Ireland squad for the Bulgaria game (1 Viewer)

[7 - No tomorrow]

he's back again lol

Nice one.

 

[Wheels]

Fuck sake Kilbane!

 

[kevin gallen]

wish we had someone on the bench who could come on and calm this down. Fuckin Kilbane...

 

[Richie]

Jesus, there must be easier ways to win a point than that.. Fair play, Ireland hung on, and I'm delighted we got the draw, but that must've been a whole hour of sitting deep, standing well off the player in posession and letting them come at us. I don't think we had the ball for more than 10 seconds at a time after they scored, and when we did it was always the hopeful high ball forward with little effect. Folan did his best to knock it on and hold it up but never seemed to get any help, any Irish players going forward were always isolated figures with 3 white shirts closing in on them. Andrews & Whelan really were just extra defenders, barely remember them making a forward move with the ball in the entire match.. Still, sets us up well for 2nd place, if we can beat Cyprus & Montenegro.

 

[actwithoutwords]

Shite equaliser, but good result in the end. There's a lot to be done still though. Good old Cyprus away next, and Italy are well capable of rolling us over at home.

 

[Froog]

at least bulgaria have italy too.

 

[Cormcolash]

Fuck that was a brutal match. Sorry about my earlier negativity, I forgot how ridiculously SHITE Bulgaria actually are apart from 1 or 2 players. I think Berbatov ran more in that match tonight than he did in the entire season for United.
That game was actually almost a virtual copy of the last game in Dublin.

Great result for Ireland, we should pretty much have the 2nd place play-off spot in the bag now, and could still be in with a shout for 1st if we can somehow do something against the Italians.
In saying that, we were fucking crap tonight. Players that were good - Folan, St.Ledger, O'Shea, Dunne, Given. Doesn't say much for us going forward. The complete lack of midfield is fucking killing us. Even defensively, Whelans and Andrews weren't closing men down properly and weren't supporting the wings at all, Bulgaria had so much space out wide because they were almost always 2 on 1.
The thing is, we're in a good position, so we have every chance of getting into a play-off and qualifying for the World Cup. But if we happen to make it to South Africa, let's face it, we are going to get the piss taken out of us in midfield. Even tonight, Bulgaria actually moved the play around Whelan and Andrews without either of them even getting near the ball most of the time. They were just switching wing to wing and Whelan and Andrews were just sitting in the middle on the edge of the box waiting for someone to shoot so they could try and block it.
Fair play to Trap for taking Keane off, he was fucking crap and at least with Best there's another player up field who might actually be able to win the ball.
The only real positive apart from our position I take out of the match tonight, is that Folan really does look like he could turn into a quality player up front, he worked his arse off and was great tonight. Okay so I suppose St.Ledger put in a good shift too, the defence was definitely a lot better with O'Shea out right and not that spa McShane, now of course left back has become a problem instead, Kilbane is quickly becoming past it.

 

[Jerry Twig]

Agree with all of the above.
Obviously very happy with the result but I just can't bear watching Ireland sitting back like that every fucking time. Bad for the health. We were one header away from another Croatia in 2000, and then what? It can't go on.
There were some encouraging individual displays. O'Shea is now an actual footballer, of course, and Dunne is a hero. Killer needs to be put out to pasture without a doubt. What's O'Dea like? Or Nolan?
PS - on the midfield, Stephen Reid should be ready by September, no?

 

[Cormcolash]

O'Dea is a great option for left-back actually, he's been solid there when he's played for Celtic, just doesn't offer much going forward though.

 

[Richie]

The complete lack of midfield is fucking killing us. Even defensively, Whelans and Andrews weren't closing men down properly and weren't supporting the wings at all, Bulgaria had so much space out wide because they were almost always 2 on 1.

I don't think it's so much that they're bad players, just that when we go into 'protecting what we've got' mode they're obviously under strict instructions to run back to that zone just in front of our box every time we lose the ball and it pretty much takes them out of the game. Trap needs to have more faith and allow even one of them to stay a bit further up the pitch, otherwise we're into that fatal pattern of allowing the opposition to advance most of the way into our half before making a challenge, usually allowing a cross or long range shot in and then just punting it aimlessly away when we finally get the ball back because there's nobody in the middle to recieve a pass.

 

[Jerry Twig]

O'Dea is a great option for left-back actually, he's been solid there when he's played for Celtic, just doesn't offer much going forward though.

