particularly. Very strong defensively with tonnes of pace and strength.

Don't think we will get anything out of the Greece game.

In fact we could be in for another rocky evening.

Outclassed, men against boys

Pity we can't take some of the under 21s for the October window. Bloody Greece winning 3-0 tonight