He's actually ideal for the way we play. He has the pace to make something of those aimless balls into the channels and wins a lot of headers. Shame he can't finish
Republic Of Ireland Football Thread
- Thread starter Red Ryan
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Long isnt an awful player, i would like to see 4-4-2 in Leicester with Vardy and Long up top, CBs would be under pressure 24/7.
Winner takes all v Wales. If Serbia lose again it would be nice too.
Or takes nothing depending on other results. Have my doubts if a win will even get us through
Very surprised by the Serbia result. It will be a massive upset if they get beat by Georgia, but Georgia surprised me when they played Ireland recently, they can play football...
Ireland Wales should be a cracker now though. Come on the Irish!
fecked up a group we should topped after the Austria away result, gave one of the most negative, prehistoric managers a new contract before the group is even over. Typical Irish shambles.
Shambles? Ability wise, Ireland are probably the 4th best team in the group. It was an incredible performance to get into such a strong position. The previous results were disappointing but hardly surprising.
The best goal scorer in the squad is a sub at Burnley. Seamus Coleman is the only player who would be considered a guaranteed starter in a top half EPL side. 3 of the midfield 4 that played against Moldova struggle to get a start in the Championship.
The Ireland squad is dreadful. They have great attitude and spirit and will give anyone a game, but anything better than 4th in that group is success.
Exactly this.
Spot on. We have actually overachieved in the last few years are team is a below average side with are stand out player being a RB. It's funny that people blame the manager when we got to the Euros and got as far as England yet players that don't even get a call up would walk into our team.
So am I right in thinking that Ireland need:
Scotland to drop points against Slovenia
Or
Ukraine and Croatia draw
AND a win over Wales
Scotland to drop points against Slovenia
Or
Ukraine and Croatia draw
AND a win over Wales
I think MON makes a little go a long way, but Wales have the better players over ROI, Monday's game will be interesting to say the least. Bale missing obviously levels the field a bit, but saying that, the game in Dublin was a dull and dreary affair, like a bad Championship match, it is only really remembered for the horrific injury Coleman suffered and Bale contributed little that night.
Wouldn't surprise me if both teams played it cagey and tried to hit on the break, if I had to guess I'd go for a draw.
Wouldn't surprise me if both teams played it cagey and tried to hit on the break, if I had to guess I'd go for a draw.
Or Serbia lose to Georgia. That would mean they would top the group with a win in Cardiff.
There's a group with Belgium, Bosnia and Greece where a team could finish 2nd with less points too.
He's got to be dropped for Wales I reckon. Those misses last night were inexcusable.
Just beat Wales, then see what happens, worrying about that other shite would give you a headache lol.
So it's in our hands. Crazy that we threw away the chance to top the group (I know we still can if Serbia lose) but I'd have taken the position we are in right now when the qualification campaign began.
Long is out injured tonight.
So I reckon we'll see
Randolph
Christie
Duffy
Clark
Ward
Meyler
Hendrick
McClean
Brady
O'Dowda
Murphy
Long is out injured tonight.
So I reckon we'll see
Randolph
Christie
Duffy
Clark
Ward
Meyler
Hendrick
McClean
Brady
O'Dowda
Murphy
Hey, can Wales afford to shut up shop tonight, or do they need a win too?
Wales probably have the better players, but I think this game will be a real dogfight tonight, the winner will be who wants it the most, but I reckon it will be a draw. Both managers are adept at getting their players to play above themselves, so this will likely be a real death or glory confrontation.
Looking at the table of all the second placed teams just now, by my calculations if Wales drew and Croatia won, Wales would finish 9th and miss out on the play offs.
Could be wrong though.
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Ya, they are currently 8th place in the playoffs table. A win guarantees them a playoff spot, a draw means they are relying on other results. Basically they cant afford to sit back anyway. No point of going for a draw and then hoping a few results go for you. They will surely try and go for the win.
If Wales draw 0-0 and Croatia draw 1-1. (Or 1-1 and 2-2, 2-2 and 3-3, etc), then it comes down to Fair Play.
Wales currently have 13 yellows and one red.
Croatia have 10 yellows and one red.
Wales currently have 13 yellows and one red.
Croatia have 10 yellows and one red.
If Ireland don't win tonight will it be the end of the road for a lot of these players? I am still astounded by the timing of extending MON's deal. Not to say we have a multitude of better options out there but we have clearly regressed since the Euros.
Better options as managers? Or better players?
Possibly both - that said we are paying for dropping points in games we should have won simply because of overly cautious tactics.
I'm working when this is on and I'm happy about that. It's going to be nervewracking.
I’ve tended to be in the “best we can hope for with crap players” camp but watching Norn Iron journeymen looking comfortable and composed on the ball, passing neat triangles out of defence, last night depressed the hell out of me. This route one bollox has to stop.
Shame about Long. That's a big blow. A team who struggles to score missing both of their best strikers is far from ideal.
If O'Dowda starts over Wessi it will be an incredible decision. Dunphy will have a heart attack.
With Brady back there is no reason to play O'Dowda. If no Hoolahan then maybe Arter will start and push Hendrick forward as number 10 or play McGeady on the wing.
