Sweden v Ireland & Ireland v Austria - International Football Double Header

What about Mick Byrne?

I’d like to see Neil Lennon take over and for the team to be based around James McClean, James McCarthy, Aiden McGeady, Shane Duffy, Anthony Stokes, Darron Gibson, Mark Wilson and anyone else who might rile up Unionists/Scottish Prods.

Yeah - I can see a failed Sunderland and Ipswich manager doing that alright.

Good point. I remarked to Bandage earlier that I’d love to go to a game and watch it through the eyes of a casual supporter. That’s not an option open to me though. Everything I see is through the prism of a decorated manager and that perhaps reduces my enjoyment of games.

[quote=“croppy_boy, post: 752765, member: 306”]Chippy Brady tried to argue last night that most of our good players player for teams in the lower half of the Premier League and said that Pogatetz and Weimann (West Ham and Aston Villa respectively) were better than the players we have.

Fucking gimp.[/quote]
I didn’t get to see any analysis so can’t really defend that sort of comment which is silly but the overall point would be correct.

Our team last night comprised players from:
Stoke (x3)
Sunderland (x2)
Millwall
Everton
Aston Villa
Wigan
West Brom
and Derby

Our subs were from Leicester and Leeds.

Their team comprised players from:
Austria Wien (x2)
Werder Bremen (x2)
Bologna
FC Basel
West Ham (loan)
Schalke
Bayern Munich
Stuttgart
Besiktas

Their subs were from Aston Villa, Mainz and Trabzonspor

Obviously there’s only so much you can read into the clubs the two teams draw from but they have a better base to choose from in general, have nobody playing outside the top flight in their respective leagues, have 2 players in the knockout stages of the Champions League and they have at least 3 players in that starting eleven who will be league winners this season. Nobody on that Irish team, or anyone on the bench, or anyone we could choose from other than Stokes and McGeady (and Keane I suppose), plays for a team who is contesting anything other than avoiding relegation except for Sean St Ledger who is in the team with playoff-chasing Leicester and I guess mid-table Leeds still have hopes of battling for sixth.

If nothing else, and I know this isn’t the point, it highlights once again just how frustrating it is to have so many players based in England playing horrible football for the most part at horrible clubs. I’d like to see a team that embraced Hoolahan and his ilk but when the rest of the team is made up of Stoke and Sunderland players then it’s miraculous that we’re not suffering the same fate as Scotland or Wales.

[quote=“Rocko, post: 752903, member: 1”]I didn’t get to see any analysis so can’t really defend that sort of comment which is silly but the overall point would be correct.

Our team last night comprised players from:
Stoke (x3)
Sunderland (x2)
Millwall
Everton
Aston Villa
Wigan
West Brom
and Derby

Our subs were from Leicester and Leeds.

Their team comprised players from:
Austria Wien (x2)
Werder Bremen (x2)
Bologna
FC Basel
West Ham (loan)
Schalke
Bayern Munich
Stuttgart
Besiktas

Their subs were from Aston Villa, Mainz and Trabzonspor

Obviously there’s only so much you can read into the clubs the two teams draw from but they have a better base to choose from in general, have nobody playing outside the top flight in their respective leagues, have 2 players in the knockout stages of the Champions League and they have at least 3 players in that starting eleven who will be league winners this season. Nobody on that Irish team, or anyone on the bench, or anyone we could choose from other than Stokes and McGeady (and Keane I suppose), plays for a team who is contesting anything other than avoiding relegation except for Sean St Ledger who is in the team with playoff-chasing Leicester and I guess mid-table Leeds still have hopes of battling for sixth.

If nothing else, and I know this isn’t the point, it highlights once again just how frustrating it is to have so many players based in England playing horrible football for the most part at horrible clubs. I’d like to see a team that embraced Hoolahan and his ilk but when the rest of the team is made up of Stoke and Sunderland players then it’s miraculous that we’re not suffering the same fate as Scotland or Wales.[/quote]

Great post, some people are deluded to manic proportions of what a wonderful job Trapattoni is continuing to carry out.

Rocko I wouldn’t disagree with any of that but could you tell me why you think Trap did the following:
[LIST]
[]Left it until the last few minutes to make changes when we were being swamped for the entire second half
[
]When he made the changes he put Green out on the wing and pushed Walters up front with Sammon when our game plan was to let Austria have the ball and see if we could hold out
[*]Let Sammon on the pitch when he could barely walk let alone run for the last 20 minutes
[/LIST]

Trap’s problem is that he has done his job too well that people now expect miracles in every game.

[quote=“Horsebox, post: 752906, member: 1537”]Rocko I wouldn’t disagree with any of that but could you tell me why you think Trap did the following:
[LIST]
[]Left it until the last few minutes to make changes when we were being swamped for the entire second half
[
]When he made the changes he put Green out on the wing and pushed Walters up front with Sammon when our game plan was to let Austria have the ball and see if we could hold out
[*]Let Sammon on the pitch when he could barely walk let alone run for the last 20 minutes
[/LIST]
[/quote]

Firstly I’ve already stated that I didn’t agree with his changes but:

  1. The first change was at 72 minutes, albeit enforced. I’ll need you to rephrase your question more accurately if you want me to address the other changes.
  2. I don’t buy the idea that Long was still full of running. As I’ve referenced a few times his yellow card looked like a tired player and certainly not the type of defending required. I agreed with the change but would have added Green to midfield and left Walters where he was.
  3. See #2.

