Republic of Ireland: Given (Newcastle United); O’Shea (Manchester United), Cunningham (Birmingham City), Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur), Harte (Leeds United), S Reid (Blackburn Rovers), Kinsella (West Bromwich Albion), Miller (Celtic), A Reid (Nottingham Forest); Morrison (Birmingham City), Lee (Cardiff City).
Hard to see what else he could do. Maybury might have got another run at right back with O'Shea in the middle, but it will be good to see O'Shea on the right hand side, where as a right footed player, one would expect he'll be far more at home than on the other side of the pitch.
OShea.... He has significantly improved as the season went on but his short range passing has been very poor which maybe goes down to him playing left back. Denis never had that problem though! However, I am looking forward to seeing him on the right. Steven Reid has something to prove. Closey
Big chance for Miller this, he's playing for his position beside Keane in September. Also be interesting to see how Steven Reid plays, as well as some poor displays for Ireland I think he's out of favour at Blackburn now as well.
I wanna see how Steven Reid plays he's been absolute stank for Blackburn and is struggling even to come off the bench. He'll more than likely be on the right so it'll be a good indication of him but I'd like to see him switch to the left cos thats more than likely where he'll be playing for Rovers and I wanna see how he does.
0-0, half time. From the sportinglife.com printout, it seems as though it has been fairly even - a match of few chances so far. I think I'll stick by my 0-0 prediction.
PMANNION , Believe me reading the printout was much much more exciting than watching the match , brain damage!!!
the dullest ireland game i've seen in a long time. i thought miller was dissapointing and anonymous for most of the game. andy reid was impressive but is still a little naive at international level, there's no need to foul or push opponents as he did on a number of occasions. stephen reid did okay for a guy only back from injury, did a lot of chasing. o'shea did well when he had the ball and showed good control. lee is quite agile for a big guy but will only ever be a squad player. the defence probably played the best although the weren't really tested. we were NEVER going to score yesterday but i thought reverting to long balls for most of the match was a mistake. i have to say that poland probably edged it for me but they were a vastly more experienced side however i don't think i saw so many squandered crosses from an international side in all my 29 years!
Horrible, horrible game. Not many plus points at all. O'Shea was excellent and Cunningham was his usual solid self. Apart from those two, everyone played pretty poorly. Miller and Kinsella were OK but did little going forward. Stephen Reid was atrocious and was reminiscent of a headless chicken but he is only back from injury. Andy Reid just needs a few more full games to get up to speed. I thought Alan Lee was terrible. This is the first time I've seen him but he didn't manage to hold the ball up or win many headers. I accept that it was his first game but he will have to improve significantly to even get in the squad. Barrett looked pretty good when he came on and was much more lively than Lee but again didn't really achieve much.
Poor game, defenders on top. I thought the entire back four played well though. I can't see how you say Gary Doherty played pretty poorly, himself & Cunningham looked a decent partnership. Harte did well too. O'Shea was very good at right back, but his lack of a left foot (don't be pedantic, you know what I mean) was very noticable when he switched over to the left side. I don't understand why Kerr didn't just make a straight swop for Maybury - who was dreadful last night - rather than taking Harte off. The problem for O'Shea is that he is seen as being versatile so Carr & Finnan will always have first (and second) call on the right back spot - fair enough - and he will be moved over to a position where I feel he is quite vulnerable. Hopefully he'll get a chance to play more games in the centre, as this was the position we felt he was destined for initially. The keepers had litlle or nothing to do. Worryingly I thought Kinsella was the pick of the midfielders, Stephen Reid was very poor, and neither Miller nor Andy Reid stamped themselves onto the game. Andy Reid did show some quality and he is certainly going to more and more chances to show us what he can do. Miller was a little ragged in the first half but settled better in the second. Poland are a decent team and the midfield had to do a containment job. It's all well & good have great creative players but there are other qualities required also when you are on the back foot. It took Miller a little while to get to grips with that. He is certainly a player with quality and he showed great composure at times. He'll have better days. The strikers got little service. Alan Lee's touch & holding play was poor, but I disagree with Cokane on the winning headers part, I thought he won quite a few & got a some decent flicks, Robbie Keane would have enjoyed them more than Clinton did however. Clinton didn't hold it up well yesterday, would I have taken him off for Barrett ahead of Lee. Barrett was hit & miss, but certainly livened things up a bit, as I say he may have been a better foil for Lee.
like everyone else has said it was a poor game. I did notice however that the polish fans must of recently discovered the magic noise a fog horn makes. The noise was constantly echoing around the stadium.
I think O'Sheas position is fairly reliant on his position for Man U, which unfortunately is left full at the moment. Byrne should have come on earlier, it was pointless giving him four minutes, he would have made a difference there.