Yeah from a pre-campaign perspective this is a good outcome. Definitely not an easy group and Wales will be sorely disappointed if their Golden generation don't qualify ahead of our cloggers.
You can't beat a winner takes all match! Both need a result, lets see what happens!
O'Neill really dropped a bollock by losing at home to 10 man Serbia. Between that and the insipid draw that followed in Georgia, I'm not sure how he's managed to swindle a new contract for himself.
I'm not particularly optimistic for the Wales game tonight either as you can probably tell. Hopefully the football is a bit better than what was served up against Moldova.
I'm not particularly optimistic for the Wales game tonight either as you can probably tell. Hopefully the football is a bit better than what was served up against Moldova.
How do you explain Norn Iron having 2nd place locked down - with a game still to play - in a group featuring Germany, Czech Republic and Norway?
It's just players with different qualities. Steven Davis is an excellent technical footballer and plays at one of the best footballing teams in the EPL. Add to that a couple of ex-United academy players next to him in midfield, a good ball playing centre back in Evans and another excellent technician like Brunt at full back and you have a team that is suited to playing football.
Ireland's best players play for Stoke and Burnley. They have good players but only Hoolahan, Brady and (maybe) Hendrick are good technically. Power, work rate and Brady's set pieces are the team's strengths. Shane Duffy is the most potent attacking threat in the team just now.
Czech Republic and Norway are very poor sides. Serbia, Wales and Austria would all finish comfortably above them and I'd expect Ireland to finish 2nd in that group too.
I’d hope if we do go out we can give the squad a reshuffle, work towards the future. We’ve been quite bad at that in recent memory with older players hanging around way too long.
Not to mention drawing at home to 10 man Wales.
You have to ask why we played such insipid football away to Georgia in a game we should have had by the scruff of the neck. The tactics we have employed in some games you would swear we were up against 1970 Brazil such was the negativity around our tactics and approach. Ahead of the Georgia game, which we should easily have won going into it, we were four points ahead of Wales - after the next game against 10 men Serbia at home, which we not only lost but never looked like threatening their goal in the second half, we were suddenly behind them. O'Neill is then awarded a new contract. The constant narrative is that we re shit and don't have the players so anything is a bonus so stop your whining fans and buy the only international jersey that can't be purchased without the sponsors' logo on it. Meanwhile we have the North playing decent stuff and getting results with a squad of players who many would say are clearly inferior. You have to wonder who is setting the agenda at the FAI?
Long out.
It was already a huge ask to win in Wales,no long just made it harder.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017/1009/910895-long-set-to-miss-tonights-game-with-injury/
It was already a huge ask to win in Wales,no long just made it harder.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017/1009/910895-long-set-to-miss-tonights-game-with-injury/
He hasn't exactly been banging them in recently. Not ideal to have players injured but he has been in insipid form and if Murphy scored twice in last game then he is the form striker anyway - not saying much by any means, but Long's injury isn't the end of the world it once might have been - sadly that's down more to his own diminishing value to the squad rather than the rise of hot new talent.
He doesnt score that many but his pace and the runs he makes are useful in MON's team set up.
You make some good points but it wasn't just Davis, Evans and Norwood who looked comfortable on the ball. It seemed to be the whole team. They all just looked so much more willing to try and play their way out of tight corners and generally back their own ability, compared to our own BIG. Their front three are all average Championship players but their link-up play in the final third was streets ahead of what we're used to, bar the occasional bit of class from Hoolahan (whenever he actually gets picked)
I have zero confidence about the match tonight. We fecked up badly against Georgia and Serbia and for me, that's that now.
We will badly miss his pace up top. Instead of hoof ball into the channels it will now be hoof ball to Murphys head, lose posession, rinse and repeat.
The Croatia game is massive tonight for us too - if we can get to half time level and Wales go in to hear that Croatia are leading, that might open things up a bit. Expect it to be cagey until then.
I reckon we'll be a little more cautious from the off today. Same team as the last day except for Long, O'Dowda and Wes out for Brady, McClean and either Arter or Whelan.
On our style of play, our main problem is our central defenders and defensive mid - neither Clark nor Duffy can pass a ball, and no matter who we play as defensive mid they don't look to receive it to feet. So it goes long. It's frustrating as the few times we got the ball to feet to Wes or O'Dowda on Friday we looked OK. We just need to trust ourselves more, but if we couldn't try that against Moldova then it ain't on the agenda for Wales. Hence the three changes I'm expecting above.
Can't wait for the game now, fully expect to be wondering why I was bothered 5 minutes in. Come on Ireland.
I reckon we'll be a little more cautious from the off today. Same team as the last day except for Long, O'Dowda and Wes out for Brady, McClean and either Arter or Whelan.
On our style of play, our main problem is our central defenders and defensive mid - neither Clark nor Duffy can pass a ball, and no matter who we play as defensive mid they don't look to receive it to feet. So it goes long. It's frustrating as the few times we got the ball to feet to Wes or O'Dowda on Friday we looked OK. We just need to trust ourselves more, but if we couldn't try that against Moldova then it ain't on the agenda for Wales. Hence the three changes I'm expecting above.
Can't wait for the game now, fully expect to be wondering why I was bothered 5 minutes in. Come on Ireland.
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