[quote=“Rocko, post: 752908, member: 1”]Firstly I’ve already stated that I didn’t agree with his changes but:

  1. The first change was at 72 minutes, albeit enforced. I’ll need you to rephrase your question more accurately if you want me to address the other changes.
  2. I don’t buy the idea that Long was still full of running. As I’ve referenced a few times his yellow card looked like a tired player and certainly not the type of defending required. I agreed with the change but would have added Green to midfield and left Walters where he was.
  3. See #2.[/quote]
    Ok I’ll rephrase the first question.
    Do you think that Trap should have made changes quicker(apart from the enforced one) when it was pretty obvious that Austria were well on top for pretty much the entire 2nd half?
    You didn’t answer question 3 either-I made no mention of Long but as you brought him up, you say the free kick he gave away was an indication of a tired player. I would contend that the fact that Sammon could hardly get above a brisk walk for the last 20 minutes and could not complete a 3 yard pass about a minute before the equalizer were an indication of a much more tired player.

I don’t mind when the likes of Bomber refuse to criticize Trap but when normally reasonably knowledgeable posters blindly defend everything it does, it just weakens their argument.

watching the re-run here on the RTE player, observations after 15 mins

  • Ciaran Clarke is a joke, i saw him defend like that when i was home at xmas and we were stuck in the pub watching Tottenham tear Villa apart, that was woeful what he did there to give the ball away , shocking , what was he doing, you’re a crap player you cunt, you’r not Franco Baresi or Claudio Gentile, that ball should have been funted down the pitch first time, a player lke Clarke must know he has a bad first touch and that he cannot control the ball well, you need to be aware of you strengths and weaknesses on the pitch, this cunt clearly has not learned from mistakes

  • i have counted 3 players of serb/bosnian extraction in the autrian side judging by their surname, i presume they were refugees after the conflict in the 90’s and fled there

[quote=“Horsebox, post: 752913, member: 1537”]Ok I’ll rephrase the first question.
Do you think that Trap should have made changes quicker(apart from the enforced one) when it was pretty obvious that Austria were well on top for pretty much the entire 2nd half?
You didn’t answer question 3 either-I made no mention of Long but as you brought him up, you say the free kick he gave away was an indication of a tired player. I would contend that the fact that Sammon could hardly get above a brisk walk for the last 20 minutes and could not complete a 3 yard pass about a minute before the equalizer were an indication of a much more tired player.

I don’t mind when the likes of Bomber refuse to criticize Trap but when normally reasonably knowledgeable posters blindly defend everything it does, it just weakens their argument.[/quote]
1 (revised): Yes
2: N/A
3. He was probably left on to defend set pieces, particularly given the fact they were going at us aerially.

FAO Of Fagan ODowd: you seem to have inadvertently rated one of my posts “dumb” on this thread. If you want to let me know which rating you intended to use I will make the necessary changes.

Inadvertence would suggest that I didn’t intend to tag it so or that it was a mistake Rocko

[quote=“Rocko, post: 752916, member: 1”]1 (revised): Yes
2: N/A
3. He was probably left on to defend set pieces, particularly given the fact they were going at us aerially.[/quote]
Thanks mate.

[quote=“Rocko, post: 752903, member: 1”]I didn’t get to see any analysis so can’t really defend that sort of comment which is silly but the overall point would be correct.

Our team last night comprised players from:
Stoke (x3)
Sunderland (x2)
Millwall
Everton
Aston Villa
Wigan
West Brom
and Derby

Our subs were from Leicester and Leeds.

Their team comprised players from:
Austria Wien (x2)
Werder Bremen (x2)
Bologna
FC Basel
West Ham (loan)
Schalke
Bayern Munich
Stuttgart
Besiktas

Their subs were from Aston Villa, Mainz and Trabzonspor

Obviously there’s only so much you can read into the clubs the two teams draw from but they have a better base to choose from in general, have nobody playing outside the top flight in their respective leagues, have 2 players in the knockout stages of the Champions League and they have at least 3 players in that starting eleven who will be league winners this season. Nobody on that Irish team, or anyone on the bench, or anyone we could choose from other than Stokes and McGeady (and Keane I suppose), plays for a team who is contesting anything other than avoiding relegation except for Sean St Ledger who is in the team with playoff-chasing Leicester and I guess mid-table Leeds still have hopes of battling for sixth.

If nothing else, and I know this isn’t the point, it highlights once again just how frustrating it is to have so many players based in England playing horrible football for the most part at horrible clubs. I’d like to see a team that embraced Hoolahan and his ilk but when the rest of the team is made up of Stoke and Sunderland players then it’s miraculous that we’re not suffering the same fate as Scotland or Wales.[/quote]

that’s a good post pal, however from what i have seen Austria Viennia, Werder Bremen , Besiktas, Bologna and West Ham are equally crap or not worse than Stoke or Sunderland.
The point about Stokes is not good as he makes token appearances for a team who will only play 2 competitive games from Jan- May 2013 and he wasnt involved in them, im referring to the CL games vs Juve of course.
I would like to see Hoolahan in the team as well, i agree with you there, however right now i dont think there is an awful lot between us, wales and scotland

ive reached HT now
that was a decent bit of play there b4 HT with Maclean doing really well down the LHS , fair play to Walters as well , very industrious and deserved his goals.
apart from a decent opening 20, Austria look poor, Long is destroying yer man Pogatetz and the lack of a man on the back stick there for Walters second sums up a very poorly organised defense.
if i didnt know better id be saying ireland shoud push on from here and go for broke, these guys cannot handle the physiciality of us and hate maclean and Long running at them…

a frightening statistic I heard is that 9 of the players didnt play in the euros- for trap to be doing so well why regenerating the team is a miracle

Yep, Traps doing well. Delaney’s doing well.

Everything else is shit.

[quote=“Fitzy, post: 752956, member: 236”]Yep, Traps doing well. Delaney’s doing well.

Everything else is shit.[/quote]

bang on there