Ireland - Cyprus (1 Viewer)

[Cormcolash]

Get stuck in when Cyprus start walking it back down the pitch again, instead of retreating back to the edge of their own box.

 

[Jerry Twig]

Get stuck in when Cyprus start walking it back down the pitch again, instead of retreating back to the edge of their own box.

???

 

[Cormcolash]

That's was meant to be in reply to "What's the midfield supposed to do when McShane lamps the ball 40 yards downfield".

Anyway, I will say that Cyprus were distinctly average last night, but in saying that their midfield totally dominated ours due to our complete lack of one. Also they had 4 or 5 first team players out due to injuries and suspensions, their star man pulled his hamstring an hour before the match and everything, thank fuck for all that! Could have been a very different story if they were playing a full strength team, then again the same can be said for us missing Stephen Reid and Finnan who just happen to play in the two positions that most people are complaining about.

 

[Jerry Twig]

Thanks for presenting both sides of the argument to that and saving me the time!
PS - A big shout out to Georgia for holding Bulgaria to a draw. Lovely stuff.

 

[Cormcolash]

Some points about 'the system':

Trap's system of two holding midfielders actually works well for Ireland. Because in recent years our problem has mainly been a shambolic defence, the current system really addresses this, and I think that's why we've been so good and organised defensively so far.
However, with that system in place, the holding midfielders have got to provide support for the two attacking wingers when they are going forward and taking men on. They have to get into positions near the wings to make themselves available for passes and ready to change the flow of play if the opposition get too many defenders to that side of the pitch.
Stephen Reid excels at this, especially because his passing has been superb. Whelan and Gibson do not. Far too often they were nowhere to be seen when we were attacking down the wings last night. Whelan is not that sort of player, he is more the kind who will hold back and try and break up counter-attacks and that sort of thing. This works well alongside someone like Reid, who will take more control and be more attacking, but alongside Gibson it was shit because Gibson is the same sort of player Whelan is. It's good to have 1 midfielder ready to support the attack and another ready to support the defence, but last night we had 2 players sitting in front of the defence, which allowed Cyprus to run at them and then required our forwards to track back a lot more than usual, which in turn limited our forward play. That could have caused real trouble for us if Doyle hadn't played such a good game holding the ball up and winning challenges, against a better team we won't get away with it.
Gibson was poor last night, he looked off the pace of the game, but he is still young and needs a lot more experience, and he's not going to get that sitting on the bench. He did seem to have a nice touch on the ball technique wise, although his passing was very suspect, but I think that's more down to making the wrong pass than making bad passes. He needs to be sharper too, that's more of a first-team football thing, a loan spell to another club, even Championship, might do him some real good.
As for Andy Reid, the main doubt I would have about him is his ability to track back after an attack breaks down. He's never been one to do that quickly in the past, and the current system really requires that both the central midfielders come back to make tackles whenever we lose possession. It could be that's the reason he's not currently playing, but I would think that against the likes of Cyprus we have enough quality to have him on with someone else like Whelan playing as the main holding player.
I'd say Trappitoni will realise there was a problem with the midfield last night, and I doubt he'd start with Whelan and Gibson together again. I could be wrong in that though, but it seems probable enough that his lack of substitutions until the end was aimed at not interrupting the player's focus on the pitch, and maybe that's one reason we're doing better with the last-ditch defending than in previous campaigns.

 

[Cormcolash]

Thanks for presenting both sides of the argument to that and saving me the time!
PS - A big shout out to Georgia for holding Bulgaria to a draw. Lovely stuff.

Yeah except they ruined my bet, bastards! Had 8 euro on 6 matches, and all the rest came through!!!

 

[Richie]

Stephen Reid excels at this, especially because his passing has been superb. Whelan and Gibson do not. Far too often they were nowhere to be seen when we were attacking down the wings last night. Whelan is not that sort of player, he is more the kind who will hold back and try and break up counter-attacks and that sort of thing. This works well alongside someone like Reid, who will take more control and be more attacking, but alongside Gibson it was shit because Gibson is the same sort of player Whelan is. It's good to have 1 midfielder ready to support the attack and another ready to support the defence, but last night we had 2 players sitting in front of the defence, which allowed Cyprus to run at them and then required our forwards to track back a lot more than usual, which in turn limited our forward play.

