[quote=“Bandage, post: 752593, member: 9”]The midfield clearly needed supplementing after our initial decent spell after half time. Increasingly, they began to get players free to receive the ball between our midfield and defence right in that exact area where Alaba received possession before scoring. It was inexplicable that Trap left it so long to make a change (other than the forced St Ledger for Clark one) and, when he did make the sub, he positioned Green on the right and moved Walters forward. As a result, we retained the same 4-4-2 and it meant that we remained undermanned in midfield.
Ciaran Clark got done like he did for the first goal tonight for Aston Villa against Manchester City recently when Dzeko dispossessed him and set up Tevez. He also did the same thing in the first half in Sweden and was very nearly caught out.
I thought we were poor tonight. Not much to be positive about but I thought Long did well.[/quote]
Green for Long would have been an ok change if Green was kept centrally and we went 4-5-1. Didn’t really understand the rationale of putting Walters up front beside Sammon for the last 10 minutes or whatever was left. The game reminded me a bit of the home match against Macedonia in the last campaign when they started to attack us near the end and we couldn’t get hold of the ball but Fahey came on (as an extra midfielder?) and changed our midfield and we saw it out comfortably in the end.
A couple of encouraging performances - Coleman was fine again, O’Shea was actually ok, McCarthy was good for the most part but faded badly near the end with Whelan. Sammon is limited but played his limited role well and was involved in some of our better chances. Long did well, though the foul he conceded before he came off was idiotic in the extreme and maybe hinted he was tired.
Wilson and Clark were nightmares at the back. Whelan did well for the two goals but was poor in general. Walters didn’t do much but got 2 goals so no complaints. McClean was persistent I suppose. Poor technique and very predictable but he did recover a bit after a half hour in the first half when he couldn’t stop giving it away.
Just as a matter of interest from someone who is not an expert but there was absolutely no cover in front of Coleman for the last 10 minutes and all the Austrian moves came down that side.
Green as Rocko pointed out was put there as Walters was pushed up front to replace Long. Walters had given Coleman protection and this in the end hurt us fatally. In saying all that, the equalizer was a great strike & took a deflection off Ledger also so we just ran out of luck really. Lads seem to forget we didn’t have a shot on target against Sweden so although tonights result was a disappointment it was an improvement.
Green as Rocko pointed out was put there as Walters was pushed up front to replace Long. Walters had given Coleman protection and this in the end hurt us fatally. In saying all that, the equalizer was a great strike & took a deflection off Ledger also so we just ran out of luck really. Lads seem to forget we didn’t have a shot on target against Sweden so although tonights result was a disappointment it was an improvement.[/quote]
Can’t agree there, I thought defensively he was very strong. The Austrians seemed to have identified him as an attacking threat and they seemed intent on stopping him from building up a head of steam by fouling him any time he got the ball.
I can’t come to grips with Sammon getting 90 minutes… Himself and Walters were dead on their feet with 15 to go and he pulls Long. Neither of the full backs got much cover in the second half, Whelan, and McCarty to a lesser extent, were swallowed up. Whelan is also the most ill composed professional footballer I’ve seen in a long time. On numerous occasions he just hurriedly lumped the ball any where when a simple pass was on, shit like that put us right back under pressure. That and the inability of that bean pole up forward to hold the ball up… He was beaten to nearly every header in the last 20 mins too. It’s not he’s fault, but he shouldn’t be anywhere near that team and if that senile greasy cunt was taking his meds he wouldn’t be.
The only plus from tonight is that their defence is shocking and they will.surely drop points. As for us over there, it’s a bit off, but I think if Trap goes positive with Mcgeady, McLean, Long and Walters we would cause them an amount of trouble… but that would leave us very open and probably be too positive for Trap.
Watched it in a pub in Clapham. Good atmosphere in their with the expats. Everyone was sick and the place emptied after a few people had a proper rant at the final whistle.
Can’t fault the players. They gave it their all. Classic bad management. Everything been already said about the Long substitution … all of us in the pub were screaming at the tv when the clock hit 90mins and yet Trap wouldn’t bring a sub on just to take the pressure off and waste some time. Oldest trick in the book.
Coleman did some excellent work tonight. There was a great moment where he was chasing back to retrieve the ball and got his head up and spotted that two Austrians were about to close off his pass to Forde so he dummied and played it inside to a midfielder in space. A small thing but I’m fairly sure O’Shea would’ve played it back regardless and Forde would’ve had to hurriedly hoof it out for a throw.
I’m not picking on the defenders. My first post following the match mentioned the inexplicable failure to put an extra body in midfield from early on in the second half when it became glaringly obvious it was required.
You’re last couple of posts have had a pop at O’Shea and Coleman. They didn’t cost us victory. Are you afraid to call out Trap for his incompetence tonight in case you upset Totti or that other gibbering moron TASE?