I recently found out Shay Given, who has playued all 38 league matches for Newcastle, has more clean sheets then any other premiership 'keeper. While Given is world class, he isn't doing it on his own, which means his defence must be preforming alot better then the media give them credit for. Andy O'Brien has been at the heart of that defence for most of the domestic campaign, missing out during a small spell while Bramble had his place which he's reclaimed now after Brambles constant ineptness, and for all of their champions league matches, barring injury. Yet, for someone who's a regular in the defence of a champions league side and who has a fairly good defencive record, he's rarely, if ever, mentioned with regard to the Irish team and rarely, if ever, gets a look in on match days. With Gary Breen now clubless again after nothing short of a shocking season, surley O'Brien is worth a chance. While I'd have O'Shea and Cunningham as my first choice back 2, if O'Shea was used in another position or one got injured, would it be Breen, someone sacked by a relegated club, or O'Brien, a regular in a champions league side, that would step in? Personally, I'd love to see O'Brien get more of a chance. While he's inconsistent, you'd expect that with his age, he's all the makings of a very good player, big and strong, good tackler and very pacey for someone his size. So basically, what do you lot think about O'Briens and his claim for a place in the Ireland first eleven?
i agree to an extent. andy would've played against norway but for breaking his nose. if he didn't pull out of this weeks training camp he might've been in with a shout of a start against georgia. but it's important to remember that he's still very young and learning the game. there's been a lot written in the press about being behind gary breen in the pecking order considering their respective club form etc, etc but after saipan and the appointment of kerr i have a new found suspicion for all irish sports hacks. if breen drops down a division, as i expect him to, then andy will 'probably' get promoted to the starting eleven. as you mentioned slash, o'brien can be somewhat inconsistent - i remember a man of the match performance against chelsea during the season was followed by an absolute stinker of a game. in gary's defence, what has he done wrong to warrent being dropped by ireland? if andy is patient (as he says he is) for a little longer then i'd expect him to displace breen on merit.
ok, i know he made some mistakes but most of the team were absolute rubbish for those games but does that mean that breen becomes the scapegoat?
When it comes down to it, it's all down to playing your stongest first 11, Charlton had his moments with Brady (wot can I say), McCarthy with Irwin(consistantly voted as best full-back in most poll's), but I think Kerr would not be so pig headed..Only concern I would have is if we dropped Harte, is it correct to put Finnan out of position to replace. I think Dunne won himself alot of fans in the WC'02 qualifiers, so I suppose fans have long memories & I'm afraid Breen has made more mistakes in an Irish shirt that have cost us than O'Brien & Dunne, Staunton played played too long for Ireland & made some costly mistakes also!!
You asked what he has done wrong to warrant being dropped, and I've given two examples. The way he floundered around for that second Swiss goal still haunts me. As for what that Iranian attacker did to him in the WC play-off game in Dublin, we can only be thankful we have Shay Given. Sure, the majority of what he does on the pitch is ok, but he is more prone than any other defender we have to horrible lapses of concentration. I fear that if he starts against the higher quality sides (ie Switzerland and Russia) he will, once again, let us down.
I think O'Brien's been unlucky not to accumulate more caps than he has so far. It would be hard to justify throwing him straight into our next competitive match at the expense of Breen or Cunningham, but he should really have been given more chances in friendlies (and maybe beyond, if he played well enough) by McCarthy. Kerr was going to play him against Norway, which was effectively the first chance he got for experimentation, until he broke his nose, and I'm sure that once he's fit he'll be given another chance to impress. We can't really afford to ignore players who are playing so well at the standard that he is.
Well said. For me the biggest failing of our previous manager was putting blind loyalty ahead of form (& talent) when picking teams. Without naming names I see worrying signs of the same trend developing under the current regime. Let's hope Kerr starts to experiment a bit more in terms of personnel in future friendlies.
Against Norway he played Dunne (who'd been in the wilderness), Connolly, Crowe (sub), Lee (sub), Quinn (sub), Finnan at left back (sub), Colgan (sub), Duff in the hole, and a three man midfield. It'd be harsh to say that he was playing the same old, same old. A case could be made for having tried Finnan/Crowe/Lee/whoever from the start, but don't forget that it was his first home match and he would have wanted a good result out of it as well.
I've posted approval of Andy O Brien in the past and wondered why he has'nt been given more caps. However at the moment I think we would be better off with Dunne as he always plays great games for Ireland. I reckon Carr Cunningham Dunne O' Shea will be the back four for the June games.
While McCarthy's selections sometimes were odd to even baffling, the fact that Kerr seems to have continued in the same vein means perhaps one of two things: 1. He is still not long enough in the job to imprint his own system on the players, what with reputations and egos or 2. Both he and McCarthy, as managers paid to do a job, see and understand the game of international football waaaaaaaaay better than the average punter (read sometime pub bore and message board poster) in the street does. Number 2, if true, just might be a little difficult to take for the more opinionated, I suppose. (And that's not a swipe at anyone in particular, or perhaps it is a swipe at everyone in general, myself included. Either way, same difference.)
I would actually go with number 1 to be fair. Kerr has had very little room to experiment and has got two good results in his first two games.
I assume Brian Kerr has been watching Ireland play international football under both Charlton and McCarthy. He will no doubt have seen, like the rest of us, the respective merits of messers Breen,Dunne,Cunningham,O'Brien etc. I would trust Brian Kerr to make the correct selections. Bearing that in mind it is hard to fathom why Breen is consistently picked. He is very good in the air and is a good attacking option at set pieces but when he is faced one on one with a speedy or tricky attacker he is lost. I too feared the worst against Iran when Breen was was left on his arse. Thank God for Shay given as one contributer has already said. Breen had a good world cup to give him his due but I think that was because the only time anyone ran at him was in the first match against Cameroon and he was left for dead a few times there also. I think O' Brien is definitely the man for the future. I think Dunne needs to sort out his personal life and lose some weight before he could be considered first choice. having said t he is a very talented footballer who gives his all. But it does look at times that he is not match fit. my back four would be (at the moment) carr,o'brien,cunningham,o'shea