This is exactly it.. If we'd have had Steven Reid in instead of either of the two inexperienced lads I reckon we would have comfortably controlled the game.. They just weren't moving to support the wingers and weren't showing to recieve passes when the defence had the ball, so we were relying on long passes lumped forward and Duff\McGeady\Doyle always tended to look isolated and have a lot of work to do when they recieved a pass. I'm sure Trap will see there was a problem and will sort something out for it before the next game.

 

[ratmonkey]

McGeady was awful last night. Nothing resembling end product out of him.

 

[Unicron]

McGeady was awful last night. Nothing resembling end product out of him.

Didn't he cross the ball for Keane's goal?

 

[ratmonkey]

Didn't he cross the ball for Keane's goal?

No.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Didn't he cross the ball for Keane's goal?

That was Duff.

McGeady definitely needs to get the ball in quicker.

 

[Jerry Twig]

McGeady needs to tie his shoelaces. He has fluffed at least two sitters in the last two games.

 

[evil bandit]

Needs to learn how to take a corner as well.

 

[Cormcolash]

It's still coming together for McGeady. He's far better now than he was two seasons ago, I think the things he needs to learn now are learned more through experience than any technical aspect. He actually was putting in decent crosses last night as well, but Keane and Doyle just weren't getting in the right positions for them.
As I said before though he lost the ball far too many times last night. He needs to learn when to pass, when to put the ball into the box, when to hold it a little bit longer, things that come through experience. If he had those things then he'd be as good as Duff, who was excellent last night.

 

[kevin gallen]

enjoyed this, maybe because i was drinking all day but thought the atmosphere was pretty decent and when mcshane almost gave them a goal towards the end it felt like the whole crowd cleared the ball away . I also enjoyed booing the cyprus number 3 for a while until it got boring. Ref was rubbish.

Dunne was incredible, put his head on the cypriot lads boot towards the end. rest of defense was dodgy. dunno what will happen if dunne gets injured/suspended.

Centre mid was rubbish, thought they were there to bite into tackles and not give teams space, if they dont do that then i dont see the point of them. Thought mcgeady and duff were good.

anyway 3 points, one-nil, isn't that what the trap era promised?

happy enough

 

[skinnerchinner]

doyle was amazing

i dont like this *lump the ball to doyle every chance we get* shite

he did win nearly everything in fairness to him but the centre midfielders werent getting on to anything
they were both shite - but miller is shite too
and he obviously doesnt see reid as a centre midfielder

we would be a good side with finnan s reid and ireland in the team

we should get second place now

roll on the playoffs

theres some really good teams and some shite (irelands level)ones on for getting second place

mcgeady is the ultimate flatter to decieve player
i'd rether see reid or he play ahead of him
hes defo worth a place on the bench if we are stuck for a goal
imagine beckham with the ability to run at people that aidán has

you could really see the lack of first team football in our midflield
mcgeady was the only one who could run in the seond half

good to see duff back playing half decent , we need him on form
pitty hes still up to his old diving shite

the ref was woeful like aids
every time someone hit the deck they got a free
shite altogether

great win

south africa here i come

 

[Jerry Twig]

great win

What?
Your Liverpool analysis is a lot better. I'm surprised.

 

[skinnerchinner]

jesus i need to learn to type some

no subs for the last twenty mins was a fucking disgrace

traps been a lucky coont so far

that georgia "away" game an absolute blessing

home to bugaria is a massive game now

rome on april fools day should be a good oul trip

 

[skinnerchinner]

What?
Your Liverpool analysis is a lot better. I'm surprised.

i dont think we played well
we were missing players that cost us big time
s reid and finnan would have made a massive difference

but its three points
i think thats a great win
we couldnt beat anyone decent when it counted for a long time

 

[skinnerchinner]

bar our football everything in the group has perfectly

sounds rediculous but its true

none of the other team even have a win

italy dont count*
they will win the group or come second to ireland in disgrace