Ireland vs Ernst Stavro Blofeld.. (1 Viewer)

[Richie]

Here we go again..

Ireland and Poland squads:

Ireland squad:

GK: David Forde, Shay Given, Keiren Westwood, Darren Randolph
DF: Richard Keogh, Marc Wilson, Seamus Coleman, Cyrus Christie, John O’Shea, Alex Pearce, Paul McShane, Ciaran Clark, Stephen Ward
MF: Wes Hoolahan, Harry Arter, Glenn Whelan, Darron Gibson, Aiden McGeady, James McClean, Robbie Brady, Stephen Quinn, David Meyler, James McCarthy
FW: Robbie Keane, Shane Long, Daryl Murphy, Jon Walters, Kevin Doyle, Anthony Stokes

Poland squad:

GK: Artur Boruc, Łukasz Fabiański, Wojciech Szczęsny
DF: Thiago Rangel Cionek, Kamil Glik, Rafał Janicki, Marcin Komorowski, Paweł Olkowski, Łukasz Szukała, Jakub Wawrzyniak, Grzegorz Wojtkowiak
MF: Maciej Gajos, Tomasz Jodłowiec, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Karol Linetty, Sebastian Mila, Sławomir Peszko, Maciej Rybus, Michał Żyro
FW: Robert Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik, Łukasz Teodorczyk

New call-up Harry Arter seems to have a bit of an eye for goal - these are from the last couple of weeks with Bournemouth:

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[Cormcolash]

Didn't realise Blofeld was Polish, nice choice!

 

[Cormcolash]

Yer man Arter definitely seems like a good prospect, bunch of goals for the top championship team this season, but can't see him getting a match on Sunday. Can't overlook the fact that fucking Daryl Murphy is the top scorer in the championship right now! 21 goals!

I can't see anyone outside of Long, Walters, or Unknown Fan playing up front for us in this one.

I'd imagine it'll be 4-5-1, interesting to see which keeper gets it - Shay looks like he never lost anything right now. Maybe

Given

Coleman Wes Brown Clark Wilson

Walters McCarthy Durran Gybbsoon Mcgeady

Unknown Fan

Long


Can't really see that though, I imagine Glenno Wheelo will be lumbering around in the midfield, kicking people, as usual. It would be fucking foolish not to have McCarthy and Doarin Gebsin in the middle though, they seem to have put together a good partnership the last few weeks. Stick Hoolahan in front of them and leave Unknown Fan out, and you've got a pretty dangerous midfield. Doubt we'll fucking get anything so optimistic though.
Is it time for Clark to get a proper shot in the defence? He's pretty much a regular for Villa now, and has been playing pretty well recently into the bargain. He still has a fair amount to learn though, as evidenced when he was outmuscled on Saturday.

Imagine if Coleman got injured - we could bring McShame in!!

 

[Richie]

Yer man Arter definitely seems like a good prospect, bunch of goals for the top championship team this season, but can't see him getting a match on Sunday. Can't overlook the fact that fucking Daryl Murphy is the top scorer in the championship right now! 21 goals!

I can't see anyone outside of Long, Walters, or Unknown Fan playing up front for us in this one.

I'd imagine it'll be 4-5-1, interesting to see which keeper gets it - Shay looks like he never lost anything right now. Maybe

Given

Coleman Wes Brown Clark Wilson

Walters McCarthy Durran Gybbsoon Mcgeady

Unknown Fan

Long


Can't really see that though, I imagine Glenno Wheelo will be lumbering around in the midfield, kicking people, as usual. It would be fucking foolish not to have McCarthy and Doarin Gebsin in the middle though, they seem to have put together a good partnership the last few weeks. Stick Hoolahan in front of them and leave Unknown Fan out, and you've got a pretty dangerous midfield. Doubt we'll fucking get anything so optimistic though.
Is it time for Clark to get a proper shot in the defence? He's pretty much a regular for Villa now, and has been playing pretty well recently into the bargain. He still has a fair amount to learn though, as evidenced when he was outmuscled on Saturday.

Imagine if Coleman got injured - we could bring McShame in!!

Yeah I would go with your lineup there, and stick Hoolahan on for Keane or Long with 30 mins to go.. Given looked sharp in the USA friendly but it'd still feel like a backwards step to start him (it feels like he's in the squad mostly as a coach to the other keepers), though Forde is about to be relegated with Millwall which is a bit ominous, Clark is much better in the last few months, would put him ahead of Keogh/Pearce/McShane anyway, I think him and O'Shea have to start. We've a few players in scoring form, Coleman, Long, Hoolahan and Keane have all bagged one or 2 in the last fortnight, so a handful of reasons to be optimistic. I reckon Arter might get 10 minutes at the end if O'Neill decides he needs to gamble, Brady is a good option to have on the bench too. Hopefully the Polish support won't have managed to bag 50% of the tickets. We really need to win this, anything less and we're scrapping with Scotland for third for the rest of the campaign. It's a huge test of O'Neill's approach, if we're as negative and uninspired as we were in Glasgow then you'd feel like we might as well give up on him already.

