Well, that is true (admittedly I was only going on 10 years of age when the Chartlon era ended so I couldn't go into great detail about him as a tactician, or even really a strategist)... but he was hardly light-years ahead of McCarthy, tactically.
Actually, McCarthy and Charlton had very different approaches. In a nutshell, Charlton was a stubborn bugger who said, This is my plan and we'll play it whether we're up against Brazil or Bhutan. McCarthy was more of a scouter of other teams, selecting teams to best take advantage of opponents weaknesses while also hoping to counteract their strengths. Merit in both approaches if you ask me.
Which is why I would consider McCarthy the better tactician of the two, with Charlton's strategic planning perhaps being better (my, doesn't that sound American... all I've got to do now is break it down into a few hundred pages of stats; not statistics - stats). Still both got the job done well for us, there is little argument amongst those of us not confusing our funny bone from our pelvis' about that, I am sure. And then there was Kerr, who may have had the best idea of all. To look at all the opposition's strengths and defend against them with serious caution; look at their weaknesses and defend against them moderately, and assess our strengths an see if the other team might allow us to us them to our advantage. Of course, if the latter happened and we actually scored a goal, it was time for the fourth and final part of his masterful preparation - bring on as many defensive players in place of attacking ones as possible, and put them wherever the attacking player may have been finding space on the pitch. Genius, I say... pure genius.
Amongst Kerr's problems were his unwillingness or lack of belief in the players to get the job done. It almost appeared as if he wished he could replicate himself and take the field with 11 Brian Kerrs or at least a team of keepers. (On that note, during one of the friendlies, either Colgan or Kenny was getting ready to replace Given. And there was Kerr on the sidleine, clipboard in hand, giving Colgan/Kenny tactical instructions for a full 5 minutes.)
wc qual 98 ireland 0 - iceland 0 bore draw....jeez (but to be fair those 7 ft icelandic defenders were awesome that day) ireland 0 - lithuania 0...we are quite good at boring the pants of people...a certain skill macedonia 3 - 2 ireland...a dark day...remember?..."i had a macedonia" romania 1 - ireland 0 def def def...ian harte ice 2 -- ireland 4 ...by this stage i had lost interest...a rainy day....a woeful performance...didint really look at it....ian harte and we only just beat the mighty lithuania to a play off place... also remember we still had a good team.....staunton...keane.....irwin..etc would also like to make a point that Mcgrath....nearly dead at this stage....was still a lot better than Harte...who caused 2 important goals (rom and macd) with his ************ defensive headers (a centre back....you are having a larf!!!)...but maybe im sentimental about mcgrath (derby v man utd...man of match!!) euros 2000 macedonia 1 - ireland 1...had them on the ropes...i know...bring on a defender...breen....noooo yugoslavia 1 - ireland 0....def def def...doesnt really work ..now does it? croatia 1 ---- ireland 0...we deserved this....suker punch (sorry!)....def def def..familiar at this stage are we?......and cascarino (how old again...37 maybe?...genius move!!)...coming off the yugoslavia game...hot and ready for action he drops Keane....a guy on form...good plan...but you know what...it didnt work....sorry!!!! yes we did play very well...how...by attacking......(football cliche coming up)......the best form of defence is attack!!!!mmm!!! WC 2002 good qualfying campaign...how we didnt lose to portugal and holland i will never know....thank christ for Keane........ ireland and spain...we had em...had em on the run...go on nail em...no maybe....lets def again...... do you not remember the extra time period?.....(dare i say it... but wouldnt keane have made a difference in a game like this?) oh yeah im sorry if im not one of those knobs who celebrated our performances in the 2002 WC...im not into great irish moral victories...esp when international football is a piece of piss anyway seems to me you are the one who is selective and wearing rosy tinted glasses mate Duff...well i for one was clammering for Duff to be in the squad years before he finally made it...do rememebr that he was (if not) one of the best players Blackburn had at that time....certainly a fans favourite not too hot with your history (or Ron Atkinsons)...when Napoleon wanted generals...he always asked for lucky ones.......... Robson....average.....sorry but 4 top leagues? england.....a passenger with barca (and i should know!!!i i do fcuking follow them very closely!).....uefa cup/CWC cup....as i said dont be pissing in your pants with joy...it aint that good
A monkey could coach us and if we didn't qualify he would be ripped to shreds, and even if we qualified he would be ripped to shreds.
thats highly insulting....to monkeys poor little buggers...never hurt anybody only have to look at Sam Allardyce...to know we are distant relations to apes
My memory is a little fuzzy, so I'm not sure about this... but vs Macedonia in Skopkje, when we were 5 minutes away from qualifying from a major competition, didn't McCarthy bring on Matt Holland (then an average first division footballer for Ipswich) for his international debut (replacing a striker perhaps?), only for him to lose his man (Straveski?) in stoppage time and allow the Macedonians a dramatic equalizer? I do remember that I've never cried so much in my entire life. If it happened (and correct me if I'm wrong), then surely that's as bad (or worse) than Kerr replacing Robbie Keane with Kavanagh vs Israel.
Also, on McCarthy being a scout of other teams... WC2002 when everything was (finally) coming into place for him, we had to play Estonia (I think this was the away match in Tallinn). During one of the pre-match interviews, he was asked what he thought of the Estonian dangermen, Andreas Oper and Indreck Zelinski. He had never heard of either. Mabye its just me, but I found that quite embarrasing. An international manager should at least have some knowledge of opposition players. Of course, IIRC Oper and Zelinski caused us all sorts of problems that day, and we were somewhat flattered by a 2-0 win. Again, I knew these two fellas inside out, and I was a teenage supporter living and ocean away. I also remember him calling up someone... either Keith O'Neill or Mark Kennedy, mabye? and the player had been out with a longterm injury for 3-4 weeks. I knew. The meda knew. McCarthy didn't. That said, that campaign we qualified. Under Kerr we didn't.
i used to laugh at the english for never practising penos then Maccarthy says they never did so too jees h christ (if you believe in him!) anyway im after putting 200 euros on chantelle (bad price5/2)...and im drunk.....mmmmm
This complete crock of shit again? This old canard keeps popping up. What McCarthy said was the practising penalties on the training ground was fine, but nothing could equal the pressure of taking them in the cauldron of a WC knock-out match. He never said they didn't practise them - they did practise them, they finished every training session with them; what he said was that they'd never be able to duplicate the pressure at the training ground, so he wasn't sure how good they were for duplicating the pressure side of the equation.
well maybe you are right but the germans practise them all the bleedin time i have never seen them lose a shootout
ok we both could be worng on this and maybe Holland did make his debut that day, but Im pretty sure Keith Oneill came on with 5 mins to go and im certain it was the man he was marking who scored!!! It wasnt the sending Kavanagh on that was the prob it was the yet again telling the irish players to sit back and defend a lead and then only changing it when it was too late
I don't know about Stan. I know he's Ireland through and through but i would rather have a manager who has good managerial experiance and knowlodge still we can still laugh at England at the way they've handled there manager .