Quick reply here. Gary Kelly got 2 yellows for fouling Overmars who was roasting him all day. Kelly off, Finnan on and, MORE IMPORTANTLY Overmars subbed. No one then to annoy Finnan down the wing. No wonder he was free to set up the McAteer goal. More later...............
Wait, my post and this is all you can argue against. Simply put, Finnan is a better player, and better players should be on the pitch. Finnan would have done a better job on Overmars, this can't be denyed. He's a far far superior player, Mick did it again against Cameroon. "Tactically during the WC, he did fine" Disagree with this, even though you're actually backing me up (Sorry) but I feel he did rubbish during the world cup, it's no coindience our first halfs we're always rubbish and our second halfs we're always brilliant, this is when Duff went to left wing and Robbie was actually given a striker as a forward, yet he started with the same crap team every dame match. That's a tactical mistake, matched only by the throwing on of David "Superstar" Connolly ahead of Clinton Morrison, who was in better form internationally, out scored him in the first division, and is simply a better player. Not to mention bringing his best mate Mark Kennedy ahead of the FAR superior Steven Reid, who showed that decision down his throat against Nigeria when, thankfully, Mark "Sure he was great against Yugo in 1999" Kennedy got injured, and that's just the world cup. A more astute manager and we would have beaten Spain, then it was Korea, a team that we're perfectly set up to defeat, we're not going to be over awed by inhuman fitness levels. Then it's Germany, a team who we proved we could go all the way with, it's a match with the Germans for a place in the world cup final. The most frustraiting part? With a good manager it would have happend.
I think, on balance, McCarthy is sound enough on tactics. He seems to make gaffs under pressure, but he did not have a long time at club level before taking over this job where you have less "big" games to learn how to cope in. Also, he has had to bring a young/limited teams through tough groups which meant most of them were still learning the game at this level. Moving on, the argument about tactics in the WC is a red herring. It was important in the conditions to pace the game and to try and not give much away. When we were behind, we rode our luck a bit at the back against both Germany and Spain in the second half of each game. On a different day, we might have easily lost either game 2-0. Anyway, I thought most people blamed individual errors by Ian Harte for the goals we conceeded, not the tactics employed by the manager. That all said, I was surprised that we pushed on so much so early in Saturday's game. As dodgey as the press made the Russians sound, it was still their cabbage patch and we did not really know what to expect from them. Surely, containment and surveillance for the opening quarter (at the very least!) was the order of the day. A draw was an acceptable result, so put the pressure on the Russians to go and win the game and hopefully frustrate them in the process... It seemed the obvious tactics on paper, but...! P.S. According to 11-a-side.com, the Russians were playing 1-3-3-1, which makes our defeat inexpicable!
not that I want McCarthy gone...although if it were to happen , I'd say either John Alridge or David O'Leary would replace him.
Dave O'Leary? If he took over, he'd probably drop Robbie Keane to the bench, and throw him on in each game with 5 minutes to go. Still, no embarrassment in sitting beside young Robbie at a press conference and saying "Never thought I'd see two Dubliners sitting together wearing suits".....he'd probably go the whole hog and announce "De Oirish team's tactics will be te trow potatoes at de opposition until dey run away". Anyone, anyone but Dave.
I have never read a thread on a messageboard with so much horseshít on it before - and that's saying something for some of you lot! I'm not going to bother getting involved as I'll just lose my composure and have to keep replying for the day. Suffice to say that I'm not surprised that it emanated from a typically brainless comment from Slash/Ed.
everyone is entitled to their opinion wishy washy, this is afterall a discussion forum. if insults are all you have to contribute why don't you sod off somewhere else!
Brilliant, Wishy Washy, disparage everybody else's comments but prove the theory by writing horses**h yourself!!
Here we go again Well I was afraid this was going to happen, but sure here, I'll make one reply anyway. FrankK, if indeed that is your real name, I contibute far more than just insults on this board and others, perhaps the fact that my replies to you have been negative, has made you blind to my other comments. I surmise that it is the fact that I have disagreed with your opinion, pointed out flaws to your logic (sic) and got other contibutors to agree with me that has caused you to get upset and ask me to move on. Someone else, a non-entity who's name I can't even remember now, was also critical of my last post, however this character makes reference to "horses**h". How am I supposed to banter with someone who clearly has no idea what he/she is typing? Maybe you can explain to me how I "prove the theory", there was no inane 'horse (now read this bit carefully) shít' in my comments. Also, I did not discredit everybody. It is obvious from my comments that I would be of a similar opinion to Samarkand, Sausagepump etc.! I see no reason in repeating some of their fine points to illustrate my views.
