Ireland vs some Sultan or other, Stalin (1 Viewer)

[washingcattle]

FUCKING YYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!

 

[washingcattle]

He's just like Zidane.

He's just like Zidaaaaaaaaane

Aiden McGeady


He's just like Zidane!!!

 

[Cormcolash]

Let's not forget lads, Spain needed a late goal to beat Georgia in Georgia. So we must be as good as Spain. We just need to avoid coming up against Holland then.

McGeady was probably our best player. The second goal was quality. That's the sort of stuff we've been wanting him to do for years.

Overall we were bollocks. Fuck Unnamed Fan, he does nothing. Get him off, and Long or Hoolahan or someone that will actually try and do something productive. Play Unnamed Fan against the shit teams, that's where he gets all his goals from anyway!

 

[Cormcolash]

THAT ONE WAS FOR THE POLISH STALIN!!!

 

[Richie]

I'm quite liking the new goal scoring hero version of McGeady.. There were so many problems with the team though, we couldn't use the posession we had constructively and were ponderous getting forward, Coleman and McCarthy largely nullified, really looked like it was petering out to nothing.. Overall it was worryingly similar to latter-period Trap, tons of things for O'Neill and Keane to fix. Fucking delighted that we pulled it out of the fire though, it's highly possible that Poland and Scotland could slip up there.

The North won in Hungary I see, great start for them..

 

[washingcattle]

Let's not forget lads, Spain needed a late goal to beat Georgia in Georgia. So we must be as good as Spain. We just need to avoid coming up against Holland then.

McGeady was probably our best player. The second goal was quality. That's the sort of stuff we've been wanting him to do for years.

Overall we were bollocks. Fuck Unnamed Fan, he does nothing. Get him off, and Long or Hoolahan or someone that will actually try and do something productive. Play Unnamed Fan against the shit teams, that's where he gets all his goals from anyway!

Yeah McGeady floated about quite well. Keane can't play up front alone he was poor he actually managed to make decent balls into the box look bad by running into positions where no one could pick him out. We never moved it fast enough. but overall I thought the shape of the team looked okay. Positives but huge problems still in midfield.

 

[washingcattle]

I have a feeling Scotland are going to nick a point.

 

[washingcattle]

So close for Scotland, Probably should be 1-1. Brave performance so far.

 

[Richie]

So close for Scotland, Probably should be 1-1. Brave performance so far.

They've gone and done it... 1-1 with 20 minutes left. Not good for us if they take points there, as fun as it is to see Germany look vulnerable. Poland racking up the goals in the other game, 'The Rock' don't look like they have much to them on this showing.

edit.. aaaaaaaaaand Germany restore their lead 5 minutes later.

 

[washingcattle]

If Scotland play like that they'll fucking destroy us. Should have won it. Drum should have been sent off.

They're a lot better than us.

 

[Hector Grey]

We were shite, and we fluked it. That's okay, I suppose. Could be worse. Could be Portugal.

 

[Cormcolash]

The Portugal result has to be the most satisfying of the night.

Our problem is that half our players seem to be fucking stupid. Say we have the ball in midfield, right. Maybe Whelan or McCarthy will be on it, moving forward past the half-way line.
That player should have options to pass it. A forward coming short, another midfielder beside them, a winger making a move, another forward running off a defender's shoulder. There should be at least a couple of players within 7 or 8 yards or so, and then they can combine together, move the ball about a bit, and maybe create a gap somewhere.
Instead, that player gets the ball in midfield, moves forward a bit, looks up, and we have 2 players standing 20 yards away in the box, a winger near the fucking corner flag, another midfielder basically standing beside the forwards, and the only person anywhere nearby to pass the ball to is a defender behind them.
It's fucking crap like. The player support is non-existent. Tonight, pretty much except for McGeady, and maybe Brady when he came on, all the players were just moving towards the box and waiting for a ball to be lumped in which they might hopefully get a lucky break off.
Fucking bollocks 'football' like. I think it's a hangover from Trap's time, because that was basically his method of 'attacking' - just lump the fucking thing towards the box and see what happens. Show your total lack of surprise when Anonymous Fuckwit gets beaten to it by a defender.
The thing is, not having 2 or 3 players supporting the player on the ball just shows a total lack of fucking brains. How are you going to do anything effective with the ball, if the only fucking pass that's on is back to the goalkeeper?? The forwards are very culpable here - Keane is fucking useless as a pass option. Walters also doesn't give much support, but at least he generally battles for it if it goes towards him.
We're lucky McGeady seems to be on top form.

