I think Whelan will start pushing Hendrick wide. And I think Brady might be left back with McClean ahead of him. We really are scrambling for players.
my da just called me and said yer man who manages Ramblers , stephen henderson, he used to play in goals for Pats, apparantly his son has been called up to the squad, who is this lads?
plays for sheffield united apparantly
Christ above we’ve an awful squad.
That’s an excellent thought. I agree Coleman is suspect defensively and he hasn’t been good for us in this campaign. Christie is at the stage where everything is new and he’d have no fear of playing in such a massive game after his highly positive showing against Germany. Coleman’s strength is in going forward and getting crosses into the box, which would be great with Slab in there.
@Bandage I know it pains us all, but there’s no point in having AN Other listed, we all know Glenn Whelan is going to play.
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He’ll hardly start Hoolahan away?
is towell in the squad?
We’re desperate mate but don’t think it’s reached those levels just yet
Think he’s still pissed.
Don’t forget to bring a Towell
It’s been confirmed that it was David Meyler and not Richard Keogh who picked up a knee injury after colliding with Marc Wilson in training. He’s suffered a medial knee ligament injury and will be out for 8 weeks. So another squad withdrawal. Some of these absentees are not necessarily starters but it’s a concern to have so many forced out as two back-to-back games in 3 days will require a degree of squad rotation.
Just thinking there that we may have a goalkeeper and two centre backs with only around 20 caps between them if Randolph, Keogh and Clark get the nod. We possibly lack the level of leadership and experience that we had when Robbie Keane was a definite starter and we had the likes of Dunne and Kilbane on the scene.
This is shaping up to be a very tough assignment but I’m holding out for a hero to emerge. I think the chap Harry Arter could come off the bench and ping one in from 25 yards in one of the games. He looked decent against England in June but hurt his hip in that game, required an operation and is only recently back in the Bournemouth side. He’s a lively sort who can pass the ball around, likes to break forward and has a shot on him.
Another thing to note is that Coleman and McCarthy and at least one more whose name escapes me would miss the second leg if they get booked tomorrow night.
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Whelan will also miss the second leg with a yellow
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Anyone heard of the potential starting 11?
That would be awesome.
Think we’ll lose by 2-3 overall
My guess:
Randolph
Coleman
Keogh
Wilson
Ward
Brady
Hendrick
Hoolahan
Whelan
Murphy
Keane
Which Whelahan?
John giles isn’t on the panel tomorrow night.
A story about Bosnian manager Mehmed Bazdarevic that would bring a tear to your eye.
In 1979, Mehmed Bazdarevic was a 18-year-old midfielder for the Bosnian side Zeljeznicar. He was named captain of the Yugoslavia Under-20 side for the World Cup in Japan. Yugoslavia lost to Poland in that tournament and to the brilliant Argentina side which helped established Diego Maradona as a global star, and, although they beat Indonesia, came home after the group stage. Bazdarevic changed planes in Belgrade and on his way to Sarajevo he got talking to a young woman called Marina who was studying languages at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. She had been born in Dedinje, a district of Belgrade, and travelled home every weekend.
They got on well, but Bazdarevic was having a bad week. “I forgot her phone number,” he said. “Look, to be honest, at that time not many footballers carried pens around.” Not even Bazdarevic who, by his own admission, was “a pretty boy” with long curly hair.
It was an incident that was to teach the now Bosnia & Herzegovina coach – whose team face the Republic of Ireland in the Euro 2016 play-offs, the first leg of which is in Zenica on Friday – an important lesson about patience – and about always carrying a pen. “Eight or nine months later I was on the same plane,” he recalls, “this time returning from the pre-season tour that we [Zeljeznicar] had in Tunisia. I met her again. She was beautiful. I started flirting. She remembered we’d met before. If something was destined to be, that must be it, those two occasions in a plane.” He and Marina are still married and have a daughter, Tea, who is a journalist in France.
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so what>?
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Stephen Reid on how Robbie Keane makes a point of integrating new players into the group and his importance to team spirit.
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