Re: Here we go again crikey! you do have a high opinion of yourself. you're obviously wasted here when the world is crying out for someone of your immense talents. your time would be better spent resolving international conflicts and brokering trade agreements such is your ability to get others to agree with you so easily. whether you agree with me or not is of no concern but if you can't show common courtesy on what is a good natured discussion forum then it says more about you than it does about me. ...and yes, Frank is my real name
OK, it's time for everyone on this thread to take a breath and settle down. This thread is in danger of being closed so let's all be nice and get along. So WishyWashy, Frank and all, calm down.
Oh right Ted, fair enough, sometimes I just get so worked up about things ...! I think that the idea of getting rid of Mick McCarthy now is absolute madness. He has gotten his players to play above themselves as a team, for years, while still allowing them to show their individual skills to the world. The Manchester Uniteds, the Celtics, heck even the Bohemians have their bad results, inexplicably at times when many first teamers have horrible games, yet they always seem to bounce back. Mick picked the team we knew he would, and indeed he should. His substitutes were ones he had to make - even Babb (experience was called for) as it gave us the option of wing backs pushing into midfield. Duffer will be back, the rest of the team won't ever play as bad again, we will beat the Russians at home. It was one of those games, if Finnan hadn't messed up with the first ball that came his way and we had gotten our composure, thus not inviting them onto us, it may well have been a very different game. That error set the tone for the game, we never recovered. Barna Bee: do you really agree with Slash & FrankK on this? Can my point of view be that alien to you!
I do agree with what you are saying. McCarthy is the best man for the job and how he went about building a new team out of the reminants of a far superior pool of talent by 'blooding the younger lads' is something the likes of Berti Voglts (spelling?) will spend the rest of his life wondering how to do! Charlton had ruined us for a short term return. Mick has only recently seen the fruits of his efforts. The performance in Russia was dreadful, but we will come back. Wishy Washy is right, they can never play that badly again, what could the manager do? His changes were what a lot of us there were calling for. Babb coming on was a surprise, but 3 at the back showed a positive attitude. Who would have thought Finnan would be so bad - this was the encouragement the Russians needed to come at us, the normally solid centre halves would be torn apart and the midfield who played so well at the World Cup could be so awful - especially my old buddy Matty Holland. Robbie Keane played well, that was it. I don't think we can blame the manager for what was just an off night. Let's see how he/they react(s) to this in the Swiss game before we call for his head!
Hold On Wishy , I think it is too early to get rid of Mick . The outcome of the Swiss game will decide his future ...nothing less then a winn will hold onto his job for him . I was just asking you to give an opinion about the topic . For long periods of time especially when I found myself out in the land of the Rising Sun. I had the fcuk Roy attitude ...this is slowly changing though , even though I do not agree with his manner or his method in the whole affair , I still reckon his is the real engine behind Irish on field succes especially when the chip are down . Since the Moscow game I am coming around to believing that we really need him , much and all of a selfish knob he has shown himself to be
now that we're all friends again........ i actually agree with wishy washy!!!!!!!! if you read back on this thread you'll see that i've defended mccarthy, our little spat was on something completely different. my major fault with mick is that he doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes which he repeats at every match. yes, he is the manager & yes, he deserves our support & yes, it is his decision how we play but he steadfastly refuses to accept 'constructive' criticism. to me, it appears crystal clear where his major problems are - harte and kilbane. if this could be resolved then much of the flack he gets would evaporate. methinks he lets his heart rule his head. i agree the russia match was one of those freaky games where nothing goes right (donegal had one against dublin recently). i'm sure the team will not play like that again. we shouldn't be calling for anyone's head unless we fail to qualify. if it gets that bad then mick will resign without hesitation - let's hope that doesn't happen!
I think Mick's done a pretty good job over the years, but then I'm not Irish, so I'm not so involved in the events. Who'd be in his place though ?. The only Irish candidate would be O'Leary.
Yeah, but who? It was pointed out to me over the weekend that George Graham turned down the Scotland job before Vogts took it. If he turned down his own country, who incidentally pay more than the FAI to their national manager, what hope do we have of landing him? After that, I must say the list of candidates that would satisfy Roy & who would be willing to take on the job is very short indeed.
I agree McCarthy should be out - he hasn't a clue! What was he thinking of bringing on Phil Babb?? He should have made changes at half-time. He says everyone must be playing first-team football but yet Kevin Kilbane isn't. Get rid of him