Its pretty disingenuous to say Clark doesn't get a game for Newcastle when he has started 7 out of 11 games this season.
To put it in perspective the other way, Denmark has Cornelius up top who was a complete an utter failure at Cardiff and didn't even have a good record in Denmark. The guy is awful. Delaney is on the second last place team in the Bundesliga who have yet to even win a game. Kvist plays in the Danish league after only playing in the Championship. Bjelland only plays for Brentford. They didn't have any defenders from the Bundesliga or Premier League. They had Serie A, Championship, La Liga, and Danish League. We actually had 3 defenders from the PL. The only real difference is them having Eriksen who didn't even do anything. Nor is he the type of player who should effect us being able to string a couple of passes together or at least resemble trying to put an attack together.
We don't need to play great football or a nice passing game but we have to at least attempt to win a game. The level of players is a shit excuse, the Danish players aren't any better bar Eriksen and it doesn't matter who we play. Be it Georgia or Cyprus, we are consistently dominated in midfield and played off the park. Its embarrassing from a group of PL players. The fact we're even here in the play-offs after our position in the group is a shambles
Re Clark, it's not really disingenuous now he has lost his place in the starting line up. It's a big worry for the future if he can't get back in the Newcastle team.
Saying Denmark only have Eriksen is what is really disingenuous. He is head and shoulders above every Ireland player. One world class player in a pivotal position can have a huge influence on a team like Roy Keane had for Ireland.
As for the Ireland team's style, it is incredible the criticism O'Neill gets. The Ireland players are poor. They have great spirit and attitude but there is a huge lack of quality all over the pitch and in particular in attack. There simply are no quality attacking players available.
If you look at both the quality and style of players available to O'Neill, it is absolutely no surprise how they play. Murphy, Walters and McClean are terrible technically, the centre backs are slow but good in the air and good penalty box defenders and the midfielders are good hard working players. Setting up to counter attack and using Brady's set piece quality makes absolute sense.
The way the group panned out makes that even more clear. Playing defensively and on the counter attack, Ireland got great results away to Serbia, Austria and Wales. When they had to "attempt to win the game" in the big home games they didn't have the quality to do it.
Ireland will undoubtedly play more offensively in the second leg and I have far less confidence in them avoiding defeat than I had in Copenhagen.
You have criticised Denmark's shit players. So, based on Serbia, Wales and Austria all having better players than Ireland, how can you criticise Ireland for finishing second in that group? In fact, it shows what an incredible achievement it was to get into that position in the group.