 

[Cormcolash]

Looking at other countries (who are generally good at football) the difference in forward play is really noticeable. The best teams have forwards that are strong enough to battle for a ball, but really spend a lot of time dropping deep to give options to the midfielders so the team can go forward together, meaning they actually end up with more options in the box once the ball gets towards that part of the pitch.
We have fucking Faceless Intruder making completely fucking hopeless runs as if he'll ever get a head near something, Shane Long who can't seem to pass the ball normally without flicking it or back heeling it or heading it with his arse or something, and the only forward we have that seems like he is more of a hold the ball up and pass it player is Doyle, who gets fucking wrecked after 45 minutes of a match and rarely gets support anywhere near quickly enough when he does actually win the ball.
Imagine if we had a Muller type player up front that could actually keep the pace up for a whole game, all of a sudden our midfield and wingers might have so much more space to work with because the other team would need to keep 3 players watching this one forward.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

Blah blah blah.

McCarthy dropping back alongside Whelan would remedy a lot of problems in yesterday's misshapen team. I am intrigued by the prospect of McGeady playing in a more central role from here on. Robbie Keane was nonexistent, unfortunately. I'm not sure where I stand on him at this point. The thing is, did you see how dreadful Shane Long was when he came on? However, you can see you his frantic dashing about the place might benefit our new world superstar playing off him.

Robbie Brady was awful in his cameo too, same as the other night.

3 points, off on our way, olé olé olé.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

The other thing is that we are terrible defensively. Marc Wilson is a liability. Stephen Ward is a liability. David Forde is awkward in possession and I thought his positioning was bad for the goal.
I don't see any prospect for improvement. We'll just have to hope that our fearsome attacking prowess means that teams don't actually attack against us at any stage in the group.

 

[Hector Grey]

I'm curious here, did anyone expect anything other than this shite?

McGeady always wanted to be a trequartisata. That's why he wore 46 at Celtic, cos 4 and 6 equals 10, innit? So, he's got smarts too, for counting and the like.

 

[Cormcolash]

The other thing is that we are terrible defensively. Marc Wilson is a liability. Stephen Ward is a liability. David Forde is awkward in possession and I thought his positioning was bad for the goal.
I don't see any prospect for improvement. We'll just have to hope that our fearsome attacking prowess means that teams don't actually attack against us at any stage in the group.

Yeah defence definitely looks suspect. I think Wilson at left-back if we could get a decent central defender in would work okay. Forde is fucking worrying though, I mean that goal was a great strike but can anyone see Given getting beaten at the near post like that a few years ago?

 

[Richie]

McGeady obviously has to be given more opportunities to get into central positions like that, I'm imagining some system where we forego out-and-out wingers and have him and 2 of Hoolahan/Reid/Keane/Hendrick as the creative trio behind Long (and with 2 of McCarthy/Quinn/Meyler/Gibson/Whelan as the defensive pair behind them.

Watched the highlights of the other games last night.. Scotland are several steps ahead of us in terms of having a coherent team plan and a bit of self-belief. I would worry that the November game against them will come too soon for us. Germany's high line was very vulnerable looking, we've got to use any pace we can muster against them (Long probably, though it's hard to imagine him coolly burying that chance like Anya did). They'll surely have patched things up by the time they play us though. Gibraltar look more like a San Marino than a Faroes level minnow, totally collapsed after Poland got their second.

Fine goal for Albania actually:

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[washingcattle]

McGeady obviously has to be given more opportunities to get into central positions like that, I'm imagining some system where we forego out-and-out wingers and have him and 2 of Hoolahan/Reid/Keane/Hendrick as the creative trio behind Long (and with 2 of McCarthy/Quinn/Meyler/Gibson/Whelan as the defensive pair behind them.

Watched the highlights of the other games last night.. Scotland are several steps ahead of us in terms of having a coherent team plan and a bit of self-belief. I would worry that the November game against them will come too soon for us. Germany's high line was very vulnerable looking, we've got to use any pace we can muster against them (Long probably, though it's hard to imagine him coolly burying that chance like Anya did). They'll surely have patched things up by the time they play us though. Gibraltar look more like a San Marino than a Faroes level minnow, totally collapsed after Poland got their second.

Fine goal for Albania actually:

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If you watched the whole Scotland match you'd see how far ahead they are. They really should have won it.

I agree with you about the wingers, Brady looked good coming in of the right as well but to play that way you still need width so basically you need Baines and Coleman types who are confident good feet and bomb on to provide an out ball. So basically we're fucked.

Because

Ward.

Nuff said.

 

[Cormcolash]

We need to keep the width, the issue is that we need the midfield and wingers to link up properly, instead of running into fucking blind alleys. The whole team needs to be more mobile in terms of positioning themselves to better attack and defend the area of the pitch that the ball is in, instead of just thinking that it's the job of whoever just happens to be out there at that particular moment in time to do something useful.

Good finish by that Albanian fellow. That's a goal that Unknown Fan might have scored 6 years ago, but nowadays he'd flap fucking uselessly at it and hit it into the ground and over the bar or miss the fucking thing altogether.