Anyone see tonight's match against Montenegro. Not bad. Some good stuff and some sloppy stuff. Montenegro were much better than I expected .
Overall based on tonight and Saturday's match against Georgia, we seem to be in much better shape than the Stan days.

4 points.

Group details here : World Cup Groups Europe Qualifiers

Here's all the fixtures from your link. The score was nil-all tonight so? It looks a bit funny on that site. I was listening to it but didn't see it. I heard Richard Dunne's name mentioned a lot. Did they work or what this time?

Yeah, Dunne and O'Shea were both quite good and provided a fairly robust defence.

Cyprus next. Hopefully there's no pissing about this time.

Paddy Agnew on this morning's sportsnews said that the headlines in the Italian sportspages are about how we were done out of two penalties. The Italians are apparently not so hot on the field at this time of the year but have warmed up by the time we'll get to play them...

Well we should have got at least one peno.
The Italians are always slow starters. Hopefully the let in a load early on to give us a better chance at top spot.

3 points against Cyprus last night at Croker.
Only saw the second half and it was a bit of a struggle.

if we was ingerland the pundits would talking confidently about winning it and drawing comparisons with 1966.

zakalwe wrote:

if we was ingerland the pundits would talking confidently about winning it and drawing comparisons with 1966.

The ingerlish always do that anyway, up until they get knocked out. Then you have to hide under the bed for a few weeks.

You`re always likely to have footballers who are upset but we`ve a very small pool of footballers to choose from. We`ve already lost Andy O`Brien and Stephen Granny so we can`t afford to alienate anymore. Andy Reid must be getting seriously pissed off as Joey O`Brien is. Trappa really doesn`t believe in subs. Another major problem with ourselves is Stephen Reid`s injury. Do you try and replicate S. Reid or do you rejig the whole system. That said I`d be reasonably happy that progress is being made. Some of the progress that`s being made is down to a little bit of luck that we didn`t get before. We could justifiably have ended the first three games with four points rather than seven.

anmajornarthainig wrote:

You`re always likely to have footballers who are upset but we`ve a very small pool of footballers to choose from. We`ve already lost Andy O`Brien and Stephen Granny so we can`t afford to alienate anymore. Andy Reid must be getting seriously pissed off as Joey O`Brien is. Trappa really doesn`t believe in subs. Another major problem with ourselves is Stephen Reid`s injury. Do you try and replicate S. Reid or do you rejig the whole system. That said I`d be reasonably happy that progress is being made. Some of the progress that`s being made is down to a little bit of luck that we didn`t get before. We could justifiably have ended the first three games with four points rather than seven.

The major problem for us is the centre midfield. Gibson and Whelan are very very lightweight. Stephen Reid is a major loss and unless we can somehow compensate for his athleticism and vision I think we are in trouble. Even if we have Andy Reid back, its probably not enough. In the end I think Trap is going to sacrifice one of the wingers or one of the front pair and go for a 3 man centre midfield with two workers and maybe Andy Reid.

That being said, I like teh shape at the back and the attack seems to be working well. Just need to plug that hole in the middle.

Do you think Roy Keane could have a few worlds with Stephen Ireland? Would it help? Would he bother?

I originally thought that we`d have to sacrifice one of the fronmen given the players we have anyway and play a creative midfielder (Andy Reid) with a licence to roam and play four across the middle. With the players we`d have at the minute and allowing for Stpehen Reid being injured I`d play the following:

Given, Finnan ,O`SHea, Dunne and Kilbane at the back. I`d play Joey O`Brien and probably Glenn Whelan in front of the back two and play McGeady and Duff on the flanks. I`d let Andy Reid roam. I`d personally go for Doyle up front. For home games I`d drop McGeady and bring in Robbie Keane. But to be honest we`d still be a weak team.

As for Stephen Ireland. The lad has problems and seems to be a misfit. It `s a good thing for him personally that he has the football.

Well no Andy Reid for the Poland match, but apparantly Trap is now sayong that even if Ireland were available, neither he nor Reid would fit into his team as they represent a type of midfield play which is incompatible with the system he is trying to build.

I understand this with Andy Ried, who while having skill, does have mobility problems, but its hard to see that Gibson and Whelan are better in the centre than S.Ireland. Will be interesting to see how they perform. They need to improve a lot and we will miss S. Reid more than anyone else at the moment.

Apart from mobility, isnt it attitude and mentality at this level,
especially in the centre midfield position? If your concentration
wanders or given a situation occurring before your eyes you see the
offensive possibilities better than the defensive frailities of a move
you might be a danger to the team. Thats down to your mentality. "Plug
those gaps before running into those spaces" is what Trap seems to want.

Hmm - anybody watching the game tonight - you would think we were playing away.

I know its only a friendly and all that - but that lack of creativity is really starting to worry me - no disrespect to the young lads - but what I would give to see a central midfielder put his foot on the ball, look up and play a risky but potentially brilliant defense splitting pass - the Poles know what we are going to do before we do it would seem- so so predictable

lots of effort but no thought, no connectivity and fuck all result - kinda sums up the state of the country at the moment

Finally I couldnt see the match(would have to have seen if via a webstream here in Spain). I actually played a game instead. Would like to see the video or some kind of highlights to analyse the weaknesses.

Have been over in foot.ie and it appears that Gibson was a real passenger in MF. Whelan is ok when he has someone like S.Reid beside him but the midfield is simply too weak as is.

Regarding the lack of thought as mentioned by Edo, that bothers me. For me football/soccer is all about the mind(of course you need the physical shape and skill) but in the end I think we need a guiding purpose. I saw the qualifiers in Septmebr and though t we at least had good shape in defense. But we need someone to take the ball from the defense and play!

Come on the boys ..

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Come on the boys ..

No worries.

40 mins gone - 1 nil down - this is fcukin painful

The goal after 40 seconds was painful. And the offside disqualification.

Apart from that, they're playing well I think.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

The goal after 40 seconds was painful. And the offside disqualification.

Apart from that, they're playing well I think.

the offside was offside - if he had been a bit closer to the defender maybe he would have got the benefit of the doubt- thems are the breaks

the whole game plan has to change now - this is not a strong point of Trap

Again McGeady as usual would struggle to round a bag of spuds and his crossing as per usual is woeful - he looks great for Celtic - but the scottish league is league of Ireland standard now - we have no creativity

I bet Andy Reid is down in his local in Sunderland laughin his arse off.

Yeah, it was offside. I see a 1-1...

toxic avenger wrote:

Yeah, it was offside. I see a 1-1...

My money's still on an Irish win.

tonys wrote:

toxic avenger wrote:

Yeah, it was offside. I see a 1-1...

My money's still on an Irish win.

Hope so, anyway, they'll have to control the ball a lot better than the first half...

Norn Iron are winning 3 - 0 away to San Marino over on the Beeb2

Dont knock it - we struggled to win 2-1 there about 2 years ago

Stalin will be spinning in his grave after that peno decision! What a rob!

1-1 the worst penalty decision I have seen this season - Trappatoni must be bribing the Pope.

If I was Georgia I would declare war.