He doesn't need to offer anything going forward under Trap's regime. The half-way line is a no-trespass marker these days. Which is fine if we have a holding midfielder, as Richie mentioned, which we don't at the moment.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

Super result and end to the season. Presuming Steven Reid and Steve Finnan return in September who knows what we can do. It's easy to forget just how good they are. We'll also have a selection headache with Doyle and Folan. Nice to have an option of one of them on the bench. Cyprus away is obviously a tricky match but the fact is they're almost out of it and I think an early goal will kill them off. Hopefully we'll have a big support that night.

 

[Bladez]

The first 20 minutes was the best we've played in this campaign. We were even PASSING!! Then we scored and went back to defensive mode.

Encouranging performances from St Ledger and Andrews. Duff, Folan, Given, O Shea and Dunne were immense. Keane was anonymous - but thats because he got no service from midfield. He's been anonymous in all games under Trappatoni. Whelan was useless - playing anyone else in the squad would be an improvement. And, even forgetting the equaliser, Kilbane was pretty poor.

I wouldn't be optimistic of our chances in a play-off. We'd probably lose to any other second place team in the other groups. If we keep on sitting back with this negative attitude we are going to eventually come unstuck. The only way forward is to get a passing game going. We showed glimpses of it in the first 20 minutes. We need to get a bit of composure and passing going through midfield. If we get Stephen Reid back and put him in with Andrews in midfield, maybe we'll start to look like a real team.

 

[Jerry Twig]

I wouldn't be optimistic of our chances in a play-off. We'd probably lose to any other second place team in the other groups.
.

All things considered, if we have Reid, Doyle and the option of Finnan, I'd definitely fancy our chances against the likes of Switzerland, Hungary or Scotland.

 

[Luther Blissett]

Poor game, great result. Agree about the frustration of watching a team dominate the game for 20 minutes before going into their shell and trying to hold onto the result for dear life.

Duff clearly had the beating of his marker but O'Shea, while having a good game defensively, didn't make one forward run during the whole 90 minutes. Witness how much he attacks for Man United when playing at fullback and it's clear that he was instructed not to take any risks at all.

Also, while Andrews is no world beater he has the ability to create and put a player into space as he showed for Keane's goal against Nigeria last week. As much as he and Whelan get a bad rap it's clear that our back four are told to hoof the ball over midfield towards the new plank that is Caleb Folan. It's not a bad tactic from time to time, but a bit of variation could see us actually create some decent chances for Keane who is left just feeding off the scraps presented by Doyle or Folan.

I suppose that anyone who remembers how Trap's Italy played shouldn't be too surprised by our tactics. The man had Totti, Vieri and Del Piero in their prime and was content to sit back and defend once his team had taken the lead.

In the end anytime that I think Ireland aren't that good under Trap (which is pretty much after every game barring the Italy match) I take a look back at our nadir as a footballing nation and remember just how bad we were.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Cormcolash]

Yeah in fairness we were excellent in the first 20 minutes. After scoring though, we should be going and killing the match, that's the main problem right there. If we'd done that against Bulgaria in Dublin we'd be top of the group right now.

I can't wait to get Stephen Reid back, he is fuckin class.

 

[Hector Grey]

that was a great result, given how shit we are. it's all about the system now, isn't it, so we can play utter crap and still get away with a decent result. if we had anyone in the middle of the park who could pass a ball, we'd be dangerous.

 

[Jerry Twig]

Please tell me that the horrendous thought that I've just had is wrong. 8 of the 9 second placed teams go to the play-offs. As Group 9 has one less team, the results against the last team in the each other group is discarded and it is then decided by points. On that basis, at the moment, we are worst team and would not actually make the play offs.
I think we are dependent on Holland hammering everybody, or winning the rest of our games, or we are not going to be in play offs. Am I right?
Fuck.

 

[ratmonkey]

We're not the worst, but we could be.

 

[Cormcolash]

Please tell me that the horrendous thought that I've just had is wrong. 8 of the 9 second placed teams go to the play-offs. As Group 9 has one less team, the results against the last team in the each other group is discarded and it is then decided by points. On that basis, at the moment, we are worst team and would not actually make the play offs.
I think we are dependent on Holland hammering everybody, or winning the rest of our games, or we are not going to be in play offs. Am I right?
Fuck.

Na, we are doing okay on points actually, on a par with everyone else anyway