It wasnât . Italy were utterly awful that night .
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Iâm not bothered about an open and technical side.
I would just like a side that keeps the ball for more than a pass. That shouldnât be too much to ask for a team of professional footballers playing at a high level in the English league.
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Thatâs the crux of it for me. You can argue that we lack top end quality but we could be far more organised and effective a side. We have no real style or culture under OâNeill, players constantly being shifted around the place and left field selections and chopping and changing. Too much reliance on heart and riding our luck.
I have little issue with us being a route one or defensive team as long as we are well drilled and and organised and have some bit of a plan to create chances even if most of it revolves around 60 yards balls to a striker. When you see the likes of Arter just volleying a loose ball on the half way line with plenty of time to take a touch just for the sake of it 20 minutes into the game it just shows you how little ideas we have.
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O Neill is a spoofer. He relied on Matt Elliots bald head at Leicester playing hoofball. Did fuck all at Aston Villa before walking out. Made a name for himself at Celtic when an inebriated monkey would have done the same. My only regret is that the England job didnt materialise for him back then. It would have set the cunts back 20 years.
Italy were going through the motions. The problem today was Denmark had to go for it after conceding, and quickly realized they were up against nothing.
Spot on as always.
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Getting Ireland as 4th seeds in the group to a playoff spot is an amateur job?
I think heâs done a decent enough job with a very limited side.
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Super post
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Exactly, the long ball can be really effective but not when the striker has no support up there. There never seems to be any kind of plan behind anything he does
i guess or seedings for the euros will reflect this
This is it
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We do have a style and culture under OâNeill - we are generally organised and hard to beat.
We have lost four games out of 24, only 2 of those games have been by more than a goal.
In those 24 games we have played
Denmark x2
Germany x2
Scotland x2
Wales x2
France x1
Belgium x1
Italy x1
Sweden x1
Austria x2
Serbia x2
I would consider all of those teams to have better individual players available to them than Ireland have.
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Weâve hardly ever played a diamond as basic as that combined with two strikers. Itâs usually been tilted a bit to one side with Walters or someone high on one flank and one main striker. The wide player working back and filling in usually gives us more cover and allows an extra body in central midfield when we donât have the ball. Like this type of diamond tilting left at home to Bosnia in the home play off 2 years ago:
But it was very surprising tonight. A straightforward diamond with Arter deep, Meyler right, Brady left and Hendrick at the front and then McClean playing upfront with Murphy. The Danes were able to exploit the extra space they had. I thought all of the midfield were below par in the first half and Sisto was tricky playing narrow on their left and kept Meyler occupied over there as there was no wide player covering. Eriksen got much more space than the first leg and exploited it excellently. I was surprised that Arter rather than Meyler was at the base of the diamond. Our alignment just wasnât right and didnât suit the players.
We helped them on their way with the mistakes for the goals but were well beaten in the end. I thought Randolph, Christie, Duffy and Murphy had solid games. Not a Clark fan. Ward had a nightmare. McGeady was really annoying - barely registered a gallop - and Hoolahan was ineffective too. The half time subs contrived to give Sisto and Eriksen even more space and left us exposed. I think we ended up with a similarly open midfield at home to Austria with a load of wide and attacking players but it was only for the last 15-20 minutes when we were 0-1 down rather than leaving ourselves completely open all second half.
But yeah, a more attacking formation with the intent to take the game to them blew up in our faces after the positive start.
Iâd like to see Roy Keane fall on his sword after that.
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Inquest on TV3 now.
Gavin Cummiskey, some bird and that spoofer Enda McNulty leading the onslaught.
They should have been brushing their teeth with their weak hand.
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Yes please.
Ireland played very well for the first half hour and could easily have gone two up with decent chances for Murphy and McClean, the warning signs were there and Ireland imploded after the Danes got the goal. You can certainly raise questions about the changes OâNeill made, the subs didnât work but he canât be blamed for some terrible individual mistakes.
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Whatâs this âWeâ business? Have you thrown your lot in with Eire after Italyâs humiliation last night. Youâll probably need another new team after the Eire humiliation tonight.
Mccarthy was a big loss
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Iâll be supporting Uruguay in the World Cup.
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