 

[Cormcolash]

What happens if we're just as negative but win 1-0 though? Trap-ja-vue?

 

[Richie]

I would absolutely take that, but I don't think that approach is going to work.. we never beat anybody above the level of Armenia under Trap. and our back 5 is worse now than it was then. The reason it's been 14 years since we last beat a decent side competitively is because we've had a succession of managers who are petrified of taking risks (Stan excepted, he was all about risks).. The North have managed to beat England, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Poland & Greece since 2005 despite having an even more mediocre selection of players than us just by having a bit of a go. I mean they always fall apart against somebody like Latvia or the Faroes but they put us to shame when it comes to taking on the bigger sides, we have to get some of that mentality going.

 

[Cormcolash]

Yep, pretty much. We have to get a manager and players that are up for it though. I don't think MON is that kind of manager, the only team I remember him playing a more expansive game with is Celtic, when he used to use 3-5-2 all the time because he had two really pacey wingbacks and three big solid defenders. He sure as hell isn't going to go 3-5-2 with Ireland!

 

[Cormcolash]

Well, Diane Gobbin is out, anyway.

Big worry must be defensively. Wes Brown has been fucking shite for Sunderland recently (although it's not like any players around him help him out in any way), Ciaran Clark is still inexperienced – maybe best thing would just be to play Wheelo in his usual 'kick people' role to screen the back 4 a bit, especially now that Gibbons is out.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

Would love to see Brady involved if he's fit.
Forde
McShane O'Shea Clark
McGeady McCarthy Wilson Meyler Brady
Long Keane

 

[Richie]

Leaving out Coleman Cinnamonboy? I'd like to see Ireland try 3-5-2 (and the Hull players would be well used to it) but I don't think O'Neill will risk it in a crunch game without doing it in a couple of friendlies first. My version would be:
Forde
Wilson O'Shea Clark
Coleman McCarthy Hoolahan Quinn/Whelan Brady
Long Keane

Gibson is a loss, he's been good for Everton last few games, looking like being another Steven Reid type situation with the injury proneness..

 

[CinnamonBoy]

An embarrassment of riches! Sorry, stick Coleman for Aiden. Won't happen so it's fairly moot.

 

[Cormcolash]

Who is this O'Shea? I see only Wes Brown.

 

[Cormcolash]

Let the pain commence

 

[Richie]

They almost beat us just by closing down space rapidly and monstering us off the ball for the first 30 minutes.. In fairness Given hardly had anything to do besides picking the ball out of his net. I was optimistic when I saw the lineup, starting Hoolahan and Brady seemed liked we were going to have a proper go at it. Brady had a stinker unfortunately. He'll get better at playing that position but the more worrying thing was how anonymous McCarthy was. The midfield shape didn't seem right initially, in the first half it was as much of a dead zone as it ever was under Trap. Hoolahan seemed to be pushed too far forward. Keane had yet another game of forlornly wandering around. McClean had another game changer, dunno whether he's best as an impact sub or if we should be starting him. Got out of jail yet again, you could look at it one way and say that a point against a team in the form Poland are in is decent and the late goal will give us a morale boost but the draw means we're playing for 3rd now realistically and Scotland in June is win or bust.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I can't help but look at the glass as half empty

 

[Hector Grey]

My gran used to say: "If you've nothing positive to say, call everyone a cunt." They were all cunts.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

We always leave ourselves needing what are (for us) impossible results.

 

[Richie]

The playoff spot certainly isn't impossible.. IF we beat Scotland then we'd be back in the driver's seat for 3rd (the 4 points gained in Georgia and Germany would swing things back in our favour, though we'd probably need to match their draw in Poland too) but it's all about winning that game now. Play like the 2nd half last night and I'm sure we could do it (although, we say similar things after every Ireland point-rescuing last-ditch rally). In fairness, if beating Scotland at home is considered an impossible task then we have no business being at any tournament.

 

[Richie]

Great photo, incidentally:

 

[Cormcolash]

Aren't the championships decided on head-to-head record? Meaning, if we can beat Scotland and Poland in the next round of matches, and if Germany finally get their shit together and just beat everybody, then we'd end up above Poland on head-to-head, before goal difference comes into it. So 2nd place is still perfectly achievable, basically.

Also, Unknown Fan is fucking shite.