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Ireland in Poland
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So Trap is taking:
Given, Westwood, Forde
O'Shea, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward, Foley, O'Dea, Kelly
Duff, Andrews, Whelan, McGeady, Hunt, Fahey, Gibson, McClean
Keane, Long, Walters, Doyle, Cox
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McCarthy missing out due to his father's cancer diagnosis
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-- rowan
07/05/12 at 18:50
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 From :
rowan
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Posted : 07/05/12 at 18:58 |
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No major surprises really, apart from McCarthy, which is terribly sad.
I suppose if it was up to me, the likes of Kenny, Clark, Coleman, Hoolihan, Ireland, Pilkington and Best would all be involved. But Trap was never going to take them.
The players will have two friendlies to claim a place. Probably the only question Trap might be asking is who starts up front with Keane. I hope Shane Long is the answer
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From :
number10
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Posted : 07/05/12 at 20:14 |
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No surprises is right.
I've no axe to grind against Paul Green but I'm sure glad that he didn't get the nod ahead of McClean.
Don't forget that Keane, Duff and even Steven Hunt may be deemed too old for the World Cup campaign – so there will be room for the likes of Hoolahan, Pilkington and others to be elevated then. In fact Glen Whelan and Keith Andrews are pushing it as well and Doyle is not exactly young. There will be a lot of re-building to do – no matter how well we get on in Poland.
I wonder will Trap have the oldest panel in the tournament?
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From :
rowan
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Posted : 08/05/12 at 08:19 |
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I'd certainly suspect he would: Ireland's squad averages at 28.35 years, whereas the Polish provisional panel comes in at 25.12 and Germany's at 23.32 (a whole 5 years below ours).
In the last WC, England had the oldest squad at 28.43 but with James (then 39), Carragher (then 32), Heskey (then 32), King (then 29), Upson (then 31) all set to miss out this time round and with Lampard (then 31) and Green (then 30) both unlikely, you'd have to assume their squad will be much younger
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From :
number10
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Posted : 08/05/12 at 09:57 |
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And what about the likely starting eleven? Assume it's as follows:
Given; O'Shea, Dunne, St.Ledger, Ward; Duff, Andrews, Whelan, McGeady; Keane, Doyle.
Only one place here is uncertain and that's Kevin Doyle's, – but he has been Trap's first choice. I know this is harder to check, but they have to be the oldest Top 11 in the tournament.
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From :
tricky
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Posted : 08/05/12 at 10:42 |
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| ah, but the old nag for the long road or something like that isn't it?
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From :
hydra
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Posted : 08/05/12 at 10:55 |
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I think we'll either get walloped off the park or will bore the arse off everyone à la Greece in 2004 and scrape through to the second round/quarters (is there a second round in the Euros? Don't think so).
Anyway, I find it hard watching this side, we've the players to play better football than we do.
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From :
number10
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Posted : 08/05/12 at 14:44 |
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| Dead right, hydra. It irritates me that Trapattoni sets the bar so low. He is condescending to the Irish players.
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From :
tricky
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Posted : 10/05/12 at 11:05 |
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I did have the pleasure of listening to Chris Waddle pat us on the head last night on radio 5 saying 'sure even if they lose all 3 games the fans will have a great time and will be happy' (i'm paraphrasing slightly).
I really hope we don't.
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From :
number10
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Posted : 11/05/12 at 16:04 |
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Problem is that Trapattoni thinks that if we win a game, it is all his doing!
He forgets that the players have to make it all happen. And also fails to realise that if you took off the leash just a little bit and allowed them to express themselves - as they did in the playoff in Paris - then the results might be better again.
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